Falling For My Best Friend’s Brother

ChapterFour

ELARA'S POV

I stared at his illuminated screen on the granite counter.

The words wrote themselves into my memory. ‘I need proof of the agreement by Friday. Don't disappoint me, Hale.’

Rowan snatched his phone off the counter, hitting the power button to black out the screen.

He slipped the device into his sweatpants pocket, keeping his eyes locked on mine. He did not look panicked. He did not look guilty either.

His face remained entirely impassive, a perfect mask of control.

"An agreement," I stated, taking a step backward to put physical space between us. "You told me he paid a poker debt."

"He did," Rowan replied. "The text is about a different situation."

"Do not lie to me," I shot back. "Declan approached you at the party last night and pointed right at me. He handed you some cash and now he wants proof of the agreement. You are targeting me for a game, Rowan."

I felt my breathing getting uneasy, I needed to leave the room. I needed to pack my boxes and find a new place to live immediately.

My parents spent two decades treating me like a pawn on a chessboard, moving me around to suit their social needs. I refused to let a college boy do the exact same thing to me in my own home.

Rowan stepped forward, cutting off my path to the hallway. "You think everything revolves around you," he said in a harsh tone. "Declan hates you because you rejected him freshman year. He offered me money to ask you out on a date and record you saying yes, just so he could humiliate you in front of his fraternity."

I stopped moving, my mind processing the sheer cruelty of the plan. "And you took his money."

"I took his money because he is an i***t," Rowan corrected me, stepping closer until his shadow fell over me. "I told him I would handle it. I have absolutely no intention of actually asking you out, Elara. You are not my type."

The words hit me like a physical strike. I analyzed his face, searching for a crack in his stance, but he stood perfectly still.

His posture was relaxed and entirely dominant. He wanted me to feel small. He wanted me to feel undesirable and ridiculous for assuming he cared.

‘It was another psychological tactic. Push the target away, make them feel worthless, and watch them crawl back for validation.’

"Good," I said flatly, keeping my chin raised. "Keep it that way."

I pushed past his shoulder, walking quickly out of the kitchen and into the narrow hallway. I needed to get to my bedroom and lock the door. I needed absolute isolation to regulate my racing heart.

Heavy footsteps sounded on the hardwood floor behind me.

Before I could reach my bedroom door handle, Rowan grabbed my upper arm, spinning me around and pressing my back against the wall. The movement was fast and disorienting.

He leaned his forearm against the drywall right beside my head, caging me in the dim corridor.

"Let go of me," I demanded, keeping my voice low so the neighbors would not hear us through the thin walls.

Rowan dropped his hand from my arm, but he did not step back. His chest hovered inches from mine. "You say you don't care, but your heart is beating so fast I can see it in your neck," he whispered.

"I am angry," I answered, glaring up at him. "You invade my privacy, you read my reactions, and you corner me in my own house."

"I corner you because you constantly run away," Rowan countered.

He shifted his weight and his knee brushed against my thigh, a violent jolt of heat shot straight through my legs. "You spend your entire life hiding from people, you analyze them so you never have to actually feel anything. You are terrified Elara!"

"No Rowan, I am smart," I corrected him, pressing my spine harder against the wall. "I know a toxic situation when I see one."

"Prove it," Rowan challenged, lowering his head until his lips were right beside my ear.

I stopped breathing entirely. "Prove what?" I asked.

"Prove that you are totally immune to me," Rowan said in a warm voice. "Prove that you do not feel exactly what I feel right now."

He turned his head and his mouth hovered just above mine. I could feel the intense heat radiating from his body.

Every survival instinct I possessed told me to push him away. He was a liar, a manipulator, and a walking disaster. He just admitted to taking money from my worst enemy.

But the heavy, suffocating tension between us completely overrode my logic.

I grabbed the front of his black t-shirt and pulled him down.

Rowan crashed his mouth against mine.

The kiss was punishing and completely overwhelming. He wrapped his hand around the back of my neck, his fingers tangling in my hair, tilting my head back to deepen the contact.

I gripped his shirt tighter, standing on my toes to meet his intensity. My mind went entirely blank, leaving only the physical sensation of his hands on my body.

He stepped forward, pressing my body flush against the wall.

The rough drywall scraped against my shoulders, but I ignored the discomfort. I kissed him back with years of repressed anger and frustration, pouring every single emotion I refused to vocalize directly into the action.

Rowan pulled back suddenly, gasping for air.

We stared at each other in the dim hallway as we both heaved heavily. His poker expression was completely gone. The cold nonchalant demeanor mask was gone and replaced by shock.

"You see?" I whispered, my voice was shaky as I let go of his shirt and let my hands drop to my sides. "I can play the game too. It means absolutely nothing to me."

I lied. It meant everything, and the realization terrified me.

Rowan stared at my mouth, still heaving heavily. He opened his mouth to speak, but a loud, metallic grinding noise came from the front of the house.

A key turned in the front door lock.

Sienna was home early!

Rowan stepped back instantly, creating three feet of distance between us just as the front door swung open. Sienna walked into the living room, carrying a white paper bag from the local diner.

"My professor canceled the lecture," Sienna announced, kicking her shoes off near the door.

She looked down the hallway, spotting the two of us standing in the shadows. "What are you guys doing standing in the dark?"

I wiped my mouth quickly with the back of my hand, praying my lips were not visibly red.

My heart hammered wildly against my ribs. If Sienna found out I just kissed the brother she warned me to avoid, she would feel completely betrayed.

It would ruin my living situation and my only friendship.

Rowan looked at his sister, his face snapping back into his usual arrogant expression.

"Just discussing the house rules," Rowan stated, turning his head to look directly at me. "Elara was just telling me exactly what she is willing to do to keep things quiet around here."

I stared at him and my stomach dropped to the floor. He was holding my secret over my head.