Page 27 of Enemies with Benefits (Finding the Right Brother #1)

That thought gave me pause, and I stopped there, drifting away from the conversation as I stared at Kayden, who was thankfully distracted as the food reached our table, and tables were moved so we could all sit together.

Never in my life had I thought of another guy as being handsome.

Sure, I could understand when a man was good-looking, but it was never personal .

Yet with what should have been a castaway thought, I was suddenly aware of the boyishness in his looks that charmed so many people.

It was no longer a simple observation, and with mute horror, I ripped my eyes away from him before that all too personal acknowledgement became.

..something else. Bad enough that I’d felt a flicker of something I definitely should not be feeling for Kayden, I was not going to give it the chance to grow into anything else.

Something was clearly wrong with me, and I didn't need my friend to get pulled into the crossfire.

Knowing Kayden, he wouldn't have minded in the slightest if I had ever been insane enough to tell him what had just happened.

I found my gaze falling on Mason, who, unlike the others, was not distracted by the conversation and was watching me with a curious expression.

Considering that I would never even dream of having thoughts like that before he’d come along and.

..did what he did, I placed the blame on his shoulders without a moment of hesitation.

Anger bubbled inside me again, more familiar than that unwelcome pang of lust I had just felt, and I glared at him.

His brow arched as he clearly caught my anger, even though I was trying not to be obvious.

My brow furrowed further when he glanced at Kayden for a moment, cocking his head.

To my mounting horror, his brow gave another quirk, and surprise flashed across his face, before being replaced by a smirk aimed at me.

I didn't know how he’d figured out what had just happened with me, but he clearly had, and more anger rippled through me.

Too much anger, in fact, too much to contain in any case.

That asshole had already done enough to screw with me, and I placed the blame for my new issue squarely on his shoulders.

If he hadn't confused the shit out of me with his.

..degeneracy, then I wouldn't have been in the fucked-up head space to come remotely close to thinking dirty thoughts about my best fucking friend.

Anger threatened to give way to fury, and I knew if I didn't take a quick breather, I was going to lose control and break my promise to Moira in record time.

And it wasn't even my promise I was afraid of, it was the fact that I hated that Micah was aware of how much anger and hate there was between Mason and me. As a kid who’d grown up knowing when his parents were fighting, which was all the time, and exactly who they hated and why at any given time, I knew how much weight that could put onto someone that young's shoulders.

Screwing my face into what I hoped was a believable smile, I quietly excused myself from the table before anyone else caught on to what was going on.

Well, I was sure Kayden probably knew from the way he glanced at me, his eyes lingering and his lips thinning before flashing a believable smile when he was asked a question.

I didn't bother to look at Mason, he obviously knew I was pissed off, and I didn't need to see his amusement at my mood to make things worse.

I didn't actually know where to go, so I just wandered off in the vague direction of where I thought the bathrooms might be.

After wandering for a couple of minutes, I found myself in a quiet corner of the building.

It was a short hallway without anyone else around, but from the signs, it looked like this was the part of the hotel that the staff used for storage.

More importantly, it was quiet and it didn't have people around.

I leaned against the wall, ran my hand through my hair, and forced myself to take a deep breath.

It had taken me only two minutes after swearing I would be able to control myself before I had nearly lost that control.

I had always hated how much effect Mason had on me, and it was especially frustrating that it didn't seem to have dimmed with time, and now with this recent. ..development, it had grown worse.

If I wasn't careful, that one event would find its way deeper under my skin, and I would never be able to shake it.

I knew enough about myself to know that when something well and truly got to me, I was more likely to randomly keel over and die than I was to let it go.

And with Mason, he had always been able to find his way deep under my skin.

But in that one case, I had to make sure he didn't manage that.

Mason lived for driving me up a wall, and if I could succeed in keeping control, then he would finally have found something that wouldn't work on me.

