Chapter 1

Alarge smile came over Gage's face, accompanied by a chuckle of amusement. "Look who it is. After all these years and all the places, I didn't expect to run into my big brother tonight."

Joey's back was straighter than a steel rod and his chest puffed out defensively. His arm reached out and possessively guided Layne a step behind him as his eyes remained on Gage.

Layne stared at the two men; two De Luca men, in her presence. Once Gage dropped the bomb that Joey was his brother, she couldn't unsee it. Their eyes had the same warm brown hues. Their facial structures held similarities that one often would expect between siblings. Both had darker shades of blonde hair. Shit, even both of them had a charm that rolled off of their smiles with ease.

Her eyes darted between them both in shock as she noticed Joey's reaction didn't give off any warm and fuzzy vibes. He never told her that he had a brother, when speaking about his childhood, it had always sounded as though he was an only child. Not once did he mention having any siblings. The way he was looking at Gage right now gave her the impression he had wished that was the case.

"Layne," Joey calmly spoke, "go wait in the car."

She blinked several times. "I'm not?—"

Joey cut her off, "I'm not fuckin' asking twice." His words didn't have the usual playfulness to them, causing her to flinch at the harsher tone.

Gage attempted to lighten up the tension in the air between them. "She's welcome to stay and we can have a few drinks together." He made the mistake of reaching out for Layne's arm.

Without so much as the blink of an eye, Joey snatched up two handfuls of Gage's crisp white shirt and forcefully shoved him. "You don't get to fuckin' touch her!" He released his hold after the strong push of his little brother, which resulted in Gage stumbling back several steps.

Regaining his footing, Gage lifted his hands harmlessly with a smirk. "I didn't mean anything by it. Relax." He chuckled, entertained by Joey's overreaction. His gaze shifted back to Layne who stood there bewildered and unaware of the history between them. He gave her a sly wink.

Whether or not he knew the subtle move would push Joey's buttons wasn't obvious. What was clear was that Joey wasn't going to put up with it. Years of pent-up rage rumbled to the surface. He lunged at Gage, colliding into him and they both crashed into a nearby table. A few scantily clad girls shrieked in response to the fight breaking out between the two men.

Upon impact with the table, drinks immediately spilled everywhere while Joey and Gage wrestled with one another. After they both rolled off the table and hit the ground, both of them had a fistful of each other's shirts as punches were thrown.

Both men appeared to be evenly matched with one another. Neither of them were gaining the upper hand in the scuffle. Layne stood back, unsure of how or if she should intervene. If Joey's life appeared to be in danger, she wouldn't have hesitated, but this looked more like brothers hashing out their issues.

The rest of Cassidy's Cave occupants seemed to ignore the battle between the two rolling around on the floor as if this was nothing but a typical brawl at the club.

Joey rolled on top of Gage, pinning him down as he drew back his fist decorated with the skull tattoo. Seizing the opportunity, Layne grabbed his arm with both of her hands, knowing she needed to if she was going to have a chance of putting an end to this.

"Stop, Joey!" Her fingers dug into his arm, pulling back on it to avoid it continuing its path downwards towards Gage's jaw.

Luckily, he had enough awareness of Layne's presence to not lash out at her as well. Feeling her tug on him again, his heated glare remained on his brother but gave in to her insistence to put an end to the altercation.

He got up off Gage, speaking between clenched teeth, "I don't want to ever see your face ever again." Joey slid his arm from Layne's grasp forcefully. His bloodied hand from his split knuckles dropped to snatch a tight hold of her hand.

The younger De Luca partially sat up on an elbow and used his thumb to wipe away a small stream of blood coming from the corner of his mouth as he watched the two of them. Well, it was more along the lines of watching Layne's ass in those skintight jeans she had on. Fuck, that perfect ass practically had his name on it.

Breathing heavily while recovering from the skirmish, Joey tugged Layne along with him on his way out of the strip club. Her steps were doubled up to keep up with his long strides. She looked over at his face, the tension still pulling at his expression in hard lines.

Once they were all in the Challenger, with Liam drunkenly passed the hell out in the backseat, the silence was damn near suffocating.

