Page 44 of Under an Endless Moon

I wasn’t fast enough to dodge him when one of those tatted hands darted out and he poked me in the side. “Chicken.”

Squealing, I turned on my heel and started to run around the island.

The jerk knew I was crazy ticklish.

He was right behind me. My heels were definitely not working in my favor, and I wobbled and tried to stay upright as I skidded around the other side of the island.

Otto’s heavy footfalls echoed behind me, and one second later, he was wrapping both arms around me and lifting me off my feet before I could prepare myself.

He pinned my back to his chest.

To his hard, packed, chiseled chest.

Those massive arms locked tight around me.

I squirmed and kicked like I wanted to get away when I would have preferred to stay right there for the rest of my life. “Put me down, you big brute.”

He held me with one arm and started tickling me with the other. I shrieked and thrashed, and one of my heels went flying off my foot and toppled to the floor.

He had the nerve tobockat me like he might have been playing around with Nolan.

“Put me down!” I screeched.

“Only if you admit that you’re totally a chicken, and you don’t want to tell your brother the way you really feel.”

“What? That he’s gross and he should have taken his activities elsewhere?”

Otto chuckled. “You could probably also tell him that.” Then he slowed as his arms tightened around me, his words soft encouragement as he murmured them at my ear. “But you have to be honest with him, too. Tell him what you want. Otherwise, it’s gonna be a fight. And you deserve everything in this world that might bring you happiness.”

I stopped my fighting, too, and I just let him hold me there. I wanted to sink into it. Fall into the strength of who he was. Turn around in his arms and press myself against him. Confess to him what it was that Ireallywanted.

But I’d never do that. Would never lay myself bare. The one time I’d tried, it’d left me devastated, and I wasn’t ready for another round of that.

“I’m not afraid of my brother, Otto,” I murmured into the dense air. “I just understand the sacrifice he’s made for me. Understand the things he’s done to protect me, and I know how difficult it will be for him to shift the dynamics of our relationship. Especially after so many years of him thinking he’s had to take care of me.”

Heavy emotion rolled from him. “It’s goin’ to be good, Raven. Good for the both of you.”

“I hope so.”

He pulled me even closer, and his lips brushed the shell of my ear. “I know so.”

“You have a lot of faith in me.”

“I have all the faith in you.”

Energy bound. So intense. Deep and profound. Pulling around us in a force so severe it felt impossible to resist.

But apparently that force only applied to me since I could feel the easy grin that he pressed to the side of my neck, and his words rumbled through me when he said, “All right, then, Moonflower, you win. You talk to your brother when you’re ready, and I’ll be here to support you through it. Thick and thin.”

Moonflower.

My heart panged.

“You’ve always been there to support me.”

“You keep forgetting that you’re my favorite person in the world.”

I wanted to be more than his favorite. I wanted to be his everything. But I didn’t say anything when he gave me a tight squeeze then settled me onto the floor. “All right, let’s get my girl something to eat.”

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