Page 25 of Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

Knox cut him off. “I don’t do consultations.”

I wanted to strangle him. “He’s kidding! He’s just being… selective.”

Cindy and Penn laughed nervously, clearly sensing the tension, while Knox shot me a glare that could melt steel.

“Selective isn’t the word I’d use,” he muttered under his breath.

Our hosts made their excuses and as soon as they left, I whirled on him. “Seriously?”

“What?” He shrugged, completely unapologetic.

“You’re the worst at this,” I groaned, half-laughing, half-annoyed.

“You dragged me here. I didn’t want to come.”

“And yet, here you are, bringing the mood down like it’s a personal vendetta.”

“Then let’s go home.”

I didn’t miss the giddy feeling in my abdomen when he said “home.”

“No way. Not with all these hot men around,” I said instead. “You go. I’ll stay.”

He sighed, “Then I’m staying too.”

I shook my head, wondering what the hell his problem was. If he didn’t want to stay, then why didn’t he just leave?

For the rest of the night, we stayed side-by-side, answering questions about our relationship— or at least I did. Knox looked ready to bolt at any moment—and let everyone know we were happily in love.

It was the most fun I’d had in a while. At some point I wondered if Knox’s presence was sorely for me as protection, because he went from playing angry to rejecting drinks on my behalf and scaring away the hot men that dared to venture close to me with his brooding eyes.

I would have been pissed if it wasn’t hilarious.

“Aw, come on,” I moaned after he scared the fourth guy away. “That one was seriously so hot!”

Knox glared at me. “What are you, five?”

“Yeah, five weeks without sex! I’m dying here,” I whined, unsure why I felt the need to relay such information. Blame it on ovulation.

Knox’s expression darkened. “You’re not sleeping with anyone. In fact, that’s it. Let’s go. We’ve overstayed our welcome.”

He grabbed my hand and tugged me toward the door, and, for a split moment, I stupidly wondered if he was jealous.

Chapter ten

Knox

I lay in bed that night berating myself for stupidly acting like a jealous boyfriend with Nina at the party.

A party I’d been vehemently against attending until she taunted me, and I’d foolishly played into her hand. It wasn’t like I was scared of such social gatherings; it’d just been too long since I went to one. Last time I attended a party just for the sake of it, I was barely twenty. I realized then that it wasn’t my scene, and I’d stayed away since.

Just like I should have stayed away from this one.

Nina knew how to irritate the shit out of me. And what was with those ridiculous amounts of laughter she gave to random men? Even after telling them we were dating? Couldn’t she tell that those dudes only wanted one thing? One of them stared ather cleavage all night. If I was really her boyfriend like she’d claimed, shouldn’t she have only laughed at me?

See? I was going crazy, overthinking everything. I shouldn’t have gone.

Nina was just too childish. A mature woman would know not to laugh with every guy who appeared in front of her.

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