Page 14 of Five Brothers

My chin trembles, and I must seem so ridiculous to him. What do I have to cry about? “Empty …”

The word comes out as a whisper, and I can’t even see him breathe as the bottle hangs from his fingers and rests against his leg. He doesn’t leave, though.

I stand up and fold the blanket. “I can’t afford to go to college,” I drone on, “because my dad took all the money, and even if he hadn’t, the kids …”

I stop, staring at the floor as the tears spill over.

I choke out the words. “I can’t leave them alone with her.”

After what she’s trying to do to me, there’s no way in hell I trust her. Or my father. I hide that he now lives on Barony Lane, just a mile away with his girlfriend, and not in Atlanta like my brother and sister think. How else was I supposed to explain to them why their father suddenly doesn’t see them?

“My mother wants me to marry Jerome Watson.” It hurts to talk, the tears lodged in my throat. “A thirty-two-year-old corporate tax lawyer, whom I’ve met once, who’s looking for a pretty wife so he’ll want to fuck her over and over again, a healthy one who can take care of his house and stay knocked up for years to come, and a young one who’s too ignorant and naïve to challenge him.”

The tears keep coming, but I don’t feel sad. “I’m scared,” I breathe out. “I didn’t think making life better for the people around me would involve spending my life with someone I don’t love.”

I blink long and hard.

“But what does it matter, right?” I force a laugh. “Nothing I do will make a difference. May as well help my family and numb myself with pretty shoes and handbags while I’m at it.”

As if that will distract me from knowing I was sold, because contrary to what he and my mother discuss aboutmyfuture, I’m neither ignorant nor naïve.

I toss the blanket down, wiping away the tears.Screw it. I’ll sleep in my car.

But then he’s there, his body pressing into my back and his hands squeezing my waist.

I gasp. “No.” I try to push his hands away.

No more. No more. I drop my head back into him, trying to push against him, but I’m not sure if I’m fighting to get free or fighting because I want to hit someone. Tears stream down my face, and I suck in breath after breath.

But then I feel it.

His shallow breaths against my temple. And his arms slowly slipping around my body, holding me to him.

Slow. Tight. Strong. Warm.

I go still, his heat covering my back as his chest rises and falls against my spine, and I relax just enough to feel him hold me up. One arm wraps around my stomach, the other hand reaches around to cup my cheek as he grazes his mouth over my hair.

“We’re not dead yet,” he murmurs over my skin at my temple.

And then he turns my head, and before I can see his face, his mouth covers mine, swallowing my whimper. His tongue dives into my mouth, and I can’t breathe as he holds me strong and keeps me locked against his body.

Fuck …

My lungs scream, and fire covers my skin. I gasp, pulling my mouth away and inhaling air, but it takes only a second before he’s fisting my hair and biting my neck.

I cry out, electricity coursing down my thighs and up to the top of my head. I close my eyes, my heart leaping into my throat as he forces my shirt over my head, my arms flying up as he tears the fabric off me.

Pulling his mouth off my skin, he holds my tummy, unzipping my skirt, and I look down, watching his hand in the dark. The same Jaeger bracelet they all wear—three thin straps of brown leather entwined—circles his wrist with the emblem of the snake wrapped around an hourglass in the middle.

My skirt drops, and he takes my hand, guiding it down between my thighs as he gently peels my panties off until the tips of my fingers touch my wet clit.

“Keep going,” he whispers, kissing my hair.

A light sweat covers my forehead, and I can’t move. I can’t even think.

He devours my neck and kneads my breast as heat rushes between my legs and covers my body. I pant, whimpering. “Oh God,” I moan. “Stop, stop, please. I can’t breathe. I can’t breathe.”

But he thrusts into me from behind, his jeans creating delicious friction on my ass. Almost touching the sensitive skin deep inside.

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