“It looks like you just had your filthy dick in my little sister, Briggs! What did I get wrong?”
“It’s not like?—”
“Mia!” Jamie half turns and holds a finger up to silence me as if I’m a little girl again. “I can handle this.”
“What?”
I know it’s been a long time since my big brother has seen me, and I know he still thinks of me as a little girl who will do whatever he says, but I’m not that girl anymore. I’m a woman now.
In all ways.
Again, I pull my thoughts back from the edge of distraction and just in time as Jamie lunges for my mountain man. He wraps his arms around his waist and together they crash backward onto the coffee table, breaking it as Jamie pulls back his arm.
“No!” I scream. “Jamie, don’t!”
I’m too late. He lands the blow with a sickening sound. Again, I scream, but he ignores me.
“I trusted you, man.” Another punch. “She’s my kid sister.” Another punch.
I’ve never seen my brother be violent before in any way, but I’ve seen what kind of damage Briggs can do. If I don’t stop them, they could kill each other. Because of me! My brother is easily twice my size. He’s not quite as big as Briggs, but it’s close. I grab Jamie’s arm before he can land another blow.
“Fuck!” he yells as he shakes free of my grip. “Fight back, Briggs! Why aren’t you fighting?”
For the first time, I realize that Briggs hasn’t thrown one punch in retaliation. From the way he handled the men at the bar the other night, I know he can easily give Jamie the fight he’s looking for. But he hasn’t.
“I’m not going to fight you, Jamie.”
“Suit yourself, asshole.” Again, Jamie winds up to punch him, and I know I have to stop him.
Right before he lands the blow, I do the only thing I can—I yell, “Stop, Jamie! I love him!”
Jamie does stop, but only long enough to turn and shoot me a disgusted look. “There’s no fucking way you love him. He’s way too old for you. And I don’t fucking care if you do,” he adds. “I’m still going to kill him.”
My brother turns, his fist still in the air, but Briggs is quicker than he is.
He pulls his arms free and grabs Jamie’s fist before it can land, but he’s not looking at my brother. Instead, his eyes are on me. “What did you say?”
Tears are streaming down my face as I look past the bloody lip and the welts on his skin that are going to turn into nasty bruises, and straight into the eyes of the man I know without a doubt I’ve fallen head over heels in love with. “I love you,” I say to him directly.
Briggs
She loves me?
Mialovesme?
Coming from her lips, they are the sweetest three words I’ve ever heard.
All I want to do is pull my girl into my arms and tell her that I feel exactly the same way. That I can’t imagine living a day without her now that I’ve found her.
But the weight of her giant and very pissed-off big brother sitting on my chest reminds me that I need to deal with him first.
“Mia, I?—”
“Don’t you dare say it back to her, man.”
My best friend is practically purple, he’s so mad, and I can’t blame him. If the roles were reversed, I’d probably want to murder me, too. That’s why I am letting him take his shots. There is no apologizing for what I’ve done. Even if there was, I wouldn’t say sorry, because I’m not.
I have no regrets for taking Mia to bed and making her mine.