I knew damn well that was easier said than done, our shared history spoke volumes of how well that wasn't going to work.

But damn it all, I was a grown ass man, and I had grown as a person.

I could keep control and stay that way over one thing.

All I needed was to summon my willpower and keep it going, maybe even take a page from his book and enjoy watching him squirm and grow frustrated because he was finally having to struggle to get on my nerves.

Simple and maybe not easy, but it was certainly doable, and if I managed, then I could have a true and final victory. It was as simple as that, and all I had to do was follow through, proving to myself and maybe even others, that I could?—

"I'd ask why you went all the way to the least used part of the hotel, but I'm more curious how you got here," Mason interrupted, chuckling.

I turned to find him leaning on the wall, and I didn't know how long he'd been standing there, staring at me.

"Hell, I don't think I've been back here in years.

Mom doesn't even use this except for extra storage, and even then, she chooses other places. "

"I was trying to get a moment of peace," I growled. "Clearly, you don't know how to let people have that."

"Seriously, though," he said, arms crossed. "I thought the door was locked."

I frowned. “There wasn't a locked door. I just...came back here."

He shrugged. “I'm not giving you shit...not about this anyway. Just impressed. A little worried too because this isn't the most secluded spot in the hotel. Ever seen the roof?"

"No. And I don't want to."

"Scared of heights?"

"No. Are you?"

"Now, why the hell would I go to the roof if I was scared of heights?"

I rolled my eyes. “You spent middle and high school doing shit that proved you weren't scared of anything."

"And?"

"And the only people who do that are the ones who are either scared to death of everything, or they've got a couple of big fears they've never dealt with. Either way, they've gotta prove they're not scared."

There was a pause before he snorted derisively. “I'm not scared of everything."

"Good, then I guess you've got a couple of big fears you don't want anyone to know about. You swear it's not heights, clearly not car crashes since you like to play with vehicles like they're toys."

"Now, now, you never proved that was me."

"We both know it was you, and we both know you're never going to admit it."

"If I were that person, then that would be true. But we don't have proof, so...here we are."

"You're always playing games. You think I don't know that you're trying to avoid me figuring out the truth?"

"Oh?” His brow shot up, and a smile played on his face, sending warning bells through me. He pushed away from the wall, arms dropping to his side as he took a step toward me. "Do you want to talk about truth that's being avoided? Okay, let's talk about the truth you're avoiding."

"Quit with the games."

"Game? There's no game. We're talking about what you're avoiding. See, because I saw the way you acted before you scampered off with your tail between your legs."

"I didn't?—"

"You did. And it was right after you had the strangest look on your face, looking at your buddy. Normally, I'd make a joke that I didn't blame you, the guy is fuckable as hell, but I realized, it probably wouldn't have been much of a joke."

I turned on him, hands balling into fists at my side. "Shut the fuck up. If you hadn't?—"

"What?” he asked, now only a step away from me, his eyes wide. "Helped get you off? Or, oh God. Let me guess, you're trying to put the blame on my shoulders, aren't you? Like you weren't right there, rutting against me like a horny teenager who just realized he likes boys for the first time."

"I don't!" I snapped at him.

"Say what you want, sweetheart," he told me with a wry twist of his lips as he stepped even closer. "But you were rock hard and moaning, you were ready for it, even though you hated it."

"Mother…" I swung, not caring that I was breaking my promise because the only witness was going to be him.

He was ready for me, but to my surprise, he didn't swing back.

Mason ducked under the blow and...came closer?

I grunted when he pushed me, following as my back hit a closed door, and I stared at him with wide eyes.

One hand closed around my neck and held me there, fingers firm but not cutting off my breath.

His lower body pressed against mine, but he kept his head back, eyes no longer glinting with amusement and sarcasm, but something far earthier, burning deep in his gaze and making my stomach twist in pleasant knots that I hated.

"In fact, I'd bet right now, you're thinking even harder about it," he said with a chuckle.