Sweeter Than Chocolate: Valentine's Day Anthology

by Gina Kincade

  “Why? Don’t you wanna see my brother half naked? He won’t do it because he’s a pussy. But I’m not. So ogle all you want. We’re twins. Same body type. But I have more muscles.”

  “It was a joke,” I seethed, not daring to dip my gaze to his chest. I needed to stay angry and not lose this argument because of Zach Beastly’s perfect torso. “You don’t understand the concept of jokes?”

  “Not when it comes to being naked.”

  My gaze shifted to Kyle, but on the way I had a glimpse of what Zach was shamelessly parading. Why would he be shameful? A body like that, not an ounce of fat, all bulging muscles, should be paraded. It was a shame to hide it. God, he was so hot I wanted to fan myself. Still, I couldn’t let him see he was affecting me. “Kyle, would you please show me where I’m sleeping? I’d like to call it a night.”

  “Of course.” He glared at Zach. “It’s upstairs.”

  He ushered me up, Brandon and Zach’s voices loud, trailing behind us.

  “Happy now? You screwed things up more than you already have,” Brandon yelled as I climbed the stairs.

  “Why the fuck do you care?” Zach shouted.

  “She’s Samantha’s teacher. What would she say now?”

  “You’re so full of shit. You just want her for yourself.”

  What? My eyes narrowed at Kyle. He pretended he wasn’t listening and pointed at the two rooms across from each other, telling me they were the brother’s rooms. Then he led me to the last room down the hall. Mine for tonight.

  I wasn’t paying much attention to him. I wanted to hear the rest of the conversation between Brandon and Zach.

  “What the hell are you talking about?” Brandon yelled again.

  “Don’t give me this crap. You might as well go take her out for that Valentine’s romance whatever.” Zach’s voice got closer.

  Kyle opened the room for me. I couldn’t believe Zach right now. This was so embarrassing. There was no way Brandon—

  “You know what? Maybe I will,” Brandon said, and my heart skipped a beat.

  Kyle smirked, getting new sheets from the wardrobe. “Don’t act so surprised, darling. I see the way you look at him.”

  I gaped at him, blood rushing out of my veins. “What…”

  “Fuck you!” Zach bellowed, interrupting my spiraling thoughts. Then loud footsteps scurried up. “Keera!”

  I flinched, my eyes bulging at Kyle.

  He motioned for me to stay still and stood at the door, blocking it.

  The wild footsteps approached this very room. “Get out of my way. I want to speak to Keera,” Zach mumbled. I was hoping Brandon was the one beating him here.

  “She made it clear she doesn’t want to speak to you,” Kyle said. “Stop embarrassing yourself and everybody in this house.”

  “Fuck you, too. This is my house. I’m free to embarrass myself in it all I want. Now get out of the fucking way.” Zach yanked Kyle aside with enough force his cousin almost fell down.

  “You crazy bastard!” Kyle swore as Zach barged in.

  My heart thrashed. The honey strings in Zach’s brown eyes flared as he stood a couple of inches away from me.

  His next move was unpredictable. I should be bracing for the worst, but I found myself…calm, certain he wouldn’t hurt me. In fact, his fierce eyes weren’t alarming at all. They were intense yet warm. And his body, this half-naked rigid threat, wasn’t menacing at all. It was beautiful. Alluring.

  The only thing scary about this man was his mouth, and it was opening.

  “I’ll take you on that date.”

  It took me a moment to register what he’s said. Then I blinked. Hard.

  “Did you hear me?” he asked, his gaze holding mine captive.

  “Yes,” I barely whispered.

  “Good. Where do you wanna go?”

  I shook my head, dazed. “I heard you, but I didn’t agree—”

  “I’m taking you on a Valentine’s Day date!”

  Should I yell back? Kick him out? I knew I should have, but I didn’t feel like doing either. Instead, I was genuinely laughing. This was the first time someone insisted on taking me out on a Valentine’s date—even offered. It felt so nice. Adorable. Heart-warming. Even if it was coming from a mad alpha like Zach.

  Especially if it was coming from a mad alpha like Zach.

  “Okay.” My lips twitched, unable to stop smiling.

