I wasn’t okay with that. This place, our house, was supposed to be a safe zone. It was the reason Romeo rented it. It was the reason I moved in. We wanted Ivy and Rim to feel like there was a place the drama wouldn’t knock on their door.
Her blue eyes, which looked more green than blue tonight, met mine. She smelled good. A combination of chocolate and vanilla.
Like a dessert I wanted to taste.
She didn’t say anything at all, anger still prevalent on her face.
But I felt the give. The slight shift of her weight toward me, like I was exactly what she wanted. I was exactly who she needed.
That feeling was like a drug. It kept me coming back for more, just one more fix. I’d never get enough of being the one that made Ivy feel whole.
I tore my attention away and looked at Missy, my stare growing hard. “I told you to stay the fuck away from her.”
“I’m sensing a lot of tension here,” Drew said. It was a shitty attempt at a joke.
“You have no right to tell me who I can and cannot date.” Missy sniffed.
My hand spasmed around Ivy’s waist. She glanced at me out of the corner of her eye. “My brother seems to be suffering from the serious illness of idiocy tonight,” she cracked. “Missy here batted her eyes at him at the game, and he asked her out.”
“Whose side you on?” I asked him.
He stiffened. “I didn’t realize there was a side.”
“Let me give you some advice. This chick right here? Total head case. You don’t want what she’s offering.”
“You didn’t seem to mind what I was offering last semester,” Missy remarked, sly.
Ivy jerked in my hold, and I felt the muscle in my jaw jump. I stepped forward, angling myself in front of Ivy. She didn’t need to hear this kind of shit.
“One of the biggest mistakes I ever made was sleeping with you,” I said, cold. Usually, I didn’t try to hurt women’s feelings.
But this chick had it coming.
It was her or Ivy.
There was no freaking competition.
“You slept with my sister’s best friend?” Drew ground out.
Ivy tried to step forward. I gently held her back.
“I know you’re late to the party, man, so let me sum this up for you: Ivy or her.”
Missy made a sound like I was being ridiculous and flipped her hair. “Please, this is—”
I gave Drew a subtle nod, letting him know this was do or die for Ivy. Without hesitation, he crossed his arms over his chest and stepped up beside me. We created a wall between her and Ivy.
Missy sputtered. “You’ve got to be kidding me.”
“You’re hot and all,” Drew said. “But family always wins.”
Ivy tried to get around me, and I blocked her again.
“He isn’t your family.” Missy glared at me.
Ivy gasped and tried to shove around me. “For God’s sake, Braeden. She’s not a bullet, and you aren’t a bulletproof vest.”
She stumbled past me, and I caught her around the waist.
“Yeah, well, the damage she inflicts could match a bullet,” I drawled.
A mean look crossed Missy’s face. She pinned Ivy with a gray stare. “You’re so convinced I’m the bad one. Have you ever wondered who else around here kept secrets and told lies?”
“What?” Ivy said, confusion in her tone.
“I wonder if you would be as quick to condemn them as you did me.”
I’ve never in my entire life wanted to hit a woman. I hated men who abused women. But as I heard the suggestive words leaking out of her mouth and saw the cold, calculating look in her eyes, I wanted to.
Fuck. I wanted to.
It shook me all the way to my core.
“Get the hell off this property and don’t ever come back,” I warned. “This is the last warning you’re gonna get from me, Missy. The next time, everyone is gonna know exactly who you are.”
I saw the fear drift across her face, but then she shrugged one shoulder like I didn’t worry her at all. “Just remember if I go down, I’m taking you with me.”
I lunged forward, catching everyone off guard. Missy flinched backward, but my hand shot out and closed around her upper arm. “Let’s go,” I growled and forcibly directed her toward her car.
“You’re hurting me!” she yelled, the dramatic bitch in her coming out.
“Takes a lot more than an escort to hurt someone as hard as you,” I snapped. Even so, I made sure my hand wasn’t too tight around her arm.
“Let go of me!” she yelled again.
God. All the little biddies in the neighborhood were gonna have a week’s worth of gossip after tonight. I could practically feel them all staring out their windows.
I let go of her but didn’t step back.
“What the fuck is going on out here?” A new, familiar voice cut through the night behind us.
I was too pissed off to be happy.
“Romeo,” Missy said, surprise in her voice.
“You’re not welcome here.” His voice was soft but held that note of steel everyone knew lay at his core.
He was so controlled. It was a lot more effective than my hot, wild anger.
Missy’s mouth opened and then snapped shut. Romeo stopped right beside me, and for a second, it felt like everything was as it was supposed to be again.
Rome and I were strong apart. We could each hold our own. But together…
Together we were damn near unstoppable.
As if we had some kind of freaky psychic connection, we both crossed our arms over our chests at the exact same moment.
Missy turned tail and rushed to her car.
“Don’t worry,” Drew yelled after her. “I won’t be calling!”
Romeo glanced at me and grinned.
Behind us, Ivy muttered something about men and imbeciles.
We watched her car in silent partnership until Missy’s taillights disappeared around the corner. Only then did I turn to my best friend.
