Chapter 39

CHAPTER39

He wasn’t letting her go, Bryce realized as he stood there, staring down at his bathroom sink as his grip tightened around the counter and-

Slowly exhaled as he felt his lips pull up into a smile.

He loved her.

God, he fucking loved her, more than anything, and it was time to stop pretending that he was going to be able to let her go. She was his. Always had been and he was going to do whatever it took to make her happy so that she never had a reason to leave him, including resigning himself to spending the night decorating Christmas stockings, Bryce thought with a long-suffering sigh as he pushed away from the counter and headed back to his room.

Mentally preparing himself for a night of picking glitter off his skin, Bryce made his way to his door, grabbing the bouquet of white and red roses that he’d picked up on the way home off the kitchen island and made his way to Cayley’s door and-

“You’re late,” came the cold welcome as Sean reached over and snatched the flowers out of his hands. With a glare, Sean held out his other hand in silent demand. At Bryce’s questioning look, his brother snapped, “Chocolate?”

“I didn’t bring any,” Bryce found himself answering even as he couldn’t help but wonder why his brother was answering Cayley’s door.

Nodding slowly, Sean said, “You can leave now,” as he went to close the door, only to sigh heavily when Bryce reached over and slapped his hand against it to stop the little bastard.

“What the hell are you doing here?” Bryce asked, reaching up to pinch the bridge of his nose as he felt a headache coming on.

“I couldn’t stay away,” Sean murmured, sounding thoughtful as he smelled the roses, his amused gaze never leaving him.

“You really could have,” Bryce said, dropping his arm away so that he could reach for the flowers and-

“You ready to tell me what I want to know?” Sean asked, sounding bored.

“There’s nothing to tell,” Bryce said, deciding that he’d played enough games tonight, he pushed past the little bastard and-

“Where’s Cayley?” he found himself asking as he took in the empty apartment, noting that her bag wasn’t by the door as he glanced back at his brother.

“I believe that Cayley is tied up at the moment,” Sean said, making everything in him go still.

“Tell me that you really didn’t fucking tie her up,” Bryce said, sighing heavily as he headed back the way that he came.

“And locked her in a closet,” Sean said, nodding solemnly as he watched him leave.

“You really are a prick,” Bryce said, walking back into his apartment and realized that his truck keys were missing before he turned back around and headed back to Cayley’s apartment, only to discover that the little bastard was also missing now.

Telling himself that he couldn’t kill his brother, at least not without his father feeling morally obligated to avenge the little bastard, Bryce went looking for him. A minute later, he was glaring as he walked into Cayley’s bedroom and found Sean reclining on her bed.

“You want to tell me where my keys are?” Bryce asked, folding his arms over his chest to stop himself from throttling the little bastard.

“I’m sure they’re somewhere around here,” Sean said with a shrug, looking incredibly fucking bored and letting Bryce know that his brother was about to fuck him over.

“And Cayley?” Bryce asked, debating going back to his apartment and grabbing his spare set of keys out of his bedroom, but he knew his brother well enough to know that he’d thoroughly fucked him over and made sure that he hadn’t left anything to chance.

“Thomas House.”

“What the hell do you want?” Bryce demanded, really fucking tempted to smother the little bastard with a pillow.

“I know about the deal,” Sean said, meeting his gaze.

Of course, he did, Bryce thought with a muttered, “Shit.”

“Indeed,” Sean murmured absently as he folded his arms over his chest as he watched him.

“Does Cayley know?” Bryce asked, feeling sick to his stomach as he dropped his arms away so that he could reach up and rub his hands roughly down his face as he wondered how he’d fucked up this badly.

To be honest, he forgot all about that asinine deal that he’d made with his sister, which only proved that he was a fucking moron. He should have realized that this deal would come back and bite him in the ass eventually.

“Not yet,” Sean said, not really sounding all that concerned as Bryce found himself wondering how he was going to explain this to Cayley.

“Meaning…” Bryce said, throwing his brother a questioning look.

“That I’m willing to keep what I know to myself if you tell me why you did it,” Sean murmured as he examined his fingernails.

“You know why,” Bryce said, ramming his fingers through his hair as he began pacing Cayley’s bedroom.

“Honestly, I have no fucking idea why you were willing to risk hurting her like this,” Sean said as Bryce dropped his hands away.

“I wasn’t trying to hurt her,” Bryce said, shaking his head as he gestured to her bedroom door. “We can talk about this on the way.”

“She’s fine where she is,” Sean murmured, shrugging it off as Bryce leveled a glare on his brother.

Nodding, Bryce said, “You’re done doing this shit to her. You know that, right?”

“It’s our thing,” Sean said, only to wave that off as he moved on. “You were telling me why you decided to fuck over the woman that you love for this deal.”

“I didn’t fuck her over for this deal. I just…” Bryce said, slowly exhaling before admitting, “I can’t lose her, Sean. I don’t think I’d survive.”

“And yet, you stupidly agreed to this deal,” Sean said with a pitying look.

“This deal had nothing to do with Cayley. It was typical Bradford bullshit,” Bryce said, wishing like hell that he’d told Cayley about the deal from the start. He didn’t regret the deal. Not even a little fucking bit. Not when it meant that she was finally his.

“The Bradford curse,” Sean murmured with a nod of understanding.

“All I had to do was spend time with her for a month and prove that the Bradford curse was bullshit and the house was mine,” Bryce said as he began pacing the room again, needing something to do besides stand there, terrified that he was going to lose her.

“No offense,” Sean said, sighing heavily as he climbed off the bed, “but you fucked that up from the start if you were trying to prove the curse was bullshit.”

“I couldn’t stay away from her,” Bryce admitted, shaking his head in wonder. “When I was around her, nothing else mattered, absolutely fucking nothing. I tried to tell myself that I was doing it for the house, but I quickly realized that I was full of shit.”

“Go on,” Sean murmured as he focused on a large box resting on the nightstand that Bryce hadn’t noticed before.

“I thought I’d be able to walk away, but-”

“You love her,” Sean said, nodding to himself as he pulled out the red and white roses that Bryce bought and set them on the bed before grabbing matching candles.

“I don’t want to lose her,” Bryce said hollowly.

“And Thomas House?” Sean asked, throwing him a questioning look as he placed the candles on the nightstand and lit them.

“Doesn’t matter,” Bryce said without hesitation.

He would happily give up Thomas House if that’s what it took to make her happy. He was-

“This pleases me greatly,” Sean murmured, once again nodding to himself as he made quick work of sprinkling the rose petals over the bed before grabbing the box and made his way to the closet door, leaving a path of rose petals behind him.

Once he was done, Sean nodded, released a satisfied sigh as he tossed the box aside along with the stems and made his way back to the bedroom door. As he moved to close the door behind him, Sean paused to throw over his shoulder, “By the way, I lied. I had no fucking idea that there was a deal in place.” That was followed by a shrug, making him frown in confusion until Sean added, “She’s in the closet,” making Bryce realize just how badly he’d been fucked over.