Page 124 of Sins or Secrets
“Baby, you know that firecracker personality of yours sure is sexy as fuck,” Ethan replies, shocking even me.
The look on Bree’s face, however, was worth it.The indignation turns into shock and then her porcelain skin flushes beetroot red, giving herself away because that’s not anger on her face.It’s arousal, and my friend looks as if he knew he’d have that effect on her.Always and ever the man to use his transferable skills in the most efficient ways.
“Kiss my ass, Ethan Carson,” Bree huffs and walks away.
“Yes, Ma’am. I think I would most definitely love to,” Ethan mumbles and glues his eyes to her ass as she marches away.
When she looks back and sees him watching her, the color in her face intensifies.She goes all the way over to the other side where we can’t see her anymore to wait for her order.
“You asshole,” I chide with a smirk.“You like her.”
“Yeah, who wouldn’t? Pretty little fiery thing with a body made for sin.”
“So if you like her why did you allow her to date Bryce?”
“Allow?” He raises his brows.
“You know what I mean. Bryce is an asshole.A real one. He would have just wanted to have sex with her then dump her.”
“Which is why I never allowed our asshole friend to get that far.They went on a total of one date, and no more.”
My eyes bulge. “What did you do, Ethan?”
“Rough him up a little and threaten to shoot his dick off if he went anywhere near her again.”
My mouth falls open. “No fucking way.”
Ethan straightens up. “Bryce has his own demons, same as you and me, but we don’t fuck around the way he does.”
He can say that again. We don’t behave the way Bryce does even though out of the group we were the three who had serious shit happen to us.For me it was Quinn, and on the scale of bad things happening my situation wasn’t comparable to either of them.
For Ethan, it was Amelia’s death.For Bryce, it was his sister’s suicide.
Being shot and nearly dying puts me more in line with what happened to them, but what broke me was losing Quinn.My near death experience didn’t come close to what it felt like when I lost her.
“I couldn’t let him do that shit to her,” Ethan says, bringing my thoughts back to the discussion.“He knew he’d have to date her at least once before he tried to get in her pants.Bree’s not the girl you hook up with for an afternoon and drop.She would have thought he was serious about her if he dated her, and he’s not.”
“No, he’s not.”
Bryce wasn’t the same after his sister died.She was a drug addict. It’s clear he blamed himself for her death, although he’s never said that to us.His actions scream it though.
“Definitely, fucking not.”
“Okay, knight in shining armour, so there comes a time when the teasing should stop and you naturally progress to the next thing which isn’t teasing.If you’re going to go around protecting her from assholes, that has to mean something.Why don’t you just date her?”
The smile recedes from his face.“Logan, you know I don’t date, and she’s too nice for me.That makes her off limits.”
Translation, he’s not ready for anything serious and Bree, like my Quinn, is the kind of woman you do serious with.
The fact that he’s not going there with her might mean he’s probably thought of being serious with her.
“Maybe one day she won’t be.”
“Maybe.”
He starts munching on his fries and I think of the time not long ago when I was just likehim.
Now I’mnot.
