by Marie Carnay
“Of what?”
“That I’ll kiss you.”
She swallowed and Wyatt watched the ball of nerves slide down her throat. He wanted to ease that tension, dissolve her fears.
His hand found the curve of her hips and Wyatt bit back a groan. The lushness of her body beneath the wool crepe had him imagining all sorts of dirty things: Bree’s leg hiked up as he took her right there in the hallway, or her cries of pleasure as he brought her to orgasm with just his hand.
“We can’t do this, Wyatt.”
“Do what?” His hand slid behind her to cup the round globe of her ass.
“I’m working.”
“You can take a break.”
“No, I…”
“There you are. I swear I’ve been through every damn corner of this store looking for you and—”
Damn it to hell.
Wyatt pulled back and his balled his hand into a fist.
“Bree? Holy shit. Bree is that you?”
“W-Walker?”
Wyatt’s brother loped up to her, ignoring Wyatt completely as he reached for Bree’s hand. He tugged her forward before wrapping her up in a hug while Wyatt stood there, fuming. He’d been so close. So damn close to finally kissing her after all these years.
His brother stepped back with a grin a mile wide. “You look great. Wow.” At last, he paused.
Wyatt didn’t know if it was Bree’s crimson cheeks or the way he stood ramrod straight to keep from decking him, but Walker finally put it together.
“Sorry, did I interrupt?”
“No.” Bree smoothed down the front of her skirt and flashed a noncommittal smile. “I need to get back to work, that’s all.”
Wyatt stepped forward. “I want to see you again.”
“I don’t know, Wyatt.” She ducked away from him and backed toward the store.
“How about your number?”
Her gaze ping-ponged between him and his brother.
“Just to catch up.”
Walker spoke up. “Please, Bree.”
After a moment, she nodded and rattled off her number. “I’ve got to go.”
Wyatt watched her walk away, sumptuous ass rocking up and down with every step. “Thanks for the cock block, man.”
Walker ran his hand through his hair. “How was I supposed to know you were back here feeling up Bree Schaffer?”
“I don’t know. Twin sense or something.”
“We’ve never had that and you know it.”
Wyatt fell back against the wall, frustrated and mad at himself more than anyone. It had been his call in college not to pursue her. His idiotic concerns that had gotten in the way. Walker had given in, but only after a black eye and a broken coffee table.
Now wasn’t the time to admit to past mistakes or beg his brother to try something new. Wyatt closed his eyes and pressed his head into the wall. “Did you know she was friends with Willa?”
“No. I didn’t even know she lived in Vegas.”
“I don’t think she does.” Wyatt exhaled. He had two choices: ignore Bree again and let her walk out of their lives a second time, or tear open the wound she’d made years ago.
It wasn’t a contest. He opened his eyes and found his brother staring. “I want to pursue her. I don’t want to let her go again.”
Walker’s expression remained even. “You don’t even know if she’s single.”
“I’ll find out.”
“What if she shoots you down?”
“I’ll try harder.”
Walker pinched the back of his neck, rubbing at his short hair as he focused on the floor. It wasn’t like him to keep his opinions to himself.
Wyatt steeled himself for an answer he didn’t want to hear. “What are you thinking?”
Eyes a deeper hazel than his own jumped up to meet his gaze. “If you go after her, where does that leave me?”
Wyatt didn’t know what to say. He turned toward the crowd in the main room of the store. Trenton and Hank stood by the door, laughing and chatting with a handful of people, as calm and confident as Wyatt had ever seen them.
They had found a way to date the same woman. Marry her, even. Could that ever work for him and Walker? He turned back to his brother.
It might with Bree.
He smoothed down his hair, collecting his runaway thoughts before turning back to his brother. “What if this is fate?”
Walker scrunched up his face. “What?”
“What if we’re meant to run into her now, here? What if we don’t have to fight over her this time?”
His brother frowned. “If you think I’m just going to roll over and let you have her…”
“That’s not what I mean.”
“What about the pact? We agreed not to date her.”
“Screw the pact. I was wrong.” The more Wyatt thought about it, the more it felt right. They didn’t have to fight over Bree. They could share her. He pushed off the wall. “If Hank and Trenton can do it, so can we.”
Walker balked. “You mean both date Bree?”
Wyatt let a grin slip. “It’s not like we haven’t shared the same woman before.”
“Those were one-night stands. This is…”
“It doesn’t mean it can’t work.”
Walker’s mouth hung open for a moment as he thought it over. “You’re serious? You’d be willing to share Bree… with me?”
Wyatt nodded.
“Why the change of heart?”
With an exhale, Wyatt told the truth. “Because from the moment I saw her, I knew, Walker. She’s the one. I don’t ever want another woman. I want Bree.”
Chapter 3
BREE
“I can’t believe you never told me about them.” Willa swiped a bright red streak of polish across her big toe. “Here I’m engaged to a pair of brothers and you’re just now spilling that you used to crush on some seriously hot twin material?”
Bree fell back on Willa’s couch in a heap. Her best friend’s apartment at the top of one of the Beauchamp-owned casinos was downright palatial. With a view of the whole strip and living room with more leather and faux fur than a Pottery Barn showroom, it had everything a woman could ask for, including a nosy best friend who wouldn’t give up.
