Page 118 of Brutal Game

I craned my neck to look at him. He looked terrible—eyes bloodshot, face almost haggard.

“Shouldn’t you be at your game?”

He shook his head. “I got penalized before it even started. Kicked out. Sent home. But not before my brothers talked some sense into me.”

What did that mean? Why was he penalized?

I started to ask, but he stopped me with a hand on my mouth. “Can we go in your apartment? It’s better we talk in private.”

He was asking? Not demanding?

“I’d rather be in public with you,” I told him. Even through my shock, I knew nothing good happened when we were alone in my home together.

He shook his head, and then I was up in his arms, bride style once again.

“Jack, put me down.”

“I like carrying you like this,” he said. “It’s good practice for our wedding.”

Okay.

None of that.

Especially not the way his words made my heart race.

“Jack, stop. Put me down. You’re being completely crazy again. You can’t say shit like that to me and?—”

He silenced me with a kiss. It was sweet, tender, and maybe even…

…sorry.

And then we were inside my apartment and he was shutting the door with his foot and carrying me over to the couch, lowering me onto it…and kneeling in front of me.

My heart froze.

“Jack, what the hell.”

“Aviva, little fury.” He swallowed. “I’ve only ever apologized to you, but once again, I’m so, so sorry.”

I gaped at him. In some ways, they were almost more shocking than him telling me he loved me. And settled something inside me.

“Sorry for what?”

“For not believing you.”

I couldn’t speak for a moment. So he did.

“I should’ve believed you about the Co—about Josh Jensen. You were right. Your brother wasn’t lying. He was. I’d ignored it, like you said. I fucked up, and didn’t give you what I so desperately wanted from you—your loyalty. And for that, I’m sorry.”

He captured me with this gray eyes, wet pools of silver. I stared at him.

“So you believe me.”

“Yes.”

“And Asher.”

“Yes.”

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