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She walks right past me and then glares. “What the hell was all that about?”
“He came here for one reason, and let’s not pretend he didn’t.”
She whips her hands to her hips. “Then you’ll be happy to know he told Maddie and me both, point-blank, to tell you not to worry. This is a vacation to him. A vacation with Brock, who he’s the closest to of all our cousins. They’re practically the same age.”
“Bullshit. Did you see how he was looking at her?”
“That’s just Dave. He’s a flirt. He looks at all beautiful women that way.”
“Not you.”
“For Christ’s sake, Jesse. I’m his cousin! Of course he wouldn’t look at me that way.”
“I know.”
I’m being ridiculous, and I know it. What is it about the Steels that irks me so? Is it their money? Their privilege? Their generosity? The fact that two of my sisters fell in love with two of them?
The fact that I fell in love with one too?
Fuck it all.
I grab Brianna and kiss her.
Hard.
Hard, delving my tongue into her mouth and taking her with a kiss.
She responds, of course. I knew she would.
I lean into the kiss, until?—
I rip my mouth from hers. “I can’t. Not like this.”
She touches her lips. “Like what?”
“I feel like I take you in anger a lot. That’s not who I am, Brianna.”
“I love who you are. If you need to lose yourself in me to ease whatever you’re feeling, I’m here for you.”
I draw in a breath. “Do me a favor. Don’t let me do that to you anymore. I’m a better man than that.”
She smirks. “You’re a wonderful man, Jesse. But truly, what is there to be angry about? Dave isn’t here to woo Maddie, but what if he were? Would that be so terrible? Would it be the worst thing in the world for the Pike family to blend with the Steel family?”
I shake my head, shoving my fingers through my hair. “No. That’s not it. That’s not what I mean.”
“Then what do you mean?”
“I mean… I don’t fucking know. So much resentment has been tied up with your family for so long. It’s not an easy thing to just let it go.”
“I know.” She touches my cheek.
God, I burn at her caress.
“Donny was the most difficult for you, but you got through that.”
“Doesn’t mean I still don’t feel things.”
“Of course you feel things. You’ve built up that resentment since you were eighteen.”