“I hadn’t thought about Wyatt and Walker Daniels in years, Willa. They honestly didn’t come to mind.”
“I don’t believe you. You can’t even say their names without blushing.”
“Can too.” The color rose up her cheeks and Bree cursed beneath her breath. She couldn’t deny that they had been a serious crush. A four-year crush of the unrequited variety. But it didn’t matter; they had rejected every attempt she made at something more than friendship.
Now, out of the blue, Wyatt had groped her ass and almost kissed her in a store hallway. It didn’t seem real.
She sighed in frustration. “Is it that obvious?”
“You’re hopeless, I’m afraid.”
Bree grabbed a throw pillow and smothered her face with it, screaming into the fluffy fur. A few days ago, she’d had her life all together. A boring, plain life where she went to work and went home to her empty apartment and texted with her best friend who lived hours away.
She’d all but given up on men. It didn’t matter where she found them—online dating sites, a bar down the street, the supermarket—not a single one made it to date number two. And here she was, all tied up in knots because a guy she hadn’t seen in years tried to kiss her.
“I almost kissed Wyatt, Willa. Right there in the hallway of the boutique. God, I’m such a hussy.”
“You are so such thing. I can’t believe you didn’t kiss him.” Willa applied the last swoosh of polish on her pinky toe and capped the bottle. She propped her wet toes on the glass coffee table and looked Bree in the eye. “Do you know what I think?”
Bree groaned. Let the lesson begin. “Do I have to?”
Willa ignored her. “I think it’s meant to be. There’s a reason you ran into Wyatt and Walk
er at my store.”
A mix of fear and something vaguely dirty tingled inside Bree. She knew what Willa was about to say.
“I’m not the only girl in this town who’s going to date a pair of brothers.”
There it was. The elephant in the room. Ever since she’d seen the pair of them it had been there, a giant snorting beast stamping his foot in impatience. “Just because you’re engaged to two—”
“Stop it. You’re not going to shut this down, Bree. I know you thought it was crazy that I was dating both Hank and Trenton, but it’s not. Together, they’re exactly what I need. Better than I could have ever hoped for. I’d never find one man who can do all the things the pair of them can.”
Willa paused to grin. “Besides, the sex is out of this world.”
“Get out.”
“I can’t. I own this place, remember?”
Bree hugged the pillow to her chest. “I’d throw this at you if your nails weren’t wet.” She tucked her legs up beneath her and frowned. “We could be making something out of nothing. I don’t even know if Walker’s interested. I only saw him for a minute.”
“That’s because you ran away like a scared little girl.”
Bree threw the pillow as hard as she could, nails be damned. It hit Willa smack in the face and bounced to the floor.
“Jerk!” Willa scooped it up and threw it back. “You are such a wuss. I can’t believe you’re not even willing to try.”
“I never said that.”
“Then what’s holding you back? Why won’t you just admit what you want and go for it?”
Bree knew the answer. Back in college, she’d tried every which way she could think of to get one of the Daniels brothers to see her as more than a friend or a little sister. It never worked. For four years, she’d pined after a pair of guys who would rather muss up her hair while they studied biochemistry than take her out to a frat party.
She’d heard about their conquests all through school. If she didn’t know them, she’d have believed it when girls said the Daniels boys hooked up with half the class. Knowing she wasn’t good enough for even a one-night stand hurt.
An almost-kiss years later didn’t lessen the sting.
She reached for the bowl of chocolates sitting on the coffee table, but Willa snatched it before she could grab a piece.
“No way. No candy until you tell me what’s going on.”
Bree whined. “But it’s dark chocolate. It’s healthy candy.”
Willa wiggled the bowl in front of her face.
“Fine. Maybe it has something to do with them never asking me out in college.”
She held out her hand and Willa deposited a single foil-wrapped piece in her hand.
“That’s it?”
“Details, Bree. You know a girl needs details.”
Bree exhaled and let spill all the gory details, from the parties where she watched them hook up with other girls, to the late-night study sessions where she was sure they were both holding back. The almost-kisses a million times and the accidental touches. The stolen glances and the overprotective examination of all of her dates.
By the time she finished, Willa handed her the entire bowl.
“That pathetic?”
“No. That awful. It sounds like they were totally into you, Bree. I can’t believe they’d be such idiots not to act on it.”
“That’s what I thought, too.”
“So what’s changed?”
Bree popped a whole candy into her mouth and talked around the chocolate blob. “Hell if I know. I’ve had boobs since seventh grade.”
Willa laughed just as Bree’s phone lit up on the cushion next to her. She picked it up and her mouth fell open. “Oh, God.”
Willa sat up with a start. “Please don’t tell me the caterer canceled.”
“No. It’s Walker. He wants to take me out.”
Willa squealed. “See! They are into you. Where does he want to go?”
“He doesn’t say. Hold on.”
She texted him back and waited. When he replied, Bree almost dropped the phone. She read the message five times before glancing up at Willa. “Maybe you were right.”
