Page 41 of Forbidden Billionaires: Vol. 11

“Brother duties,” Rob said and grabbed my phone. “So you said you wanted her to think we were wasted?”

I nodded.

“Done.” He cracked his neck and hit speakerphone. "Hey, hot stuff."

"Umm...James?" Penny asked.

I tried not to laugh. Did she seriously think I’d answer the phone that way?

But Brendan tried and failed not to laugh. And for some reason, him laughing made me laugh too.

“Quit it,” I mouthed silently at him.

“You quit it,” he mouthed back.

"James?" Penny asked when Rob didn’t respond.

I pushed on his arm and gestured to the phone.

"No, it's Rob. Do we sound the same on the phone?"

"Yes, you do."

Really? Weird.

"Damn it!” Rob said. “I should have convinced you to have phone sex or something. Can we rewind a couple seconds? Hey, Penny, it's Professor Hunter."

I started laughing again. I couldn’t help it.

"Gross. Rob, can you please put your brother on the phone?"

Brendan elbowed me in the side so I’d stop laughing.

"Sorry, love, can't do that,” Rob said.

"And why is that?"

"You're going to be mad at me."

"What are you guys doing?"

"We ran a few errands and then I finally convinced my tightly wound brother to go to a bar. But, we both know how he is..."

"Can you please just bring him home?" She sounded really worried. I felt a little bad about it, but the surprise would be worth it.

"In a bit."

"Rob, I'm serious. Bring him home right now." I’d never heard her talk so sternly before. It was kind of hot.

"Don't be such a party pooper, Penny. We're having fun! If he's too drunk to fuck you when we get home, I'll be happy to stand in. Don't you worry."

Seriously, Rob?

"Stop being gross. Just bring him home safely, okay?"

"You have my word, sugar tits."

Sugar tits? What the fuck was he doing? But I guess he did sound pretty wasted himself…

"You're drunk too, aren't you?"

"Mhm."

"You're impossible."

"You're impossible!" he mimicked back at her.

"And you're seriously not going to let me talk to James?"

"Professor Hunter is currently unavailable. Please leave a message at the beep." Rob made a farting noise and ended the call.

We all burst out laughing. “Epic, man,” I said.

“You’re a great actor,” Brendan said. “I’m going to need to call you whenever I need to get out of a bad date now.”

Rob looked very pleased with himself. “I’m definitely the go-to person for that. So which bar are we going to?”

“We’re not,” I said as Ian pulled up to the curb. “We’re going for a drive.”

“I feel like I’m about to get murdered,” Brendan said.

Rob slapped him on the back. “Ian doesn’t do that anymore. Right, James?” He opened up the back door.

I’d never asked Ian to kill anyone. But…yeah. I was sure he’d killed at least a few people in combat. I didn’t really know. Ian didn’t like to talk about it. All I really knew was that he had really bad PTSD.

“Where exactly are you going?” Brendan asked.

“I need to go ask Penny’s father for permission to marry her.”

“Yeah, okay. I think this is where I bow out. But tonight’s been fun. We should all hang out again sometime.”

I looked at Rob, waiting for him to bow out too and go hang out with Brendan.

“What are you looking at me like that for?” he asked. “There’s no way I’m missing this. See you later, Brendan. We’ll call you.” He climbed into the car and slammed the door closed.

Would we though?

But Brendan put his hand out for me. “Despite all the joking around…I do think you and Penny make a good couple. I hope she says yes.”

“Thanks, man.” I shook his hand. Maybe Rob was right. Brendan wasn’t so terrible.

Rob rolled down his window. “I can’t wait to tell you all the details after I kiss Penny tonight.”

Yeah…Brendan was fine. Rob was the terrible one. I climbed into the car.

“Where to?” Ian asked.

“Penny’s parents’ house.” I quickly caught him up on the plan as we started driving.

“It’s crazy, right?” Rob asked.

Ian shook his head. “No. I’ve seen the two of them together. They’re a great couple.”

“Seen? More like watched.”

“Hilarious,” Ian said. “You’re just jealous because you’re not allowed to watch the footage and I am.”

“No one is allowed to watch any of the old footage,” I clarified.

“No one is allowed to watch the super-hot footage,” Rob mimicked.

And now I was wondering if he’d actually snuck a drink somewhere. Or maybe he was high…

“Do you think we should call Jen?” Ian asked.

I stared at him. “Why would we call Jen?”

He shrugged. “I don’t know. Rob’s part of this. I thought maybe you’d want to include your sister too.”

Rob put his head between the front seats. “Ian, are you fucking our sister?”

“What?” Ian swerved the car and almost hit the curb.

I grabbed the wheel.

“No,” he said with a laugh. “I’m not doing that.” He laughed again, but it wasn’t his normal laugh. It sounded a lot more nervous.

“Would you tell us if you were?” Rob asked.

“Um…yeah.”

“I don’t believe him,” Rob said. “James, I think Ian’s fucking Jen. Let’s call her and ask.”

“Don’t call Jen!” Ian yelled.

“I thought you wanted us to call her…”

“Please stop,” he said. His fingers were gripping the wheel so tightly that his knuckles were turning white.

Shit. I was pretty sure Ian was fucking my sister. Or if he wasn’t, he definitely wanted to.