Page 14 of Second Draft

“And you’re being a selfish bitch.” Travis’ eyes burn with a mix of anger and fear. “If you think you’re going to trap me into marrying you, think again.”

“I didn’t evenwantto sleep with you. And I wouldn’t have if I hadn’t been drunk.”

“You didn’t say no.”

“Because I was practically passed out.”

Travis’s face is bright red, but I can see the guilt there. Because he knows it’s the truth.

“Everything okay in here?” Carter stands in the doorway, looking between us, a dark scowl marring his handsome features.

He’s wearing low-rise jeans, and a dark t-shirt that does little to hide the corded muscles and broad shoulders beneath. Dark hair hangs in damp waves over his forehead, but it’s his eyes that hold me. Blue and piercing.

“Everything’s just peachy,” Travis says derisively, crossing his arms over his chest and looking out the window.

“Layla?” Carter asks me.

“Fine,” I mumble.Had he heard what we’d been talking about?

I know he’ll find out eventually, but I prefer not to be around when he does.

What terrible luck that the man I’d been fantasizing about for the past year is the brother of the one man I’m ready to strangle right now. The man whose baby I’m having.

Carter moves around the table, then grabs a coffee cup from the cupboards. “I’m going to get a room at the Radisson. Stay there until I figure out where I’m going next.”

“Why?” Travis’ brows draw down and he scowls.

Side by side, I see the resemblance.

Carter’s hair is darker, his eyes a lighter shade of blue, his body covered in a beautiful, twisted pattern of ink. But they have the same bone structure, the same lush bottom lip, and the same sullen broodiness that makes them both insufferably sexy, and incredible dangerous.

“I just think it’s better that way.” Carter watches me over his coffee cup as he takes a first sip.

“Whatever.” Travis glowers at him, then tosses his mug in the sink. “You can do whatever the hell you want to do. You always do.”

“Someone woke up in a shitty mood.” Carter leans against the counter, one ankle crossed over the other, biceps bulging when he lifts his cup to his lips.

“Screw off.” The tension radiating off Travis is almost violent. “Both of you.”

I’ve got to get out of here before I say something I shouldn’t. Or worse, start to cry.

“Where are you going?” Travis glares at me when I grab my purse off the table.

“Some of us have to work,” I snap.

He grabs my arm when I walk past him. “We’re not finished talking.”

I peel his fingers back. “Yes, we are.”

Ignoring Carter’s watchful gaze, I slip out of the kitchen and make a beeline for the front door. Angry words follow me out, but this time it’s Carter yelling at Travis. I can’t hear exactly what he says, but I can tell he isn’t happy.

I almost make it to my car when I hear the front door open behind me.

“Layla. Stop.” Carter’s voice is deep, commanding, like liquid heat practically stroking my skin and making my insides turn to molten lava.

I turn, my gaze lifting over his powerful chest, up his inked throat, to his handsome face.

Damn, why does he have to be so freaking hot?

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