He and Anson liked to share their women, usually hooking up with an undergrad and having some fun. They wouldn’t be able to play with Eden and sharing her would be impossible. “Yep—now you’re seeing the big picture, Brother,” Anson said.
“Did you know who she was when you wandered into her room to take pictures of her half naked?” Duff asked. He sounded like he was accusing his brother of wrongdoing, and maybe he was. The last thing they needed now was to draw more unwanted attention to either of them. The Gunderson girl’s murder had caused Anson enough problems over the past few months. They needed to get through the rest of their internships and then, they’d be free to do who and what they choose.
“No,” Anson admitted. “I saw that her door was open and when I peeked in to find her half naked, I nearly swallowed my tongue. I couldn’t help myself—I started taking her picture and that’s when she woke up. I didn’t know who she was until she told me her name.”
“You know better than to be anywhere near that room, right? Hell—you took a chance just by being in that building. If father found out that you were taking half-naked pictures of a Graystone, he’d have both of our balls.” His father hated Theodore Graystone. They were at the academy at the same time and their rivalry was what legends were made of—literally. They hated each other and from that time on, Graystones and Kirkpatrick’s were enemies.
“I don’t see why your balls would be involved,” Anson grumbled.
“Because I’m the one who makes bad decisions, Brother. I’m the one who would spend all my spare time pursuing the sexy witch and when I wore her down, I’d convince her to let us share her. That would end with father having both our balls. If you’re the one going off half-cocked, acting completely reckless, who’s going to be the level headed twin? Who will keep us in check and make sure that we don’t do something stupid—like share Eden Graystone?” Duff asked.
Anson sighed, “I told you before, Duff, I wasn’t going to do anything stupid. Sure, she’s hot,” Anson breathed.
“Ah—so, you admit that she’s hot then?” Duff asked. He was fishing, although he had no idea what for. Getting Anson to agree that he found the witch to be hot wasn’t going to get them any closer to making her theirs. His brother’s admission wouldn’t magically change her name or the fact that she was off limits.
“So what?” his brother asked. “What does it matter if she’s the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my life? Doesn’t change a thing that I want Eden Graystone to be ours, but she can’t be. She’s still off limits to both of us.” Anson wasn’t watching where he was walking and he walked right into Eden, leaving her plastered against his body, her arms around him.
“Shit,” Duff grumbled. “This is not a good sign, Brother,” he whispered to Anson.
“I’m so sorry,” Eden stuttered. “I wasn’t looking where I was going because I was studying this stupid map, trying to find the dining hall.” She looked up and when she recognized Anson and Duff, she gasped and quickly extricated herself from his brother.
“No, it was completely my fault,” Anson stammered. “I should have been paying attention and not talking about—” he didn’t finish his thought because he’d have to admit that he was droning on about how hot Eden was. Duff smirked at him and Anson looked at him like he wanted to tell him to fuck off.
“You were talking about what?” she asked.
“Oh—nothing. We were going to the dining hall too and we were just wondering what they are serving tonight,” Duff covered for Anson. “Would you liked to join us? We can show you around so you don’t have to rely on that stupid map and end up injuring yourself.” Anson groaned and rolled his eyes at his brother.
“I thought we decided that ‘dinner’ was a bad idea?” Anson whispered. He used air quotes around the word, “dinner” as if sending his brother a clue to his cryptic code.
“Yeah—well, I told you that I liked, ‘dinner’ and I think that eating, ‘dinner’ is a good idea,” Duff countered, using air quotes just as his brother had. Eden looked between the two of them as if they had both lost their minds.
“You two don’t eat dinner?” she asked. “Is it something you’re opposed to or are you just not hungry tonight?”
“Oh, we’re hungry,” Duff insisted. “But we’re not sure if ‘dinner’ is a good idea.”
“I’m missing the point of why you are both using air quotes,” she said. “I don’t think that you’re using them correctly.” Duff nearly doubled over laughing and Anson shot him a look.
“How about it, Eden—would you like to have dinner with us?” Duff asked.
“As long as dinner doesn’t go against your beliefs or anything, sure,” she said. “I’d love to have someone to eat with. I don’t know anyone else here—well, except you both.”
“Then it’s a date,” Duff said. He smiled over at his brother and Anson rolled his eyes.
“It’s not a date,” Anson corrected. “It’s three new friends having dinner.” Duff sometimes wished he could read people’s thoughts as his brother could. He didn’t get any special gifts other than his ability to communicate with his twin telepathically, and he really didn’t consider that to be a “gift”.
Coward, Duff thought.
Realist, Anson thought back. I’m wondering if she knows about our families feud. She doesn’t seem to hate us or anything.
Why would she? I’m charming as hell, Duff thought. Anson barked out his laugh and Eden looked at him as if he lost his mind.
“You two are
