Page 99 of The Young & the Sinner

“I told you, I’m staying with my brother for the time being. It’s not like I can take some strange woman to his home.”

“Sure, you can. I doubt he would mind. It’s not like he’s not doing the very same thing.”

Of course he would say that, because he didn’t know Max.

Max hadn’t taken any of his one-night stands home in years. Not since Olivia caught his latest conquest leaving the house. He didn’t want to set that kind of example for her.

And he would probably kill me if I took anyone back to his house. Not that I would, or that I even wanted to.

Especially since Olivia spent most of her nights in my bed.

I looked down at my coffee cup, swirling the dark brown liquid around. “I told you about my brother’s living situation, didn’t I?”

“The girl living with him, you mean?” Logan asked. I nodded, even if Olivia was more than just the girl living with him. She was everything to him, and she was quickly becoming everything to me.

I shut down that thought as soon as it entered. I had no right to claim her.

“What about her? Isn’t she off to college?”

I raised an eyebrow in question. I supposed that would be the most likely assumption. That she would leave home for college. I knew Lizzie was living in the dorm her first year. But Olivia didn’t want to be away from Max. She was dependent on him, more than what was considered normal, but I didn’t see anything wrong with her wanting to live at home.

“She’s attending the University of Chicago.”

Logan made an approving noise. “Smart girl.”

Logan and I went to the University of Chicago for our undergrads. But unlike me, Logan stayed in Illinois for law school. We all knew how rigorous the programs were. Hell, our school’s unofficial motto was “Where the fun comes to die.” It told us what kind of students attended the school, but I could still remember some of my wildest night there.

I smiled. “She’s still at home.”

Logan’s eyebrows rose in surprise. “Really? Why?”

I didn’t say anything to that. Olivia’s reasons for wanting to stay at home was nobody’s business. I didn’t need Logan’s quick judgement. He knew what went down over the summer. It was Gage and him defending my case for beating the shit out of Lorenzo. And I would have killed the little bastard if given the chance.

“So as you can see, it would be a bit problematic to bring anyone home.”

Logan frowned. “Olivia is what? Eighteen? Can’t you remember when we were her age? She probably wouldn’t be bothered by all of that.”

I scowled, not liking him putting her in the same category as us. “Don’t talk about her like that.”

He raised his hands up. “Sorry. Jeez. I didn’t mean to offend.”

“Maybe you shouldn’t be putting Max’s ward in the same category as you. We both know what a slut you are,” Gage said, as he mock-punched Logan on the shoulder. Though he said it in a joking manner, his eyes glinted with something dark. I didn’t know what that look meant.

Even though I was closer to Gage than anyone else at work, I didn’t know him as well as I knew Logan. I knew there were some things about him that he didn’t want to share, and I didn’t pry. It wasn’t like I was going around advertising about what had happened to me.

Out of the three of us, Gage was the shortest one, but he was in no way short. Coming in at six-foot-two, at least, he was built like a professional linebacker. With light green eyes and shoulder-length blond hair, he would be considered charming if his default expression wasn’t always a scowl.

“I didn’t know you were so protective of her,” Logan said, a half-smile on his face.

I didn’t say anything to that. The truth was, I felt very protective of her, and it was nothing like the way Max felt about her. I knew it. Our stolen kiss yesterday proved just that. And I didn’t like to think of Olivia being just like me when I was her age.

I was very promiscuous in my late teens and early twenties. And for a barely nineteen-year-old kid who was away from home for the first time… I probably went a little overboard with the partying, and the alcohol, and the sex.

I grimaced at the thought of Olivia having the same experiences.

She had always seemed too innocent for that kind of thing. It might make me sound like a bastard for saying so, but I loved how inexperienced she was.

I loved that shy innocence still in her eyes, especially when she looked at me.

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