CHAPTER FIFTEEN

CHRISTIAN

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Jesus.

I hadn’t known what I was walking in on when I heard the grunts and groans coming from Mira’s room. I’d hoped it was someone getting fucked and was happy I wasn’t wrong when I found myself watching Daniel slam Mira’s pretty mouth down over his cock. She was taking it so well, so beautifully. I couldn’t see her face from the doorway, but I had a perfect view of her back, her sweet ass. Daniel had a firm grip on all those rich locks as he used her throat to get off.

I know he saw me.

There was a flick of his eyes in my direction, but barely. Still, he let me watch as Mira took his jizz down her throat like such a good fucking girl. He let me stay as he spread her open across the bed and ate her wet, pink pussy.

She let me stay.

She came for me. Came watching me stroke my cock. She held my gaze as Daniel finger fucked her tight cunt and liked it. Liked having me watch her. Liked watching me back. She begged to cum again just to have me there longer, or maybe she was just really horny, but she never took her eyes off me, not even when she came a second time.

Daddy’s sweet, innocent girl isn’t so sweet or innocent, it seems. At least, whatever inhibitions she has can be swayed. That’s what matters. I can work with shy, but when shy is steeped in reservation and resistance to try more, that makes things difficult.

Mira doesn’t seem to have that problem. She wants it. She’s willing to learn. The only reluctance she has is wanting me.

She does. There is no doubt in my mind that if Daniel wasn’t in the picture, she’d be in my bed. But Mira’s loyal and she has no idea the history Daniel and I have. Her biggest concern is hurting Daniel, and I understand that because that’s the last thing I want either.

But I do want to punch him. Just once in the mouth.

I don’t know what fucked up game he’s playing, but he needs to get his shit straight before I take matters into my own hands and figure it out because just hours earlier, he was sitting at the diner, yammering on about not wanting to scare and confuse Mira, that he’s not sure he wants me with her because it might be too much.

Then the fucker is toying with her with the door open, sees me, and let’s me stay.

He’s fucking with my head and I’m ready to start swinging because I don’t ... I can’t do head games again. Lucy taught me long ago to run the other way at the first waft. She was a hard lesson learned but I learned it and I’m not doing that again.

I kick a loose rock with the toe of my motorcycle boot. It tumbles across the dirt, not reaching Daniel’s truck, but stopping midway between it and my bike.

I could have waited inside while they finished, but cumming in my hand like some sick pervert peeping in on his neighbors doing the dirty hadn’t felt as good as I’d thought. If anything, the shame of it left me irritable and gross.

Maybe I should just fucking leave. Let Daniel deal with this shit alone.

Then I see her.

Mira emerging from the pathway, hand in Daniel’s, smiling up at him with her whole beautiful face. Her blue eyes shine in the dancing patches of light breaking in through the trees.

Her skin glows a faint, delicious pink. I hadn’t seen enough of her earlier on the bed, but I’d seen enough that seeing her now in that tiny black top held over her perky tits by the sheer grace of two thin straps tied behind her neck and a metal o-ring, I ache to pull them free again. I ache to shove her jean shorts down, bend her over my bike and fill one of her holes while Daniel takes her mouth on the other side.

Her hair is down, a glistening wave of rich caramel that had looked so good fisted around Daniel’s fist. The strands bounce around her shoulders and frame her flushed face.

That warmth deepens when she turns her face and our eyes meet.

I have to bite back my smirk. I have to restrain the urge to let my eyes roll over her with intention.

This is exactly the shit I don’t need to feel when she’s never going to be mine.

“We’re going to the hardware store after breakfast,” Daniel yells across the space between us. “We should take the truck.”

Fuck no.

I am not sitting in the back while he gets to sit next to Mira the whole time with his hand in her lap.

“My bike is fine.”

I grab my helmet off the bench for emphasis and shove it down over my head. I glance up for a second to find Mira watching me, her plump bottom lip caught between her teeth with an anxious snag. I’m half tempted to tell her to get on, but I’m already so fucking over my head, so deep that I know I can’t trust myself with her.

Daniel helps her up into the truck and shuts the door, but her blue eyes continue to watch me as he rounds the back to the driver’s side.