Unable to take it anymore, Layne spoke, "Joey, you never told me you had?—"

His eyes never leaving the road ahead of them, he stopped her right there. "We're not talking about this." The topic of his brother was immediately off-limits.

Both of her brows lifted in surprise that he thought his statement was going to prevent this discussion from happening. It may have put a halt to it for now, but that was only because they had just pulled up in front of Liam's studio located on the outskirts of Tribeca.

Layne sighed irritably and got out of the passenger seat. She pushed her seat forward and leaned in the back, giving Liam a jab to his arm. "Wake up, jackass."

A sharp snortle came from Liam as he shifted his position in the back. She wrinkled up her nose and her fist pounded into his bicep once more, this time harder. There may have been a little of her own frustration behind that second hit.

His hazel eyes half-lifted open as he glanced around, grumbling at the inconvenience.

She shook her head and stepped back from the open door. "We're here. Go drink some water and put your ass to bed."

Liam's hand rubbed over his auburn hair which was already thoroughly disheveled as he tried to shake off enough of the intoxicated slumber to get himself out of the backseat.

Once she saw him get inside the upscale residential building, Layne got back into the car. Her fingers massaged over her forehead, recalling how this evening hadn't gone as planned. From the call about Liam going on a rager at the adult entertainment venue to the drama between Joey and his brother which Layne never knew he had.

With dread filling her voice, she spoke, "I'm going to have to tell him soon." It was clear that she wasn't looking forward to hashing out more shit with Liam.

Joey scoffed and sarcastically replied, "I'm sure he's going to take it so well." He pulled away from the curb to begin driving them back to their home—O'Reilly Manor.

Her green eyes stared over at him. "About as well as you took having a conversation with your brother?" She didn't hide the annoyance over his decision to conceal Gage's existence from her. Their late-night conversations had been filled with talks about everything and anything, and he had failed to mention something as simple as having a sibling. It had old feelings of distrust whispering in the back of her brain.

Joey's hand readjusted its grasp on the steering wheel, holding it a little tighter. "Just drop it, Layne."

When did she ever just drop things because she was told to? "No."

Before he got the opportunity to make some comment about him asking twice, she continued, "Don't even start that crap with me, Joey. What the hell was that back there at the club?!"

He reached over and finally decided that he was done with silence and turned the volume knob up to blare the music to avoid any actual conversation between them. The heavy rock tunes filled the car.

While driving back uptown, Joey fought through each of the painful memories at war inside of his head from nearly ten years ago.

Rosie giggled as she ran her hands across the smooth and unmarked skin of Joey's bare chest while he stood there in just his jeans. "You're being so bad! Gage is going to be home any minute."

He gave a devious smirk. "So? Let him see who really knows how to get your pussy wet." His hands continued their descent over her body towards her little white shorts.

Joey leaned in, whispering into the hot, young blonde's ear. "Nothing is going to stop me from giving you the hard fuck you deserve, Rose. Gage is going to have to learn how to share."

He gave a hard blink at the thoughts creeping up of what led up to a horrific day that had been burned forever into his skull. His jaw clenched even tighter still recalling each detail of Rosie's sun-kissed skin and the sound of her voice when she tried to sound serious but instead sounded as threatening as a kitten mewing.

Out of the corner of his vision, he snuck a glimpse of Layne. She sat there with her arms crossed in front of her chest watching out the window as each street passed. The street lights flashed across her fair skin as each one passed, reflecting the blank expression she wore when she tightened the screws on her temper. He knew that look on her face too well. She was pissed, and he couldn't blame her.

When they got back home, Layne went inside ahead of him. She didn't bother to wait for him to follow behind her.

After he locked up the front door, Joey found her inside the kitchen with a cold beer in her hand. The way her lips connected with the opening of the bottle he thought about all the other ways those plump lips could be put to better use.

Layne fully avoided eye contact with him as she leaned back against the counter and took another sip of the hoppy pale ale. Her tongue slipped forth and ran over her lips afterward to collect any remaining beer on them.

Joey stepped up in front of her, caging her in place as he set his hands on the counter on either side of her. His eyes had a soft burn to them as he peered down at her. "I'm sorry."

Refusing to look at him to help maintain her resolve, she shook her head. "No, you're not. You're thinking about getting your dick blown."

