Page 77 of Hat Trick Holidate

“Who were you talking to? I’ve missed you so much.”

“I’ll tell you later. Baby, I’m starving for you, and I need to be fed.” His voice is dripping with need, sultry and deep. Bryce glides one hand under my panties.

“Bryce, we can’t. We’re supposed… Ahh.” I let pleasure roll through me.

“So smart, wearing a dress. And these boots. Fuck,Rusti.” He plunges a finger into me, and I love the way he’s the one panting and can’t get enough of me. “So. Damn. Glad. You told him.” He pulls out and peppers me with overlapping kisses. Taking in my top lip, then the bottom one.

A noise pounds and reverberates against the lockers. I watch in horror as he charges toward us, with his fists clenched. “You son of a bitch!” Roman yells. Bryce quickly moves into protective mode, maneuvering me behind him and lets Roman take a shot to the jaw.

Bryce is just standing here, letting Roman wail on him.

“Roman, stop!” I scream, and it echoes through the hall.

Bryce says through clenched teeth, “I deserved that, but one more punch is all you get. After that, I’m fighting back, and it might draw a crowd.”

“You’re screwing my sister. Sisters are off limits. Don’t you know the fucking rules?”

“Roman, sometimes things are meant to be. I met Bryce eight years ago after Grant left me. Here in Atlanta after your game.”

“This has been going on under my nose. You came here for him. Didn’t you?” Roman seethes with his chest inflating and deflating at an unhealthy pace.

“No, Roman, I never planned for this to happen,” I interject, my voice quivering with emotion. “But I won’t deny how happy he makes me. Him and Jolie.”

“Don’t you dare look at me, Wynward. Not one fucking glance. You let me find out here so I couldn’t whip your ass in public. And Emmaline, we’ve always been there for each other, and you lie to me. I’m done. With both of you.”

Bryce stands stoic with one arm around my waist andhis lips folded over his teeth. “That went better than expected,” he says finally, breaking the tense silence.

I push him away. “I have to find him and make it right.”

chapter 34

BRYCE

She’s goingto choose her brother over me. Over me and Jolie. I’ve given out at least two hundred meals, smiled, and taken photographs with fans, but my stomach bubbles with anxiety.

I haven’t felt these types of nerves since the accident.

Accident?

It’s the first time I’ve thought about it like an accident. Emmaline convinced me that it wasn’t my fault. She has a way of hearing me and finding the sunlight that streaks through the trees, instead of the shadows the trees create. I’ve lived in the shadows since I was a teenager. Not wanting to be better than my brother Andri. Tried not to bring attention to myself. I didn’t want to hear about my past, so I stayed silent.

No talking of parents.

Of brothers.

Of car crashes.

I stayed quiet and thought the pain would eventually fade, but it didn’t. It took a one-night stand coming back into my life for me to see that sometimes, good things happen to bad people and then to accept that I’m not a bad person, a bad thing happened. We weren’t drinking. My brother asked me to drive.

I look up to the cathedral ceiling in my living room and then to the tree we were going to decorate last night after the game.

Never happened.

She didn’t come.

She had the weekend off to spend with her family. Belinda, the owner’s daughter, kept Jolie at the game. Since I didn’t play, Roman and I had zero interaction. He won’t look at me, and I have no idea what to say since his sister seems to have chosen him over me.

Do I blame her? Would I choose my brother too?

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