Page 42 of Seductive Hearts

“Noah!” Rose fell back a step, bringing me to a halt. “I completely forgot you were coming in today!”

“Obviously.” He went from staring at her to glaring at me like a bull ready to charge. “Tell me this isn’t what it looks like. Tell me you aren’t fucking around with my sister.”

16

ROSE

This couldn’t have gone worse. I went from the highest high to the lowest low and was still falling as my brother glared hatefully at us.

His attention swung from Colton to me. “What are you doing? Have you lost your mind?” he demanded.

“What do you think we’re doing?” Lame, but it was the first thing that came to mind. Why volunteer information?

“It’s pretty obvious. Look at you two!” He waved a hand, and it was only then that Colton let go of me. My heart dropped. Why did he have to do that?

“Why don’t we take this someplace else?” Colton looked over his shoulder toward the back door. The crew was still out there, taking their break. “This isn’t a good location.”

“Oh, like I’m supposed to give a shit? All of a sudden, you’re, what? A gentleman?” Noah spat. “How could you fucking do this? I flat-out told you not to!”

“Wow, wait a minute,” I warned. What was I thinking, trembling in front of my asshole brother? Not a bad brother, not a bad person, but an asshole just the same. “Where do you get off? You told him not to? Seriously, who do you think you are?”

He scoffed. “We can talk about it later. I’m dealing with?—”

“Fuck that. Talk to me.” I touched a hand to my chest, where my heart beat wildly. “A grown woman. You don’t know what you walked in on. Colton saved the whole timeline of the project and kept us from disaster.”

“And he was about to collect payment?” The curling of my brother’s lip was ugly and nasty. “I thought you were better than that.”

“Enough with the big brother bullshit.” Colton was still trying to laugh it off, but that was all for show. I heard the change in his voice. How it tightened, how he fought for every word. “It’s all pretty simple.”

Noah’s snide laugh made my skin crawl. “Yeah, obviously. You couldn’t leave her alone, could you? You couldn’t stand the temptation. She wants to be somebody, but you have to ruin that!”

“How would he ruin anything?” I was shouting, we all were, and by now, there was no way they couldn’t hear us outside. My skin burned with humiliation, but I pushed through it. “You’re underestimating me, and you’re underestimating him!”

“This isn’t about you,” he snapped, pointing to Colton. “It’s about him! He knew better! He just couldn’t resist an easy fuck.”

He may as well have hit me. The force of his ugly words knocked the air from my lungs. I never thought something like that would come from my brother’s mouth.

I didn’t know him.

It wasn’t enough for Colton to stand by and take it. I watched in horror, frozen in shock, as he took two long strides toward Noah. When he cocked his fist back, I pulled in a breath, prepared to beg him not to do it. Anything but this.

It was too late. His fist shot forward, hard enough to make Noah’s head snap to the side once he made contact.

“Stop!” I screamed, but it was no use. Noah recovered quickly, taking Colton by his collar. My stomach flipped at the sound of his fist hitting flesh, at Colton’s groan, and at the sense of everything falling to pieces. It was all crumbling, turning into nothing. My family, my reputation. Everybody would know now.

“Would you please stop?” I was on the verge of tears, shaking, but neither of them heard me. How could they? All they could do was stare daggers at each other, their fists raised, ready for a full-on brawl.

I grabbed the closest thing I could get my hands on, a broom propped up against one wall. “I said stop!” I screamed, swinging the broom between them, holding it at chest height. It wouldn’t do anything to stop them, but it was enough to startle them into taking a breath instead of making an unforgivable mistake. “For fuck’s sake. This is not happening here, do you understand? This is my store! You are not tearing the place up like a couple of children!”

Colton touched a hand to the corner of his mouth, where a thin trickle of blood oozed. He studied his fingertips before lifting his eyes and looking at my brother. “Now I know what you think of me.” His disappointment made my heart ache.

Noah shrugged. “What else am I supposed to think? You’ve pulled some shit, but this is the lowest.” He was starting to get himself worked up again, breathing hard.

It hardened me and got my blood boiling. My hand closed around the broomstick tight enough to make my joints ache. “You hypocritical son of a bitch,” I muttered. It was nice watching his face go slack, watching him fall back a couple of steps like he was genuinely shocked his little sister had something to say. “All of a sudden, you’re my protective older brother? You’ve spent your entire life just as self-absorbed as you’re accusing Colton of being now. It’s all fun and games when the two of you are running around chasing pussy, then discarding it when you get bored, huh? Then you go and put me in the same category as your whores? How fucking dare you!”

“Don’t say things like that,” Noah warned. He even looked grossed out. My full-grown brother was scandalized because his sister used a dirty word. It was beyond pitiful.

And maybe it was because I saw how pathetic he was that I was able to keep going as I lowered the broom. “I’ll say whatever I want. I don’t need you to police my language or fight my battles. If you have a problem with your best friend being with your sister, so be it, but don’t act like it’s because you want to protect me. I don’t need your protection. Got it?”

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