Page 9 of Unstoppable Love

She skirted around the couch, but she was so lost in her head, lost in watching what she was doing, she didn’t see me moving.

Before she reached the bottom of the stairs, I was there with my arms crossed over my chest and blocking her way to them.

“Move.” The one word lacked all the anger I was used to hearing from her.

“Why are you staying here, Sunshine?”

Her nostrils flared, but that was all I got. None of the hissing or shouting I was used to. “Doesn’t matter. I’ll go. If you’ll move…”

I wasn’t backing down. “Why’d you call Isaiah and ask to stay here?”

Her pouty pink lips rolled together. Lips I’d touched. Kissed. Lips I’d taught how to wrap around my?—

“Please move.” It was a whisper this time. Broken. Shattered.

There was only one other time I’d heard her sound like that, and that was the day she started hating me.

As her chin began wobbling, I stepped aside.

There was no point in hurting her again. No point in setting the fire I enjoyed playing with around her.

“Thanks,” she mumbled, because I knew, even pissed or upset or sad or feeling whatever it was she was feeling, she’d had manners and politeness too ingrained in her to be anything but polite.

I stayed at the bottom of the stairs as her figure slumped, the blanket now trailing behind her, giving me a fantastic shot of her ass, headed down the hall to my guest rooms.

And then I grabbed my phone and called my best friend.

He was going to tell me what in the hell was going on.

Because the first woman, and the only woman I’d ever loved, was currently in my home looking for a reason to leave.

And even if it was the second dumbest thing I’d ever done in my life, I needed to convince her to stay.

It took six calls before Isaiah picked up. Six calls where my blood boiled and almost erupted as his groggy, scratchy, and tired voice muttered, “What the hell?” into the phone besides a hello.

“What the fuck?” I snapped at him. Totally snapped. “I told you to keep an eye on my house for me if you could.”

“What? Yeah, I know.”

He swore, and I knew my best friend my entire life outside my brothers well enough to know he wasn’t alone when he did it quietly.

It was a few seconds later when he grumbled, “What’s your problem? Something happen to the house?”

Yeah. My house was now invaded with the scent of sunshine, and that wouldn’t do. Wouldn’t do at all.

“I’m wondering why I’m standing in my living room and your sister Ava woke up to me glaring at her from where she passed out on my couch.”

“You’re home? Why?”

“Keep up, would you? What the hell’s going on?”

“Why are you home?”

Good hell. Fucking Deckers. They kept asking the same damn question and getting the same damn answer. “Because it’s my house!”

“But you’re supposed to be?—”

“In the Caribbean. I know. Storm was rolling in. I flew out. Whatever. Explain to me why Ava said you were supposed to call me.”

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