Page 46 of Sweet Temptation

He scratched the back of his neck when he saw the questioning look in my eyes. “This is going to sound weird, but he’s my twin, and we’re kind of a package deal. Like I said, you’re important to me, and Sawyer doesn’t have the best track record with girls. If anything bad happened, I wouldn’t know whose breakup buddy I was supposed to be.”

He looked genuinely worried, and I felt like even more of an idiot. My mind was clear enough now to know just how ridiculous coming here looking for Sawyer had been. There was no way I was going to kiss Sawyer, let alone start and then end a relationship with him. I gave Wes a small nod of understanding.

“Don’t worry, I won’t,” I said. “This little brain fade is well and truly in the past. As long as Sawyer doesn’t find out about this, I don’t think we’ll ever have to talk about it again.”

“Well, he certainly won’t hear it from me.” Wes winked at me again, as we left the room and headed for the library.

* * *

It waslate by the time I finally made it back to my dorm. I’d missed Cress and Anna at dinner but found them both laid out on Cress’s bed doing their nails when I arrived.

“Where have you been all night?” Cress asked as I ditched my bag by the door. “You totally missed girls' night.”

I groaned and threw myself onto my bed. “I think I would have preferred girls' night. My life is a disaster.”

They both exchanged a look before they focused back on me.

“Spill,” Anna demanded.

I hadn’t told either of them about the kiss I shared with Noah yesterday or the one we had today. I couldn’t keep it to myself any longer, and the words tumbled out as I told them everything that had happened in the last two days.

“You made out with Noah in the woods?” Cress gasped.

“And again today?” Anna’s voice was filled with a mixture of disbelief and joy.

“That’s not even the most surprising part,” I groaned. “I did something even more stupid than that.”

“What did you do?” They were both sitting on the edge of Cress’s bed desperately waiting for my answer.

“I was so mad at Noah I went straight to the twins’ room so I could take Sawyer up on his offer to be my rebound.”

“You didn’t!” they both cried.

“I did.”

“And what happened?” They were going to fall off the bed if they leaned forward any more.

“Well, thankfully, Sawyer wasn’t there.” I grimaced before I continued. “But Wes was, and he offered to kiss me instead.”

“Oh. My. God.” I couldn’t tell which of them squealed the loudest.

Cress practically leaped off the bed and looked ready to explode as she waited for me to continue. “Did you do it? Did you kiss him?”

I shook my head. “I couldn’t. He’s my friend, and I really want to keep it that way.” Anna and Cress deflated like popped balloons. “I think he felt the same way though,” I explained. "We both kind of laughed about it after. Still, he nearly gave me a heart attack when he offered.”

“Wow, you really know how to bring the drama to a boring old Monday night.” After the initial disappointment at hearing I hadn’t kissed Wes, Anna now had an impressed look on her face.

“I feel like I’ve made a total idiot of myself.”

Cress sat down next to me and wrapped an arm around my shoulders. “You’re not an idiot at all. You’ve been having a hard time with the breakup. We all understand that.”

“And Noah shouldn’t keep kissing you,” Anna said. “That’s like the worst breakup etiquette ever.”

“It’s really messing with my head,” I agreed. “I swear, the logical part of my brain seems to be on holiday. I can’t believe I thought if I started kissing someone else I’d be able to regain some self-control.”

“I mean, it’s what I would do,” Anna agreed.

“But not necessarily the right advice for you, Isobel,” Cress added, shooting a look at Anna. “I can chat with Noah, tell him to back off, if you want?”

---