by B. B. Reid
“You love me?” I whispered so low I’d be surprised if he heard. I was staring up at him with so much hope that I hadn’t heard wrong even though he couldn’t see it because his eyes were closed.
“You know I do. You’ve known all along.” It came out like a growl, signaling his annoyance that I wouldn’t let him sleep. I’d already interrupted the sound sleep he’d been in when I drunkenly stumbled in and hopped on the wrong cock.
I should have felt more regret than I did, but as my lids slowly lowered and my breathing deepened, I decided that was tomorrow’s problem.
NOELLE
Three days until Christmas
My eyes opened the next morning, and the first thing I saw was tanned skinned and man nipple. I blinked to clear my vision before letting my head fall back. Exhaling my relief, I smiled at the cute face Paxton was making in his sleep.
He always looked so adorable when he slept.
I wrestled my hand free to cup his cheek and run my fingers through his hair. I didn’t want to wake him, but I couldn’t resist.
His eyes slowly opened, and when our gazes met, I gasped.
Pale blue.
His eyes were pale blue.
Seeing my panic, Nick reacted quickly, rolling on top of me before I could flee. “Good morning, sunshine.”
“Get off me, you prick!” I kicked and slapped to no avail while Nick grinned like an idiot and held me down.
“I thought we’d gotten past this, Elle.” He was frowning now as if I’d truly hurt his feelings.
“You’re insane. You’re insane,” I repeated as if only realizing it myself.
“If I’m crazy, it’s because of you. It’s because I’m crazy for you. Now tell me what I can do to make you accept that this is happening.”
“Do you not care even a little what this will do to Paxton?”
Nick’s frown was genuine this time as he scowled down at me. “Nobody cares about my brother more than I do.”
“And you think I don’t?”
He scoffed as he lifted off me and stood from the bed before grabbing his jeans and pulling them on. “I think if you did as much as you claim, you’d admit that you don’t love him.”
I stood as well, keeping the sheet wrapped around me when I stood in front of him. I so didn’t want to have this argument with my boobs and twat hanging out.
“We have problems, Nick. That’s what happens in relationships, but you work through them. You fight. You’d know that if you tried being in one instead of screwing girls and discarding them when you’re done.”
“So that’s your deal?” he spat. “You’re leading my brother on because you can’t risk falling for the twin who can’t commit?” I slapped him, but when I tried a second time, he caught my wrist and squeezed. “Make this the last time you hit me, or I’ll even the playing field.”
“Let me go!” I didn’t even want to talk about how screwed up I had to be getting turned on by his threat. I had enough problems.
Like how was I going to explain a pussy full of cum to my boyfriend?
Paxton wasn’t exactly the trusting type.
He didn’t like surprises, and he didn’t like not being in control.
Nick surprisingly let me go, and I turned away from him to search for my phone.
Where did I—
I spotted my pink case peeking out from underneath the bed and snatched my phone from the floor. The screen immediately lit up, and I noticed my battery was almost dead, but then I frowned when I didn’t see any texts or missed calls from Paxton.
I knew we had our problems, but I didn’t want to believe we’d fallen so far he no longer cared what happened to me.
Instead of getting angry, desperation filled me as I pulled up his number and tapped the call button. It rang once before going to voicemail. I tried again with the same result.
Maybe his phone had died.
Or maybe he’d turned it off.
Knowing Paxton, I knew which possibility was the most likely.
Fine.
I’d just have to find him.
I’ll tell him what happened and beg for his forgiveness. It’d be rough, but…we could get past it.
“Do you even know my brother at all?” Nick asked the moment I turned around. I could see on his face that he knew what I planned to do. “He won’t forgive you, Elle. Even if he still wanted you, he wouldn’t forgive you. Do you know why? Because Paxton takes what he wants. There is no middle ground with him. It’s all or nothing.”
“So, what are you saying?”
“I’m saying you’ve been dating all this time, and he hasn’t married you or even asked. That’s huge.”
“W-we’re young. It’s only been three years. That doesn’t mean anything.”
“Not for Pax. We may be young, but mentally, he’s light years ahead of us. He would have proposed by now, Elle. He’d marry you in grad school and knock you up the moment he started making a livable salary.” I felt a tear slip down my cheek as I shook my head in denial and took a step back. The rage in Nick’s eyes when he saw my refusal to believe him had reached a tipping point. “For fuck’s sake, Elle, he has his kids’ names picked out already! Has he even told you what they are?”
No.
He’d never even mentioned kids to me.
I always assumed he didn’t want them or simply wasn’t ready for them. I’d have asked him for my peace of mind, but I was a coward and afraid to know the answer.
Maybe I’d always known.
“Baby,” Nick began when he saw the crushed look on my face. He took a step toward me, but I backed away and wrapped my arms around myself.
“You’re an asshole,” I whispered with my gaze on the floor.
“I’m sorry,” he said, making me look up. “This is not—” He swallowed. “This is not what I intended. I didn’t mean for it to go this way.”
“For what to go what way?” I pushed through my teeth. Suddenly, I remembered his words from last night. How he’d risked everything to have me and how I’d picked the wrong brother. My gaze narrowed. “You planned this. You gave me the wrong key on purpose.”