They pull out first and I give them a minute to not get caught in the kicked-up dust from their tires before following.

I’m going to leave, I decide as the dirt path turns to paved highway.

As soon as we get to the diner, I’m going to tell Daniel the house is his, good luck and farewell. Then, I’ll get back on my bike and go home.

He and Mira can figure that mess out. He’ll have her and she’ll have him, and I have the six pack in the fridge back at my apartment. Everyone will be happy. It’s a great idea. A rational one.

A sane one.

I think of the night before watching Daniel break down Mira’s door to get to her because she’d had a nightmare. Would I do that?

Yes, the answer is immediate and without falter. I would walk through fire to get to her.

It’s not love. I don’t love her. Love at first sight is for children and Disney characters. I’ve had too many women in my life, too many encounters to believe anyone can make you fall for them on sight, or in twenty-four hours.

I don’t know what my feelings are, exactly, except that I would protect her. Maybe that just makes me a regular human with a modicum of decency, but I would have killed Brewer and Walton for her. I would kick down any door to protect her from her nightmares. I would do a lot of things that I shouldn’t because she’s not mine.

We arrive at the diner and get the same booth. I sit across from the pair and keep my face averted to the menu over the counter, but there is no missing the lack of distance between the two, or the arm Daniel has over the back of her bench. She’s practically nestled into his side, her small hand a pale bird on his thigh.

I’m not jealous.

Seriously.

I just don’t like being a third wheel unless I’m part of the damn tricycle.

Mabel is not pleased to see us back. On a normal day, I would meet her snark with my own, but I’m done with everything and I only stare at her until she shuts her stupid mouth and fucks off.

“You’re not hungry?” Mira asks once we’re alone again.

I flick my gaze from Mabel’s retreating back to the tiny addiction watching me like she’s braced for me — me!— to break her heart. “I didn’t work up an appetite this morning, I guess.”

It’s a low, shitty thing to say. I know it even before Mira flinches and drops her gaze.

I’m ready to apologize when I catch Daniel’s hard, level stare. I know my brother well enough to know he’s pissed. Rightfully so. I would be too if I let him watch the woman I love only for him to hurt her.

“I’m going to head out after this,” I tell them, deciding to just get that over with. “You already know what you want to do with the place. I’ll sign whatever papers you want, just send them to my email.” I drum my fingers anxiously on the tabletop and search for the damn waitress with my coffee so I can at least hold something. “I’ll pay half of whatever owing bills there are if you need—”

“I don’t,” Daniel mutters. “We’re fine.”

I drum harder, restless nerves getting the better of me. “Great.”

I dig into my back pocket and unearth my wallet. I toss a ten down and start edging to get out. I make the mistake of turning my head and I find myself caught in her big, sad eyes and soft, pouty lips. She’s staring at me like I just told her, her puppy died, and I shouldn’t give a shit, but it kicks me in the gut.

Fuck this.

I shove out of the booth and stalk to the doors. The silver bells overhead clamor wildly in my rush to escape.

I’m not running, but my strides are long in the direction of my bike.

“Hey!”

I don’t need to turn to know Daniel’s hot on my heels. Sure enough, my brother storms after me, a dark cloud of anger hanging over his head.

“What the hell is wrong with you?” he demands once he’s close enough.

“What are you talking about? I’m going home.”

“Why?”

I stare at him a long moment, trying to determine if he’s intentionally being dense. “Because I want to go home?” I mutter dryly. “Didn’t realize this was a hostage situation.”

“Don’t be stupid. Why are you leaving?” He folds his arms over his chest. “You were fine last night.”

“And this morning, I’ve decided this isn’t worth my time.”

He’s silent.

We both are.

I realize the weight of my words, the implication behind them and I know he does too.

“I see,” he murmurs at long last, taking a deliberate step back. “Have a safe drive back.”

He pivots on his heel and starts back to the diner. Anger and panic collide deep in my chest and I’m shouting words I should just keep in my head.

“What do you want from me?”

My brother stops and faces me. His features are a solid mask of fury that pulls his eyebrows low over his eyes and pinches the corners of his mouth. There’s disappointment and disgust in the fine edges, but it’s the shake of his head that hits me the hardest.

