Page 26 of Christmas with Brother's Best Friends

Josh perks up and heads out to grab everyone a glass.

“He needs to stay away from her,” Ryan mutters under his breath.

I have to bite my tongue not to snidely agree.

Josh pours everyone a glass before holding his up. “Happy holidays, guys. I appreciate all of you and your hard work on this project.”

I lift my glass before taking a sip, tasting a flood of sweet flavor with a kick. “Woah, that’s strong.”

“And sweet. Not bad,” Ryan admits before taking another sip.

Max sets his glass down and clears his throat, rubbing his chest. “Definitely top shelf liquor in there.”

“See?” Josh says as he sits on the other side of me. “There are perks to dealing with high class people.”

“Prissy socialites and their rich daddies?” Ryan replies as he raises an eyebrow at Josh. “Sounds like fun company.”

“Less fighting. More working,” Max scolds them.

“And drinking,” I add before sipping on the eggnog again, already feeling a warm sensation fill my head. It’s definitely strong. “Someone might have to carry me home tonight.”

“I’ll tuck you in,” Josh teases me as his hand brushes my arm.

Just that little touch makes my face flush. They have to stop touching me unless theywantme to react. Maybe they do.

“Who says I’m letting you inside?” I reply as laughter bubbles up in my chest.

Josh feigns an offended look. “You wouldn’t let me into your apartment? You don’t trust me to behave?”

“Nope,” I quip before looking at all of them. “I don’t trust any of you to be on your best behavior. Look at what happened at the arcade.”

Nothing bad happened that night, but there were too many instances when we were almost caught being too close with each other. Too close for my brothers to accept. We were playing with fire and getting excited by the potential of being burned way too much.

“We could’ve been punched in the face a hundred times by Andrew and Ethan for playing around too much,” Ryan says as he shakes his head at everyone.

“We were just messing around,” Josh replies. “What? We can’t hug her without worrying about getting throat punched?”

“I certainly wouldn’t want to find out,” Max mutters as he types away on his laptop.

“Well, I’ll just make sure neither of them finds out that I brought her to bed,” Josh says before chuckling, but my face turns red. “You know what I mean.”

I know what he means. He’s just joking, but I can’t help but wonder if the other way is on the table. Letting him or the others into my bed is the last thing that I need to do, but I would be lying if I said it isn’t making me feel hot and bothered right now.

“Is that what you mean?” Ryan asks him with a challenging look.

My eyes widen. What is he doing? We shouldn’t even be talking about the prospect of this.

A smirk lines Josh’s lips as he shrugs. “I mean whatever she wants me to mean.”

Max stops typing and glances at me before letting out a soft laugh. “Stop, you two. You’re making her flustered.”

“It’s cute,” Josh replies as he turns to me. “You look pretty with your cheeks all flushed.”

If I react genuinely, I’ll either kiss him or hide my face. My only defense is to shoot him a glare and act annoyed. “Aren’t you supposed to be working on something?”

Laughter bursts from Ryan and Max as Josh’s cocky grin falters. Part of me regrets not playing along and seeing where things go, but this has to be the best route. Regret is better than guilt in this situation.

I think.