She held the phone out for Willa to read.
Come ice skating. Six o’clock, the Algonquin’s rink. Don’t worry about falling, we’ll catch you this time.
Willa smiled. “That’s cute.”
Bree shook her head. “You don’t understand.”
Cute wasn’t the word she had in mind. She stared at the text as the memories flooded back. It had been one of the most embarrassing nights of her life.
“One Thanksgiving break, we were all staying at school: me, Walker, and Wyatt. It was cold. Like, freeze your eyelashes if they got wet, cold. Walker had this crazy idea to go down to the lake and skate since it had frozen over. I’d never done it before.”
“I can’t imagine there’s a lot of ice skating in Southern California.”
Bree agreed. “Growing up in LA meant I’d never done anything vaguely related to winter. I had no idea what to expect. By the time I got down to the water’s edge, they were both out on the ice, showing off with these crazy figure eights and loops and all kinds of tricks. God, how I liked them.”
She shook her head as she remembered the layers of sweaters and two pairs of gloves she’d worn to stay warm.
“After watching them for a few minutes, I finally got up the courage to go out there, but all I did was fall down. Over and over and over.”
“Didn’t they try to help you?”
Bree nodded. “I wouldn’t let them. I’d had this silly fantasy in my head that I’d get there and it would be some sort of a date with flowers and romance and one of them would rush up and sweep me off my feet. When I saw that it was just them goofing off and treating me like one of the guys, I overreacted. I insisted I wanted to learn on my own.”
“Did you?”
Bree laughed, but it rang hollow. “No. All I managed was a bruised tailbone and soaking-wet jeans. I couldn’t sit down for a week.”
“Maybe they’re trying to make up for it.”
Bree exhaled. “That’s what I’m afraid of.”
“You’ll never know if you don’t go.”
Bree pulled up Wyatt’s message on her phone and typed a response. Another text dinged back almost immediately.
With a deep breath, she glanced up at Willa. “I guess I’ll see how it goes this time. I just said yes.”
Chapter 4
WALKER
The second Bree walked into the ice arena, Walker knew his brother was right. All the feelings he’d buried since college came roaring back.
With her white puffer vest and her hot pink gloves, Bree had all the makings of a Christmas snow bunny. He never forgot that day out on the lake when she’d refused their help. She’d wanted to be strong and independent and succeed on her own.
She hadn’t mastered ice skating that day, but she had stolen his heart. He’d wanted so badly to scoop her up and kiss away every bruise and scrape. Tend to her needs like he’d dreamt of. Make her see stars when she came in his arms.
That night he’d had it out with his brother. Fists flying, punches landing hard and unrelenting. Their apartment looked like a battlefield by the time morning came, and the pact they’d agreed to hurt like a gunshot wound.
If neither one would back off, then neither would pursue Bree. It had been painful and difficult and stupid. But twenty-year-old Walker and Wyatt hadn’t known of any other option. They couldn’t see that they didn’t need to fight at all.
Walker had mulled over Wyatt’s offer to share for hours, turning around the possibilities and what it could mean until he’d made himself dizzy. In the end, he had to agree. They were grown men now who ran a business together. If Bree was willing… They could share.
Thank God the Beauchamp brothers had blazed the trail. Seeing it was not only possible, but fucking fantastic, made it doable. Now all Walker and Wyatt needed to do was convince Bree to t
ake a chance.
If they could win her over, she wouldn’t be going home to Los Angeles. She would be coming back to their house on the outskirts of Vegas. Hopefully for more than a few days.
He walked up to her with a smile and motioned at her gloves. “You came prepared.”
Bree nodded. “I still remember how cold falling on ice can be.”
“You won’t be falling tonight.”
She raised an eyebrow. “You can’t have forgotten. I had to fall, what, a hundred times that night? Don’t make promises you can’t keep.”
“I don’t.” He slipped his arm through hers and tugged her close. “Let’s go. Wyatt’s getting our skates.”
Bree stumbled a bit. “Wyatt’s here?”
“Of course I am.” Wyatt sauntered up, three pairs of skates in his hand. “I wouldn’t miss a chance to actually teach you how to skate for the world.”
Bree glanced at each brother, uncertainty pinning her brow together.
Walker leaned close enough to smell the faint hint of citrus from her shampoo. “Don’t worry. We’ve grown up a lot since college.” He nuzzled her ear with his nose and heard the sharp intake of Bree’s breath before he pulled away.
“I… I think I’m hopeless at skating, that’s all.”
Wyatt’s eyes shone. “Let’s change that.” He slipped his arm inside Bree’s other and the three of them walked toward the rink together.
BREE
The Daniels brothers spun her around again on the ice and Bree let out a laugh full of freedom and wonder. She hadn’t had so much carefree fun in years. Wyatt and Walker had lived up to their promise and then some, staying by her side for every second and never once letting a bobble turn into a crash.
With them holding her up, she’d managed to skate the whole length of the rink and even learn how to stop and start without a face full of ice.
“A few more practices and you’ll be a skating pro.”
Bree puffed out an exhausted breath. “There aren’t many ice rinks in LA.”