“Nothing. Go home.”

“I can’t stay,” I snap before he can turn again. “I hate that place, Daniel. Being back there, with all of his things, everything of Mom gone like she never existed...”

I see the anger dull around the edges. Regret and resignation has his gaze dropping to the dirt beneath our feet.

“I just ... I can’t be there, Danny. I can’t look at those damn walls and not remember the monster who would beat our heads into them until we passed out.”

Daniel moves closer until the chasm is three feet of gravel between us. “He’s dead.”

I shake my head. “Doesn’t matter. That was his house. His ... shrine. His soul is still in that place.”

He searches my face, and I wish I never said a damn thing. “It’s only a few more days.”

I suck in a breath. “It’s not just that place.”

Daniel doesn’t so much as blink. “Mira.”

Against my will, my gaze shifts to where I can just make out her small, pale face in the glass. Even from here, I can see the furrow in her brow, the anxious chewing on her lip. I would give my soul to ease the hurt I caused her, but I look at my brother.

“I don’t know what you want from me,” I tell him slowly, turning my attention back to him. “You’re teasing me with her but won’t let me touch her. You leave the door open and let me watch you but won’t let me take my turn.” I shove five fingers back through my hair. “I want her, Danny. I fucking shouldn’t, I know, but I can only take so much and this morning, seeing her like that, knowing she knew I was watching her and still she...” I pull in a lungful of crisp, morning air. “What do you want from me?”

To his credit, Daniel doesn’t shut me down right away. He turns his head in the direction of the diner.

“You hurt her. She thinks you hated what you saw—”

“I didn’t!” I snap, a surge of panic closing around my throat.

“What did you think it would look like, Chris? You stormed off, wouldn’t acknowledge her, snapped at her...”

He doesn’t need to finish. He’s right. Of course, she’d think that. I should have fucking realized instead of getting my head stuck up my ass.

“That isn’t...”

“I told you she was fragile and this is all new to her. She doesn’t know you, doesn’t know what you’re like. Right now, all she knows is that she let you see her at her most vulnerable and you threw it back in her face.”

Fuck. Fuck!

“I didn’t! Daniel, you fucking know...”

“She doesn’t,” he stresses. “She’s the one you need to talk to and fix it.”

I’m ready to charge back into the diner and set shit straight. I even start forward. Daniel blocks me. His light, brown eyes meet mine.

“I love her, Chris,” he says at long last. “I’ve never loved anything or anyone the way I fucking love her. I would die for her.” He rubs his brow with four fingers. “I will kill anyone who hurts her.” The message is clear, and I don’t argue it; I would kill anyone who hurt her, too. “Anyone.”

I get it.

Me included, and I don’t blame him.

“I never meant to hurt her. I never would. I don’t love her, but there’s ... something. I can’t explain it. When I look at her, it’s not,” I pause to think of the word, “I want her. I want to taste her and feel her under me, but I feel stupid when she smiles. I want to protect her and hold her, and take care of her. I’m weirdly obsessed with that dimple in her chin and the way she’s so tiny but vicious when she’s angry, like a wet kitten. It’s insane because I don’t even know her last name. I met her a day ago. She’s literally a stranger, but I’d commit murder for her.”

The corner of my brother’s mouth quirks. “I don’t know how to tell you this but that’s love, little brother.”

“No—”

He cuts me off. “She’s not Lucy. She’s everything Lucy wishes she could be. If you’re sure you want to be in this, she will give you everything. She will love you with every piece of her soul. Granted, she’ll try to take it back immediately after.” He chuckles when I frown in confusion. “She thinks if she tells people she loves them, they’ll die. She thinks she’s cursed and I’ve tried to tell her, her therapist has tried to tell her, doctors, literally everyone has tried to tell her it’s not true, but she’s as stubborn as she is amazing. So, she will tell you not to love her, but she makes it fucking impossible not to.”

I thought about that a long moment, seconds while I try to absorb what he’s telling me.

“I want it,” I decide firmly. “All of it.”

Daniel seems unsurprised. Fucker probably already knew I can’t walk away from her.

“Slowly,” he says. “I mean it, Chris. I know what you’re like. You’ll push too hard, come on too strong and you’ll scare her. Slow.”

