Page 27 of Inked Devotion

“I’m the rational brother. We all know this.”

“We do,” I whispered.

“We had sex. Really fucking good sex. It’s not just on your end, Brenna. Best fucking sex ever. We won’t do it again. We got it out of our systems, and we’re going to be friends. You’re my friend Brenna. I’m the last single Montgomery of my family, and you’re the last single Garrett. We are going to remain who we are, even though I have seen all of your parts.”

“Thanks, that’s so romantic,” I said as I laughed.

He winked. “Well, you’ve seen my part as well.”

“Yes, I have,” I said, drawing out the words until I put my hands over my face and screamed. “See? We can’t do this.” I let my hands fall. “Everyone’s going to know.”

“So, no secrets then.”

“Am I a hypocrite? Horrible hypocrite.”

“I’m so good at messing things up, and I feel like that’s what I’m going to do with this.”

“Then we don’t mess it up. You and me? We’re friends. We go to your family reunion. We make sure your family has nothing to worry about, and then we come home, and we get back to business. I will donate my sperm. You will get sperm from someone else, and I will stop saying sperm in front of you.”

My lips twitched. “I don’t think you can make that promise,” I grumbled.

He laughed then, and the sound soothed me, even though it shouldn’t—damn hormones.

“I like you, Brenna. We’re going to figure this out.”

“And we’re not going to have sex again,” I said.

He looked at me then, swallowed hard, and nodded. “Never again.”

I did my best to hide the disappointment I shouldn’t be feeling at all.

Chapter 7

Benjamin

We pulled in front of a nice-looking home with decent landscaping. Brenna let out a breath as she put the car into park and looked over at me.

“I don’t want you to look at the garden in the backyard,” she blurted, and I blinked at her. Of all the things she could have said to me at that moment, and there were many things that we were not talking about and shouldn’t talk about, but really should talk about, that hadn’t been it.

“I was just thinking their landscaping looked nice.”

“It is, and they hire the neighborhood boy to mow the lawn, though soon I’m sure they’ll get one of the grandkids to do it.”

“That’s great,” I said sincerely.

“Only, with her garden? Mom likes to tinker. She tinkers, and then she kills things. Often. So then they try to bring it back to life, but they add more plants while they wait. It’s a jungle and a mess and way too much work for them, but they’re trying. Don’t give them help, or hints, or let them try to see what they should be doing to make their garden look like a professional cares about it.”

I shook my head, frowning. “Am I that person?” I asked, and she looked up at me.

“What person?”

“The person that judges random strangers. The person who’s going to judge the strangers that will let me stay in their home without warning. Am I that person?”

She cringed. “No. But I’m stressed out, and my mother is kind of notorious for the jungle that is her garden.”

“That’s fine. If she does ask for help, though, am I allowed to give it? Or should I just say she’s doing great?” I was a little worried and intrigued about what it could look like. I wanted to know. It wasn’t like I completely revamped every lawn I ever walked onto. That would take too much of my time, and I didn’t have time for that. As it was, I had multiple projects waiting for me when I got back, something that I was ignoring for now because we needed to be on the top of our games for this family reunion of hers. I didn’t think either one of us was truly there yet.

“You’re not that person. I’m sorry. I’m just freaking out over little things because I’m bringing a man to a family reunion. That’s not my date. And we haven’t…and I’m not even going to finish that statement.”

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