Page 9 of You Don’t Kiss Your Brother's Best Friends

I threw my fist into the air, as Kayden’s confident smile broke into a frown. In the meantime, Jocelyn pulled off her blindfold.

“Look at that,” I cheered. “I beat the chef!”

Jocelyn squinted. “Wait, I thought you were both chefs?”

“We are,” I said quickly. “I mean, I beat theexecutivechef.”

“What he meant to say is, he cheated,” declared Kayden, pointing. “Because that’s not a burger.”

Jocelyn, who’d already picked it up to finish it off, stopped mid-bite. “It’s not?”

“No, that’s acheeseburger!”

“So?”

“So, why would he put cheese on it? When we clearly stated—”

“I put cheese on it because I know the girl loves cheese,” I cut him off. “And I used provolone, because that’s her favorite.”

Jocelyn nodded and took another voracious bite. Smiling back at Kayden, she shrugged apologetically. “He’s right.”

“But—”

“Hey, don’t get mad because you didn’t think of it,” I taunted him. “The competition was best burger. It’s not like we made any special rules or anything.”

I watched with satisfaction as our ravenous guest bent over her plates and went to town. Jocelyn ate hungrily, pinning her long hair up in a quick bun before devouring both dishes, exactly as promised.

Fuck, she’s beautiful.

She really was. The freckled tomboy we’d grown up with in small town New Hampshire had blossomed into a tall, feminine knockout. We’d gone from teasing and torturing Jase’s annoying little sister, to having her torment us by her presence, her very womanhood. She had us in the palm of her hand back then, and she damned well knew it. Hell, she enjoyed every flirtatious minute of it.

And now some shitheads had hurt her, and hurt her bad. These were people she trusted. People comfortable enough and close enough to her, that they literally took everything.

And somehow, these fucks thought they could get away with it.

If there was anything Kayden and I completely agreed upon, it was the need for vengeance. And we were far too impatient to simply sit back and wait for karma to deliver.

“And that…” Jocelyn mumbled, throwing down her napkin. “Was outright fucking amazing.”

Both burgers had been reduced to crumbs. Kayden smiled and swept the plates away as I poured more wine, silently wondering how long it would be before we’d stop pretending either of us was ferrying her back to her hotel.

“So… what now?” she asked, lazily tracing the rim of her glass with a delicate finger.

“Monopoly? Clue?” joked Kayden.

“Ah, just like the old days,” she sighed nostalgically. “But the old days are gone.”

“Netflix and chill, then?” I smirked.

Jocelyn laughed musically into her wine glass. “You wish,” she told me for a second time. But this time, I noticed, she added a wink. “Not that I wouldn’t mind a little chill. God knows I could use some.”

The way she was staring back at us was suddenly different. There was mischief in her eyes now. And maybe a new hunger, but of a much different kind.

“Is that pool heated?”

She jerked a thumb over her shoulder, where a series of floor-to-ceiling glass doors opened into the tiled, landscape-lit atrium. The infinity pool glowed a myriad of different colors all night long, changing every hour. Right now it was a deep, indigo blue.

“Yes,” Kayden said, matter-of-factly. “It is.”

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