Page 134 of Winning Brynn

Anger bursts from my chest, red and explosive. “Don’t you dare diminish what we have to that word, Leo Sullivan.” I jab a finger into his arm. “You might have ‘fucked’ me, but you did so much more than that. You gave me a home, a future, and a family. You made me fall in love with you, and goddamnit, you fell in love with me too. Or has my brother gotten into your head enough to make you forget all that?”

His eyes are soft as he blinks up at me. His fingers inch under my jersey, whispering across my bare skin. “No, baby. I could never forget.”

“It ismychoice who I welcome into my bed and my heart. It is not my brother’s.” I lift my hand back to his face and temper the bite in my voice. “I know it’s hurting you to be fighting with him, and it’s breaking my heart for you. But if bro code matters more to Alex than me being happy, then that’s on him. I will never apologize for being with you, Leo, not when you’re the best thing that has ever happened to me.”

His smile starts slowly, his lips stretching outward for several seconds, gaining in confidence and certainty. He bends his head to brush his mouth over mine, kissing me with something akin to reverence. “I love you, Brynn.”

“I love you too.” I let the moment shimmer for a second, feeling it glide over my shoulders like a breath of warm air. Then I push him away and hop off the counter.

He frowns. “Where are you going?”

“There’s something I need to do,” I tell him over my shoulder as I pad out of the bathroom. “You’ll need to look after your own child for once while I’m gone.”

I fire him a wink so he knows I’m only teasing, and he rolls his eyes in response.

“Will you be long?”

I huff. “Not if I can help it.”

Alex doesn’t answer his door when I knock. I give him three chances before calling the doorman and telling him I can smell smoke coming from my brother’s apartment.

Steve, a middle-aged man with a goatee and craggy face, lets me in, no questions asked.

“Thanks, Steve.” I pat him on the arm. “I’ll take it from here.”

“But Miss, if there’s a fire—”

“Huh, that’s weird.” I make a show of sniffing the air. “I can’t smell it here. Maybe it’s the apartment next door, you should go check that out.”

He looks at me in bewilderment, so I double down, shuffling him out the door. “It’s definitely that apartment.” I point to a random one down the hall. “Quick. They could be dying of carbon monoxide poisoning for all we know.”

His gaze flies between me and the other apartment, frozen between knowing that I’m up to no good and genuine concern that there’s a fire blazing somewhere in the building. So, I make the choice easier for him and shut the door in his face.

Poor Steve.

I’ll have Leo give him a generous tip for his troubles later.

“Alex!” I yell into the silence, my voice bouncing off the stark-white walls and black glass furniture. Ugh, he’s got no taste in interior design. His place is so cold and man-ish in comparison to the apartment a few floors above that I now call my home. “I know you’re here. Don’t ignore me, asshole!”

I pass the eight-foot mirror on the wall, where Alex spends most of his time taking photographs of himself, and turn into the main room. Like Leo’s place, it’s open-plan with a kitchen, dining space, and living area. Unlike Leo’s place, it’s all high-gloss and cold monotones, the opposite of cozy and the perfect representation of his bachelorhood.

It’s also empty.

“Stop being a coward, for Christ’s sake.”

An indignant grunt sounds somewhere. “In here.”

I spin on my heel, stomping back down the hallway until I’m standing in the doorway to his bedroom. My brother sits on the end of his bed with his head in his hands. The knuckles on his right hand are split and bruised the same color as Leo’s jaw. The sight reignites the fury inside of me.

I temper it down, though, knowing nothing good will come out of this conversation if I go in all guns blazing. That said, I’ve already tricked the doorman into letting me into the apartment, called my brother an asshole, and accused him of being a coward, so there’s a strong possibility I’ve already fucked that up.

But we live and learn.

“How did you get in here?” he asks, not bothering to uncover his face and look at me.

I wince. “Steve is concerned there’s a fire in the building.”

He scoffs. “There is. It’s standing right in front of me.”

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