I pictured my dream cabin for the thousandth time while I waited for the elevator to take me up.
I’d want something small and cozy. A fire burning at my back, a window frosted at the edges in front of my desk. Outside, the snow would blanket everything and shut out all the noise. It’d just be me, my keyboard, and my stories. And maybe my latest male conquest sleeping the previous night off in my sheets.
I was grinning at that last addition until I pictured Sebastian St. James rolling out of my bed with messy hair and a wicked smile.
Nope. Bad fantasy.
I left the elevator and knocked on his door. “Travis! I’m here, asshole!”
My brother took his sweet time, shuffling toward me and yawning. He fumbled with the lock and pulled the doors open. Travis was tall, tattooed, blond-haired, and every woman’s worst nightmare.
Travis was also my worst nightmare because he had a knack for reading people. And with me, he’d had a couple decades of practice perfecting the art. He squinted at me, tilting his head.
“Stop that,” I said, pushing past him, hoping I could skip the part where he guessed what was on my mind. Just in case my idiot brother really could read my mind, I banished the image of Sebastian’s face inching toward mine at the conference.
“Stop what?” he asked easily. “Letting you into my place?”
“That would save me from having to talk to you.” I tossed my bag down by the front door and headed inside. I had to thread my way past two cats, a monitor lizard, some exotic flying squirrel looking thing, and a small dog with a massive head. “Why do half of these animals look new?”
“They are,” Travis said with a shrug. “Picked them up here and there.”
I shook my head. All it took was a glance around my brother’s place to see he was a collector of all things odd. Discarded, odd pets were probably his primary passion, but he also enjoyed collecting junk like broken bike wheels, dented trash can lids, and anything else that caught his questionable eye. “Do you even know what you’re supposed to feed a giant monitor lizard? Or if it’s okay to have it wandering around with your cats?”
“Are you serious? The cats love Rat.”
“You named a giant lizard ‘rat’?”
“And,” he said, ignoring my question. “Yes, I know exactly what to feed him because I looked it up on the internet.” Travis picked a piece of candy from a jar, popping it into his mouth and chewing. “Pet care. It’s not rocket science.” He knelt down and scratched the big lizard behind the ear holes. To my horror and disgust, it flipped its forked tongue out at him like it was giving kisses. Jesus.
“All they need is a little love,” he said.
I was still shaking my head when I flopped down on his couch. Penthouses may be overrated, but I had to admit I loved the view. We could see everything in the city laid out below us. I could almost imagine us drifting lazily along in some sort of ship above the clouds.
His Bengal cats climbed into my lap. One of them was notorious for punching anything that moved, which meant I had to stay deadly still if I didn’t want to get attacked.
“So, who’s the guy?” Travis asked. He sprawled out on the couch across from me, perceptive eyes digging little holes straight into my soul.
I groaned. “Is there even a point in claiming there’s not one?”
“Nope,” he said.
I briefly debated, then wound up unloading everything on my mind, minus the more sultry bits. It surprised me when it only took a minute or two to unload the entirety of my dilemma into his lap.
For all his faults, my brother was a good listener. He also never judged. Maybe that was why I always seemed to spill my secrets to him. “So you and this guy hooked up, but your feelings are hurt because it didn’t seem to mean as much to him as it meant to you?”
“Basically,” I admitted.
He spread his long arms out on the top of the couch, nodding wisely. “Guys can suck like that. Yep.”
“That’s all you’ve got for me?”
Travis shrugged. “Look, I’ll be totally honest with you. Guys really are just looking for a… uh,” he gestured, frowning as he formed some vague shape with his hands.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Sorry,” he said. “It’s just gross to use certain words when the context is my little sister.”
“A pussy?” I asked.
Travis groaned. “Yes. Some guys just want to get in there. Get out. Job done.” He brushed his hands and spread them apart.
“It’s not like I wanted to marry the guy. I’m not crazy. I just thought it would be a more natural reaction to at least want my phone number. You know, maybe we could go on a date or something? Find out if there was anything between us?”
“Well,” Travis said. “Some women don’t know when to quit. You give them the number and you’ll end up having to change phones in a few weeks. Especially if you’re playing the field.”
“You’re disgusting,” I said. “And I’m pretty sure guys are way more notorious for that than women.”
“You try being a devilishly handsome, charming, disgustingly rich man for a week and then tell me women don’t get a little clingy. Besides, I’m not the one who hooked up with a stranger five minutes after meeting them.” Travis frowned, looking up as if he was trying to remember something. “This week, at least.”
“Would it be super pathetic if I tried to get in contact with him? I have his assistant’s email from the advanced copy of his book I got. Maybe I could ask if she could get us in touch?”
Travis laughed. “Super pathetic? Yes. That would be. Creepy, too. You’ve got to let this guy go, Kenzie. He’s gone. You got yourself some ghost cock.”
“I’m trying to decide if I even want to know what ghost cock is.”
“Ever notice people who see ghosts only see them once? What happens when they try to show someone else? Or go back for a second encounter? Nothing. It’s ghost cock.”
I grinned. “I don’t even know if that first part is true. Don’t ghosts not exist in the first place?”
“Oh, ghosts are a hundred percent real. I saw grandpa taking a piss in my toilet once. Clear as day.”
“Grandpa isn’t dead, Travis.”
He scratched the back of his head, narrowed his eyes, then laughed. “Point taken. But still, ghost cock is a real thing. Until it’s not,” he added seriously.
I rolled my eyes but couldn’t help laughing. If nothing else, my brother always cheered me up with his absolute disconnect from life, responsibilities, and all the things normal mortal beings worried about.
“Here’s what you do,” Travis said. He leaned forward, resting his elbows on his knees. “Remind yourself that this guy is a scumbag. Focus on all the negatives. Make a part-time job out of learning to loathe him. Work yourself up to a fucking lather until you can’t even walk past a picture of him without scratching out the eyes. You know?”
“That’s ridiculous.”
“Hey,” he said easily, leaning back and getting comfortable. “You came to me for advice for a reason. It’s because you know your big brother has gotten you out of a thousand jams before. Trust the process, Kenzie. When it comes to love, I know what I’m talking about.”