Page 12 of All He Wants

Nick smiled at me from opposite the room before he rounded the bed and picked up my red scarf, winding it gently around my neck and fluffing it to make sure it fell just right. He kissed my nose. “Ready?”

I nodded. “My coat’s downstairs.” I hesitated in front of the door before turning around to look at him. “Are we going to talk about last night?”

He raised a brow. “What about it?”

The words died in my throat. Maybe I was making a bigger deal of things than was necessary. It was just a dance after all. “Nothing. Let’s go.”

Everyone was waiting by the door, bar Harper who insisted she was too hungover to walk anywhere. I half-wished I’d made an excuse too as I followed behind Nick’s parents with both Nick and Oakley on either side of me.

The air was cool and dry, the wind practically non-existent, and I had to admit that maybe Lyn had been right — it was relatively mild, considering all the snow surrounding us. Bare trees were interspersed with firs, all coated in a large layer of white that crunched underfoot. It was the beautiful powdery kind of snow that gave easily while we walked, not like the kind I’d once broken my ankle in thanks to the ice hidden below the surface.

Nick’s parents pulled up ahead, sipping from their flasks of tea and chattering to each other. In fact, they had a faster pace than I’d anticipated. I’d thought this would be more of a leisurely stroll, admiring the trees and the frozen lake, but they seemed content to power walk the forest away.

By the time we’d been walking for ten minutes, Lyn had found himself a large stick he was using to walk with and he and Rachel were so far ahead of us that we would have had to run to make up the distance.

The brothers seemed unworried though, likely having done this walk a million times. But when Nick reached out and gently held mine and Oakley’s arms to bring us to a stop, nerves suddenly made my stomach swoop.

“Everything okay?” I asked, folding my hands together despite them being fairly warm.

Nick nodded, his eyes looking darker than usual against the bright white of the snow on the trees behind him. “Yeah, I just wanted to show you guys something.” He stepped off the path and Oakley and I shared a look before following him into a small clearing tucked away behind a row of trees with only a small gap to walk through. Even if his parents hadn’t been so far ahead, there was no chance of them seeing us through the thicket.

The clearing was empty and small, only just about big enough for the three of us to stand in, but Nick was looking at us expectantly so I smiled.

“Ah, nice,” I said slowly. “You come here often?”

Nick rolled his eyes. “I thought we could use some privacy.”

“For what?” Oakley said, and I was glad he seemed to be just as in the dark as I was.

“To talk, for now.”

“Nick, can we just do this back at the house—” I began and closed my mouth abruptly when Nick cut me off.

“Oakley’s in love with you.”

I fell still, uncertainty making my limbs go heavy as I kept my eyes on Nick, not even daring to glance at his brother. The forest fell still around us, like it too could sense the enormity of what Nick had just said. “Nick⁠—”

“It’s true, isn’t it, brother?”

My eyes slid reluctantly to Oakley, who looked paler than usual. “Don’t⁠—”

“Yeah, it’s true,” Oakley said the words curtly, like he’d rather die than say them aloud but also refused to lie. “I’m sorry, okay? I know I’m an asshole. I promise I’ve tried to stay away, to stop thinking about her but…” My heart thundered in my chest as he looked at me, pain wrinkling his eyes at the corners. “I want you. I have since the moment I first saw you.” He lifted his face to the sky, blinking rapidly. “What do you want from me, Nick? You want me to leave?”

Nick looked at the both of us, a slow appraisal that for some reason made a slow wash of heat roll through me. “What I want… Is for you to touch her.”

Say what now?

Oakley made a choked sound and I knew my mouth was hanging open as Nick looked between the two of us. He raised a brow, cocky, confident, and I was instantly wet.

“Problem?” he said smoothly and I swallowed hard, because the truth was that no, there wasn’t a problem. Not at all. And maybe that should have concerned me, to want someone so much who wasn’t my boyfriend, to want his brother, but instead all I felt was heat, want, need.

Oakley was silent, and I wasn’t sure what he was thinking until he looked at me and I saw the indecision on his face. Raw desire battling with some sense of duty he felt toward Nick. So I straightened my shoulders and looked him in the eye as I repeated Nick’s words.

“Touch me.”

Oakley shuddered and then he was reaching for me, hand trembling like he was worried I’d be snatched from his grasp at the last minute. His hand cupped my cheek and swept down toward my jaw, his thumb stroking across my bottom lip before it dipped into my mouth and I sucked it eagerly. His eyes darkened and I could tell that whatever self-control he had was moments away from snapping.

“Show him, sweetheart,” Nick said, startling me. “Show him where you want him to touch you.”