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Of course, Nash picked that precise moment to emerge from the bedroom. With only a towel wrapped around his waist.
Brandon’s fists clenched tight as he made a beeline toward Nash. “I’m going to kill you.”
She leaped between the two of them before Brandon could throw a punch. Or worse, since seeing Nash coming out of her bedroom might very well have primed her brother for murder.
“Brandon,” she said in a firm voice, “this is none of your business. And you didn’t need to worry about me. I was fine.”
“Fine?” Steam was practically coming out of her brother’s ears. “You call sleeping with this dirt bag fine?”
“He’s not a dirt bag.” She hated to hear anyone speaking about Nash with disrespect. He was a good man, and he didn’t deserve it.
“He’s been to prison, Ash! Multiple times! He isn’t good enough to clean your shoes.”
“I don’t care what he did when he was younger,” she growled at her brother. “So what if he made mistakes? Nash isn’t the one acting like a dirt bag right now—you are. Get out of my apartment.”
“Oh, no,” her brother said, standing his ground, “I’m not leaving until I drag this sorry excuse for a human being outside with me. And then I’m going to tear him to shreds.”
Ashley didn’t often get furious. She tended more toward a slow simmer, rather than a boiling pot of rage. But her pot had just boiled over.
“How dare you?” she yelled at her brother. “I’ve never barged in on you and whomever you’re sleeping with. I’ve never told your lovers they’re dirt bags and that they should get out of your bed. So don’t you dare think you can do the same with me! Okay, so I screwed up in high school. But I’m a fully grown woman now, and if I want to sleep with someone, by God I am going to sleep with him! And I’m going to enjoy the hell out of it too.”
Throughout their exchange, Nash hadn’t interjected, even when Brandon had made his threats. She appreciated that, instead of trying to defend her, he let her fight her own battles. But after growing increasingly tense with every word out of Brandon’s mouth, it was clear that Nash was at the end of his rope.
“You heard your sister,” Nash said to Brandon, his voice full of serious intent. “It’s time for you to leave.”
“Don’t tell me what to do,” Brandon said, squaring off against her lover.
“Both of you, stop it.” Ashley looked her brother in the eye, square and unblinking. “Go back to your hotel, and we can talk once you’ve had a chance to cool down.”
Brandon studied her face, seeing that she was dead serious. “I’m not going to cool down anytime soon, but I still want you to call me the very second he leaves.” He turned to Nash. “You don’t need to play at the launch tonight. I no longer want you there.”
Nash was in Vienna to drive Brandon’s VIP hotel investors wild when he took the stage. And now Brandon wanted to call the whole thing off because she’d slept with Nash? No, she wouldn’t let her brother do anything that stupid.
“The two of you are going to abide by the contract you signed,” she insisted. “Whatever happened last night has nothing to do with the hotel launch. And I won’t hear a word of argument about it from either of you.” She had been a mother long enough to know how to make herself understood in a way that brooked no argument.
Her brother looked like he was about to break a molar, he was clenching his jaw so tightly. But thankfully, he knew better than to argue with her. “Sound check is at three.” Brandon slammed the door behind him as he left.
Ashley didn’t know how yesterday’s perfection could have turned into such a complete and utter disaster so quickly this morning. What’s more, she had a bad feeling that Brandon was going to blab to the rest of her family. Once he told them about her wild night with a superstar, they would probably all think the same thing. Poor Ashley, she couldn’t have known what she was getting herself into when she slept with Nash Hardwin. If only we had been there to protect her.
But she had known exactly what she was getting herself into with Nash. She’d had a great night of super-hot sex with a very likable, extremely sexy man.
She wasn’t going to apologize for it. Not to anyone.
But when she turned back to Nash, she wasn’t sure she liked what she read in his eyes. “He got to you, didn’t he? He made you feel guilty for being with me.”
Nash didn’t deny it. “I don’t normally run into the brothers of the women I’ve spent the night with.”