  “Okay?” Kyle asked in disbelief.

  My head jerked toward him, and I saw Brandon was there, too, equally shocked.

  “Yes.” I gazed back at Zach, my eyebrows shooting up so high it hurt. “Okay.”

  His eyes flickered at my lips. “Where the fuck do you wanna go?”

  “Stop swearing.” I lifted my chin. “I’d like you to take me dancing. Do you know how to dance?”

  “Yes. I’m going to kiss you now.”

  “What?! No,” I yelped.

  “Yes.”

  “Zach! She said NO!” someone yelled, but I was too distracted by the lips fanning my face to know which one.

  Zach shrugged. “I’m going to do it anyway because I really think you want to kiss me, too. If I’m wrong, you can slap me.”

  Everything in me sank at once. I turned my face away. But he tucked a finger under my chin and drew my gaze back to his. Tension lined around his eyes, his jaw gritted tight, tendons standing out on his biceps and in his forearms.

  His entire presence screamed sexually confident, feral male. And I…I was shaking. Zach’s type wasn’t one I’d encountered before. Despite everything that was wrong with him, I felt giving in to this wild man would be so easy.

  His scorching lips were suddenly pressing onto mine, taking my breath away. I wasn’t ready for it, the overwhelming power of that kiss. His kiss.

  I didn’t slap him. I didn’t even resist. My mind froze, and my eyes closed as I let him go on. Zach knew what he was doing. I’d be damned if I made him stop. His kiss was hard but not rough. Daring. Passionate. Never faltering.

  Dazzling.

  I’d never been kissed like that before. With that assertion. With such…need.

  His tongue probed my lips, and I caressed it with mine. A pleasing heat spread up my body, from between my legs to the tips of my breasts. My hands moved of their own accord, touching his naked back. It was inviting enough for him to press his front against mine, letting me feel the stiffness in his pants. I gasped, and he grunted, our lips refusing to disconnect. My sex dripped, desperate to wrap around his length, to feel what it was like to come screaming around a hard, thick cock.

  I didn’t want it to end, our kiss, but I needed him to stop. This couldn’t be happening. I couldn’t get carried away just like that.

  As if he heard my thoughts, he dragged his mouth and body off mine. I didn’t take my hands away. I loved the way his skin burned for me, how his muscles tensed under my touch.

  I stammered, my heart beating frantically, still recovering from that kiss. God—it was amazing. One I’d been waiting for all my life. Then I made the mistake of looking at the door. Brandon and Kyle were still there. They had watched the whole thing.

  The shy part of me was screaming, especially when they weren’t looking away. Kyle smirked as always, while Brandon… his lips were pursed, his brows hooked, his eyes…hurt.

  If I wasn’t wrong, I’d say he’d really meant it when he said he would have taken me on that date. But if that was the truth, and a guy like Zach could man up and take what he wanted, Brandon should have been able to do it, too.

  He didn’t.

  For someone like me, when she wished for Brandon and life gave her Zach, she went with Zach on a Valentine’s date.

  Zach’s finger found my chin again, directing me to his gaze. He licked his lips, as if he couldn’t get enough of my taste. “They’re pussies.”

  I swallowed in confusion. “What?”

  “Your boyfriends. I can’t imagine anyone keeping you a virgin after a kiss like that unless they’re pussi
es.”

  That was the nicest thing a guy had ever said to me.

  My chest heaved. “Thank you…I guess.”

  “That’s it? That’s all you have for me?” he growled.

  I blinked, taking my hands off him, and took a step back. How fast he flipped was scary. “For now.”

  His fists clenched, but he leaned back, yielding. “I’ll take that.”

  Chapter Eight

  Kyle

  After I changed the sheets and Brandon handed her a sweatshirt of his, I made sure Keera was safe in her room, and Zach was locked in his. Brandon and I retired to a bottle of whiskey in the living room. We probably wouldn’t get any sleep tonight with that volatile situation upstairs.

