Triple Beat-nook(26)

“Was what?” Aiden prodded when it appeared Bryson wouldn’t finish his thought.

“A fluke.”

Aiden had to admit that word was better than the one he feared Bryson was going to say. He couldn’t stand to hear his friend call it a mistake. Because it wasn’t. Maybe Bryson and Dani were okay with trying to forget it all, but Aiden couldn’t do that. Couldn’t give up on the feeling that they’d be wrong to walk away from this.

“No. It wasn’t.”

Bryson frowned at him. “What are you saying?”

Aiden didn’t reply. He wasn’t sure Bryson was ready to hear what he was thinking.

“Nothing,” he said, as he walked back to the kitchen counter. He picked up the menu. “Beignets and bacon?”

It took Bryson a few seconds to switch gears. For a moment, Aiden thought his friend might press him for an answer. But then, true to form, Bryson’s stomach took precedence. “Yeah. Get a lot. I’m starving.”

***

Bryson had just taken a seat at the small table set up by the window overlooking the river and loaded his plate with half a dozen slices of bacon when the bedroom door opened.

Dani took a couple steps into the room, and then stopped when she realized he and Aiden were eyeballing her like a seven-course meal. They were going to have to rein this shit in before they spooked her and ran her off for good.

Maybe that would be easier if she didn’t look so adorable. Her long blonde hair was tousled, messy in a way that was too sexy for his sanity.

She’d put her t-shirt and panties back on—her standard sleeping outfit. Like her, he and Aiden had opted for the usual and were only wearing their boxers. While he’d pretended to be indifferent to her sleepwear for years, the truth was he’d lie in bed more nights than not with a half-hard cock, resisting the urge to jack-off to that image. Something he’d never been able to do because she had always been just a few feet away, curled up on a rollaway.

Last night had opened a door he wasn’t sure he could close again.

Dani glanced back toward her room. “I’ll grab a pair of shorts.”

“Freeze,” Bryson said, louder than he’d intended.

Dani jumped at the sound of his voice.

“Come get some breakfast. You look fine.” There was no way in hell he was letting her cover up one more inch of her smooth, silky, lickable skin.

She hesitated until Aiden smiled and held out his hand. “Too late to play the shy card, Dani. We’ve bared all—all three of us. We don’t need to make this awkward. Mainly because it’s not.”

She considered that, and then shrugged. “I guess it’s not. Are those beignets?”

Bryson nodded. “These things are f*cking addictive.”

She laughed then fairly skipped to the table, her enthusiasm for their meal selection evident. “I swear there wasn’t much I missed about New Orleans, but sometimes I wake up in the middle of the night dreaming of these things.”

She took a seat, picked up the largest beignet on the plate, dragged it through the mountain of powdered sugar and took a bite.

Bryson tried to ignore the satisfied moan she made as she slowly devoured the sweet treat. Mainly because the sound was a hell of a lot like the one she made when she was coming. Aiden’s hand slipped beneath the table, no doubt to adjust his boxers to hide his growing erection. Bryson recognized the action because he needed to do the same.

“What time is Sunday dinner?” Bryson asked, trying to find some topic of conversation that might distract him from the sprinkle of sugar that had landed on Dani’s t-shirt. It was as if the powder was drawing him a map to her nipples. They were budded, tight. Which told him she wasn’t wearing a bra. She was clearly feeling the lingering effects of last night too. The headlights were on high beam.

The sexual tension in the room was thick enough to cut with a knife.

Bryson forced his gaze back to her face when she replied, “Jett suggested we arrive at two. He wants to make sure everyone is there before us. He’s got this grand entrance thing planned. It’s sort of silly.”

The grin on her face told him she didn’t find it silly at all. She looked delighted, excited. Which made Bryson even more confused about her reasons for staying away for so long. Why would she have delayed a reunion she clearly wanted so badly? She may have been young when she’d left, but there was no reason he could see for her not returning as an adult anytime in the past decade.