Page 65 of The Boys Next Door

Impulsively, she patted the bed next to her. The mattress sank under Brendan’s weight, his leg warm against hers.

“I came over to give you this.” He held out her jean jacket, folded into a tidy bundle. Diana let out a sigh of relief. She reached into the front pocket, found her glasses, and put them on. Her room sharpened into focus, and she immediately felt better.

Brendan was already close enough to see clearly — very close to her, in fact — but the glasses just made it more obvious: tired or not, he was still gorgeous. But she didn’t recognize his expression. They’d grown up together, they’d had all kinds of sex the past two weeks, but she had to wonder if she knew him at all. Or Ian, or herself.

“Thanks.”

“Check the sleeves.”

Diana slid her hand into one sleeve. Out came her black satin bra, neatly tucked into the denim.

“Oh. Right.” She’d thought she was beyond blushing. Now she knew better. Dropping the generous cups on her bed, she reached into the other sleeve and pulled out some black scraps of lace.

“Seriously?” She stared up at Brendan, her shredded panties dangling from her hand. “What am I supposed to do with these?”

A grin tugged at his mouth. “I thought you could sew them back together or something.”

“Ian’s just too cheap to buy me new ones, isn’t he?” And saying his name made her stomach knot.

Brendan shrugged, his smile fading. Diana rubbed her temples. She just wanted to lean against Brendan’s shoulder. Get tangled up in Ian’s arms. Have some idea of what was going on.

“Look, I’m sorry I was mean to you guys in the car.”

“Di.” Brendan put a warm hand on her back. “Did you have fun at all last night?”

“Yeah,” she said softly. “Yeah, I did. It was exciting and crazy and intense and…a lot. I was just so excited — I just wanted to do it all, like you said — to do whatever I wanted, but —“ She reached for him. “Can you just be my big brother for a few minutes?”

For the first time, Brendan really smiled. God, he was beautiful. Diana practically had to shield her eyes from the flash of white teeth. “‘Course.”

It felt natural to rub her cheek against Brendan’s shoulder, the way she’d wanted to. It was comforting to bury her nose in his soft t-shirt and breathe in the familiar clean detergent smell. Her shoulders relaxed when Brendan folded an arm around her. She didn’t protest when he took the ripped panties out of her hand, moving them to her desk along with her jacket and bra.

“Can we lie down?” she whispered.

“Mm-hm.” Brendan eased her down on the mattress and pulled her close. It felt right to curl up in his muscular arms. His hand found her back and rubbed gently between her shoulder blades. Diana rested her forehead on his shoulder, letting him unhook her glasses and drop them on her desk as well. The throbbing in her head eased off. It felt so good to let Brendan hold her. She snuggled closer, letting her eyelids drift closed and her leg wrap around his solid body.

“Are you guys fighting?” she asked softly.

“Not exactly.” Brendan’s voice was low. “Don’t worry about it, Di. Just rest.”

“It’s my business too.”

A pause. His breath stirred her hair. “Ian made me promise that if I saw you today, I wouldn’t talk about him. Or for him.”

“Oh.” Her stomach went cold. Fine. That was fine. But it wasn’t fine at all. “Well, I’d like to talk about Ian.”

“And say what?” Brendan pulled back, his eyebrows raised.

There was too much expectation in the air. Diana let out a breath.

“I don’t know.” She buried her face in Brendan’s shoulder, sighing when his hand slipped under her pink camisole to rub her belly. A few seconds passed, or maybe a few minutes. No one was checking on them. Apparently her mom didn’t feel the need to review the rules of boys in Diana’s room when it was Brendan in there with her.

Diana shifted, nestling her head against his broad chest. His hand was so warm on her bare stomach.

“Why do you guys do it? Why do you play good twin and bad twin?”

No answer. Dammit, if Brendan was taking his promise to Ian this seriously, he might as well leave. But when Diana glanced up at him, his eyes were on hers. Brendan looked older.

“It’s what we’ve always done.” He stroked the slight curve of her belly. “We’ve always done it that way.”

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