  Brandon’s broody, hurt look was too much tonight, though. I couldn’t keep my mouth shut. After all, I’d caused this mess. But I didn’t know Keera was Sam’s teacher or that Brandon had a thing for her. I was only trying to help Zach get out of his lonely shell—the only reason I was here and not in Portland, enjoying my fiancé’s ass one last time before it was mine forever. What were the fucking odds the one girl I found for him turned out to be his twin’s secret crush?

  “You are a pussy,” I had to say.

  He glared at me, downing his drink.

  “You’ve been divorced for what, three months now? You see that woman every week. If you like her that much, why didn’t you seal that deal? Why didn’t you—”

  “Anyone ever told you it’s not that appropriate to date your daughter’s teacher? Especially when she might think it’s a rebound?”

  He had a point.

  “It doesn’t matter now.” He downed another drink. “She obviously likes Zach, which is… I’m happy for him. He needs a good woman in his life. He needs her more than I do.”

  That was deep shit. Where was it coming from? I understood that virgin appeal thing. If I hadn’t been engaged, I would have easily jumped into that, and she wasn’t even my type. There was…something about Keera. Like she needed a hug, but she still had her shit together. It was…

  Why the fuck was I making a list of Keera’s best qualities? I needed more whiskey. Or maybe I had one too many.

  Anyway, my point was I thought we were getting Zach a fake date and some fun in bed. Not a relationship. But for Brandon, it seemed to be a whole different story. He liked her before he knew she was still a virgin. But I didn’t think it was this…real?

  “She likes you, too, you know?” Again, I couldn’t keep my mouth shut.

  His eyes narrowed at me, something bright flickered in them for a second but faded the next. “Nope. I’m the only face she knew in this house. That’s why she was acting friendly around me. She likes Zach. She let him kiss her.”

  “Because he had the balls to…claim her. He gave her what she wanted.”

  His grip tightened around the bottle and yanked it off the coffee table. Then he rose to his feet. “Where are you going at with this, asshole? This is all your fault. So go take your sorry, happy, getting married ass somewhere else away from me.”

  “Jealous much?”

  “Fuck you. What are you even doing here…with the miserable Beastly twins?”

  “Getting you out of your misery.” I shrugged. “I should have gotten a date for you, too.”

  “Well, nobody expects the divorced broody to have a date for a wedding so soon. If I showed up with someone, that would be embarrassing.”

  “C’mon, Brandon. You can’t live by everybody’s expectations all the time. You got married to that horrible bitch because she was pregnant with Sam. Spent a big chunk of your life miserable with her to keep up fucking appearances. Now, you’re finally out of her trap, but you’re still the same. Fucking trapped. You gotta go for what you want, man. Not just what you have to do or what is appropriate. Fuck what people say. Live a little.”

  He waved the bottle around, weaving. “If you’re still talking about Keera, that ship has sailed. She’s with my brother now.”

  “Knowing Zach and the fucked up shit he could do to ruin it before it even starts, I say you still have a chance. Or…who knows? Maybe she likes twins. That shit is hot for some chicks.” I chuckled.

  He looked like he was about to puke. “Oh c’mon. You’re sick. She’s innocent. She doesn’t even know these things.”

  I laughed louder. “You’ll never know until you ask her. You’ll beat yourself harder if she turns out to be into that kinky shit, and you missed it because you never dared to ask her. Again.”

  Chapter Nine

  Brandon

  I crashed in my bedroom for a couple of hours. If it wasn’t for the half bottle of whiskey, I wouldn’t have slept at all. As much as I wanted my brother to be happy again, I wasn’t okay with him dating Keera. From the second she showed up at our doorstep, I was pretending it was fine. It wasn’t.

  I didn’t want to acknowledge it at first, maybe even was ashamed to feel that way. But it was the truth.

  Kyle was right. I was a pussy. Always had been. Afraid of going after what I wanted. Settling for what was right. Look where that had got me? Divorced at thirty. Only got to see my daughter once a week. Hadn’t had sex for months even before the divorce. And I cowered to ask out the only woman I felt like dating since.

  I couldn’t help but think if I had been the one who had kissed Keera tonight, everything would have been different. My whole life would have been different.

  The clock on my phone showed it was six a.m. I should go wake Keera up to take her to school. My phone vibrated with a couple texts. Probably updates about the road blocks.

