Page 27 of Just This Once

Foster pointed at him threateningly. “Touch my cousin, and I’ll break your arms, asshole.”

“That means yes.” Keene grinned in delight and began to rub his hands together excitedly. “She’s smokin’.”

“I mean, of course she is,” Raina spoke up with a laughing snort, only to get a dismayed glance from her boyfriend for saying so. Not even noticing him, she added, “She’s a freaking Union. They’re all drop-dead gorgeous with their perfect blond hair, blue eyes, banging bodies, tall, sleek stature, and flawless features.”

“Holy shit,” Keene breathed with wide, hungry eyes. I swear, he even began to drool. Lifting one hand, he told Damien. “I vote yes; she can stay with us. Definitely.”

Foster spun to scowl at Raina. “Did you really have to tell him that?”

“What?” she shrugged cluelessly. “It’s not like he’s not going to figure it out when he meets her. Besides, I didn’t mention the modeling part.”

“Modeling?” Keene echoed, popping forward. “She’s a model? Did you just say she was a fucking model?”

Grinding his teeth, Foster sent Raina a condemning glance.

With a wince, she whispered, “Oops.”

Sighing, Foster ran a hand over his hair and glanced regretfully toward Keene. “Alright. Shemight’vebeen involved in a couple of photo shoots to help pay for college.”

“You should see the swimsuit edition,” Raina encouraged, glancing around Foster’s arm to whisper at Keene. “Wowzers.”

“Swimsuit?” Keene whimpered, only to fumble for his pocket and clumsily jerk his phone free so he could do a quick Internet search. Seconds later, he choked out a sound of shock and clutched his chest. A second after that, he grabbed Alec’s shirt and tugged him close so he could show my brother the phone too. “Swimsuit,” he uttered in clear adoration.

Alec looked down at the screen, and his eyes flared. “Holy shit,” he exclaimed, already shaking his head. “No. No way.” He even started to back away from the picture,thatintimidated by it. “She can’t stay here. She’swaytoo pretty.”

“You know what?” Oaklynn exploded, lifting a hand to block their negativity. “Fuck you both. Am I just some hideous hag who lives here now or what?”

“They’re just too afraid to acknowledge how beautiful you are anymore,” Damien assured her, stroking her arm in comfort. “They know I’ll permanently maim them if they do.”

As Oaklynn shot him a disbelieving glance, Hudson said, “Let me see that.” He yanked the phone from Keene’s hand, only to whistle when he and Faith looked at it together. “Damn.”Starting to laugh, he glanced at the others. “Y’all are fucked. Union issogoing to murder one of you before this is all said and done.”

“I put my money on Ohrley,” Faith wagered as Hudson kept scrolling through pictures.

“Hey!” Keene muttered, clearly offended. “I can land a woman on that scale of hotness just as easily as Parker can.”

As he ranted, Parker stepped up behind Hudson to look over his shoulder and take a gander at the pictures.

When his brows lifted briefly with interest, I narrowed my eyes, not a fan of the jealousy that spiked through me. But Parker only shrugged, not answering either way as to whether he believed he had a chance with Foster’s model of a cousin or not.

Alec appeared at his side to look at the picture yet again, and Parker backed away to return to his leaning spot against the counter. A second later, his gaze lifted directly to me.

A shock of desire rocked through me, and we stared at each other silently across the kitchen until Alec said, “She looks sad in this one.”

I blinked and glanced toward my brother to see him lift his gaze to ask Foster, “Is she depressed?”

“No,” Foster answered with a confused frown, only to shrug. “I mean, okay. Her boyfriendjustdumped her, so recently she’s been pretty down, but she’s not, like, a sad person in general or anything.”

Alec’s eyes bugged and he blurted out an incredulous sound. “Someone broke up withthat? Are you freaking kidding me?”

“Yeah. I guess they were high school sweethearts, but she was a grade above him, so she held off a year to move to Westport so they could attend HaveU together, only for her boyfriend to get offered a scholarship to study abroad in Europe as soon as he graduated. So he left her high and dry at the last minute. She couldn’t afford the apartment they’d picked out together, losther down payment, and has been bunking with my parents since the semester started.”

“Wow,” Alec murmured sympathetically. “Poor thing.”

“Yeah. Poor hot, hot thing,” Keene echoed, taking his phone back to see her portrait again. “So when is she coming to live with us?”

“Oh, give me that phone,” Oaklynn demanded, snagging it from Keene’s hand. But as soon as she got a look at Xander Union, she slapped the screen against her chest and zipped her face up to Damien who’d stepped close to see as well. “Yeah, you are not allowed to look at her,” she said, clearly intimidated. “Ever.”

“Are you guys for real right now?” Foster asked, flabbergasted. Turning to Raina, he wondered, “Is she reallythatpretty?”

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