Page 163 of Hard Bargain

Knox broke, a cry ripping out of him that he muffled against Dominic’s mouth. He was shaking so hard he would’ve collapsed if Dominic hadn’t been holding him against the gate.

Dominic followed a thrust later, holding Knox close as aftershocks rippled through them.

Neither of them moved for a long time, the night air cooling the sweat on Knox’s skin.

Then Knox lifted a trembling hand, pulling their foreheads together. “Take me home.”

Dominic’s eyes darkened, like the devil himself had just been invited in.

* * *

Knox stood in the middle of the living room with Dominic at his side, acutely aware of how surreal this must look. A couple of hours ago he had been sitting in a bar trying not to admit he’d made a mistake. Now he had brought the man he’d run from into his brother’s home, looking freshly kissed and visibly disheveled.

Liam recovered first. He was trying not to look pleased. Trying, and failing spectacularly. “Well,” he said. “This is… unexpected.”

Knox nearly laughed.

Jacob hadn’t taken his eyes off Dominic once. His expression had gone guarded in a way Knox recognized. Protective. Suspicious. The look of a man evaluating a threat. Which, considering Knox had arrived in LA crushed and emotionally unraveling over the man now standing in his living room, was entirely fair.

And Dominic—god—Dominic looked exactly like the kind of man a protective brother would distrust on sight. Knox was suddenly very aware that introducing your possessive, morally flexible lover to your newly found brother was not a situation anyone prepared for.

Jacob spoke for the first time since the introductions. “So, you want to go back with him?”

“Yeah.”

Jacob’s arms folded, his gaze fixed on Dominic. “From where I’m standing, my brother ran from you. So forgive me if I’m not eager to watch him disappear back to Stockton with a man who looks like he could break someone’s neck without raising his pulse.”

Dominic looked almost amused. “A fair concern.”

Jacob frowned, perhaps thrown by the easy agreement.

“For what it’s worth,” Dominic said. “I’d kill for him before I’d let anyone harm him.”

Silence settled over the room. Even Liam’s smile faded. Nobody mistook that statement for metaphor.

Jacob dragged a hand over his mouth. “Well,” he muttered. “That is somehow not reassuring.”

Liam laughed, and Knox, despite himself, laughed with him.

Jacob wasn’t done. He looked at Knox again, long and serious. “Are you sure about this?”

Knox opened his mouth to answer, but Jacob kept going. “I’m asking because you came here broken. You paced our house like you were trying to outrun yourself. I need to know you’re going back because you want to. Not because he’s making you.”

Knox’s chest cracked wide open. He looked at his brother, unable to speak around the thickness in his throat. Nobody in his family had ever stood up for him before. Not once. Nobody had cared enough to protect him.

His voice was rough when it finally came. “I’m going because leaving him was the mistake.”

Jacob nodded before stepping toward Dominic and holding out his hand. The handshake was brief but carried more weight than words could have managed. “Come back to visit,” Jacob said. “I just found him. I’m not losing him again.”

Dominic took that in with unusual seriousness. Whatever faint amusement had been in his expression was gone. “You won’t,” he said.

Knox looked away.

He had to, because emotion pressed too violently behind his ribs.

A brother.

He still wasn’t used to the word. Still didn’t fully trust it. But Jacob had just put himself between Knox and the possibility of being hurt, and then—once he was sure—had stepped aside and let Knox choose for himself.