Page 48 of Falling For My Best Friend's Brother

I loved her. I’d had girlfriends before, some I genuinely cared for, but Claire was the first woman I’d truly fallen for. Maybe it was how refined she was. Driven, beautiful, the very things I sought in the opposite sex. I’d fallen heads over heels for her in a matter of months.

Breaking up had been my choice, but that didn’t make it any less painful. There was a time when I didn’t just see Claire as a girlfriend; I saw her as a future wife. I pictured us in a sprawling house with a big porch, children running around. A life together.

But reality doesn’t care about dreams. We might have been in love, but when it came down to it, we wanted different things. Claire wanted a man who could hand her the world on a silver platter, while I needed a woman who simply understood me.

“We were great together, weren’t we?” she whispered, and it hit me then how close she was to me.

I nodded, unable to stop myself. “We were.”

Her eyes gleamed with clear lust as she trailed a perfectly manicured finger down my arm. “Don’t you miss it? Don’t you miss me?”

“I do, sometimes.”

I knew better than to keep going. Neither of us had come here tonight to reopen old wounds or tempt unfinished business. Running into each other was coincidence, not fate. And being here now, like this, didn’t mean we had any right to cross the line again, but so much shit had happened in my life lately that it felt like the control was slipping out of my hands. I needed to get a fucking grip.

So, when Claire leaned in and pressed her lips to mine, I didn’t push her away or stop her. When she sucked my bottom lip into her mouth, I didn’t make any move.

“I miss you so much, Knox,” she hushed. “I wish we could go back to how things were.”

She kissed me, forcing her tongue into my mouth, and yet I just sat there. Kissing her back would be my choice. It would be easy to take control and, knowing Claire, she would relish in it. I thought about it for a moment before Nina’s face floated into my mind.

“You’re the worst, Knox Coleman…”

Get out of my head.

And then I was kissing Claire back, taking control like I should, goddammit. If I woke up tomorrow morning with regrets, I would blame it on the alcohol. Given all that had happened in the past few weeks, living with Nina without my sister, losing the Spencer deal, the event with Dean, falling for Nina, every fucking thing… doing this—kissing Claire, felt like the one decision I’d made for myself.

Blood rushed to my head, making me high. Her soft, throaty moans spurred me on and I felt myself slowly giving in, damning it all until the sound of someone clearing their throat brought me back to my senses. We pulled apart to see the bartender smirking at us with knowing eyes. I looked back at Claire, and her eyes were brimming with unabashed lust.

Which was why I wasn’t surprised when she got to her feet, grabbed her bag, slung it over one shoulder and said, “Meet me in the bathroom in two minutes.”

I watched her walk toward the bathroom, swallowing nervously. This was my chance. If I went to Claire, I could forget everythingabout the redhead back at home who no doubt hated me. I could pretend that the past few weeks never happened, or that ithadhappened, but it meant nothing.

My heart revved like a fucking speeding car inside my chest.

“I’ll take a shot,” I said to the bartender. I needed liquid courage because it didn’t look like my ass was thinking of getting up anytime soon.

Claire was waiting for me. The first minute passed. I shot down the liquor as soon as the bartender poured, immediately requesting another.

The kiss was nice, I thought as I stared at the door to the bathroom, throwing back the second shot. My mind was hazy, but it was clear enough that I compared kissing Claire to kissing Nina and found that I liked the latter more.

Two minutes passed. I knew what would happen if I went in there. We would fuck and it would be awesome, and Claire would finally find the in she was looking for to slide back into my life. But was that what I really wanted? Was it wise to get over one woman by fucking the same one I’d fucked other women to get over as well?

Three minutes. Then four. I sucked in a breath, finding my wallet and placing a hundred-dollar bill on the counter. At the fifth minute, I stood to my feet, put one leg in front of the other and walked out the door.

Chapter eighteen

Knox

I could barely stand upright by the time I was climbing the staircase up to our apartment. I could’ve used the elevator, but I kept pressing the fucking button and the stupid thing refused to open up.

Claire would have gotten the hint by now. She would no doubt be angry, and I was half-expecting a text message from her filled with curses, just like the night I broke up with her.

My feet hit the last step for the fifth floor, and I heaved myself forward, stumbling past similar doors to the one I lived in. When I arrived, I saw that there were two Pizza Hut boxes outside. Shrugging, I picked them up, found my keys, and opened the door. The living room was empty, like I expected it to be. Nina had probably ordered the pizza and forgot to take it in, which meant she hadn’t eaten, and it was almost midnight.

I tried to walk straight, but it didn’t work, and I ended up tripping over my own two feet, landing on the tiles with anoomph!Thankfully, the pizzas remained sealed.

I sighed, cursing, “Why the fuck did you drink so much, Knox?”

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