Page 2 of Laila Manning
Nothing seemed real anymore.
“Thanks for waking me, I’m sorry I disturbed you. You can go back to bed now.” I said firmly, but I wouldn’t meet his gaze.
“Want to talk about it?” he said, leaning back against the wall and crossing his arms. I looked up at him as he did it and fought to keep my eyes above his incredible chest and on his face.
Did this man have any idea how sexy he was? His shaved head and perfect beard paired flawlessly with the ink and chiseled muscles that he always hid under his tailored suits.
In fact, in the three months since moving onto Ryker’s estate, in the barracks, I’d only ever seen Zeke in anything other than a suit a dozen times or less. It was usually when he wore workout clothes, and while that was a sight to behold, nothing compared to him nearly naked in briefs.
“No,” I blurted, feeling a blush creep across my face as I brought my knees up to my chest and wrapped my arms around them. “Not in the least.”
“You know,” he said, pausing like he was trying to choose his next words carefully, “I hear you most nights. But tonight was different.” I blushed even deeper as he kept talking, praying the world would open up and swallow me whole. “Your screams were more—intense. But they didn’t sound as pained.”
“Jesus.” I groaned and ran my hand through my hair. “I don’t ever remember what I dream about, other nights or tonight. They fade as soon as I wake up.” I lied quickly trying to end this embarrassing conversation.
He didn’t say anything right away, but his crystal-blue eyes stared deep into mine. Did he have any idea how painful it was for me to maintain eye contact with anyone, let alone him? Finally, he stood up off the wall and uncrossed his arms, “If that’s how you want to play it.” He said pensively and frowned.
“What the fuck is going on in here?”
We both snapped our heads toward the open door to my apartment and saw the giant outline of my brother standing in the doorway. Even with the light behind him, I could see the dark glare on his face as he stared at us.
“Jed.” I gasped, looking from him to Zeke and back. My mouth hung open at the assumptions I knew he was making about the two of us right now, but I couldn’t get words to come out of my mouth.
“Laila was having a nightmare. Her screaming woke me up, so I came over here to wake her up.” Zeke said plainly, not shrinking down at all as Jed walked into the room. Their dynamic had intrigued me since coming to live with them.
They were friends who respected each other, but I’d seen Jed fall into an alpha role around Zeke recently when I was around, and I didn’t necessarily like it.
“Are you okay?” Jed asked, deflating a bit as he walked over to me and sat down on the edge of my bed. He was a total stranger to me as an adult, but there were times like this when I’d see small bits and pieces of the boy he was when we were younger, trying to protect me from the evils of the world.
And I knew what that choice had cost him all those years ago.
“I’m fine,” I said, putting my hand on Jed’s between us on the bed and squeezing it briefly before putting mine back in my lap, twisting the blanket between my nervous fingers.
He watched me closely, letting his eyes bore into me as he remained quiet before finally blinking and nodding his head. “Okay.”
“What are you doing here?” I asked, looking at my phone next to me. It was only three a.m.
Zeke still stood against the wall in his tight boxers, and I triedreally hardto keep my eyes from looking in his direction at all. I didn’t want Jed to see something there in them that I wasn’t ready to process myself yet.
“I just got home from a job, and I saw Zeke’s light on, so I came over to walk through and check on you both,” Jed said, looking over at his scantily clad friend, raising an eyebrow at him. “Care to take your naked ass out of my sister’s apartment?” He bit.
I snapped my eyes over to Zeke, appalled by my brother’s rudeness, but Zeke just smirked at him, highlighting a dimple on his cheek under his short dark beard. He nodded his head and looked over to me, drawing my eyes into the deep blue of his. “You know where to find me if you need me, Laila.” he said, and his voice caressed my skin like a physical touch.
I nodded back to him quickly and gave him a small smile before dipping my head and staring at my hands, avoiding Jed’s watchful stare as he observed our interaction with interest. Zeke walked out, softlyclosing my door behind him, and I listened as his own door shut across the hall before I took a deep breath, laying my head back against the headboard as my shoulders deflated.
Jed reached over and flicked on the lamp next to my bed, “Talk to me,” he said firmly as I stared up at the dark ceiling.
“I—” Stammering, I swallowed away the anxiety, “I don’t know how to,” I finished, hating the uncertainty I felt in my heart being in a small space with him. The vicious things my grandparents had told me about Jed over the years, beating them into my brain, were hard to un-believe. Even after spending three months living in his world and seeing who he really was now.
I looked down my nose to watch Jed as he processed that, and I saw the hurt in his eyes before he dropped them to the bed between us.
“I never should have let them take you from me.” He said quietly. It was the first time he had spoken of our grandparents or our past at all. Neither of us had wanted to rehash those painful days when I got out of the hospital and somehow, we both silently agreed to just move forward, forgetting the past altogether.
But I knew from Carly that it killed him not knowing what happened in the nearly two decades that we were separated.
I was an adult now, but with just a few words, I was transported back to being a kid cowering in my big brother’s arms begging him to make the monsters of the world stay away.
“You didn’t have a choice. And you didn’t know any better, Jed.” I said, lifting my head off the headboard to look him square in the eye, something I struggled to do with anyone, especially men.
