“You, Breanne Harrington, are Jeremy’s R&R.” Jason paused before adding, “I’d just be there in case, you know…”
“In case of what?”
“In case he needs me.”
When Jeremy didn’t say anything, just watched her, her stomach flipped. They were serious. They really wanted her to leave with them.
She kept her expression slack as she scrambled to wrap her brain around their request. Jeremy and Jason shared their women? She’d heard stories of brothers, cousins, even best friends in relationships with a single woman but never thought in a million years she’d be asked to be in one.
Wait. They weren’t asking her to be in a relationship. They wanted her to spend the night with them. It would be nothing more than a one-night stand. She didn’t do one-night stands.
And she didn’t do two men at the same time.
“Thanks but no thanks.” She stood to leave.
“Your life is in danger.” Jeremy kept his tone low, even, as he spoke. He’d never needed more than that to hold her attention. “That’s why we’re really here. Let us take you back to our hotel. We’ll protect you.”
“Dude, don’t.”
“You’ll protect me?” Bree’s comment walked over Jason’s. He opened his mouth, but she lifted a hand, shutting him down as she kept her glare on Jeremy. “Is that what you two do now? Lure women away from bars and double-team them to get them to come home with you? When they turn you down, you make up some ridiculous story about her life being in danger?”
“That’s not what this is.” Jeremy swung around to face her.
“I’ll tell you what this isn’t. Working, that’s what this isn’t.” What a couple of assholes thinking she’d fall for something like this. She didn’t come back to Anacortes to sleep with Jeremy Bowman. Okay, maybe she would have had he kept going with that kiss. Regardless, he’d ruined his chance with this little stunt. Who the hell did he think he was? Did he honestly believe this would have her jumping at the chance to go home with him?
With Jason, she expected him to act exactly as he did in high school. Aside from the occasional blast of maturity, he hadn’t let her down. He’d always been the joker of the two. He’d never taken anything seriously. She wouldn’t put it past him to do something like this as some sort of cruel joke.
But Jeremy took everything seriously. His dark intellect and overwhelming sexuality had always drawn her to him. No one saw him the way she did, and she liked it that way. It gave her a shot with him.
“Sit.” Jeremy nodded at the stool. When she didn’t, he raked that smoldering gaze over her before resting it on her face. Her entire body hummed in response.
“Why should I?”
“Because I’ve never lied to you.”
“You’re lying to me now.”
“Am I?” He waited, giving her all the time in the world to search for the truth.
She would have stormed off had it not been for the sincerity and trouble clouding his eyes, darkening the blue to almost black. The strength left her legs, and she melted onto the barstool. “You’re serious about this.”
“Breanne, you know me well enough to know I wouldn’t joke about something like this, not with you.”
“I haven’t seen you in ten years. I don’t know a thing about you now.”
“It’s still me.”
“Is it?” It still looked like him, but was it still him? She had no idea and didn’t know if she was prepared enough to find out. This had gotten too deep too fast. “The Jeremy Bowman I used to know didn’t need his brother as his wingman.”
“Wingman?” Jason repeated, clearly offended. “I’m no one’s wingman. I’m just here to do a job.”
“So, now I’m a job?” Her voice jumped an octave. She didn’t bother to hide the shock and disappointment in her voice. Oh, how the mighty had fallen. So far, she hated this reunion.
“That’s not what I meant.”
“You sure about that?” Bree bounced her attention between the brothers. “Jeremy needs R&R to keep his job and conveniently, his brother is right there to make sure that happens. When that doesn’t work, you make up something about my life being in danger. Talk about cheesy pickup attempts.”
“Did it work?” He grabbed an ice cube out of his glass and tossed it into his mouth. She didn’t know if she liked that wicked glimmer in his gaze or not. Jason Bowman had never looked at her like that before. It made her warm all over, left her skin humming, and sent a rush of heat to her cheeks.