Anything I say won’t make a difference. Words can be broken. Forgotten. It will all depend on my actions from this moment.

But I give him a nod that I understand. I accept. I will protect her with my life.

Mira sits up straight when we return to the booth. Her gaze moves between us, questions barely restrained. Two mugs of coffee and a glass of orange juice rest on the table.

“Christian’s going to stay,” Daniel tells her, sliding into the spot next to her while I regain my seat.

I don’t miss the way she scoots into Daniel’s side the moment he’s settled. I don’t miss the smile he gives her or the palm he smooths over her hair.

I want that. I want her in my lap, face in my neck while we watch TV and I rub her back. I want her curled up in my bed, the scent of our sins hot in the air. I want her to light up when she sees me, not glower the way she is now.

She’s pissed.

I saw that same fire in her eyes right before she smacked me the other night. Whatever hurt she had over my careless stupidity is now a solid wall keeping me out.

I like a challenge. I excel at them.

It should concern me, I should take it as defeat, but her fight fuels me. Her resistance, her attempts to deny the things I do to her only feeds me. It makes her submission all the fucking sweeter.

Oh, don’t get me wrong. I have every intention of groveling. Of falling to my knees before her ... with her legs over my shoulders and my tongue writing my penance between her folds, but she’ll be the one begging God. Now that Daniel has given her to me, now that she’s fucking mine, I’m going to spend as long as she’ll give me erasing this from her pretty head.

My cock is hard and confined beneath my jeans. I want to reach down and adjust it but Mabel takes that moment to stalk over with two steaming plates. They’re dropped a little too hard on the table and shoved in front of Mira and Daniel.

“Anything else?” she grumbles.

“Your breakfast special, please,” I announce. “Sunny side up, whole wheat toast and extra crispy bacon.”

Her round eyes narrow at me like I personally insulted her shoes. “Found your appetite?”

I ignore the jab, sliding my gaze sideways to Mira. “Something like that.”

Mira only glares back even as her cheeks darken.

Mabel huffs off, but veers away from the pickup counter to a nearby table of church women. She pulls out a chair and drops into it. I guess I’m not getting my food anytime soon.

That’s fine.

I toy with my mug of barely warm coffee while I wait. Mira isn’t touching her plate at all but sipping idly on her orange juice and watching the cars flowing in and out of the parking lot with that adorable chin propped on the heel of her hand.

There’s a deep crease between her delicate eyebrows and a hard set to her full lips that screams of her displeasure.

“Mi?” Daniel touches her thigh lightly, pulling her attention to him, but the frown doesn’t lift.

Her gaze shifts from him to something over his shoulder but it’s too quick for me to follow. Whatever it is, it only deepens her annoyance.

“I’m fine.” But she doesn’t sound fine.

Daniel seems to agree with me when his eyes narrow. “Is something wrong with your—?”

“Can you excuse me?” she blurts.

Daniel blinks, but slides out of his seat to let her out. He doesn’t regain it, but watches as I do as Mira pads over to where Mabel is still chatting with a group of women I vaguely recognize, but can’t care enough to remember, or care when I’m riveted by the flicker of surprise on Mabel’s face when Mira steps right in her face.

“Oh shit,” I breathe, body bracing to lunge at a moment’s notice.

Daniel stands as tense as I feel watching Mabel register the confrontation. We can’t hear what Mira is saying, but the finger she jabs in our direction followed by the second finger waving at the kitchen, my guess is she also noticed Mabel not putting my order in, but unlike me, she had a whole different set of thoughts on the issue.

The table Mabel was chatting with hasn’t moved. Unlike us, they’re right near the action and whatever Mira is saying in her soft murmur has them clutching their metaphorical pearls.

“That is not—” Mabel’s irate exclamation is silenced by the stride Mira takes for her, like she’s ready to swing.

“Shit!” Daniel hisses and bolts to grab the feisty brat.

I stand when the three men in the corner look like they’re about to get up. Truthfully, I doubt they’d do much. Each one is tipping seventy, but I’ll knock grandpa out if he goes near Mira or Daniel.