  I scrolled through them. Then I jumped out of bed and pushed away the curtains. “Shit.”

  I donned jeans and sweater, tossed some water over my face and knocked on her door. “Keera, it’s Brandon. Are you up?”

  There was some movement inside, so I figured she was awake. She opened the door, dressed in my sweatshirt. Only my sweatshirt.

  It hung down long enough to cover her ass but not her creamy pale thighs. My cock throbbed. Fuck, they looked so soft, begging to be touched. Even her little bare feet were cute, toenails painted a light pink.

  Her breath trembled as she tried to stretch the sweatshirt down to cover more skin. I forced myself to look from her perfect legs to her eyes. To her parted, pretty lips I couldn’t stop thinking about kissing.

  “Morning,” she said. “I’ve washed up but haven’t gotten dressed yet. Um…do you have like a brush I can use?” She pointed at her hair, and I could only notice now that it was disheveled. Sexy disheveled as if a guy’s hand had messed it while…

  My heart in my fucking throat, I clenched my teeth. Her eyes were all innocence. She didn’t even know what she was doing to me, standing with disheveled hair, wearing nothing but my clothes.

  “I’ll get you a brush and some pants,” I gritted. “But we’re not going anywhere. The roads are still closed.”

  She let go of the sweatshirt. It bounced farther up for a second long enough to show me the black lace of her underwear. “What? No. I can’t stay here any longer. I really have to go to work.”

  “Not going to happen today. The storm got worse. Go see for yourself.”

  She twisted, her hair swinging behind her back, and her ass jiggled in that scrap of underwear I could clearly see when she ran to the windows.

  The next thing I did was get inside the dark room and shut the door. Her head whipped from the curtains toward me. “What are you doing? Why did you close the door?”

  Because I want to kiss you wet and hard, fuck your lips with my tongue and strip you off my clothes, push you onto that bed, fit myself between those silky thighs and rub my aching cock into your wet little panties, and then tug that scrap of lace to the side and get myself right into that hot, virgin pussy.

  But I wouldn’t do any of that. Because, overnight, she’d become my brother’s girl.

  Her teeth dug into her lip “Brandon?”

  “If I had been the one kissing you last nigh
t, would that have made you happier?” I dared.

  Her lashes fluttered. “I…I…don’t know. What I know is that you didn’t kiss me. Zach did. And…I did like it.”

  I sucked in a hard breath and spun, cursing at the door. “I just want you to know that I will never forgive myself for waiting too long.” I took my anger out on the doorknob, almost yanking it out of place when I stormed out. “My brother is a good man. He’s going to take good care of you.”

  Her footsteps ambled behind my back, but I darted away before she could reach me. Before I did something stupid I’d regret even more.

  A muffled sound of broken glass and Kyle cursing stopped me short before I’d reached my room. I ran downstairs, calling out for him. When he didn’t answer, I looked for him in the living room. He wasn’t there either.

  A shadow twitched outside. What was that crazy fuck doing out in the storm?

  I threw a parka and a scarf on me and opened the front door. Snow whipped my skin and ears as it barged in. I tucked my hands under my armpits, barely seeing anything.

  “Kyle, what the hell happened?” I blinked through the storm.

  He trudged through knee-deep snow, lurched up the wooden steps and plopped on the porch, blood streaming down his fingers.

  “What the hell?” I dragged his drunken ass. “Kyle get inside. You’re hurt.”

  He didn’t move with me, snow collecting on his hair. The bastard wasn’t even wearing a coat, his face so pale, his eyes glazed, sunken holes, but if he was freezing his ass off like I was, he didn’t show any sign of it.

  I pulled him up with more force. “C’mon, Kyle.” Then Zach, with no shirt on, came into view as I spun us to the door. “I got him. Get back inside before you freeze to death,” I told him.

  “What the fuck happened here?” My brother shut the door behind us, and I was immediately grateful for the warmth. “How long have you been out? And what happened to your hand?”

  “It’s Jessica.” Kyle shivered as I took him to the guest bathroom downstairs, Zach keeping pressure on the wound.