Where’d that come from? She’d never been turned on by that Bowman. He’d always been so far out of her league she’d given up on him before she started.
“No, Jason. It didn’t.” She put her back to him and fisted the stem of her glass, unsure whether to drink the wine or toss it in his face. One more comment from him and he’d wear the drink.
“You sure? I see the way your body responds, Bree. The way your pulse spikes. That flush in your cheeks. It’s working. It’s working just fine.” His voice thickened. In an instant, he transformed from clueless jock to anticipated lover, the warmth of his body pressing into her back. His breath brushed her ear right before he shocked her by nipping the lobe. Her heart hammered as she glanced at Jeremy, watched as his eyes darkened with undeniable hunger.
As soon as he blinked, it was gone. He dropped his gaze to the bar. “That’s enough, Jason.”
“Are you sure?” His voice was rough against her skin, his breathing ragged as he trailed his lips along her neck. She was too stunned to do anything more than let him. He snaked his arm around her waist and held her to him. When he rocked his hips, pressing his erection against her lower back, she gasped.
“I said that’s enough.” Jeremy jumped to his feet and narrowed his glare on his brother, his hands now clenched into fists. He looked ready to kill. His reaction broke her of hers.
She pushed away from the bar and stumbled back as the shock of what they tried to do, of what she’d just let Jason do, finally registered. As the realization settled in, the disbelief and hurt took over. “I can’t believe this is what you two have done with your life. You, Jason, I figured this is what you’d amount to. But you, Jeremy? What happened to you?”
“Hey, wait a minute.” Jason frowned. “Why the personal attack? I’m here to help my brother. Although if you want a little double your pleasure, I’m game.”
“Shut up,” Jeremy barked at his brother. “Bree, that’s not what he meant.”
“That’s exactly what I meant.” Jason’s comment earned him a heated glare from both Bree and Jeremy. She grabbed her purse and stormed to the door.
“Breanne,” Jeremy said in a solid, low voice. He didn’t speak up and he didn’t have to. Just the way he said her full name was like she’d hit a brick wall, it stopped her that fast. “Please don’t leave.”
She hesitated. Resting a burning glare on the object of her clearly misdirected affection, she didn’t look away as she addressed him. “You know what’s really sad about this whole thing? You didn’t have to do all this to get me to go home with you. If you would have just been honest with me, it could have happened.”
“And now?”
“You’re no stranger to spending the night alone.”
He cringed at her words. She felt like a piece of crap but refused to apologize. He actually thought he could do something like this to get her into bed. What an asshole.
“Good luck in your pursuit, boys. You may want to hit up Jasmine Gray. She looks like she’s ready for another moment in the spotlight on the arm of the most popular guy in school. Maybe she’ll be interested in a Bowman sandwich.”
Hurrying out of the bar, she turned to walk back to her class reunion but skidded to a stop. Why would she want to go back to high school? They all hated her. She dreaded each and every day of her life as a teenager at Fidalgo High. She’d rushed out of the coastal city and never looked back.
What the hell had she been thinking coming back here? Screw the plan Whit
ney had come up with. It only resulted in Bree feeling lower than she had in years. High school was torture. She didn’t want to feel like that ever again.
To hell with them. She’d become a success and didn’t need to rub it into everyone else’s faces to prove it. This would be her last reunion, her last night in the city she grew up in. She’d leave for Seattle in the morning.
FIVE
“I hate him, Whit.”
“Did you kiss him?”
“Yes.”
“And?”
Bree rolled her eyes and tried not to chip a tooth from clenching her jaw. She jerked the pins from her hair until she had them all. Her hair fell down, and she shook it out. She didn’t want to admit the kiss still had her wet with want. “His brother used this cheesy act to convince me to leave with him. Once we got to the other bar, they really turned on the charm and tried to convince me into leaving with them. They even made up some stupid story about Jeremy on a forced vacay and me his R&R.”
“That’s a new one.”
