I’m In Love With My Brother’s Best Friend?! – Episode 17
After Amber left, Cole asked again whether Kaitlyn was hurt. His hand hovered near the mark on her cheek without touching it, as though even comfort required permission. Kaitlyn said she was fine, but weeks of confusion finally broke through her composure.
She accused him of pretending not to know her in class, embarrassing her, kissing her, and then running away. Whenever danger appeared, he returned like a knight in shining armor. The rest of the time, he treated her feelings as a problem to avoid.
Cole said everything he did was meant to protect her. He could not appear to favor a student when his position depended on professional conduct. Kaitlyn heard the logic but resented that his solutions always required her silence.
“So I am your favorite,” she said. The teasing question carried a serious demand. Cole looked at the woman he had defended against an entire campus and admitted that, of course, she was.
The answer softened her anger despite herself. Cole apologized for Amber and explained that their relationship had ended months earlier. There was no secret romance for Kaitlyn to destroy.
Amber had cheated on him repeatedly, including with one of his friends. When Cole ended things, she retaliated by spreading rumors that he slept with every woman on campus and abandoned them afterward. The reputation became more famous than the truth.
Kaitlyn remembered everything she had heard at the party. She admitted she had partly believed it. Cole said he had dated and enjoyed himself, but he was not the heartless man Amber described.
“That’s not me,” he said quietly. “It never was.” For the first time, Kaitlyn saw the injury beneath his confidence. Being desired by everyone had not protected him from betrayal by someone he trusted.
She apologized and told him she did not think he was an asshole. A small smile appeared, easing the tension between them. Cole said he was sorry Amber had dragged her into their unfinished mess.
The word mess reminded Kaitlyn of the photograph. During the confrontation, Amber had sent Cole an intimate image taken at Kaitlyn’s expense. Mortification surged so quickly that she could barely finish asking whether he had received it.
Cole’s expression confirmed that he had. Kaitlyn covered her face and declared that she might die of embarrassment. He asked why when, in his opinion, she looked very good.
The compliment made the situation worse and better at once. Kaitlyn ordered him not to tease her and demanded he delete the photograph. She did not want Amber’s violation preserved on his phone, even if Cole liked what he saw.
He took out the device but paused. With a familiar spark of mischief, Cole asked what she would give him if he complied. The question echoed their argument about her party dress and drew them back into dangerous territory.
Kaitlyn could have snatched the phone. Instead, she decided she was tired of Cole controlling when they moved closer and when they retreated. She proposed a bargain that made his amusement disappear.
If he deleted the photograph, she would show him the real thing. Cole searched her face, making certain she understood the offer. Kaitlyn repeated it without wavering.
He told her she did not owe him access to her body. The decency of the refusal distinguished him from Brent in every way that mattered. It also made her want to keep the promise because the choice remained entirely hers.
Cole deleted the image and showed her the empty message thread. No copy, no hesitation, no attempt to negotiate for more. Kaitlyn thanked him, suddenly nervous now that the challenge had become real.
She touched the front of his shirt and said a man of his word deserved a reward. Cole’s breath caught. The humor between them shifted into the same charged silence that had preceded every kiss.
He warned that they should not do this, invoking all the consequences without naming them. Ryan would be furious, the university might question them, and Kaitlyn could be hurt. None of those facts changed the desire in his eyes.
Kaitlyn leaned closer and reminded him that the bargain was hers to honor. She had spent too long allowing other people to define her choices. As her fingers rose toward the buttons of her blouse, Cole realized the deleted photograph was about to become a memory he could never erase.