Page 57 of Known By You
“How dare you, you little?—”
“You don’t get to speak.” Her words whipped at my brother, effectively shutting him up, his eyes blowing wide in shock that she’d said anything at all, much less directed it at him.
“I don’t know if you’re greedy or stupid, or just rotten at your cores, but whatever the case is, you should be ashamed of yourselves. Your son is the kindest person I’ve ever met. He’s genuine and selfless and funny andgoodin a way I suspect none of you will ever understand. He’s generous and I have no doubt he might have given you some money if you really needed it. But you don’t get to guilt him for leaving a family who treated him so hatefully. You don’t get to try to make him feel bad for joining the military and serving his country. And you will not shame him for making a life here and working at a job he loves that also happens to earn a decent wage.”
Those parts of me crumbling were suddenly knitting back together, and she wasn’t done.
“Kenny is the best man I know, and you should be absolutely devastated you don’t know him—you don’t get him in your life, and you don’t deserve to. I can’t speak for what he does or doesn’t want to give you, but I can promise you that as long as I’m around, you won’t get another chance to speak to him until you get a grip and start respecting him.”
She began walking then, but stopped short, raising her chin in Glen Jr’s face despite him having six or more inches on her.
“And you? You’re a pathetic excuse of a human being and your desperate attempts to make your brother feel small or like less than you should eat at you. You’re a faithless, dishonorable jerk and the only thing you deserve is pity.”
I said nothing, following her lead as she navigated through tables, most of whom had somehow missed the dressing down she’d just given my family thanks to our out of the way table location.
My heart, though? My heart was exploding.
All I could think with every step was… her words.Her words.
She’d defended me. Not just defended me, but lauded me to people who didn’t deserve a second of her attention.She’d said more in those fleeting seconds than I’d heard her say at any other time and it had been all about me. For me.
As I tightened my grip on her hand, emotion built in me. Sadness and disbelief were there, the inevitable byproducts of having my family be cruel and also ask for money after not speaking for so many years, but also something far more powerful.
Adoration. Admiration. Something bordering dangerously on love. It was too soon for that, but what else was I supposed to feel?
She was fierce and commanding and furious in the most beautiful way. Did it make me a monster that I felt like she’d set me on fire as she’d shredded my family?
Maybe it did. Maybe I was as bad as they were, wanting something from her and only being satisfied when she gave it. But it didn’t feel like that as we crossed the street, as she unlocked the door to her building, as we took the stairs leading to her apartment.
It felt like she’d done something for me I never would’ve asked her to do. It felt like she’d stood by me when she could’ve just walked out like I’d planned. She’d refused to leave without attempting to make the people hurting me see how wrong they were.
And by the time we got inside her place, I’d lost the reins on my self-control and had to show her somehow. I paced into her living room as she shut the door, then turned back toward her, all my energy driving me into her space.
“I hope you can forgive me for?—”
I took her face in my hands and drew her into me, claiming her mouth like she’d just claimed me in front of an entire restaurant.
Our mouths crashed together, the intensity and adrenaline colliding in this crush of our bodies. She instantlyresponded, arms wrapping around my shoulders even as we stumbled back against the door.
We separated before impact, and I was certain I’d never been so gratified as I was right now, seeing her eyes just as hungry and wild as mine must’ve been.
“You’re incredible,” I said into her hair, pressing a kiss to her temple, then her cheek, then her jaw. I found the soft place in front of her ear, then just below it. Running my nose along the smooth skin of her neck, I inhaled the soft scent of her, wanting to drown myself in her warmth and nearness.
“You are, too. I hate that they can’t see that,” she said, her voice hitching when I nipped at the skin sloping from her neck to her shoulder.
I wanted to devour this woman—to give her so much pleasure she couldn’t see straight. I wanted to hear my name on her lips and give her the heart she absolutely held in her hands.
I found those lips again, tasting her and getting lost in the press of my body against hers, the door an immovable boundary to the outside world and everything in it. We were lost in this kiss, in this otherworldly sensation, in this loss of all bearings…
Until she urged me back and held my head in her hands, nails scraping against my scalp as our eyes met and she jerked away.
My heart tripped.
Desire hung in her dark gaze, yes, but something else. Something that had me sliding my hands away from her body and pressing them into the door, resting my head against the wood and exhaling, willing a return of self-control.
Fear.Not pity as I might’ve dreaded, but fear hung inher expression, in those blown pupils, and I’d never imagined seeing it there.
She was afraid. Of… me?