“Oh, it gets better.” Her tone kicked up along with her irritation. “If Jeremy hadn’t reacted like that, his brother would have had his tongue in my ear. Talk about desperate.”
“Who? Them? Or you?”
“You’re not helping,” Bree snapped.
“Okay, fine. You said they’re twins? Like identical gorgeous blue eyes, playful sandy hair, and all muscles? I fail to see what either one of them did wrong. Right now, you’re the only one who did anything wrong.”
“Whit!”
“What? You walked away from two hot men wanting to put you into a sex-induced coma. You could have made up for years of clit neglect in one night.”
As much as she would have loved living out the fantasy of spending the night sandwiched between the Bowman twins, she wouldn’t know what to do with two men. She barely knew what to do with one. “Well, I still hate him. I hate them both.”
“Do you want to come home tonight? I can call for a car. You don’t have to wait until tomorrow.”
Bree glanced around the hotel room and rested her attention on the unopened bottle of champagne Whitney sent to celebrate her bringing Jeremy back with her. Well, that didn’t happen, but she refused to let a good bottle of champagne go to waste. “I’ll be fine here tonight.”
“Are you sure?”
“Yeah.”
“Okay. Kudos to the fact you went at all. You’ve got bigger balls than me. I didn’t go to my reunion. Too many haters.”
“Weren’t you the captain of the cheer squad? Didn’t you make a lot of people’s lives hell in high school? Peter told me all about it.” Girls like Whitney had made Bree miserable in high school. And yet this woman was now Bree’s best friend. Talk about irony.
“Not my proudest moments. Thank God that chapter of my life is closed. Now, go have a drink and call me when you leave tomorrow. Take care, sweetie. And don’t let those assholes ruin your night. You’re Breanne Harrington, owner and CEO of Goggles, Inc. You’re a beautiful, successful woman. People want to be you.”
“Thank you.” She smiled at her best friend’s pep talk. Whit always knew exactly what to say.
“Better?”
“Yes. I’ll see you Monday.” She ended the call and tossed the phone onto the bed. After slipping out of her dress and washing the thick makeup off her face, she changed into her fuzzy-butt PJ bottoms and a tank top before piling her hair on top of her head in a messy bun.
Now to attack the bottle. She’d never had much luck with champagne. Even as she unwound the wire and removed the foil, she cringed, expecting the top to pop off and break something.
A knock at the door startled her, and she almost dropped the bottle. Careful to point the tip away just as the instructions said, she answered the door. And, of course, the top decided at that moment to spring off the bottle, smacking Jeremy Bowmen in the forehead with a resounding thunk. Jason, standing next to him, immediately brought up one hand to ward off the attack, while the other dove under his blazer to the small of his back.
“Holy shit!” Jeremy covered his forehead with his hands and stumbled back.
Jason chuckled and brought both hands forward. “Holy shit is right. Is that how you greet all your callers?”
Instead of Bree falling all over herself to make sure she didn’t take out Jeremy’s eye, she leaned against the door and bounced a cautious gaze between the two sexy men. Jason grinned and watched her, ignoring the four-letter words falling from his brother’s mouth. “Is that what you are?”
“What would you call us?”
“Assholes.”
“We could be both,” he quipped as his eyes danced with flirty amusement.
Now that look was interesting. And oddly stimulating. Her body responded immediately by tightening, a delicious tingle starting deep at the base of her soul and slowly snaking through her, centering with a jolt in her stomach.
“If you two don’t mind,” Jeremy growled. “I need some ice.”
Against her better judgment, Bree stepped back and opened the door all the way, motioning for them to enter. She’d humor them for five minutes, fake a headache, and then kick them out. Besides, now that she’d released the champagne, she hated to drink it alone.
“Let me get it.” She took her time padding over to the bucket and grabbing a handful of ice to fill a towel. Let him suffer for a little while longer. “You should have ducked.”
