Braydon(16)

With a flick of her wrist, she tried to get the engine to turn over. It took two attempts, but finally, with a bone-rattling whir, the engine came to life. Thank goodness too, because Jessie looked up to see Kylie standing on the front porch, one hand cocked on her hip, the other motioning Jessie back.

Jessie just shook her head as she threw the car in Reverse and put her foot on the gas.

It was time to pay Brendon a visit.

She’d clearly put it off a little too long.



BRENDON WAS DRAPED across his couch, glaring at his cell phone, which he had resting on his bare chest and was tempted to pick up. He’d been battling that urge for the last half hour, and he still hadn’t completely talked himself out of it.

He wanted to call Braydon. He wanted to tell his brother it was time to come home.

Not that he hadn’t tried that already, but talking to Braydon’s voice mail obviously hadn’t been as effective as, oh, say, confronting his twin face-to-face would’ve been. That was the one thing Brendon hadn’t done yet, but as each day passed, he was getting dangerously close to tossing caution to the wind and making a beeline for Devil’s Bend, where Braydon was currently hiding out.

Brendon sighed, staring at the damn phone in utter frustration.

What the f*ck was wrong with Braydon?

Brendon had asked himself that question repeatedly for the last three months, but he didn’t have the answer. His twin did, but, unfortunately, Braydon wasn’t forthcoming with his reasons. In fact, Brendon hadn’t actually talked to Braydon at all during that time. Not once.

After having gone through his entire life with his twin by his side, the last three months had been hell. Then again, it was a hell that he hadn’t tried too hard to crawl out of, so he knew he had to shoulder some of the blame.

Never had he thought Braydon would abandon him. Not like this. Nor had he ever thought that he was capable of making it through a single day without his twin brother. Not that he was ready to brag that the feat had been a simple one. Yes, Brendon knew it probably made him look weak and needy, but he’d always expected Braydon to be there. No matter what.

It just went to show that Brendon had gotten a little too wrapped up in himself. He hadn’t looked beyond his own selfish needs to think about anyone else. Including someone as important to him as his twin brother.

But he had managed to survive the last few months, despite his constant fear that he wouldn’t make it through another day. Each day was spent hating himself for having feelings for Cheyenne and for allowing that to come between him and his brother.

He was supposed to be content, supposed to only want the threesome aspect because anything else just didn’t make sense. Brendon had never questioned it because he felt as though his path in life was lined up perfectly with Braydon’s. He couldn’t imagine being separated from his brother, so sharing women just seemed natural. At least until that night. The night Cheyenne changed his entire world with a simple kiss.

Since then, Cheyenne had taken up residence in his head, and he couldn’t seem to shake her no matter how hard he tried. She was always there, and he constantly relived that one explosive kiss that had rocked him in his boots nearly a year ago.

One. Fucking. Kiss.

Nothing had transpired between them aside from that kiss. At least not when Brendon was awake. His dreams were a different story altogether, but since fictional Cheyenne didn’t compare to the actual living, breathing woman, it didn’t even matter.

For months after their original introduction, Brendon had thought about her constantly. Hell, he still did.

But then he’d met Jessie.

Sweet, beautiful Jessie.

Travis’s wife’s sister.

And Lord knew, he should’ve been more than content with Jessie because she was everything a man would want in a woman. She was fun, smart, and sexy as f*ck. Oh, and she didn’t seem to have an issue with Brendon and Braydon sharing her between them.

But she wasn’t Cheyenne, and Brendon was having a hard time getting Cheyenne off his mind.

Then it happened. Right around Christmastime last year, Brendon lost his shit because his thoughts of Cheyenne had pushed him to the limit. He’d seen what was transpiring between Braydon and Jessie, and his selfishness had gotten the best of him.

Braydon could have with Jessie what Brendon wanted with Cheyenne; even he knew that much. Even though they were dancing around one another, Brendon wasn’t blind. He saw what transpired between the two of them. So what did he go and do? Not thinking clearly, he went and tried to shove Braydon out. He had tried to make Jessie choose, which was something he’d never done before. But it was during a bout of insane jealousy that he had been driven to that point. There was no doubt in Brendon’s mind that his twin loved Jessie. And if he had to guess, Jessie loved Braydon. In a way that she didn’t love Brendon.

Not that the lack of love bothered Brendon in the least. He didn’t love Jessie—not in that soul-deep, spend-the-rest-of-their-lives-together way. He was pretty sure she knew that, too. But despite the fact that Brendon had some unexplained hang-up on a woman he knew he couldn’t have, the three of them had been having fun since the moment they met. Especially the horizontal type of fun.

From the moment he met Jessie, Brendon knew she was what he was looking for. She was beautiful, she craved sex nearly as much as he did, and most importantly, she was temporary. Not to mention, when Brendon alluded that he wanted to share her with his twin, she hadn’t balked.