“Yes.”
I hadn’t expected that—his brutal honesty. “How could you?” I yelled once I recovered. “I thought you were my friend!”
He stormed toward me and cornered me against the desk. “Maybe I don’t want to be your friend,” he barked. “Maybe I’m sick of pretending that I don’t love you and watching you be with my brother. No more, Elle. You’re mine.”
As soon as he finished speaking, I grabbed the heavy lamp on the desk and slammed it over his head. Realizing what I’d done, I stared in shock as he crumpled to the floor, and when I saw the blood on his temple, my heart stopped.
I quickly dropped down next to him to check his pulse.
I sighed with relief once I realized he was breathing and shot to my feet before darting over to the safe. I tried a few different combinations, including the code to his phone, which he’d given me freely one day when I jokingly demanded it.
I paused and then, with hesitant fingers, typed in 0-6-2-4.
When the green light flashed and the locked disengaged, butterflies took flight in my belly.
My birthday.
He’d chosen my birthday.
Swallowing down the emotion that burst free, I grabbed my clothes before quickly dressing. Against my will, I stopped when I reached the door and couldn’t help the lingering backward look I took before coming to my senses and darting out.
The room door slammed shut behind me as I looked left and then right down the hall. I had no idea which room was Paxton’s or even Felicity, for that matter.
Felicity!
Grabbing my phone from my back pocket, I quickly dialed Fel. When it rang once before going to voicemail, my heart skipped a beat in my chest.
No.
No.
Refusing to believe what my paranoia was telling me, I shoved my phone into my pocket before rushing toward the e
levators. I’d start in the lobby before checking the slopes. Paxton was a huge ski fanatic, so I wouldn’t be surprised if he were already there.
I stabbed the elevator button again and again, and just as it finally dinged its arrival, I heard a door opening down the hall. Daring a look over my shoulder, I squealed when I saw it was Nick stumbling from his room, holding his bleeding head, and still very much shirtless.
Shit!
“Elle!” he shouted when he spotted me.
The elevator doors began to open, and I darted through them before hurriedly pressing the lobby button and then the close button over and over.
“Elle, wait!”
“Eat shit!” I shouted back as he ran toward me. Come on, you bastard. Close, goddammit!
Finally, the elevator complied and slid closed just as Nick reached it.
The last thing I saw was the desperation in his eyes and his fist punching the doors when they shut. Sighing my relief, I rested my head against the wall and closed my eyes.
How did I get here?
When the elevator reached the lobby, I stepped out and looked around. When I didn’t immediately spot Paxton or Felicity, I headed over to the front desk.
“Good morning,” the chipper receptionist greeted me. “How may I help you?”
Ritzy hotel or not, I was glad the lady was skilled enough to keep her welcoming composure even though I looked like hell.
“Hi, can you tell me what room Paxton Cruise is in, please?”
“I’m sorry. I can’t give out that information without proper identification.”
I just barely kept from rolling my eyes as I pulled my wallet from my purse. “Okay, well, can you tell me what room Noelle Brooks is in then?” I slid my ID across the counter to prove it was me.
“Certainly,” she agreed with a smile before taking my ID. I looked around as she typed in my name, and then seconds later, she spoke. “You’re in room five-zero-six, ma’am.”
“N-no,” I stuttered as my body temperature rose. “That can’t be right. Please check again.”
That was Nick’s room.
“I’m sorry, but it says it right here. You and Nicholas Cruise checked in yesterday.” She raised her brow, obviously picking up on the fact that I’d given her the name of two different men who also shared an uncommon surname.
Karma was a petty bitch today.
“Okay,” I whispered with my heart in my throat. I wanted the floor to open up and swallow me. “Thank you.”
I turned—not knowing where to go or what to do, so I started for the front door. I made it three steps before I spotted Paxton walking through those same doors. Just as I had predicted, he was dressed for the slopes and smiling harder than I’d seen him do in years.
Next to him was none other than my motherfucking best friend.
She laughed and looked damn near in love as she stared at my man like he was hers.
Neither had noticed me yet, even though I stood no more than five feet away. That was how into each other they were.
They stopped just inside the door, and he said something to her I couldn’t hear before brushing a fallen snowflake from her button nose, still red from the cold.
My first instinct was to break it and see how cute he found the bitch then.
I watched Paxton lift his hand and Felicity’s breath catch when he suggestively licked the snowflake from his thumb while staring deep into her eyes.
Oh, hell no.
“Elle!”
I was mid-step, hands balled, when I heard my name.
Paxton and Felicity both followed the sound of Nick’s voice until they found him rushing off the elevator, fully dressed now. And when they followed his gaze, their eyes bucked, finally seeing me standing there. They both took a guilty step away from each other, but it was too late.
I’d seen enough.
Paxton recovered quickly and was now wearing a blank expression while Felicity looked like she was stuck in a horror film.
The moment Pax saw the violence in my eyes, he pushed Felicity behind him.
That. Fucking. Did it.