She moved to the couch where they both made themselves at home and rested the towel against the lump forming on Jeremy’s head, pressing harder than necessary. He took it from her. “I didn’t know I’d be under attack.”
“I didn’t know you’d follow me to my room.”
“Is this how you defend yourself against intruders? You shoot them with champagne corks?”
She didn’t know whether to be pissed or feel bad for assaulting him. She decided to leave the verdict on the table for now and moved to the champagne. “I didn’t have a gun.”
“Thank God for that.” He pulled the towel down and shot her a sideways look that had her feeling the heat. Interesting. First Jason, then Jeremy, both giving her looks with darkening blue eyes, looks that didn’t need any definition. She saw the want there. She had a feeling coursing through her that she knew why they’d come, but didn’t want to jump to conclusions.
Conclusions? Hell, she’d be an idiot if she didn’t already know why they’d come. They wanted to pick up where they’d left off in the bar. She had to admit, a part of her wanted them to. Would Jeremy stop his brother this time? Or would he give in to the lust heating his features and challenge Jason for control?
She didn’t have three champagne flutes, so she settled on pouring the bubbly into three short glasses. “Why are you two here?”
“To apologize,” Jeremy answered.
“Yeah,” Jason added. “He was a jerk.” That comment earned him a hard, narrowed glare from Jeremy.
After handing the drinks to them, she curled herself into the corner of the couch, far enough away that she wouldn’t be tempted to reach out and touch them, and wrapped her fingers around her glass.
“I understand you’re upset,” Jeremy started.
“Upset? Is that what you think I am? No, Jeremy. I’m pissed off. I went to that reunion tonight excited to see you.” She laughed hollowly and shook her head as she dropped her gaze to her drink. “Look where that got me.”
“He didn’t even want to come,” Jason pointed out.
She regarded Jeremy. “Then why did you?”
When he didn’t answer, Jason did. “For you.”
That made her feel a little better. Tension settled in the room, thickening the air between the three. When Bree could no longer stand it, she rested her gaze on Jeremy. “Is that true?”
“It’s always been you, Bree. I’m sorry it’s taken me ten years to tell you that.”
She couldn’t say anything even if she wanted to at that point. The sincerity in his voice was laced with an
underlying hardness she hadn’t heard from him before. She pulled in a sharp breath and waited for the burning anger to bubble back down. Regardless of how she felt about them giving her an ounce of attention, she still couldn’t get over their little act. “And you thought coming here and telling me that in person would somehow make your twisted joke okay?”
She definitely leaned more toward the pissed off verdict.
“It’s no joke. You’ve made some powerful enemies getting to where you are.”
Her pulse jumped. Enemies, powerful or otherwise, came with the territory of owning a successful company. The fact these two knew about them sent her guard flying up. Years of practice, of masking any type of reaction with disinterest, came in handy now. “I suppose you being in the security business means you’re here to be what, exactly? My bodyguards?”
“Dude.” Jason’s mouth fell open. “You told her about TREX?”
“What’s TREX?” She lifted her attention to Jeremy and waited.
He shook his head as he growled at his brother. “No, idiot. I didn’t.”
“What’s TREX?” she asked with more force.
“I’m not here to talk about work.”
“What are you here for?”
“To relax.” Damn, the way his eyes danced in wicked wonder had her ready to give in to whatever he wanted.
Before she did exactly that, she dropped her attention to the glass in her hands as she ran her finger along the rim. If she was going to do anything, she wanted to at least have a clue what that anything would be. “And how am I supposed to get you to relax?”
His jaw hardened as a steely air settled in his eyes. Another interesting look. Instead of answering, he lifted the drink to his lips.
Jason finished his and stood. “Does this place have anything stronger than champagne?”
“There’s a minibar over there, but you can’t...” she trailed off when he stood and helped himself. God only knew how much each one of the little bottles he removed from the mini fridge would cost her.
It Takes Two Page 5