Page 23 of Bossy Ex's Brother

“You like it,” he whispered, and it tugged at the arousal simmering in my belly. God, I couldn’t believe after everything that happened, I was still attracted to this asshole. Even at thismoment, I wanted to jump his bones, and I had to get out of there before I did something I regretted.

“I’m leaving,” I said, pushing past him toward the door.

He didn’t follow me, but he did call out when my hand was on the doorknob. “Oh, and Jane?”

I paused, not turning back, not wanting to see his irritating smile and compelling eyes again.

“You’re fired,” he said simply, and even though a part of me was expecting it, my stomach still sank.

I kept my chin up anyway.

“Good.” I spun around in anger. “I didn’t want to work here anyway, where you allow disgusting men to abuse your staff.”

And with that, I walked out the door, making sure it slammed behind me.

I avoided Brandon’s gaze as I walked outside, brushing through the bodies twirling around. I hadn’t minded it at first, but now it was all irritating to me; the drunks, the music, the dancing. Somebody grabbed my arm as I was leaving, and I turned around and almost swung at him, but then he held up his hands, a teasing smile on his face.

“Sorry, beautiful,” he said. “Couldn’t resist.”

“Next time you put your hands on me, you’ll be picking your balls out of your asshole,” I swore at him, and I could tell I was loud because I saw Brandon’s eyes widen behind the bar. I think I also saw him smile a little, but I didn’t care. I was done being the butt of their jokes. If they couldn’t take me seriously, then fuck them.

Only on the walk home, with the cool wind on my face, did my anger clear and despair begin to set in once again. I was back to square one. On the one hand, I hadn’t wasted a full month there before realizing that working for Luca’s club wasn’t a good idea.

But on the other hand, I now had to figure out what I was going to do next. And if I was indeed going to have to swallow my pride and go and beg for my old job back.

The thought depressed me all the way home. And then I met a not-so-charming surprise.

Bags were sitting at the doorway of my home when I arrived. I frowned down at the bags, wondering who was moving out as I pulled the door open. That was when I heard a familiar voice call out, “You look like you’ve had a horrible night, sis.”

I glanced up in time to see my brother, Felix, descending the stairs with his trademark playful smile on his face.

“Felix!” A grin of my own broke out as happiness overwhelmed me. It had been a few months since I last saw my brother. I missed him so much.

He reared back when I slammed into him with a tight hug, jumping in my exuberance. “Hey, don’t mess up the hair. It took me hours to get it looking good this morning.”

“Oh yeah? And who said it looked good? One of your girlfriends?” I teased, making sure to reach up to try and ruffle his hair. He dodged my hand easily, but I didn’t give up. My brother might now tower over me by several inches, but he was still my little brother, and I was determined to treat him as such.

He finally relented with a heaved and overdramatic sigh, at which point, I backed off.

“Why didn’t you tell me that you were coming?” I asked after finally giving up our game.

“I wanted to surprise you,” my brother responded with a wink.

“Well, you did,” I said, giving his cheek a pinch as he tried to pull away.

“Come on, sis. I’m eighteen. You can’t keep treating me like I’m some kind of baby.”

“But you’remybaby,” I teased, then laughed when he gave me an insulted look. “Alright, alright, I’ll stop. But tell me, when did you get in? And what are you doing here?”

“Got in a few hours ago,” he said. “And I’m actually here because, well….” He shuffled his feet a little, looked away, ran his hands through his perfectly styled curls, and then said, “I dropped out of school.”

I thought I heard wrong at first. The words were like ocean waves crashing in my ears, and I thought I couldn’t possibly have heard them correctly. My brother didn’t just tell me that he’d dropped out of one of the best schools in the country and given up a full scholarship to come back home.

But then Felix was standing there and staring sheepishly at me from under his eyelashes as though waiting for me to say something or do something or explode. But I couldn’t move. I couldn’t even think.

Did he just say what I thought he said? Did he just say he dropped out of school?

Yes. Yes, I think he did.

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