Page 23 of The P*ssy Next Door

I bit my lip, torn between the giddy flutter in my chest and the nagging voice in my head reminding me that this couldn't go anywhere.

“You need to stop coming in here looking like that.”I waved my hand up and down to indicate his utter deliciousness. “I told you not to make me fall for you.”

He held up a hand, cutting me off. “No pressure, no expectations. I'm not going to take anything you don't want to give. If you just wanna be friends while you're here, we'll be friends. But might I suggest friends with benefits?”

It would be so easy to say yes, to let myself fall into the promise of his words and the warmth of his smile. What if we did just have a fling? We were young, nobody was looking to get married at twenty-two. I don't know why I was so fixated on this having to be some long-term commitment with him. We were flirting. We'd been on one whole date. He hadn't proposed or anything.

“What kind of benefits are we talking, Kingman?” I waggled my eyebrows at him and waved a finger at him to come a little closer.

I could do this. I could have a fling with a Kingman.

Unless of course Xander threw a monkey in the wrench. Like he was about to. “Shit, my brother just pulled up out front. You've got to hide.”

I didn't even give him a chance to respond before I shoved him toward the back room. But Xan could just as easily go back there as I could. My gaze shot everywhere, and I definitely considered shoving Hayes under the espresso machine. But I looked at the cubby, then up at all six foot eleventy-billion inches of muscle standing in front of me, and rethought.

The cleaning supplies closet.I shoved Hayes through the door and slammed it shut behind us, leaning against it with a shaky exhale.

Hayes raised an eyebrow, a slow grin spreading across his face. “Well, this is cozy.”

I smacked his arm, fighting a smile of my own. “Shut up. I'm trying to save your ass from my brother's wrath.”

His expression sobered, his hand coming up to cup my cheek. “Willa, I don't want to cause problems between you and Xander. If me being here is too much?—”

I covered his hand with my own, my heart in my throat. “I want you here, Hayes. I do. But Xander... he's not going to make this easy on us.”

Hayes leaned in, resting his forehead against mine. “Then we'll just have to be sneaky about it.”

A laugh bubbled out of me, some of the tension easing from my shoulders. “Sneaky, huh? There is something fun about a forbidden—” I almost said romance. Eyeroll to myself. This wasn't some rom-com. This was my actual life. “—adventure.”

“I like adventure.” Hayes leaned forward, put both his hands on either side of my head against the door behind me, and kissed the holy bejeezus out of me.

For being the guy who was saving himself for the right girl, he sure was a good kisser. Like, my knees just about went out from under me and I had no intention of leaving this broom closet until they did, kind of kisser.

The little bell at the cash register made us jump apart, reality crashing back in. “Willa, customer, hello?”

I sighed, giving Hayes an apologetic look. “I'd better go deal with him. Wait here, okay? I'll get rid of him and then we can... talk more.”

Hayes nodded, a glimmer of mischief in his eyes. “I'll be waiting.”

Steeling myself, I slipped out of the supply closet, closing the door firmly behind me. Xander was pacing the length of the café, his agitation palpable.

“Xan, stop. Please.”

He whirled on me, his eyes flashing. “What the hell? My life, my choices? Really? Like I'm Mom or something?”

I had said something similar, or perhaps the exact same words, to her when she tried to forbid me from going to Europe instead of college.

I crossed my arms, meeting his glare head-on. “You can't tell me who I can and cannot be friends with, or see, or date, or whatever. I'm home for a while and I'd rather not fight with you the whole time.”

Some of the fight drained out of him, his shoulders slumping. “I just... I don't want to see you get hurt, Willabean. I know you don't see it, but Kingman can be a dick. All he cares about is his career and he doesn't care who he steps on to get what he wants.”

I softened, stepping closer to lay a hand on his arm. “I know you're trying to protect me, Xan. And I love you for it.”

I didn't want to straight out lie because I was going to spend time with Hayes. It would be better just to keep that part of my life away from him.

Xander was quiet for a long moment, his jaw working. Finally, he blew out a breath and rubbed his eye with his thumb like he had a headache. “I don't like it. I don't like him. But... I'll try to back off. Just... be careful, okay?”

Of course I hadn't fooled him by omitting the truth. He was my twin brother after all. But it also meant I could see something going on with him too.