“Enz,” Cillian’s voice calls through the door with a soft knock as he pushes it open. My chest tightens, and I fall onto Eavan, shielding her naked body with mine. “What the fuck!” he shouts, loud and thunderous. “Get off my fucking sister!” Mad isn’t close to the appropriate word to describe his expression.
Fury.
Rage.
Homicidal.
I jerk back from Eavan, and she scrambles from me, grabbing the sheets and pulling them over her naked body. “Cillian…” I exhale, but it’s too late, the damage has already been done.
His jaw is clenched, and the vein running the length of his neck throbs with his racing heart. Every heated breath he takes causes his nostrils to flare and his eyes—dark and narrow—lock onto me like a target. His brows furrow, accentuating the harsh lines on his face. Without speaking a word, his fury radiates from him—hot, volatile, and barely contained.
He grips my arm painfully hard and yanks me off the bed with explosive force. “Get the fuck away from her,” he roars as I land bare-assed on the hardwood floor with a thud, the impact rattling my bones. “You’ve got some fucking nerve!”he shouts, his tone raw and unrestrained. “She’s my fucking little sister.”
I push myself from the floor to my feet. “Your little sister… She ain’t so little, Cian,” I snark, the words slipping from my mouth before I can think about them. I regret them instantly. His fist connects with my jaw—pain exploding in my skull and my teeth rattling as my head whips to the side. I don’t swing back. I don’t want to fight him.I deserve this. This is what happens when you keep secrets… When you fall for someone you aren’t supposed to.
“Don’t you dare fucking talk about her like that,” he spits, his face inches from mine as he tackles us both to the ground. Before I can fully recover, Cillian is on top of me. His knuckles come crashing down again, and this time I feel the crack in my cheekbone—my eye feeling like it's exploding.
I raise my arm to block the next punch, but the one that follows lands firmly, sending searing pain across my cheek and blood trickling from my lip. He’s lost it.Rightfully so.From the cold, hard look in his eyes, it’s clear there’s no coming back from this fight until one of us taps out.
“Stop!” Eavan shouts, cutting through the chaos, but it does nothing to calm our scuffle.
“Put some fucking clothes on, Eavan,” Cillian barks as I try to buck him from on top of me. “You lethimtouch you?Him? My best friend? Jesus, Eavan. Are you out of your fucking mind?”
She pulls the sheets tighter around herself. Her voice is small as she trembles. “It’s not like that?—”
“Oh really?” he snaps, smothering me with his body and pinning me to the floor. “Because it looksexactlylike that.”
“You don’t understand?—”
“No,” he cuts her off with a growl. “What Iunderstandis that you went behind my back. That you’ve been sneaking around like some desperate little?—”
I shove him off me, grabbing his arm and twisting it behind his back as I roll him on top of me. My legs lock around his torso, and I tighten my grip. Snaking my free arm around his neck, I cinch it tightly around his throat. “You’re her brother. You’remybrother. And I know you’re really fucking mad right now,” I growl, trying to hold back my anger, “but if you ever fucking talk to her like that again, I’ll break your fucking neck. Do you understand me?”
We struggle, both of us straining for control—control I’m not letting go of. My heart pounds, the blood rushing in my ears with every beat, and adrenaline fueling my tight hold on him.
Nikolai’s broad stature fills the doorway, and he leans against the frame. “I see he found out,” he muses, with a hint of humor in his tone.
“Are you going to do something?” Eavan demands, standing in the corner of the room, clutching the sheet around herself. She looks furious—livid, actually—but also terrified.
“Nope,” Nikolai answers casually, a faint smirk on his lips. “Just let them get it out of their system.” Eavan’s eyes flick between us and Nikolai. Her expression is a mixture of disbelief and anger.
“I trusted you to watch after her. Andthisis how you repay me? Treating my little sister like some whore you picked up at a bar,” Cillian shouts, his voice breaking with emotion and from the vise around his throat. His words fuel me, but they also hurt—because I know they come from a place of concern.
“I’m not treating her like anything,” I snap back, crossing my ankles and flexing my feet to maintain my grip around his waist as he fights to free himself from the cage of my limbs. “Because it’s not like that at all.” I hold him tighter, squeezing my thighs around his waist to keep him in place. I’ve had enough. “I’m falling for her, Cian,” I confess, almost whispering. “And you’re not going to stop me. Not now. Not ever.”
The words hang in the air, and Cillian actually looks at Eavan for the first time since this whole thing started. She stares at the two of us with sad, pained eyes—so full of tears that she’s seconds from them spilling down her cheeks. “Stop. Please,” she begs, and I’m not sure if it’s directed at Cillian or at me. Maybe both.
“If you’re going to calm down, I’ll let you go,” I offer, maintaining my tight grip on Cillian, still feeling the anger coursing through his veins. His breaths are harsh and uneven, his rigid body softens, and he stops struggling, muttering through gritted teeth, “We’re not done talking about this.”
“Yeah. I know.” I release my hold on him and push him off me. “Wearen’t.”
He stands quickly, his fists clenched white-knuckle tight at his sides. Turning on his heel, he pauses when he reaches Eavan. He shakes his head disapprovingly before muttering, “I can’t even look at you right now.” He storms away from her, his shoulder aggressively slamming into Nikolai as he barges past him in the doorway, muttering, “And I’ll fucking deal withyoulater.”
“Let him go,” Nikolai insists, not bothering to hide the amusement in his voice. A bemused expression on his face, he blocks the doorway. “Give him a bit to cool off, so he listens instead of trying to take your head off again. Maybe to also change his shirt so he doesn’t have your wet dick prints all over his back.”Of course, Nik would find this fucking funny.
Eavan watches Cillian storm out, her eyes wide and breathing still shaky. She looks at me, her expression momentarily unreadable. I expect her to yell. To cry. To tell me I’ve ruined everything.I almost wish she would. She walks silently across the room. “Enz…” Her voice cracks with concern when she reaches me.
When her fingers brush just under the bruise forming on my cheekbone, I flinch. Not because it hurts, but because I don’t deserve her tenderness right now. She pulls back instantly. “I wasn’t trying to hurt you,” she exhales, soft as the breath blowing over her lips.