Page 127 of Stolen Summer

As if I’d be able to scrub the best damn sex of my life from existence. It was impossible to forget him if I kept falling into his bed. Sex wasn’t why I’d gone in search of Crew, but holy shit, it had been one hell of a way to release the tension compressing in my head.

Did I feel better?

Yes…and no.

Conflict warred inside me. One part of me was willing to forgive everything and give a relationship with Crew a chance. The other side, the more stubborn side, warned me that Crew was untrustworthy. That giving him a second shot would only cause me more pain and a broken heart.

Someone bumped my shoulder, and I whipped my head to the right, about to tell them to fuck off because that was my current mood—snappy and annoyed at everything but mostly myself.

“Whoa, don’t bite my head off.” Cole held up his hands like I was a cop about to shoot, and I didn’t blame him. If I had a gun, I might have accidentally discharged it and put a bullet in his foot.

“Go away,” I grumbled and began walking again, brushing him off.

Either he was horrible at taking a not so subtle hint or he ignored my wish to be left the fuck alone. “I take it things didn’t go well with my brother.”

“Depends on how you look at it.”

I wasn’t glancing at him, but I sensed his gaze on me…a little too intently. “You banged him,” Cole said.

“What?” I shrieked, my feet halting a second time. “Just because I was in his room doesn’t mean I couldn’t keep my hands off him.” The fact that I had indeed slept with Crew wasn’t relevant. I was more concerned with why Cole thought I’d had sex with his brother.

Cole cocked his brow, calling my bluff.

My jaw ticked, clearly expressing my annoyance. “Fuck. Fine. We might have unintentionally landed on his bed and our clothes came off. Why am I telling you this?” I shook my head.

He chuckled. “I know my brother. What I don’t understand is why you’re so turned up over it? Shouldn’t sex make you relaxed and happy? Like a love potion of oxytocin hormones?”

We were standing in the center of campus, no one paying us much attention, but that didn’t mean I wanted to discuss my private life where anyone could hear. Then again, I honestly didn’t give a rat’s ass what anyone else thought. “Maybe with the right person,” I retorted, my feet finally feeling the cold from the concrete.

“So, you're saying Crew isn’t your person?” His voice pitched lower.

Leaves above our heads shook from a crisp breeze whisking through campus, sending them dancing and twirling to the ground. “I don’t know what I’m saying, and that’s the problem. Did you know he wasn’t alone when you sent me to his room?” I sprang back to Cole, studying his expression for any signs he might lie. God knew he excelled at it.

He gave me a convincing blank stare. “I find that hard to believe. He hasn’t looked at another girl since you. Trust me, I’ve tried.”

I scrunched my nose. “Don’t give me details.” I didn’t want to hear how Cole flaunted other sluts in front of Crew to pull him out of the darkness I knew Crew was fond of. “You could have told me about Trish.” What did it say about me that I’d slept with him knowing he’d been with someone else?

“Trish?” Cole repeated, a familiar glow lighting his eyes. “Do you mean our cousin?”

“Trish is your cousin? For fuck’s sake, Cole.” I raked an aggravated hand through my messy hair. I’m sure Crew had quite the laugh at my expense. I thought she had been a girl he was hooking up with, and I’d been jealous—God had I been jealous.

“Yeah, she came down for the weekend.”

I groaned. That asshole let me think he was with another girl. Churning inside, I walked to a wooden bench that circled a tree trunk a few feet away and plunked down.

“You thought…” Cole couldn’t finish the sentence, not when he was laughing.

I frowned, feeling a bit foolish. “It’s your brother’s fault.”

“Always is,” Cole agreed, slipping the gym bag off his shoulders and dropping it to the ground. “Where are your shoes?” he asked.

“What?” I glanced up.

“Your shoes,” he repeated, eyes shifting down.

I followed, staring at my bare feet. “Shit,” I said under my breath. “I threw them at your brother.”

Cole chuckled. “He probably deserved it.”