He sighed but didn't argue her assumption that had been right on point.

She pushed away from the counter, but when he didn't move his arms, she pushed against them. Instead of allowing her to pass, he slid an arm around her waist, drawing her up against him.

Joey's hand eased the beer from her hand, bringing it to his mouth and chugging it down. Leaving the now-empty bottle on the counter behind her, he took her face by the jaw to look at him.

"And you're thinking about blowing it." A smirk eased over his face as he soaked in the way she made her irritation look irresistible.

Her insides were beginning to melt as she was forced to meet his eyes. "You're not getting out of this so easily."

Gently, his hand turned her head to expose the line of her neck. Joey leaned over, bringing his mouth up against her fair skin. The short and bristly hairs of his stubble scratched at her as his lips worked over the sensitive flesh, kissing and sucking at it. His teeth pressed into the skin, applying a moderate but brief amount of pressure.

Layne exhaled a light moan as he worked his magic against her neck. Her hands came up to his chest, digging her fingers into the soft cotton of his tee. "I mean it, Joey." Her words had lost their edge to them as her eyes fluttered closed momentarily while his tongue grazed along her throat.

He released her jaw so he could grab her hand and bring it up against the zipper of his pants to feel the strain his hard cock was putting on it. "You can mean it all you like, Layney. Hell, you can even be pissed, but you're going to take my cum down your throat like a good girl."

The heat of her anger was spreading elsewhere and forming a desire between her legs. Her hand rubbed over the bulge pushing against the front of his pants.

She pushed him back against the pantry door behind him with her other hand. Layne's eyes locked onto his own with a steamy gaze. Her hand roughly jerked on his pants as she tugged them open. She may have been pissed, but she was going to seize this opportunity.

After her petite hand retrieved his throbbing cock from his dark boxer briefs, she dropped down onto her knees in front of him. His hands immediately came down to bury themselves in her silky hair. Her long, dark locks draped over the various lines of the tattoos and dried blood across his fingers.

Now at eye-level with his member, she could see the precum glistening as it spilled over the head of his cock. Her tongue snaked out and licked away the clear liquid from him in one smooth motion. "You better hope that I choke on your cock and forget that you owe me an explanation."

Feeling the velvety stroke of her tongue against his head he groaned, "Fuck." His grasp on her head tightened. "Suck my cock with that mouth of yours and we can talk afterward."

Noticing a slip in his initial stance on having a discussion, she grinned and pulled his length into her mouth. Sucking on him roughly, she didn't waste time in drawing him back farther towards her throat. Her head slid back and forth against him eagerly.

He moaned out above her as he watched himself disappear into her mouth. "Christ, Layney, slow down. I want time to enjoy this."

If she didn't have a mouthful of him, she would have smirked, but instead, she hummed against him causing his body to tense up from another spark of pleasure. She continued at a swift pace as her mouth worked around every inch of him.

Joey's hands attempted to slow her down, but each attempt was met by her tongue dancing along the bottom of his cock and effectively distracting his efforts.

Her oral skills were sending him quickly into overdrive, his moans growing more intense. The buildup of pressure of his arousal was quickly nearing its breaking point. "Layne, ugh. Take it easy…"

When he told her to ease up on him, that's when her hand cupped his balls in the palm of her hand and gave him the money look. Her vibrant green eyes peered up at him through her thick eyelashes as she remained kneeling in front of him.

Seeing her staring up at him like he had the only dick in the world she could ever want, he whimpered right before he exploded. His hips pushed forward, shoving his cock deeper into her throat as thick ropes of seed erupted. Joey released a loud groan while he continued to spasm inside her mouth.

Layne swallowed each mouthful as he came for her. She felt a sense of pride and satisfaction in her efforts. If he had been a good boy and took the time to have the conversation with her about Gage, she may have drawn out the way her mouth sucked him.

Once the tension eased in his body, she pulled her mouth away and got back onto her feet with her swollen lips in a victorious smile.

She used her fingertips to wipe away a few drops of his seed and her saliva from the edges of her mouth, sucking her fingers clean afterward. "Now, are you going to tell me what the deal is with your brother?"