Braydon (Alluring Indulgence #6)(19)
Author: Nicole Edwards

But she wasn’t Cheyenne, and Brendon was having a hard time getting Cheyenne off his mind.

Then it happened. Right around Christmastime last year, Brendon lost his shit because his thoughts of Cheyenne had pushed him to the limit. He’d seen what was transpiring between Braydon and Jessie, and his selfishness had gotten the best of him.

Braydon could have with Jessie what Brendon wanted with Cheyenne; even he knew that much. Even though they were dancing around one another, Brendon wasn’t blind. He saw what transpired between the two of them. So what did he go and do? Not thinking clearly, he went and tried to shove Braydon out. He had tried to make Jessie choose, which was something he’d never done before. But it was during a bout of insane jealousy that he had been driven to that point. There was no doubt in Brendon’s mind that his twin loved Jessie. And if he had to guess, Jessie loved Braydon. In a way that she didn’t love Brendon.

Not that the lack of love bothered Brendon in the least. He didn’t love Jessie—not in that soul-deep, spend-the-rest-of-their-lives-together way. He was pretty sure she knew that, too. But despite the fact that Brendon had some unexplained hang-up on a woman he knew he couldn’t have, the three of them had been having fun since the moment they met. Especially the horizontal type of fun.

From the moment he met Jessie, Brendon knew she was what he was looking for. She was beautiful, she craved sex nearly as much as he did, and most importantly, she was temporary. Not to mention, when Brendon alluded that he wanted to share her with his twin, she hadn’t balked.

Brendon remembered the night he met her and how wide Jessie’s eyes had been when she realized that there were two of them. At first he’d seen confusion, but then there was something else.

Heat.

Passion.

Lust.

Yes, he and Braydon were identical. Down to a matching birthmark on their left shoulder and the simple tattoos they each had on their upper right shoulder blade that read 1 of 2.

But their eerily similar looks hadn’t been what seemed to surprise Jessie in the beginning. No, she’d been stunned to learn that they both wanted to get with her. And that was the only way that they operated.

Surprised, sure. But Jessie Prescott hadn’t turned them down.

From that moment on, Jessie had played a huge role in helping Brendon forget about Cheyenne. But no matter how distracted he found himself, Cheyenne never ceased to exist in his head.

Stupid. Stupid. Stupid.

If he were truthful with himself, he would’ve admitted that Jessie was the ideal woman. But he was biased in that regard because it had been about the time that he realized Jessie was using them just as much as they’d been using her that he came to that conclusion.

Jessie Prescott had issues. Personal issues. Not that he ever called her on them, because Brendon wasn’t perfect, either. Although she exuded a self-confidence that was to be admired, there was something extremely vulnerable about her. She wore her feelings on her sleeve for the world to see, even though she denied them most of the time. But more importantly, Jessie had relationship issues. Well, more like a relationship phobia. Of course, Brendon, trying to keep himself distant, had never actually delved into Jessie’s reasons for wanting to keep herself distanced from men, but that didn’t make it any less true. And it meant they had something in common, which made their tryst equally beneficial to all three of them.

So, okay, maybe Brendon had latched onto that little detail and used it to his advantage. He wasn’t interested in a relationship. Not long-term anyway. Keeping Jessie at arm’s length hadn’t been hard, because she seemed to expect it. It had worked for him. Sort of.

Apparently, Braydon hadn’t been keeping his distance from her though. Brendon had found a way to exploit that and tried to make Jessie choose. After that got smoothed over, things had gotten back to normal. As normal as they could get, anyway. Braydon hadn’t gotten that message though. No, Brendon’s twin had gone and developed feelings for Jessie. Strong feelings.

Not that he blamed the guy.

But it didn’t work. Not for them. Brendon didn’t want it that way. Or at least he’d thought that until he had experienced Cheyenne’s adamant insistence that she would never be shared between two men. Brendon hadn’t given up trying to persuade Cheyenne to give in that night, but sure enough, she had stood by her decision and she’d disappeared from his life. Briefly.

Then he’d run into her when they took a trip to Devil’s Bend to see his cousin Tessa and Cooper. Of course, that hadn’t been the last of Cheyenne. He’d run into her at Ethan’s reception, and he’d lost control of his common sense. Only to find out that his mother was playing Cupid again. He should’ve known.