“Oh, shit,” Ryder grumbled and applied more pressure to his hold on me when I went, what can only be described as, batshit crazy.
“I’m goin’ to
kill
you!” I bellowed.
Damien practically lay against Dominic and Bronagh as he watched me with widened eyes.
“This is both insanely hot and terrifying at the same time,” he muttered to his bully of a twin.
Dominic snickered, but I saw him nod in agreement. I was about to dish out some more insults his way, but I froze when I watched his focus turn from me, Damien and everyone else to Bronagh, and her alone. It shocked me how he looked at her; it was like she was his whole world. He lifted his hand and gently brushed her hair back out of her face. She lightly snored and it caused him to smile as he stared down at her, his eyes only blinking here and there, like he was trying to savour what she looked like when she was in his arms. I blinked when he leaned down and pressed his lips to her forehead.
He likes her.
I continued to stare at him, but jumped when Ryder spoke in my ear.
“Yeah,” he whispered, loosening his hold on me. “He cares about her. He has a funny way of showing it, but he’s trying, Branna. He doesn’t understand what he’s feeling and it’s taking him longer than he would like to express to her that he likes her. She fights him tooth and nail at every turn, and it’s bred into him to push back when he is backed into a corner. When she is hostile, he becomes hostile, too. I think it’s a bad match, but he likes her, and he can’t help that.”
“He needs to back off of her.”
“I agree, and we can talk about it tomorrow. She’ll be sober, and in my home so we’ll lump them together and figure it all out, okay?”
I reluctantly nodded.
“Thank you, darling.”
I tensed. “I’m not your darlin’, Ryder.”
“Yeah,
darling
, you are.”
I hated that I wanted to smile.
Alec pulled to a stop in front of his house and said, “Welcome to
casa
—”
“Slater,” his brothers finished. “We know.”
“Assholes.” Alec grumbled.
I snorted and it made Ryder smile as we exited the car. He kept a firm hold on me because even though I was coherent, my legs were quite unsteady.
Bloody Vodka
, my mind grumbled.
“‘Bout time you showed up!” A male voice shouted, followed by laughter and cars screeching to a stop.
I looked around and when I took in all the people that were ambling up the driveway to Ryder’s house, I pressed back against his chest. His arms came around me, and his face nuzzled against my neck.
“Don’t be frightened,” he said into my ear. “We’re throwing a party to celebrate Dominic’s win at Darkness.”
A house party?
I went rigid. “Maybe me and me sister should leave—”
“Dominic is already inside with your sister.”
I broke out of Ryder’s hold and pushed through the crowd of people waiting to gain entry into his house. I heard him shout after me then curse when I didn’t turn and wait for him. I stumbled through the front door and shouted, “Bronagh!”
“I’m here!” I heard her call out.
I followed her voice over to the bottom of the stairs where she was now awake and standing up, but was still in Dominic’s hold. He kept his eyes on me as I neared them, and I saw annoyance flash across his face as I reached for my sister and took hold of her hand.
“We’re goin’ home, Bronagh.” I said firmly.
“She wants to stay here,” Dominic argued.
I cut my eyes to him and narrowed them. “I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what she wants, if I say she is goin’ home then she is goin’
home
, you got that?”
Dominic set his jaw and nodded once so I turned my attention from him to my sister. She was giggling and turning into Dominic’s chest, which prompted me to release her from my hold. I was about to grab her again when hands grabbed hold of me.
“When I tell you to wait for me, you fucking
wait
.” Ryder’s voice growled as he wrapped his arms around me. “I don’t want to lose sight of you in a crowd of strangers.”
I struggled against him. “You shouldn’t have invited them to your house then, you bloody eejit!”
“I didn’t,” he countered. “Alec did.”
As if on cue, Alec shouted, “Paarrtttyyyyyy,” from someone where down the hall followed by loud, pulsing beats of music. The strangers in the house cheered.
Dominic laughed at his brother, but quickly turned his attention to Bronagh when she spoke to him. “I want to sleep with you,” she purred.
The lad’s entire body went rigid.
“Dominic,” my sister slurred. “Did you he-hear me? I wanna cuddle with you.
Now.