“Dude. How do you survive without me?” he cracked. The shit-eating grin he always wore appeared.
I guffawed. “I was just wondering the same shit about you.”
We laughed and pounded our fists together, but it turned into a hug.
“Missed you, bro,” Romeo whispered.
“Times two,” I replied.
Realizing we had an audience, we jerked back. Everyone was watching us with amused expressions.
Rimmel came running out of the house. “What’s going on?” Her words were rushed and concerned.
She was clearly late to the party.
And her shirt was on backward.
“Dude.” I groaned. “No one wants to see that.”
Romeo laughed.
Rimmel skidded to a stop and blinked at us. “What?”
Ivy cleared her throat and motioned at her shirt. Rimmel looked down and even in the dark, everyone could see the cherry color bloom across her face.
“Oh.”
“Everything’s fine, Smalls,” Romeo told her and walked to her side. “B was just taking out the trash.”
She wrinkled her nose. “I thought you were going to Screamerz?”
“Party?” Romeo said, interest in his face.
“All the Wolves are gonna be there,” I answered.
“Hells yeah!” he yelled and scooped Rim up and dumped her over his shoulder. “Let’s go fix your shirt, baby. We’re going out tonight.”
Drew turned to Ivy. “I knew something was up with you. I’m guessing that girl has a hell of a lot to do with it?”
“I need a minute with my girl.” I cut in.
“I have just one question,” he said, serious.
“Ask,” Ivy said.
“What the hell is a cooter?”
Ivy burst out laughing. I glanced at her with a raised brow. I knew exactly what a cooter was.
I pressed a hand to my chest like I was offended. “Ivy.” I gasped. “Did you threaten that girl’
s cooter?”
“Maybe,” she replied nonchalantly.
“Well, damn. I’m sorry I missed it.” My voice was forlorn.
“Y’all are so weird,” Drew said and then went in the house.
I closed the short distance between Ivy and me.
“The thought of you and her makes me feel sick inside.” The confession rushed out and her voice cracked. When I glanced down, I saw the sheen of tears in her eyes.
It was like a punch in the gut. I never thought my partying ways of the past would ever become a regret. Live and let live. YOLO and all that shit.
But seeing the way it clearly hurt her made me wish I could take back a few things.
I couldn’t.
I searched for the words, for beautiful words to say that would totally erase the effect Missy had on her tonight.
There were none, but the emotion in me swelled up like the ocean in a storm. It burned just beneath my ribcage, an almost unpleasant feeling. It was like my brain had no clue what to do, but my heart…
My heart knew exactly.
Slowly I reached out and cupped her waist. I wanted her to know I was coming. I wanted her to anticipate my touch. I knew she craved it, because I did too. I stepped up close, so close our toes bumped together and I could feel the breath leaving her lips.
I felt like a cloud wrapped around us, like we entered a place of our own making, a place no one else could touch or see.
I lowered my lips to press gently to her hairline, then lower to her forehead. Her head tipped back and her eyes slipped closed. I pressed a kiss to one eyelid and then the other. When she sighed, I pressed one to her nose.
My hands left her waist to reach for her hands, cradling them in mine. I dropped a kiss in the center of one palm and pressed it beneath my jacket to my chest, just over the place where my heart beat. I was sort of glad I wasn’t wearing a shirt just then. It brought us skin to skin.
I held her there and allowed my lips to feather over hers.
“You’re the only one who’s ever been in here. You’re the only one who’s ever had the most important part of me. You’re the one who turned a man who vowed to never love into one who loves completely.”
“How do you do that?” she whispered, not pulling her face away from mine.
“Do what?” I stroked the backs of my fingers across her cheek.
“Pull me back in the second I start to drift away?”
I smiled. “I told you I was dropping anchor.”
“Don’t ever let me go, Braeden.”
“Oh, baby.” I vowed, “Never.”
Still holding her palm against my chest, I took her mouth with mine. Even though it was a kiss filled with tenderness, the impact was like a 10.0 earthquake. I didn’t have to kiss her hard and fast or deep and long. It didn’t matter that our bodies weren’t molded together in every place.
What mattered was I loved her so much it turned the simple kiss into something much more.
But I was a guy.
I liked being close too.
So after a long, soft kiss, I picked her up and she wrapped her legs around my waist.
“Braeden,” she murmured against my lips.
I grunted and palmed the round lushness that was her ass.
“Why aren’t you wearing a shirt?”
I smiled and she kissed my chin. “Forgot it.”
“I want to go to the kitchen.” She patted my shoulder like I was her personal taxi. ‘Course, I’d carry her anywhere.
“Baby, you know we have roommates. We can’t be doing it right there in front of them all.”
Her giggle filled up the dark sky. “As interesting as you, me, the kitchen counter, and a can of whipped cream would be, that’s not what I was talking about.”
I pulled back, totally intrigued. “That’s it. We’re getting our own place.”
“Promises, promises,” she sang, teasing me.
Her hair was long and straight tonight. It floated around my shoulders as I walked us into the house. Just before I stepped inside, she pulled back and looked into my eyes.
