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“Um, okay.” The way words drawl like thick syrup, rich and raspy, from her decadent little mouth makes me want to chain her to this bed and force her to read out loud every night. “But why am I here? In your bed? Where’s Rory?”
My brother’s name on her lips has fury thundering through me. The idea of another man on her mind while her shiny curls are spread over my pillow is wholly unacceptable. Even if the man in question is my own brother. Even if she was his first.
ChapterThree
PERLA
The nagging fearthat’s plagued me since TA Hurd cornered me in the faculty hallway is missing. Completely illogical given that there’s an enormous stranger I’ve never met sitting in a chair next to a bed, staring at me as if I’m the solution to every to every equation. Logic isn’t present in this moment.
“My brother’s in his own bed. Where you’re no longer allowed. In fact,” he pauses and waits ‘til I meet his intense gray eyes, so icy and cold, with my blue ones, “you’re to stay out of his room entirely. Understood?”
“N-no? Why can’t Rory and I—” I stammer.
“Rory and you nothing. Nada.Rud ar bith.” Each word lands like a hammer in the quiet of the morning around us.
“Roader bee?” The sounds are clunky in my mouth, and his eyes soften a bit with mirth at the way I butcher the words he just said.
“It means ‘nothing at all,’ Little Mouse. Because whatever you two were, it is no more. I love my brother; I do. But he made a big mistake, bringing you here, if he thought to keep you.”
The pop of knuckles accompanies his growling speech, and I look to see his fists white knuckling his knees. Even leaned forward as he is, in the armchair dragged to the side of the bed, his manspread looks powerful and intimidating. His hands are big enough he could palm my head like a basketball.
This should definitely be scary. Especially with a freaking giant looming over me, issuing orders. This man is absolutely nothing like my best friend. Rory gives off golden retriever energy and gentle caring. Ev, I think that’s what the man said is his name, radiates power and menace.
I don’t feel threatened by his intensity. In fact, though it’s a different sort of comfort than I felt when Rory promised to protect me. It somehow feels like Ev Allard will do even more to keep me safe.
“Keep me? Rory wouldn’t try to keep me. I’m a person, Mr. Allard. People can’t be kept.” Part of me wants to poke at him. Prod him and watch all that leashed power unravel.
“There’s where you’re wrong, Little Girl. Rory brought you intomyhome. When you look around, everything you see here belongs to me. Mine to protect. To possess. He brought you here, Perla Walker, and now that I’ve seen you, learned your name and who you are, you belong to me.” Wicked hunger blazes in his eyes as they rove over me.
His attention moves from my eyes to my mouth in a stare so profound it feels like a physical caress. It’s almost leisurely how he moves his focus down my body, tugging the blanket away from me without brushing his fingers against my skin. When I’m lying on the bed, bare but for my sleep shirt and panties, his heated gaze returns to mine.
“And what belongs to me, I keep. Now, tell me you understand that you and Rory are over. Say you understand, so I don’t have to kick out my own brother.”
This is not the loving and supportive brother Rory’s been bragging about. No way would the brother, who Rory says practically raised him when their mom flaked out, talk like this about him. For the first time since I opened my eyes and saw this enormous stranger staring at me, fear creeps in.
“As if, big bro! What the heck are you doing, scaring my bestie like this? I promised her she’d be safe here, and you’re acting like a caveman. What the fuck, Ev?” Rory comes bounding into the room and leaps onto the bed next to me like a circus acrobat.
He’s all grins and laughter, so contagious with his puppy-like energy even the stern man who says he owns me now cracks a small smile. Shaggy blond hair, completely different than his brother’s tightly shorn coal-black style, flops over his brow. He puffs it into the air with a toothpaste-y gust of breath then grins at Ev and me.
“What’re we doin’ in here, hmm? Get lost on the way back from the bathroom, Perlababe?” His eyes ping-pong between me and his brother, awareness slowly dawning as Ev’s stern look returns.
“I don’t know how I got here, Rory, but I think I should go back to your room now. Don’t you?” The tension arcing from Ev to me is thick and confusing. I need a minute and some breathing room to figure out what’s going on.
“Little Mouse, I told you his room’s off limits to you, now. Don’t make me punish you for breaking my rules. Not so early in the day, hmm?” Ev speaks casually, but the massive paw he rests on my leg just above my knee feels like a shackle.
Completely inappropriately, I wonder what kind of punishment he has in mind. A dull throb between my legs reminds me how close his hand is to my center. It’s so big it nearly spans the length of my thigh. Fiery heat tingles every inch of skin being touched by his rough palms and fingers.
“Um, maybe I could have some coffee before we talk about punishments and household sovereignty?” I try injecting confidence into my tone, but judging by the smirk he gives me, Ev is fully aware he’s turned me into a puddle of turned-on and confused co-ed.
ChapterFour
EV
There’snothing romantic between them. Seeing the duo together, it’s so obvious the only thing they’re sharing is friendship. If I’d had the patience to wait until he introduced me to her, it would have been apparent. I would have saved myself hours of internal self-flagellation .
Not that I regret scooping Perla’s sleeping body from the couch in my media room and installing her in my bed where she belongs. Watching her sleep, surrounded by the blankets normally stretched over my bulk, had been a revelation.
I’ve seen my brother when he’s pining for a girl and when he’s besotted with one. This morning, fussing over Perla as if she’s a bird with a broken wing, he’s neither. Oh, he’s chivalrous and nurturing, rushing to the coffeemaker ahead of us to start her a cup. But there’s a brotherly vibe to it all that screams platonic connection.