”
A switch flipped inside his head because without hesitation he hooked his arm around Bronagh’s waist, then bent down and slid his arm under her knees and lifted her. My sister squeaked the moment she became airborne and wrapped her arms around Dominic’s neck as he protectively tucked her into his chest. He turned then and hauled arse up the stairs.
“Dominic!” I growled after him, but he ignored me and took the stairs two at a time, with my laughing sister in his arms.
I made a move to shoot up the stairs after them, but hands clamped down on my hips.
I tensed. “Get away from me, Ryder.”
I felt his hot breath on my neck.
“Not a chance, sweetness,” he murmured into my neck and squeezed my flesh. “You’ll kill him if you get the chance, and I can’t allow that. It goes against the bro code.”
“Yeah, well, lettin’ some stranger haul me sister off to an isolated part of a big house is against the
big sister
code!”
“He. Won’t. Hurt. Her.”
I huffed. “He has done nothin’
but
hurt ‘er since the moment he met ‘er!”
Ryder hissed when I dug my nails into the arms that were wrapped around my waist.
“That’s
it
,” he snapped.
He let go of me and for a spilt second I thought he backed off until I was swung around, picked up, and tossed over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.
“Ryder Slater!” I snapped. “Put. Me. Down.”
“Destiny,” I heard Damien’s voice chuckle. “Dominic is
busy
right now, but I’m not. Why don’t you keep
me
company for a little while?”
These brothers were something fucking else!
I heard Ryder chuckle as he jogged up the stairs with me hanging upside down on his back. I screeched and used both of my hands to keep my boobs from spilling out of my top and I failed miserably because I heard some hooting from younger males who were situated at the bottom of the stairs.
I gave them the finger until they were out of sight.
One-second I was hanging upside down, then the next I was upright on my feet and inside Ryder’s bedroom. I steadied myself and backed away from him, keeping my gaze locked on his as he kicked the door closed with his foot.
“I’m not in a confined car space with you now. You can’t whisper in my ear and make me forget what happened tonight. We’re
done
,” I bit out. “I remember how you spat those words
and
how you pushed me off you in Darkness like I was nothing more than a piece of dirt.”
The muscles in Ryder’s jaw rolled back and forth.
“You punched my brother in the face,” he said, exasperated. “What was I
supposed
to do?”
I almost growled. “
Your
brother has made
my
sister’s life hell over the past few weeks!”
Ryder blinked. “He is the one who has been in
two
fights for her, and suspended from school
over
her.
He
isn’t the only guilty party here, Branna.”
I balled my hands into fists. “None of that would have happened if he had just left ‘er alone when she asked ‘im to the first fifty times!”
“I
told
you he doesn’t know how to handle her!” He snapped back. “He has never liked a girl before, not for longer than a few hours, anyway, but he likes Bronagh and he doesn’t know what to do about it. He has no clue how to approach her or how to behave around her, and it’s not his fault, it’s our upbringing.”
“What does how you were brought up have to do with how Dominic treats me sister?” I asked.
I saw the moment that Ryder closed up, and it pissed me off.
“Fine,” I growled. “Don’t talk, I didn’t want to hear your bullshit anyway.”
I made a move for the door, but froze when I realised Ryder firmly maintained his position in front of it and stared me down like a predator ready to pounce on its prey.
“What’s the matter, Branna?” he asked as he studied me from across the room. “Cat got your tongue.”
I nervously swallowed. “Fu… Fuck you.”
Ryder shot across space between us and got in my face.
“I intend to, sweetness,” he all but snarled. “I intend to fuck you until you can’t remember your own name.”
“No!” I spat and shoved at his firm chest. “We’re
done
, remember? D-O-N-E. Done!”
“You can say it, spell it, and write it across your damn forehead for all I care, because it’s not fucking true. We’re
not
done. We will never be done do you understand me?
Never
.”
My legs began to tremble.
“Ryder—”
“Branna.” He cut me off. “This isn’t up for debate, we aren’t done. Get over it.”
I balled my hands into fists. “You don’t just get to decide that we aren’t done after you already said we are. You’ll give me whiplash with your indecisiveness!”
He sighed, loudly. “We. Are. Not. Done. You’re my woman, and I’m your man. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend. We’re a couple. How many different ways do I have to say it for you to get it into that beautiful head of yours? We’re together. End. Of. Discussion.”