“I love you so much, B.”
“Times two, baby,” I murmured. “Times two.”
She sighed and rested her chin on my shoulder as I carried her the rest of the way into the house.
It seemed everything else Missy said to her had been forgotten in the moment.
I wasn’t fool enough to think she wouldn’t remember, that those taunting words Missy used to imply someone around Ivy was keeping something from her would stay forgotten for long.
And now I was faced with an impossible dilemma: to tell or not to tell.
Should I tell her before someone else did in hate?
Or…
Should I keep my mouth shut and pray to God my lie didn’t take away the only woman my heart would ever beat for?
Chapter Seventeen
Ivy
I heard everything Missy said.
Everything she implied.
The energy around him electrified the second she spoke.
Not in a good way.
Oh God, Braeden, what have you done?
Please, don’t let it change us forever.
Chapter Eighteen
Braeden
She made me brownies.
And not just any brownies. Ones with sprinkles.
No one ever made me brownies except my mother.
That explained why she smelled like chocolate and what she’d done with her time before the game.
She was so damned cute about it too. The second I set her down in the kitchen (as requested), she shyly picked up a glass dish with a lid and held it out. Ivy never did anything with bashfulness, so I knew this was a big thing for her.
I took the container and ripped off the lid. “Baby, you baked.”
“I’ve never baked before. I don’t even know if they’ll be good. But I added extra sprinkles!” The enthusiasm in her voice made me smile.
I never would have told her about my love of sprinkles. I mean, come on. That was like the least macho food a guy could love.
My mother told her. I’d been pretty annoyed. Now I was kind of grateful.
“Best brownies I ever ate,” I announced.
“You haven’t actually eaten them,” she pointed out.
“So?” I quipped. “I got brownie radar. I know good ones when I see ‘em.”
Her teeth sank into her full lower lip, and I was distracted from the sprinkle goodness in my hand.
“Do you want to try one?” she asked, her voice tentative.
“Does a cow have tits?”
“That’s disgusting.” She made a face.
“Hand me a fork, woman!”
“You’re gonna eat them right out of the container?”
“Hells yeah. I ain’t sharing.”
She was nervous when she held out the fork. I dug it right into the center, noting the extra-thick layer of sprinkles. She probably dumped an entire container on here.
It made me love her even more.
I shoveled a huge bite in my mouth and chewed.
They weren’t as good as my mother’s, but they were pretty close. Considering this was her first try at making anything, I was damn proud of her.
When I didn’t say anything right away, her face fell.
I made a sound and shoveled another huge bite in my mouth. “Best ever,” I said as I chewed.
Her eyes rounded and looked up. “They aren’t terrible?”
“They’re the bomb.” I gave her a toothy smile I knew was full of chocolate.
Her face lit up, and my chest warmed.
Rome came in the kitchen behind us. “Oooh.” He looked over my shoulder. “Brownies.”
His hand shot out, and I stabbed him with the fork. “Hands off the goods!”
“Vicious!” He jerked away.
I shoved another huge bite in my face. The sprinkles were the perfect amount of crunchy and melty.
“I’m gonna go change so we ca
n go,” she said, laughter in her voice. “I’ll bring you a shirt, ‘kay?”
“Thanks, baby,” I said around another mouthful.
Romeo watched our display of domestic bliss with amusement.
Prada was dancing around my feet, begging for a bite. “No chocolate,” I told her.
She kept begging, so I pulled out the bag of dog treats and gave her one.
“Whipped,” Rome mocked.
“Where’s your cat?” I countered.
He gave me the finger. After another bite, I put the lid on the container and slid it back onto the counter. I’d eat the rest later.
“Everything cool around here?”
“For the most part.” I shrugged.
Drew stepped into the room, and our talk was cut short. The three of us shot the shit while we waited for the girls to appear. When they did, Rome and Rim took the Cat, and me, Ivy, and Drew followed in the truck.
Screamerz was packed.
It was the prime hangout spot for everyone on campus. ‘Course, the Buzz that went out almost right after Missy hightailed it out of our place probably added to the crowd.
I hoped she wasn’t here, but I wasn’t stupid enough to think she’d stay home. She was lurking somewhere, collecting gossip and secrets to expose on her feed.
The second our group walked in, people zeroed in on Rome like he was some kind of tracking device that had been lost but was now found.
People started chanting his number, and the Wolves started howling.
He only laughed and shook his head.
We didn’t have to wait for a table because we had a place with the team. While Rome went around and talked to everyone, I guided Ivy toward our seats and picked up a beer. I needed one. Today had been hella long. I was looking forward to some chill time with my best friend and maybe a little after-hours action with my girl.
Ivy was looking like an eleven on a one-to-ten chart. It seemed her outfit (or attitude) had a little extra sass in it tonight.
The jeans she wore were skintight and so dark they almost looked black. She was wearing a bright-orange tank top with another looser shirt over it. It was white, cropped, and long-sleeved but had big cutouts at the shoulders, exposing her skin. The neckline was decorated with some kind of colored design and had two strings hanging from it with orange tassels on the ends.
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