Chapter 18 The Cheater

Magnum

Zero three hundred hours. A bird overhead gives away our position. The enemy is closing in fast. We're unarmed and outnumbered. Exposed and defenseless.

One of them grabs hold 'round my neck from behind.

I flip him over, pinning his arms and legs to the ground. "No one sneaks up on me."

Wren's terrified eyes stare up at me. Shit.

My apartment, my bed, Wren was next to me, which meant I was sleeping deep, and my subconscious was busy doing and saying things it shouldn't.

"Sorry," she said in a high-pitched voice.

I should've let her go. I should've apologized and backed off, but my knees had forced her legs apart and damn if that didn't get my attention. I'd stretched her arms, holding her hands over her head, forcing the soft swells of her breasts to push up below my face. I'd never imagined she could be even more intoxicating than she'd been before. "God, you're fucking incredible."

"Sorry," she whispered again. She didn't pull away or try to escape. Submissive as hell. "Are you gonna kiss me?" Her chest heaved under my tee shirt.

"Is that what you want?"

Her lashes lowered as her eyes scanned down my chest and back up again. I'd taken off my shirt in the night. "Yes."

I bent down with my lips by her ear to whisper, "Are you a cheater, Wren? "

She shook her head slowly. "We're married." Her voice was breathy and hesitant, and her lips twisted with her lie.

"We're pretending," I reminded her in case she'd forgotten.

"Then pretend to kiss me." She blinked rapidly, and her pulse jumped in her throat.

Tempting. Very tempting. I wanted to ram my tongue between those pouty little lips and show her how good I was at pretending. "That's not how it works. If I kiss you now, and Gavin comes back... He gives you a good story about where he's been. He tells you he still loves you. Then what? You gonna stay married to him, and I'll be the cheater?"

"No. We don't know what's going to happen. I don't—"

Even the possibility churned a dark rage in my chest. She was trying to trap me, so she could call me out later. Women were always calculating like that. "I'm not a cheater. I've fucked a lot of people in a lot of places. None of them were married as far as I know. I never cheat. I don't lie. If you're married to him, promised to him, then I'm not touching you." I said all that yet I still didn't let her go, I didn't loosen my grip on her wrists. In fact, I lowered my hips and gave her more of my weight.

"What about when we're in front of Kenny and we have to pretend? Will you kiss me then?" Her eyes filled with an appealing mischief that forced a grin to my lips.

"Yes, if I have to in order to keep up the ruse."

"And you kissed me at the courthouse."

"And it was hot as hell." Jesus, woman, don't remind me of that. The beginning of my descent into madness .

"So let's pretend now. Pretend we're practicing to be a married couple. If we don't have a real connection, Kenny will see. He'll know we faked it, so we have to be comfortable with each other." Her lips quirked up at the sides, and my very hard cock twitched.

"You're devious for a good girl." My voice scratched with the monumental self-restraint it took not to turn her over and take her ass right there for being a sassy little vixen.

"Maybe I'm not a good girl. Or maybe I don't want to be anymore."

Her pleading ripped through me like a thunderous storm. She knew all the right things to say to get me to give in. Naughty, naughty girl. I tried one last time to reason with her. "Listen. I know you're going through some heavy shit right now, but I'm not that guy." I was not the kind of guy that had to explain to his brother why he'd fucked his girl. I would never be him.

"One practice kiss won't break the rules." She arched her back, and her lower lip puffed out in a little pout. When her teeth raked over it, the last shred of my self-control snapped. My blood burned for her, a fire raged inside the storm, and I couldn't hold it back any more than I could stop a hurricane.

I bit her stupid pouty lip with a warning growl. She blinked and then her eyes fluttered closed, allowing me to tug that lip between my teeth and suck on it.

Her breath hitched, and I swallowed the rest of her mouth. She writhed beneath me, soft little grunts urging me on as I ate her up and licked at every inch I could reach. She tried to answer me, but I dominated that kiss like I did last time. She started it. I'm finishing it. My way .

