Page 55 of Enemies with Benefits

"Well, he also got a little off topic and started a new debate that herbs and seasonings don't count as ingredients in a recipe, but just add-ons. He was very passionate about the subject."

"Okay, that's more like him," Dominic laughed. "But anyway, I'll concede that half-stepbrothers doesn't work. It obviously isn't like that for them, they don't share blood, a name, or even looks, but...it does give a bad first impression."

"Ugh," I growled, tossing an empty water bottle at him. "That is literally what I told you the first time you said that stupid thing! And you call me depraved!"

"Dude, you slept with twins."

"And?"

"Well, if you're willing to do that, maybe you have incest on the brain."

"They weren't on my brain, they were on…" A wet towel slapped my face, promptly cutting off what I had to say and making me flail to get the fresh stink of chlorine out of my nostrils.

"Thank you," I heard Dominic say as I ripped off the towel and threw it back at Jace, who caught it with a smirk. "Anyway, not brothers."

"Stepbrothers," Jace amended. "That's a form of brothers, don't you think?"

"You're thinking way too hard about this," Dominic said with a sigh.

"Mmm, sounds like you're the one who's thought about it too much," Jace pointed out.

"Let's just say that when Milo wants someone to encourage his stupid thoughts, he goes to Dominic. When he wants someone to debate them, because only one person will humor him that way, it's Elijah," I said, wiping my face. "God, it stinks even more of chlorine!"

"You're the one who decided to come down here," Jace pointed out. "You could have lounged anywhere in the hotel, in the city, but you were the one who insisted on being here."

"Like I had a choice," I said, eyeing Micah, now in the deeper end of the pool, legs curled up so he was left to bob lazily in the middle. I was struck by the sudden image I had seen once on some nature show of how manatees would do something similar when they were relaxed. "You try telling that kid no when he asks you."

"He asked if you were going to come, not if you would," Jace pointed out, arching a brow with a pointed look.

Annoyance flashed through me. “You ever think maybe I can read between the lines with that kid better than you can?"

"You ever think maybe I could have handled it?"

"Dom came too, in case you forgot, because you know, he's right here."

"He's not a dickhead who has to be up my ass all the time."

"God, that's some interesting phrasing," I snapped at him, arching a brow.

His face contorted as pink rose to his cheeks. “Your brother's right, you really are a deviant."

"God, you two," Dom muttered behind us, a thunk echoing through the pool room as he flopped back, his bulk making the chair jump. "Get a room already. I'm sure there's a utility or storage room nearby that you can get all this excessively gay energy out in."

It was how close Dom was getting not only to the truth, but the specifics of what had really happened that shut me up in aninstant. Jace and I could only stare at one another, apparently neither of us willing to risk opening our mouths and saying anything else. It wasn't easy to read anything behind the anger that still burned on his face. General, normal anger at me, an anger and outrage at what I'd said because now making dirty jokes at his expense had greater weight than before that night we'd fought and both of us had been hard and rutting against one another.

Right. Don't have those thoughts while your brother and nephew are around. Don't do that.

I forced myself to huff and glance over my shoulder at my brother. “You know, you accuse me of being depraved, and then you say shit like that. You've been reading too many of those dirty books of yours."

"They're not dirty books."

"Dude, I took a peek at one of them, and I've watched porn that was less graphic than what was printed on those pages. How that shit is legal to read in a public place is beyond me."

"You read porn in public?" Jace asked, sounding appropriately scandalized at the thought.

"They're romance novels," Dominic corrected. "Not porn."

"Sure as shit read like porn," I told Jace.