“Liam—”
“I will only hurt you if I kiss you.I need you to turn around and walk away.Right now.”
I could hear the need in my voice—in her voice—and hated what I was doing.I shouldn’t have told her.Should have let her keep hating me for breaking my promise.
But I couldn’t.
So many times, I nearly called or wrote to her explaining, but that was dangerous and impossible to explain should anyone find out.
Before anything more could be said that night, Jayden appeared between us, diluting the chemistry in an instant.
“Jesus, did you see that firework?Goddamn, it went high.Here’s your beer.”Jay handed me the bottle.
“Thanks.”I took it, turning away from Jessie as if she meant nothing.
So, I couldn’t see her pain, and so she couldn’t see how much it hurt me to not have her in my arms.
She was sixteen.
Way too young.
And my best friend’s sister.
Now?
She was still Jayden’s sister but was I really going to spend the rest of my life rejecting this woman and letting men hurt her?
Use her.
Right in this moment my fingers itched to pull the weapon out of my waistband and tell the men surrounding her to step the fuck away or get a bullet in their goddamn skulls.
For the crime of being attracted tomyJessie.
“Captain Rutherford,” Jessie drawls drunkenly over the heads of her surrounding fans.“Look who found me.”
Jesus.
“This your brother?”One of the guys, dressed in a Hawaiian style shirt, asks.
I step closer, deciding how best to deal with this.How to deal with her.I’ve never seen Jessie this drunk or with such a sassy attitude aimed at me.
“If I were her brother, you’d be on your ass, counting stars right now,” I warn.
It’s their one and only warning.
“Ooh, tough guy,” Hawaii guy laughs.
“Captain aye?Of a tugboat.”
All his friends erupt into laughter.
Bad move.
When it comes to Jessie, I don’t mess around and have no time for fuckheads who want to take the piss out of any position in the US military.
I can see in her eyes that Jessie realizes she’s created a tricky situation for her groupies.She knows me.She knows my mood and how, when it comes to her, I have zero tolerance.
This is not our first rodeo.
