Page 2 of With a Broken Wing
The sound of liquid being poured over the edge caused me to narrow my eyes, and I pushed my tongue against the inside of my cheek. He was unfazed, as stoic and stone-faced as he had been the whole weekend, and the urge to scream built up inside me. “So now you’re telling me how much I can drink too? You’re unbelievable.”
In a breath, he closed the distance between us and gripped the railing behind me. “Why is it you’reLittle Miss Sunshinefor everyone else, but you have such an attitude with me?”
He pulled a cigarette from the pack in his pocket, and I followed his hand as he placed it between his lips and lit it. The scent of the smoke mixed with the mint and oak, and I ran my tongue along my bottom lip, reveling in the smell.
“I don’t have an attitude. Maybe you’re just not as sexy and charming as you think you are.”
With a glare, I pulled the lit cigarette from his hand and put it to my mouth. I inhaled, sucking in a deep breath and filling my lungs with the foul smoke. The smell of cigarettes always settled me. It reminded me of my grandpa. He smoked like a chimney, but he was comforting; one of the few comforting presences in my life until he died when I was in high school.
“Sexy and charming, hmm?”
When I realized what I had said, I flushed. “That’s not what I meant,” I said before blowing it in his face with a smirk.
He raised his eyebrow, and the heat growing in my core got warmer at the look he gave me. “I think it’s exactly what you meant.”
His stare burned through me, and I became intently aware of the way his arm brushed against mine. I took another drag of his cigarette before he pulled it from my fingers and tossed it over the side. I huffed. “You are such a prick!”
“Did you think I wasn’t, sweetheart?” He looked proud, wearing the insult like a reward.
My mouth dropped open and then I closed it, attempting to swallow away my nerves. “I…”
“Stop arguing with me.” His finger against my lips was salty and smelled like the cigarette he’d plucked from me.
I narrowed my eyes, took a deep breath, and debated biting him. When he moved his hand, I curled my lip up on one side. “Why don’t you make me?”
A deep growl rolled from his chest, and he pressed his body against mine, pinning me to the railing. My breath hitched in my chest at the look on his face. “I would love to make you,sunshine, but I don’t think you understand what I’d do to a woman with an attitude like yours. It’d be the ride of your life, and I’m not so sure you’d survive it.”
The way the golden rings around his eyes darkened told me he might have been right, but the heat between my legs said I wanted to find out. Before I could respond, he pushed away from the railing and walked away, turning his head over his shoulder to get in the last word before he disappeared through the door into the venue.
“Be good, sunshine.”
The door slammedbehind me harder than I’d intended, echoing through the oversized entryway of my brother’s house. There were no voices filling the space and nobody carrying on a conversation in the living room, but a faint hum drifting from the kitchen drew me in that direction. I scoffed. Most of the furniture was gone and nothing hung on the walls.Needed help moving, my ass.
I turned the corner into the kitchen, stopping in the doorway when I saw my new sister-in-law’s best friend dancing against the counter. Andrea Johannson, the overly chipper woman who insisted on being called Andy, to the extent that she blatantly refused to answer to Andrea. Her natural red hair was tied in a messy ponytail, and the cropped tank top she wore just barely covered her chest. A bead of sweat ran down her back, and I followed it with my eyes as she picked up another plate. She tossed her hands over her head and waved the dish, wiggling her hips and throwing her head side to side.
Her headphones stopped her from hearing me behind her. When she turned in a circle, she spotted me and jumped, dropping the plate she held. It shattered against the tile floor as she shrieked. Shards of porcelain skated across the floor around her bare feet, and Andy danced around them like they were attacking her.
“Shit! Shit, shit, shit.”
“Don’t move,grace. You could cut your foot.” I grabbed the broom from the closet, moving to gather up the pieces.
The redness in her cheeks complimented her red hair, and she pouted. “Grace?!You scared me! I’ll let you know that I’m very graceful.” When she crossed her arms, it pushed her tits together, giving me a view of the same ample cleavage I’d stared at throughout the wedding only a few weeks earlier.
I stared, her frustration amusing. The annoyance I’d felt walking up the stairs and into my brother’s unnecessarily large house had mostly dissipated. “I’m sure you are, sunshine. Where are the newlyweds?”
She cocked her head and pressed her full lips into a thin line, making it clear her annoyance had only grown. “Probably screwing somewhere upstairs if they aren’t in the living room anymore.” Picking up another plate, she set it on a pile of brown paper before carefully wrapping it up.
I raised my eyebrow slightly, but her accusation didn’t surprise me. My brother and Jules were nearly impossible to pry away from each other these days. He didn’t even take a call anymore without his wife being nearby. She was a good woman for him, though. She challenged him, and she was a powerhouse. Jules carried the Carlisle name well, but it now meant I was obligated to do things like drive two and a half hours to help them move.
“Then why am I here?” I grumbled mostly to myself.
Andy took another plate from the cabinet and shoved it into my hands. “I was wondering the same thing.” William had plates at his penthouse in Chicago, so these wouldn’t even be used, but I grabbed it from her anyways.
I gave her a side glance, watching her wrap another. She shimmied her shoulders slightly and hummed while she worked. It was like her annoyance was rolling off her shoulders as she danced, but the longer we stood in the kitchen, the worse my mood got.
“You don’t need so much paper for every plate.”
Her ponytail whipped behind her when she turned to face me. Frustration lit a fire in her hazel eyes, and she chewed furiously on her bottom lip. “Excuse me?”
