Page 75 of No Summer Hotter than You

“I know you know what you want, Anthony.” His voice was soft, but it still had a particular nudging edge to it. “You’re just not doing anything about it. If you love her as much as I know you do, honesty is the bare minimum she deserves.”

My lips pursed into a thin line, and I started feeling the dread of it all. “It’s not as easy as you make it seem! You never told Julie the truth about how much you were in love with her for all these years either. Because of what? Fear. Don’t make it seem like it’s the easiest thing to do, Andy!”

“Exactly, which is why I empathize with you. But you will never know what might happen if all you do is wait in doubt.”

A silence fell over us as my heart began to thrummed harder and harder in my ears. We had stopped running minutes ago. But my heart still worked harder than ever, hammering against my chest and making my ribs ache with apprehension.

“You never know, Anthony. She may want the same and you’ve been stupid enough to believe otherwise,” Andy said.

A long moment settled between us as his words hung heavily in the air.

“Ready to head back?” he asked. I stiffly nodded as an annoying smirk flashed across his face. With one sharp slap on my shoulders, he was off as fast as lightning. “The last one back to the house has to confess their undying love to their girlfriend!”

I bolted after him, yelling, “Asshole! You got a head start!”

“Shut up! Not my fault you didn’t see that one coming!” Andy’s laughter echoed along the trail as he effortlessly picked up his speed.

I pushed myself harder even as my legs began to burn. Just as I was about to catch up to him, he slipped out of my reach. His aggravating laugh only riled me up, forcing me to run harder. This fucking asshole was going to make sure I lost.

CHAPTER 30

shoua

I came out of the bathroom this morning to find Andy hovering over Julie on the bed. He was half-naked in what looked like running shorts, sweat beading on his back. She let out a muffled giggle with Andy’s lips locked with her in a kiss. Before I could open my mouth to say anything, Andy’s hands slipped into the camisole she wore to bed. I think I saw a flash of her pink-brown nipples before his large hands covered them.

“It is too early for this, Andy,” I announced, startling the couple as I averted my eyes away from the bed.

“Aw, come on, Shoua,” he said with a laugh as Julie immediately pushed him off her. She was bright red as she tried to make herself look decent while Andy carelessly grinned in my direction. “I know you’d appreciate if Anthony did the same to you after a morning run.”

“No,” I said and grimaced as I quickly made my exit. “No, thank you.”

Andy laughed wholeheartedly as I closed the bedroom door behind me. So much for sharing a room with Julie when her boyfriend was that needy. When she told me months ago that being with Andy had made her sexually confident, I didn’t expect her to mean this.

I glanced back at the closed door when I heard her soft moan and then immediately walked away. My cheeks burned with frustration and just as I turned around to look forward, my face smacked into a hard, sweaty chest.

“You all right?” heaved Anthony as his hands came out to grab me to keep me from falling over.

“Your brother is dicking down my cousin,” I said with a grimace.

“I definitely didn’t need to know that,” Anthony said. Disgust washed over his face as he quickly motioned me to come into the room he shared with Andy. I wasn’t surprised to find their room clean and neat. “Looks like you’re rooming with me after all.”

“I was hoping that wouldn’t be the case,” I mumbled, throwing myself onto the bed and under the covers. “Did you sleep on this side?”

“How’d you know?” Anthony sounded surprised as his spine straightened.

I laughed. “It smells like you.”

His cheeks turned crimson as he looked over at me. “W-what do I smell like?”

I buried my nose into the pillow he used and took a sharp inhale of his scent. “When you don’t use your cologne, you smell fresh and light. Like pine. Like the body wash you use.”

“Yeah? You can sleep on that side of the bed then. But what difference would it make when you can just smell me all night?”

“You’d like that, wouldn’t you?” I flipped onto my side to glance at him as he approached the bed.

He watched me closely, observing my every move with sweat dripping down the column of his neck to his pecs. His chest heaved up and down as if he just finished sprinting. He climbed onto the bed and hovered over me, placing his hands on each side of my face.

With a thick swallow, he whispered, “I definitely would.”

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