Chapter 12 Landon #2
“All right,” she finally said. “He—”
“Wait,” I interrupted. “Say it to him.”
She glared at me with a stern expression she usually reserved for the other two. “All right. That duck you served last night, with those fondant potatoes? That was really good.”
“I know that,” Ash said.
“Drink,” Kai and I said together. When he held up his bottle, showing it was empty, I handed him mine. “Go on,” I told Zoe.
“That was it.”
“That’s the best you can do?” Kai asked. “Calling his food good?”
“What am I supposed to call it? Delicious? Better than life itself? Orgasmic?”
Silence descended after that last word, and her cheeks heated, but she didn’t take it back.
“It wouldn’t be the first time someone called it that,” Asher remarked.
“Your turn,” I told him. “Say something good about Zoe.”
He glared at me. Jesus, was it really that hard?
Finally, he sighed. “She’s good with the guests.”
Instead of taking the compliment, Zoe challenged him. “How the hell would you know that?” When I looked pointedly at her beer, she took a drink. “I’m just saying that he just said the first thing he could think of to get you off his back.”
“No, I didn’t,” Ash said. “I mean, yes, that’s why I answered, but it’s true. I heard some guests talking about you in the dining room.”
“You did?” In her surprise, she forgot to sound mad.
“Yes. A woman at table seven said that you gave her suggestions for what to send her grandson for Christmas. And my sous chef said you told her about a couple’s anniversary and how at their wedding, they had carrot cake. They were thrilled when we brought a huge slice out to them.”
“You did?” Zoe looked pleased.
“Yes.” Ash’s voice was clipped, clearly showing the subject was closed.
Zoe turned to us. “Okay, now, you have to tell your secret.”
“And, as agreed, not tell mine,” Ash muttered.
Kai looked at me. “Are you still wearing it?”
It took me a moment to realize what he meant, and I groaned. We’d gotten up to so much trouble over the years that there were any number of things he could’ve told Zoe. But he wanted to go for that? But I nodded.
Trying to change Kai’s mind was like trying to keep the tide from coming in.
“Wearing what?” Zoe said, leaning forward.
Kai’s eyes gleamed at her interest. “Wearing a piercing. We each have one.”
Zoe’s eyes widened and she nearly tumbled off the edge of the chair. “Where?” she asked breathlessly. She could see it wasn’t on our heads.
“Guess,” Kai said smugly.
Zoe looked us over, and my skin heated under her scrutiny. “I don’t know,” she said slowly, her eyes roaming all over us—from the neck on down. “Is it…” she gulped, her gaze settling on my crotch.
“It’s a nipple-piercing,” Ash said gruffly.
“Spoilsport,” Kai muttered.
“Really?” Zoe asked, her eyes wide. “Can I—can I see?”
Kai grinned. “I knew that would be her first question.” He lifted his shirt to show her but didn’t stop there. No, my classy brother had to peel it completely off. Then he tossed it away, and it almost landed in the fire. I sighed. Kai had never been subtle about anything in his entire life.
Zoe gasped, her mouth dropping open. But from the dazed look on her face, she hadn’t even noticed the little barbell piercing his left nipple. If I wasn’t mistaken, she was more focused on his toned muscles.
Kai, of course, let her look, puffing up his chest. Finally, he tapped the pad of his index finger over his left nipple, and she focused on the piercing. “Did it hurt?”
“For a while, yes. Now, I don’t even notice it. Women always do, though.” His smirk returned.
“I’ve never seen one before.”
“Want to touch it?” He leaned forward. “Or taste it?”
I shoved him back onto the couch. “So now you know our secret.” It was a lame attempt to get things back into more innocent territory. But all it did was make Zoe turn those flashing dark eyes on me.
“You have one too?”
“Yes.”
“Show her,” Ash said. Though clearly Zoe had been dying to say that, he wasn’t doing it as a favor to her.
No, it was revenge for us threatening to reveal his secret.
Not that I’d been the one to do that, but I was used to getting blamed for things my twin did.
Look what had happened the first time I met Zoe.
Reluctantly, I lifted my sweater just enough to show her the silver barbell piercing on my right nipple. Her eyes darted from my chest to Kai’s, since he was still shirtless and likely would be for the rest of the season, now that he’d seen the way her eyes lit up.
“Wait… why is yours on the right and his on the left?” she asked me.
I groaned, trying to telepathically warn my brother not to say what he was about to say.
Not that that ever worked.
“So that women can tell us apart when we’re naked,” Kai said smugly.
I put my hand over my eyes, shaking my head as my sweater fell back down. Maybe this had been a bad idea. Maybe I should’ve let Zoe and Asher bicker until one of them quit, and let Kai be crass, crude, and flirty with Zoe until she was ready to push him off a balcony.
Too bad I hadn’t thought of either of those options before we’d gotten into this tonight.
Later, much later, I waited in the hallway until Asher emerged from the bathroom. Then I jerked my chin toward the kitchen—away from Zoe’s room. When we reached it, I spoke in a low voice. “Seriously, what’s your problem with her? This isn’t like you.”
For a moment, I didn’t think he was going to answer.
“She’s a suck-up,” he said finally. “You should hear how the professors in the department talk about her. She gets straight A’s.
Volunteers for every committee. Researches hotels and resorts from all over the world and talks about them constantly.
When my professor told me to drive her up here, he sounded like he was doing me a favor, like I should be honored to be stuck in a car with her for three hours. ”
I stared at him, looking into his dark eyes. That didn’t sound completely unreasonable. He and Zoe were a lot alike, both hard workers with Type A personalities. Sometimes that led to clashing. But it didn’t feel like that was the whole story.
Ash clearly considered the matter done, because he strode off down the hall. I watched him go, thinking it over.
My gut was telling me that there was something more to this, and if it didn’t come out in the open, then both he and Zoe were going to suffer for it. Not to mention that they’d drive Kai and me up a fucking wall.
Something had to be done. There had to be some way to get to the bottom of this. Luckily, I had knew just who to talk to. I’d spent the first nine months of my life sharing a womb with a certified—and certifiable—evil genius.
Quietly, I knocked on the door to Kai’s room.