With rage pouring from my heart and my head checking out of the drama, I charged them both. I got two steps within reach before I was snatched back and off my feet. Two arms wrapped around my waist and held me close as I fought to break free.
Nick.
“Let me go!” I screamed, drawing even more attention. I didn’t give a damn about all the rich bitches clutching their pearls. They could choke for all I cared.
“Calm down, Elle,” Nick pleaded. “It’s not what you think, baby. Just let me explain.”
I let out a deranged laugh that made me sound even crazier than I looked, and that was saying a lot. I had just witnessed my boyfriend ready to protect my best friend from me, and it wasn’t what I thought?
The only thing worse than getting cheated on and betrayed was my intelligence being insulted.
“Noelle,” Felicity pleaded. “Please calm down. I swear nothing—”
“Don’t you say a fucking word to me, bitch!”
“I know you’re upset,” Paxton cut in, “but I will not allow you to disrespect Felicity.”
I paused out of shock before I chuckled in disbelief. “Wow, Pax. You really are a piece of shit. My best friend? Of all the girls?”
“My brother?” he shot back with a tilt of his head. He looked much calmer than I expected.
I swallowed when guilt and denial rendered me mute. There was no way he could have known. “I—”
“I know you spent the night fucking my brother,” he blurted before I could lie.
“Paxton,” Nick barked in warning.
I had the feeling Nick holding me back was the only thing keeping him from punching his twin. Paxton shoved his fingers through his hair in frustration before giving Nick a look that said they were fucked.
Whatever they had plotted—it was apparent now—wasn’t going as planned.
It’s funny.
I went looking for Pax to confess, but I didn’t count on it being this hard or feeling like I was the one that had been duped.
“I’m sorry,” Paxton offered with a sigh. “Just please stop pretending you’re the victim in all of this. I haven’t cheated on you, Noelle. Can you say the same?”
“Maybe not physically, but emotionally you have! You’ve been treating me like a third wheel ever since we left home!”
“I was trying to make this easier, Noelle. Can’t you see that?”
“Make what easier?”
“This!” he shouted while gesturing between the four of us. “Us! The fact that we don’t belong together, and we never have. We were both with the wrong person, and what’s worse is that the right ones have been standing in front of us all along.”
“You could have just told me you didn’t want to be with me.” I could hear Nick whispering words of reassurance as I cried over his brother in his arms.
This was so screwed.
“It wasn’t that simple, and you know it, Noelle. Even if I told you I was in love with your best friend, you never would have given your blessing, and Fel would never have given me a chance.”
“So you set me up to sleep with your brother? You entrapped me into cheating?”
“No! I-I’m not stupid, Noelle, okay? I know how you feel about Nick and he—” I caught the glance Paxton gave his brother before he continued. “He told me how he feels about you. Believe it or not, I care about you, and I love my brother. I wanted you both happy, and this was the only way we all got to be with who we truly wanted.”
Even as my heart twisted in agreement, it was my pride that couldn’t accept it. I’d given three years to someone who didn’t love me, someone who’d been looking past me all along.
All at once, I felt the fight leave my body—which, ironically, made Nick hold me tighter.
“You can let me go now,” I told him calmly. When he hesitated, I added, “Please.” I couldn’t stand him or anyone else touching me any longe
r. Just the thought made me ill.
Slowly, Nick released me, and once I was free, I took one last look at all of them. The three of them were watching me warily while pleading with me silently to understand.
Never.
“I hope you’re all very happy together.”
NOELLE
Two days until Christmas
“The only thing missing in this scenario is a cheering crowd as I run to you or maybe me holding a boombox in the rain.” My head shot up, hearing the familiar voice, and my lips parted, seeing who was standing there. “Would you settle for a white flag?”
“Fel?” I gasped. “What are you doing here? I thought—”
“That I’d choose a guy over my best friend?” She rolled her eyes as she sat down next to me. “I’d be insulted if I didn’t understand why you’d feel that way.”
“How did you even find me?”
She tilted her head to the side as she slowly turned a lock of her blonde hair. “Remember that Bound concert we went to last year when they were on tour? After the show, we spent an hour looking for your car and another trying to find each other after we somehow got separated?”
“Yeeeeah…”
Felicity held up her phone, showing me her screen.
I snorted when I saw that I was still sharing my location with her. That night, we both turned on the feature and vowed to never turn it off under any circumstances after that harrowing journey.
I’d never even given Paxton that privilege.
“Yeah.” I couldn’t help the smile that broke free while I nodded. “That was a close one.”
Being the drama queens we were, Fel and I ran to each across the vast dark parking lot as if we’d been apart for ten years and had reunited against all the odds—the odds being a parking lot jam-packed with cars, low visibility, and two tipsy college girls with no sense of direction whatsoever.
“So, do you think it’s true?” Fel asked in a quiet tone.
“Do I think what’s true?” I was frowning now since she’d caught me off guard.
“That Bound’s new guitarist is doing the entire band?”
I laughed. “Have you seen her? Have you seen them? Wouldn’t you?”
Fel and I high-fived each other, and that quickly, it was like old times. “Yeah, I see your point. Besides, they’re not really hiding it anymore. They’re on the blogs like every week.”
