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We jumped apart and sprang up as his head lifted, his eyes widening as he took in the scene before him. I quickly smoothed my hair down as I glanced around the room. In his need to clean, Hawk had taken out all the food boxes, hung our wet clothes in the shower, and tidied up the other things I’d brought into the room sometime between round three or four of sexcapades. So the room didn’t look as bad as it would have.
Bryce’s eyes widened at the two of us in bed together, but then he dropped his shoulders and smiled as his whole body relaxed. It seemed his relief at finding me outweighed the logic of why we’d be half-dressed side-by-side together.
“BB! There you are. I’ve been trying to call you all night…” he trailed off, glancing around as his brain caught up and put the pieces together for him. It had to be that he’d been up most of the night dealing with my wedding sham that he hadn’t gotten there sooner.
“Wait…” Bryce narrowed his eyes as he stared at his best friend.
“I can explain,” Hawk said, sounding guilty as hell. But he froze, half extended out of the bed as the rest of his words died on his tongue.
My thoughts tumbled around as I tried to think of a way to explain this. My eyes caught on the cake topper in the middle of the table, my dress placed delicately over the chair next to it. Outside of us in bed together, which we were both at least dressed this time—thank you, Hawk—I didn’t see anything that would infer we’d been fucking one another’s brains out.
Time to try to lie to my brother.
“Someone start talking,” Bryce demanded, crossing his arms over his chest. I had no doubt if it had been anyone other than Hawk in bed with me, he would’ve already swung first and asked questions later. His best friend made him pause before jumping to conclusions. But just barely, if the anger radiating off him was anything to go by.
“You see, I was upset, and we ate cake and then nightmares,” I rambled, none of it making sense. I had never been a good liar, especially to Bryce.
“Cake?” Bryce asked, blinking as he looked at me, my nonsense making the anger dissipate slightly.
“Yup. The wedding cake.” I pointed to the table where the topper was.
Then I saw it.
I’d just pointed my brother right to the one piece of incriminating evidence.
The edge of a gold and black wrapper peeked out from under my dress, where it had fallen in haste as Hawk fucked me against that table. I swallowed, praying Bryce wouldn’t see it. But now that I had, I couldn’t quit looking at it.
Bryce snorted as he took in the cake toppers. He walked over, my heart beating quicker as he neared the condom wrapper. Picking up the superhero and the ‘50s housewife, he laughed as he held them before placing them back on the table.
“Why do I feel like breaking out into Grease Lightnin’ all of a sudden?” he asked with a smile on his face, leaning back against the table.
In a series of unfortunate events—that could only happen to me the morning after losing my virginity to my brother’s best friend after I ran away from my wedding—Bryce’s leaning shifted my dress, exposing the condom wrapper in all its black and gold glory.
Magnum.
That word would forever be imprinted in my brain as the thing that crashed my chance at happiness.
In slow motion, Bryce bent over and picked it up like he thought it might be a joke condom wrapper. He turned it over and then back to Hawk. My brother’s face morphed into one I’d never seen before as his lips thinned, his brows dipped, and his eyes became pinpoints as rage took over.
Quicker than I could blink, he reared his hand back and punched Hawk in the face. His head whipped around at the force, but he did nothing to stop it. Hawk’s shoulders slumped in resignation as he took it.
I screamed in alarm, tears pricking my eyes as I tried to jump between them. This wasn’t how I wanted this morning to go. But now that we were here, I had to do something. I couldn’t let it all fall apart.
“How could you?” Bryce screamed, shaking his hand, and I worried he’d hurt himself. “She’s my baby sister, dude. What happened to bro code?”
“It’s not like that, Bry.”
Bryce scoffed, shaking his head. “Fucking my sister when she’s the most vulnerable is low. I thought you had better morals than that.”
Ouch.
It didn’t matter that it had taken us both to cross the line; Bryce only blamed Hawk. For their friendship and my heart, I couldn’t let Hawk or Bryce ruin that. I could see that now. Bryce would never accept this—Hawk and me. So, I did the only thing I could; I gave my brother the transplant he needed to survive.
Except instead of bone marrow, I’d give him my heart.
“It was all me, Bry. I got him drunk and took advantage of him. I told Hawk that if he didn’t, I’d go down to the bar and bring back the first person I ran into.”
Hawk moved to stop me, his eyes hard as he stared at me, urging me to shut up and let him handle it. But I couldn’t do that. So I turned to him, holding his mismatched eyes and knowing I had to ensure he understood. It was the only way.