Gunner comes out of the kitchen, massive frame draped in a white apron he’s wringing his pitcher mitts in. His dark eyes swing over all the standing bodies and stops on where Daniel has Mira firmly around the middle.

“What’s going on?”

“She threatened me!” Mabel squeals. “We all heard it.”

The table of women all nods vigorously. A few make incoherent sounds that aren’t really words, but distressed muttering. I would have rolled my eyes, but Mira cut in.

“You must have lived a very sheltered life if you think that was a threat. I asked her to place Christian’s order before she sits down and chats with the girls. Her answer was that filth didn’t need to be taking up her table space to which I answered—”

“Don’t!” Daniel cut her off sharply. “Don’t say another word.”

His lawyer must have kicked in.

“She told me if I talked about her boys that way again, I’d be eating filth,” Mabel answers for her, vile bitterness dripping from each word. “Her boys. Obviously, nothing has changed. Still filthy heathens—”

Mabel’s shrieking squeal reminiscent of a pig at slaughter would have been hilarious any other time but it only detonated because Mira lunged for her. Mabel’s face was saved from the younger woman’s talons by the sheer grace of Daniel’s reflexes.

The venomous, curdling fury darkening Mira’s gorgeous face will forever be first on my spank bank memory card. A vicious goddess of wrath. A warrior. So tiny and so bloodthirsty.

Fuck, I didn’t think it was possible to get this fucking hard.

“Chris!” I blink out of images of me railing Mira right there on a table to focus on my brother’s face. “Take Mira outside.”

With a raging boner, I stalk over and take her hand firmly in mine and forcibly tug her away from the staring faces.

“She started it,” Mira snaps the whole way to the truck. “She didn’t even put your order in. She—”

I shove my little brat against the cold metal. Her expression radiates surprise but that’s all I allow her before my mouth is on hers.

I devour her.

I consume her pathetic little whimpers and bruise her pretty lips. I fill her hot mouth with my tongue and swallow the taste of her orange juice and her sweet flavor. My fingers are punishing fists in her hair, knotting the satin threads around my hands and dragging her face higher to take everything while her perfect, little body bows into mine willingly.

The thick, potent fragrance of her arousal unspools in the air around us, killing me. Destroying any dusting of control I may have been in possession of. It soaks my brain until it’s the only thing that matters.

She frees herself. It comes with the cost of slamming her head against the side of Daniel’s truck, but I let her. I let her wheeze and gasp, and take all the air she can while I claw down her throat with my teeth. While I suck and mark her sweet flesh under the one already there. While I grab her ass and drag her mound over the throbbing erection she’s caused.

“Christian!” she cries or gasps. I don’t know, but the sound is beautifully tortured, caught on a sob and desperate.

“I’m going to fuck you,” I threaten, licking the purple brand I’ve left over her pounding pulse. “I’m going to make you take every inch of my cock in your tight ass until you cum screaming my name just like that.”

Her eyes are dark and glassy when I lift my head. Her mouth is wet and swollen. But it’s the dimple in her chin I go for.

I sink my teeth into the small point. Not hard but she cries out and twists her fists into my top.

“Mad at you,” she wheezes, dragging me closer. “You hurt me.”

Breathing as wild and jagged as hers, I raise my head and fix my gaze to hers. “I know.” With a tenderness the polar opposite to my earlier attack, I touch her face. I skim the swollen curve of her bottom lip with my thumb. “It’s me.” I draw in a slow, steadying breath. “It’s always me. I get fucked up in the head sometimes and I hurt people, but I would never intentionally hurt you, Mira. I don’t know how to fix this broken piece inside me, but I’ll do better if you’ll let me.”

She’s watching me when I look at her again. She’s still panting, still trembling and smelling like she needs a thick cock to satisfy the way she’s shifting her thighs, but she’s not angry. She hasn’t pushed me away.

“We’re all a little broken,” she whispers, mirroring the cup of her palm against the side of my face. “I hurt you the other night, too.”

She had, but she hadn’t said anything I hadn’t heard a million times before; Daniel is always the better choice.

“You deserve Daniel, sweetheart. He won’t hurt you.”

Her arms slide around my neck. The height difference has her up on her toes, her lithe body curving against mine. I have to loop my arms around her middle to keep her steady.

