Page 49 of Never Say Yes To Your Brother's Best Friend

“No, Aspen. You shouldn’t have to do that. I don’t need you to do that.”

“Needs and wants,” I whisper bravely, turning my chin up. “They’re different.”

“I know what I need,” he mutters, but his nose presses against mine, his lips just a breath away.

“Okay, Patrick McDonald. Okay.”

He’s both for me.

A needanda want.

Chapter fifteen

Rick

I’m jolted out of sleep the next morning, and at first, I don’t know what time it is. The office is closed up, but I can tell there’s enough sunlight coming in for it to be late morning.

I have no idea when I fell asleep other than it was sometime in the very early hours of the morning. Maybe two or three. I never meant for it to happen. My back feels like the unholy death of hell from sleeping at an obviously awkward angle in this chair.

I’m instantly tuned in to the sound of Aspen’s voice coming from down the hall.

“No, Mom, it’s okay. I just texted you yesterday. It’s all good. No, yeah, I’m not at the apartment. Not right now. When will I be home? Well, that might be a little bit complicated.”

I freeze as she’s quiet for a pause, and then she launches into the whole story. I guess she’s been found out. I knew she was doing damage control via text, and I didn’t think it would actually work, but I wasn’t going to tell her how to run her life orhandle her family. It’s not like I have one of my own to tell her how it should or shouldn’t go.

From the way Aspen’s voice becomes louder and rises in pitch, I can only surmise that whoever is on the other end is freaking out.

“Mom, no. Put dad on,” she says into her phone.

I guess it’s her mom.

“Whoa, you don’t have to do that. You don’t have to come all this way. I’m fine. Yes, fine.” This pause is the longest yet. “It’s what Jace wanted. I know I should have told you all about it, but you wouldn’t have let me do any of this. I had to come alone.” She snorts. “Work wouldn’t give me time off, so I had to quit. No, Mom. I’m not having a crisis. I told you about the letter. It was more than that. It was more like a will. If Jace asked you to do something, you would have done it without question, just like Dad or his mom would have. It’s the same for me.”

I should go and help her and save her from the verbal chewing out she’s getting and is probably going to get from her dad when he comes on the line.

I can only imagine her parents showing up here and giving me more than a verbal beatdown. They’d ask me what I’d done with their daughter, and I’d have to tell them that I made her my wife. I’m not sure if they know that part yet. Aspen only mentioned coming here and the letter, or so I’ve heard. Her parents would probably shit enough bricks to reconstruct half a city if they found out she’s married…married to me. I’m a total stranger to them. I’m halfway across the country, and for all they know, I’m holding their daughter hostage, and she’s got the worst case of Stockholm Syndrome that ever existed. I can’t tell them that I haven’t touched their daughter. That I don’t crave her, and I don’t want to get wildly inventive when it comes to ways I’d like to pleasure her.

Fuck.

If I’m going to have to meet the parents and explain myself, then I’m going to have to do it freshly showered and changed into a good old clean Henley.

Aspen’s voice continues as I walk to the bathroom. I feel more than guilty about all this. I never should have let it get this far. I never should have opened my door for her and let her into the house. But I did. And I agreed to the marriage, sham or not. I let Aspen touch me. I let her in, into the cracks that shouldn’t exist.

Also, just by existing, I’ve become the thing in her life that shouldn’t exist.

I strip down and get into the shower. I’m so focused on what an arsehole two thousand I am that I don’t hear the bathroom door open. I’m not the kind of person you can easily sneak up on, so that proves how distracted I am.

I have both hands braced against the tile when Aspen clears her throat.

“Hey.” Her eyes are surprisingly dry and clear. She hasn’t been crying. She looks focused and determined. She looks like pure sugar and sweetness. She looks like a good wind could blow her right over, but she’s so much tougher.

I’m so naked.

She slips out of her T-shirt and shorts and joins me in the shower. This might be the last time. It should be the last time. No, there should never be a last time because there shouldn’t have ever been a first time.

“Your parents think you’re impulsive. They’re worried about you. They probably think I’m a carnivorous monster,” I mutter.

She shakes her head at me,smilingof all things. “Well, you have eaten me before. You could do it again…”

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