I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 22
Cole remained near the doorway as Kaitlyn’s invitation settled between them. Every responsible instinct told him to leave. Every other part of him wanted to close the distance.
He invoked Ryan as the final defense. Kaitlyn asked whether he was seriously thinking about her brother while she stood half-dressed before him. The challenge exposed how absurdly crowded their most private moments had become.
Cole said her name in warning. Kaitlyn answered by stepping nearer. She was tired of his desire appearing only when he lost control and vanishing whenever thought returned.
He tried to say they should not do this. The unfinished sentence weakened under her gaze. Kaitlyn told him it was all right and that she wanted him.
Cole repeated the confession. “I want you.” Hearing the words after weeks of silence loosened something wounded inside her.
He touched her face first, giving her time to retreat. Kaitlyn leaned into his palm. The towel remained between them, but the emotional distance finally disappeared.
Their kiss began with the urgency of people who had already lost weeks to misunderstanding. Cole’s other hand settled carefully at her waist. He never pulled hard enough to make the choice for her.
Kaitlyn wrapped her arms around him and felt the restraint trembling through his body. She had feared he saw her as a child. Nothing in the way he kissed her allowed that illusion to survive.
Cole paused to ask if she was certain. Kaitlyn answered yes without hesitation. Her consent was not recklessness; it was the most considered decision she had made since moving into the apartment.
They explored the closeness they had denied themselves, stopping short of the final boundary Cole feared crossing. The intimacy was new to Kaitlyn but never frightening. His attention made every response feel heard.
Cole expected her inexperience to make the moment fragile. Instead, her honesty steadied both of them. She told him when she liked something and laughed when uncertainty made them awkward.
That laughter rescued the moment from the pressure of becoming perfect. Cole had spent weeks believing he must either protect her completely or surrender completely. Kaitlyn showed him there could be tenderness between those extremes.
When they finally drew apart, she was breathless and glowing. Cole asked whether she regretted anything. Kaitlyn shook her head.
She confessed she had never known not having sex could be so much fun. Cole stared, then laughed with genuine relief. Waiting no longer sounded like rejection.
He said he was glad they had stopped. He was not in a rush and wanted to take his time with her. The patience Brent once pretended to possess became real in Cole’s hands.
Kaitlyn asked if he truly meant it. Would he wait until she decided she was ready? Cole answered that of course he would.
“You’re worth it,” he said. The simple statement healed more than he realized. Her inexperience was not a defect, a debt, or an obstacle.
Kaitlyn thanked him and rested her forehead against his chest. For a few quiet seconds they existed without Ryan, campus gossip, or the hierarchy of a classroom.
Then she remembered her plans for the evening. If Cole wanted to make up for avoiding her, she proposed that they have a different kind of fun while they waited.
She produced the fake identification Sammy had obtained for her and invited him to the old campus bar. Cole’s expression changed immediately. Their private reconciliation had survived—but the prospect of being seen together threatened to divide them all over again.