“All right.” I looked back over at the crowd. It was thinning out now, and I saw the familiar head of Xavier Ryan laughing with a blond girl and heading toward the overbearingly bright finish line.
Slowly, I dragged my gaze toward Lani. She was staring off to the side, no longer paying attention to anything.
“Let’s make a deal.”
She snapped her head around and looked at me. “A deal?”
“Yeah. If Xavier leaves here with a girl, you agree not to go on a date with him.”
“Oh boy,” she said dryly. “I really get the good end of that, don’t I?”
“I’m not done.” I nudged her with a laugh. “If he leaves the race with a girl and you agree not to go on a date, I won’t only tell you where I disappear to, I’ll show you.”
Lani narrowed her dark eyes, piercing me with her gaze. She didn’t believe me. It was written in the shadows of her eyes. She didn’t think I would follow through, so I put my hand out to her.
“I swear.” I moved my hand closer to her. “I might not tell you everything, but I promise I’ll show you.”
She parted her lips as if to say something before she closed them and pursed them. A few seconds passed before she quietly said, “What if he leaves here alone?”
“Then my previous asshole comment stands.”
“You promise you’ll show me?”
“I promise.”
She glanced at my hand. “I’m not shaking your hand. It’s covered in paint.”
I shrugged a shoulder. “I already tucked your hair behind your ear. It’s all in your hair.”
“Mothershit!” She frantically untucked her hair and looked at it. “Damn it, Brett.”
I grinned.
“Fine.” She dropped her camera into her backpack and, with a wince, put her hand in mine. “Deal.”
I wrapped my fingers around her tiny hand. I shook once, firmly, and then looked out at the finish line. “Oh look. He’s leaving.”
Lani dropped my hand like it was on fire and jerked her face in the direction of the line. Her expression was neutral for all of two-point-five seconds before her brow furrowed.
I smirked.
“You shithead! You knew he wasn’t leaving alone!” She turned and shoved her hand into my shoulder.
Apparently my smugness was premature... Something I wasn’t used to.
“Whoa!” I had to steady myself on the bench. “Easy, kitten.”
“Kitten your ass!” She pushed me again. “You dick, Brett Walker! You saw him, didn’t you? You tricked me!”
“Hey.” I laughed and stood up before she could ram the heel of her hand into me again. “Does it matter? We have an agreement and you get what you want.”
She pouted. “And so do you.”
I couldn’t argue with that. “I don’t really want to share with you where I go when I disappear.”
“But I’m now not going to go out with Xavier if he asks, mostly because that,” she motioned in his direction, “proves he’s sluttier than a city full of naked whores.”
“I tried to tell you.”
“For your own agenda, sure.”
I grinned and stepped toward her. Her gaze was hot on mine as I closed the distance between us, and her lips parted just enough for her to inhale sharply. The wood was cold against my hands as I grasped the back of the bench and leaned right into her.
“You’re right,” I said in a low voice, glancing down at her full lips. “If I don’t get to have you, nobody else here can either.”
“You’re—”
“Going to have you. Accept it, Lani. I’m going to have you and you’re going to love every second of it.” I straightened up. “I’ll pick you up at ten o’clock tomorrow. That good?”
“Make it eleven,” she said slowly. “What for?”
“A little road trip and a hell of a secret reveal.”
“Ten-thirty,” she corrected herself. “Anything I need to know?”
“Yeah. Wear something you don’t mind getting dirty.”
“Dirty?”
I pulled her from the bench and against my body. “Dirty,” I whispered into her ear. Then I smacked her ass and released her.
“Brett!” she shrieked, looking down at her now paint-covered clothes. “I’m gonna kill you.”
I jogged backward, laughing. “Ten-thirty, kitten.”
“Kitten your ass!” she shouted again. “You’re dead!”
“Why does she get to know?”
“Go away, Camille.”
“It’s not fair. I want to know.”
“You sound like a six-year-old who doesn’t know what they’re getting for Christmas.”
“Brett!” My sister actually whined my name. “Come on. I’ve been bugging you for a year and a half. She’s been doing it for like a week and you’re telling her.”
“Showing her,” I corrected her. “I’m taking her to where I go.”
Camille scoffed. “You’re so in love with her still.”
“I’m not in love with her.”
“Then, wow.” She tilted her head to the side. “You must really want to scratch her name into your bedpost, huh?”
I did, but that wasn’t the point.
“Give it a rest,” I said, shoving my wallet into my pocket. “She’s going to write about it anyway and then nothing will be sacred anymore.”
“I don’t know. Yours might be. To keep it secret, you must be rebirthing virgins or something.”
“Camille?”
“Yeah?”
I looked her dead in the eye. “Why the fuck are you in my room?”
She glanced around. “You’re right. I should get out. I might catch something.”
I grabbed a bottle of Tylenol from the nightstand and launched it in her direction. “Fuck off, brat.”
“Suck a donkey, asshole!”
I shook my head. If I could trade my sister in for something, it’d be a statue of her. I still get twin status but I don’t have to listen to her whining. Even better, I’d get a painting of her and cover it in black cloth.
My phone buzzed in my pocket. I pulled it out and glanced at the screen. Lani.
Lani: You’re ten minutes late.
Me: Cam pissed me off. I’m leaving now.
Lani: Too late. I’m sitting in your driveway.
Me: Sounds like you missed me.
Lani: Apparently the rock I threw at you did, yeah.
Jesus. I loved it when she gave me attitude. I shouldn’t have, but I did. Mostly because it was that stupid, sarcastic humor that was so dry I couldn’t help but chuckle at her. She had an answer for everything and more questions than I could handle.
I steeled myself with a couple squirts of my favorite cologne and headed out of my room. I glanced again at my phone as I reached the top of the stairs and saw another message from her.
Lani: Did you get trapped under that rock, Casanova? I’m going gray waiting for you.
Me: You’d be hot if you had gray hair.
Lani: I’m hot right now because I’m sitting in a car in direct sunlight in NINETY-TWO FUCKING DEGREES.
Me: Coming.
Lani: To the car, right?
Me: Quit the sass or it’ll be down your throat.
Lani: Try it and I’ll bite you.
Me: Kinky.
Lani: Not when I choke you on your own dick.
I laughed and opened the front door. Our conversation had lasted my entire walk through the house, and when I stepped onto the steps, I saw she was right. She was sitting in her car, except she wasn’t hot at all. She had the air con blasting if the way her bangs fluttered was any indication.