“I lied that night.” Her soft gaze lifts to my face. “I did want you. I still do. I didn’t ... didn’t think it could be possible to have you when...”

“When you love Daniel,” I finish quietly for her, and get my answer when she lowers her lashes to study my throat.

“I do love Daniel,” she says softly, eyes a kaleidoscope of pain. “I felt like I was betraying him with how much I felt for you...”

As if realizing she’d said too much, Mira drops her chin and tries to break free, but I have her back against the truck, caging her in place.

“And now?”

Her attention lifts reluctantly up to my face. “I don’t know. I’ve never done this before.”

I bite back my grin. “None of your books have two men?”

The corner of her mouth lifts. “I mean, I’ve read a few reverse harems—”

“What’s reverse harems?”

“One girl with like a whole bunch of guys.”

I definitely don’t like that. The idea of sharing Mira with anyone other than Daniel makes my blood hot and not in a good way.

“No. Not that one.”

Mira chuckles. “Why choose?”

I consider this one carefully before asking, “What’s that?”

“One girl with two men.”

“That’s the one. What happens in those?”

A little grimace curls her lips that makes me suddenly not want to know. “I don’t think I’ve ever read anything with two brothers. Sometimes, the guys also...”

“No!” I blurt before she can finish. “Nope. No, thank you. No more of those for you. Find some brother ones.”

Her explosion of laughter makes me chuckle weakly. “I will ask for some recommendations for inspirational purposes.” Her cheeks darken even as she sucks her bottom lip between her teeth. “I can’t believe I’m having this conversation. Daniel never once mentioned he was into sharing.”

“He’s not. Not really. It’s complicated.”

“Only with you,” she murmurs, and I nod.

“Only with me.”

She considers this a long moment. Pale pools of blue shaded by hooded lashes as she watches the light skim of her fingertips across my lips.

“I don’t want to be shared with anyone else.”

Fuck!

My promise that no one else will ever have her is halted by the crunch of approaching feet on gravel.

I pull away from the truck with my arm securely around Mira, body braced to take on whoever comes around the corner only to relax when Daniel steps into view.

His furious expression gives me the impression the conversation back in the diner did not go well. The dark glower he darts from me to Mira speaks volumes.

“Get in,” he tells her.

“Why am I in trouble?” she demands, rightfully in my opinion. “She started it. She wouldn’t get Christian’s food. I asked her nicely. She—”

“Because you’re better than her!” Daniel snaps back.

“Her job is to get people their food. She literally sat her ass down and refused. I said, can you please get his order and she ... she...” Her little face draws into a hard, angry mold of someone fighting back both her rage and her tears. The effort has her hands balling into fists but she heaves in a breath and continues in a shaky voice that breaks my heart. “She was rude. She said terrible things.” She sniffles. “I didn’t start it.”

Daniel’s face softens, but the tension is still a rigid pulse in his jaw. “No one in this town is going to be nice, baby. No one.” His fingers reach over the divide and lightly stroke her flushed cheek. “You can’t fight all of them. It’s not a battle that can be won.”

“But—”

He presses his thumb over her lips still plump from my attack. “We only have a few days. Then we never have to come back here.”

To my surprise — and Daniel’s, apparently judging from his startled expression — she smacks his hand away to glower up at him.

“I can’t do that. I won’t sit there and let them say those things about you and Christian. I don’t owe these people anything and I’m not scared of them. If you’re worried I’m going to start a fight, you better leave me at home until we leave this shithole because I will stab the next motherfucker who even mentions your names.”

With a final glower at both of us, my little brat stomps to her side of the truck and gets inside. The entire bulk rattles viciously with the slam of her door.

Daniel and I don’t move for several painstaking long seconds where I’m biting back my snicker and he’s taking long, measured breaths. Apparently, unlike me, he’s not overwhelmed by her delicious possessiveness.

“I’m going to spank her ass raw,” he mutters at last.

“Why? Because she wants to protect us?”

Daniel huffs. “At the risk of her own safety. There’s only two of us, Chris. We stand zero chance if she pisses off the wrong person. If they...”

If they wait in the bushes in the dark.

He doesn’t say it, but it’s a lot to hope that the people who killed me won’t come after Mira.