Page 29 of The Holiday Heartbreaker

Of course, he always thought that was true for Tag. For Hunter. For Gus. Tag and Hunter because they had been serious manwhores on the same level that Lachlan and Brody still were. Gus because... He had always been withdrawn. His injuries had seen to that. He’d ended up with a face full of scars by the time he was thirteen. Not to say that women hadn’t liked him back in his single days. They had. But it was definitely a certain kind of woman looking for a certain thing.

Gus had always played into that easily enough, but he definitely didn’t go out on the town the way the rest of them did. He tended to withdraw. Go somewhere other than Pyrite Falls when he wanted to get laid.

And he’d ended up married to a fiery, bright woman quite a bit younger than him. Of course, Gus being Gus, it had started as a rescue mission when Alaina had gotten pregnant and the guy had run off. Gus had stepped right in there.

It was pretty obvious to Brody now that Gus had always had feelings for Alaina, and that was the perfect excuse for him to finally let himself make a move on it.

They were happy. They were in love.

All of it defied belief. And if he’d been asked two years ago if this was where his brothers would be, he would’ve said absolutely not.

Except for Lachlan. He watched as the woman trailed her fingertips up Lachlan’s arm.

Yeah. Lachlan was exactly where Brody would have guessed. No learning. No growing. Same old, same old. Exactly like Brody.

So. Bubbly girl. Bubbly girl was the order of the day. She was cute. With dark corkscrew curls and a generous smile. And even more generous curves.

He decided it was time.

He downed the rest of his own beer and got up, and felt another ripple go through the group of women.

He supposed he should be happy to know that, even though he and Lachlan had been at this game for a long time, they were definitely still the two most desirable men in the room. It somehow didn’t make him feel better.

He was still feeling a little bit long in the tooth for all of this.

A redhead darted around from the back of the group. A bottle redhead. He could spot that a mile away. He was all right with it, he could just tell.

But bouncy girl was quick. And she practically elbowed her friend, moving herself into the front.

“Howdy,” he said. And he decided that he would let this little rivalry play itself out. He would decide who he was talking to in a second.

Except suddenly he felt tired. And when they both started talking, he felt exhausted. And not only that, he just wasn’t all that interested. They were both hot.

He could take them both home. They might be into that. Find it forbidden and exciting. He probably should too.

He waited for that to feel exciting.

It didn’t.

He could even map out how that would go, how he’d direct things and how it would end.

He was deeply bored.

He looked back over at his brother.

Lachlan was not suffering from malaise of any kind, and he was already halfway out the door with his woman. Brody waited. Waited until his brother was gone.

He wanted a beer. Or to go home.

The real problem was he kept thinking about Elizabeth. And exactly how she would be in bed. What it would be like to peel off that prim top she had been wearing. Floaty and white. Long-sleeved. Kind of like an angel. She was not his type. Not at all.

He didn’t go in for that sort of thing. Understated. Restrained.

No. He didn’t like that. He liked the woman standing in front of him. Bouncing. She was making it so obvious what she wanted. And so was her friend. And he could say yes, and have it if he wanted to. That was the entire point of coming out.

Except that moment in the hallway when he had breathed Elizabeth in, that expensive scent he couldn’t place, that had been the hottest thing that had happened to him in his recent memory.

His stomach got tight just thinking about it. And he felt the blood begin to rush to his groin, and it had nothing to do with what was happening in front of him.

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