I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 21
Steam filled Cole’s bathroom while Kaitlyn stood beneath the hot water, unaware that he had returned. For the first time in weeks, the scent and privacy of his room made her feel close to him. She knew she should finish quickly and leave.
Instead, curiosity followed her out of the shower. Wrapped in a towel, she glanced at the immaculate shelves and counter. Cole’s belongings were arranged with the same discipline he brought to everything else.
Kaitlyn told herself she was not snooping. She only wanted some clue about the life he had hidden behind closed doors. Weeks of silence had made even an ordinary bottle feel like evidence.
Then she noticed a distinctly personal item and picked it up before judgment intervened. The extra-large label made her cheeks burn. She muttered that, of course, Cole Hart would be impossible in one more way.
His voice came from the doorway. “What are you doing?” Kaitlyn froze with the object in her hand and a towel barely preserving her dignity.
Cole had returned early from his run, sweat still darkening his shirt. Surprise held him motionless as his gaze found her wet hair, bare shoulders, and exposed legs. Every week of avoidance collapsed beneath one look.
He turned away sharply, but the image had already branded itself into his mind. Kaitlyn set the item down and tried to explain. Her shower was broken, she had thought he would be gone longer, and using his bathroom had seemed harmless.
Cole asked whether she had been going through his things. Kaitlyn denied it, then amended the answer to “sort of.” The lie was pointless with the evidence between them.
He told her she could turn around and dress. His voice sounded controlled, but his shoulders remained rigid. Kaitlyn mistook restraint for anger.
She gathered her clothes and announced that she would return to her room. After weeks of being avoided, she could not escape his space quickly enough. The bitterness in her voice made Cole finally look back.
He told her leaving was probably best. Kaitlyn heard another rejection. She accused him of wanting her gone from more than the bathroom.
Cole answered too honestly: he did not want her gone. He needed her gone. The distinction stopped Kaitlyn at the doorway.
She asked why, forcing him to name the thing he had hidden behind schedules and closed doors. Cole tried to find a safer answer. None existed while she stood before him in a towel.
He admitted that the image of her naked would not leave his mind. Avoidance had never been disgust; it had been self-defense. If she remained another minute, he did not trust his control.
Kaitlyn’s anger faltered. She reminded him that he had fled the moment she admitted she was a virgin. His behavior had convinced her that inexperience made her undesirable.
Cole stared at her in disbelief. Disgust was the opposite of what he felt. Attraction to her had become so relentless that distance was the only method he knew to survive it.
He said he did not want to ruin her innocence. Kaitlyn resented the word immediately. He continued treating experience as something he could take rather than something she could choose.
She stepped closer, towel secure and gaze unwavering. If Cole knew what she imagined when she thought about him, he would never call her innocent. The admission changed the air.
Cole asked what those thoughts involved. Kaitlyn told him they centered on everything she wanted him to do to her. His breath caught, and restraint became visibly painful.
She invited him to come closer and discover the answer. Cole had entered the bathroom intending to send her away; now Kaitlyn stood within reach, asking him to cross the boundary he had spent weeks defending.