I pressed my rock hard cock between her legs, and she rolled her hips against it. Fucking heaven right there. My girl came to life for me, giving me desperate little moans, tugging and pulling, begging for me to release her hands and legs.

I was going to take this girl and ruin her. Force my cock in her mouth and make her cry. Pull her hair and spank her ass till she begged for mercy.

Somewhere deep in the back of my thick head, a part of me knew that wasn't right. Not this girl. Not Wren. I would never treat her like that. She deserved so much better, and I owed it to my little brother to be the bigger man here.

I forced my mouth from hers with a pop and rested my forehead in her neck. "Fuck, babe." I struggled to regulate my heavy breaths and slowly pulled back. Time to take it down ten notches.

She turned her head and started kissing my neck. It felt fantastic. Hot wet tongue exploring my skin. Eager nips with her teeth. Breasts rubbing against my chest. Her entire body was a sex machine primed and ready for its first race.

A mournful moan bellowed from deep in my chest. She was using me to get what she wanted. Normally, I'd be fine with that but not this time. Not when my family was on the line. We had to stop. I could not fuck my brother's girl. She may never forgive my brother, but I'd have to. When he came back, I wanted him to hear that I'd protected Wren and I didn't hurt her. And I definitely never wanted him to hear I'd taken her innocence.

I took both her hands in my one and used the other to grip her throat, probably too hard, and angled her chin away. She panted at the ceiling as I stared at her neck that really needed its first hickey.

"I could strip you down and drain you dry right now."

She hummed and swallowed, her body pliant to my demands.

"But I won't. I fucking won't. Because it's against the rules. You're my brother's girl, and we both know we're not pretending. We both know this is dangerous, and we're playing with fire. I'm not a cheater, and I don't lie to people, even myself."

I let her go and pushed up from the bed. I left her there and grabbed a blanket on my way out. "Do not come at me again."

She whimpered and curled up on her side.

I was an asshole. It wasn't her fault. She didn't really come at me. She didn't attack me like I was making it sound. Everything that just happened was one hundred percent my fault, but I was desperate to hang onto any thread of a reason to push her away.

***

An hour later she came out and stood in the doorway. "Mag..."

I grunted in what I thought was a friendly way. The anger had cooled, and I'd been simmering in guilty juices the whole time. She was a sweet girl in a rough situation. She did not deserve my bullshit.

"I'm sorry. I'm sorry I pushed it. "

I sat up and braced my elbows on my knees as I stared at the floor. "Not your fault at all. I apologize for taking my frustration out on you like that."

"I never want to say or do anything that makes you feel uncomfortable. You're trying to be honorable, and I'm making it difficult."

"You're not." I alone was torturing myself by selfishly wanting to keep her close and push her away at the same time.

"Still. I want you to know I value you as a person, and I like you a lot. I'm really lucky to have met you, and I don't want to ruin the friendship we're creating."

Jesus, she was sweet. Like to the core good. "You want to be friends with me?"

"Family. Right?" She shrugged and tilted her head. Wren was a much better person than I was in all ways apparent.

"Right."

We remained in companionable silence for a long time. Only the sound of the refrigerator in the kitchen hummed through the room with the occasional click and pop of the fan. Left unsaid between us was the fact that she would not be family if she didn't take Gavin back. What would we do then? Neither one of us was ready to have that conversation.

"Tonight was a lot," she said as she broke the silence.

"You're going through it," I replied.

"So are you."

I chuckled without humor. She was worried about me and my errant brother when she'd just remembered her parents were brutally murdered before her eyes and she'd repressed the memory her entire life. "I've been through a lot of things. This is all new to you."

"Still. Come back to bed. I won't touch you, but it makes me feel safe."

Now that things had cooled down, I felt like I could handle being next to her again, and her eyes said she really needed it. So, I stood up and did what any good brother-in-law would do. I slept with my brother's wife.