I growled. “I hate how… domineerin’ you are.”
Ryder grinned at me and I glared at him. I didn’t mean sexually, because we both knew how dominant he was during sex, I meant in every other aspect of his persona.
“You
know
what I mean,” I angrily stated. “You’re quiet around your brothers, and you never voice a problem if we have one. You wait till we’re alone to go all cave man on me.”
“I’m a private person,” Ryder shrugged, not allowing his eyes to stray from mine. “Anything between us will always be private so if I have to cuss your sexy ass out, or spank it and kiss it better, it will all be in private. I’m a patient person, you can piss me off all day and I’ll smile and nod… until we’re alone, then your ass is
mine
.”
I shuddered. “I don’t doubt you.”
“Good, never doubt me.”
I frowned. “I never have.”
“I’m sorry about tonight, okay? I regretted what I said the instant it was out of my mouth. I knew it, and so did my brothers. It was Dominic who told me to go and kiss your ass until you forgave me and took me back, you know?”
The brother I physically whacked?
I blinked. “
Dominic
? Really?”
Ryder nodded. “You impressed him tonight, and not many people do that often.”
That pleased me because I wanted Ryder’s brothers to accept me, but I didn’t want him to know that so I shrugged it off like it meant nothing to me.
“I impressed ‘im by punchin’ ‘im in the face?”
Ryder grinned. “Yes.”
“You’re all
so
weird.”
“Trust me,” Ryder chuckled. “I know.”
I thought about my sister and said, “She’ll really be okay?”
Ryder nodded. “He’ll tuck her into bed and they’ll go to sleep, I’d put my life on it. Dominic would never hurt a woman. He’d never hurt
anyone
unless he had no choice. He isn’t a bad person, Branna, he just has to do bad things.”
Has to?
That wording worried me.
“Tell me what you mean about him,” I pressed. “So he likes me sister, big deal, millions of people like other people and—”
“She is the first person he has
ever
taken a liking to.” Ryder cut me off.
I blinked. “How can that be possible? He is gorgeous. Surely out of all the girls throwin’ themselves at ‘im one would have ignited these feelin’s within ‘im.”
Ryder shook his head. “Dominic is focused, and he believes women are a… distraction. To a point, he is right. He fights, and he
cannot
afford a distraction when he fights, so he distances himself from women until he… needs one.”
Disgust must have shown on my face, because Ryder sighed and rubbed his face with both hands.
“He has sex with women,
lots
of women, and don’t let his age fool you. He has fucked women older than you.”
I swallowed. “That’s disgustin’, he is only a baby!”
“It is what it is,” said Ryder with a shrug of his shoulders. “When he wants to have sex, he finds a willing woman, and he has sex, but that’s the extent of things.”
“So what’s his deal with me sister then?” I questioned. “She isn’t willin’. She doesn’t even
like
‘im so I know she won’t have sex with ‘im.”
Ryder snapped his fingers at me. “That’s exactly
it
. He took an instant attraction to her, and
she
instantly shut him down. That’s never happened before. I don’t mean to sound conceited, but me and my brothers, it’s never been a task to hook up with someone we set our sights on.”
I grunted. “Yeah, you’re all genetically blessed, I get it.”
Ryder’s lips quirked. “You think we’re genetically blessed?”
I rolled my eyes. “You’re all gorgeous, and you all bloody well know it.”
Ryder had the decency to slightly blush. “Yeah, well, genetics didn’t help Dominic with your sister.”
I shrugged. “From what she has told me, he is an arsehole. Why would she want to hook up with an arsehole?”
“You’d be surprised how many women dig the asshole vibe, most think they can be the ones to finally straighten out the bad boy.”
I frowned. “That’s not me or Bronagh. If you’re an arsehole, then that’s it. No matter how good lookin’ you are, nothin’ will shine brighter than your dickhead personality.”
“It’s why Dominic is struggling with Bronagh. He is demanding by nature, so when he orders her about, or his hard on her, she comes out swinging and he has no fucking clue how to deal with a female like that. It’s why he screws up so much with her, he just doesn’t know what to do when sex isn’t involved.”