Page 25 of When the Last One Falls
“Same here,” Onyx added.
“No need to stand on ceremony, gentlemen,” Keris replied, and I could already feel my teeth clench. “I’m not really Brantley’s wife. I’m just the woman that he unfortunately had to marry to secure the mines for his family’s legacy.” Keris leaned to the side, then added. “Considering that he prefers blondes, I’m the last person that he should be married to. I mean, just look at her.” Magnus and Onyx both turned to see who she was talking about, but unfortunately for me, I’d already had a front row seat. “Talk about an absolutely stunning creature.”
“Keris-
“I’m going to go get a drink,” she announced, cutting me off as she looked up at me. “I’ll leave you to catch up with your friends.” Then she patted me on the chest like we were buddies or some-fucking-thing. “Tell your girlfriend that I said hi.”
I almost had her in my grip, but Onyx quickly stepped in front of me, allowing Keris to make her getaway. “Relax,” he said. “Now is not the time, Brant.”
“Soooooo, I take it that she has no idea that you actually prefer brunettes?” Magnus quipped, and I just shot him a look. “Oh, hey…I’m just saying.” He chuckled. “You’ve always preferred brunettes.”
“What the fuck is Rochelle even doing here?” I snapped.
“Carl Russell brought her,” Onyx supplied. “Either he’s not aware of your past with the woman, or else he doesn’t care.”
“If you ask me, the fact that she accepted the invitation is the real problem,” Magnus remarked. “I’d keep an eye on that if I were you, Brant.”
“I’ve always thought that Keris Bishop was beautiful, but up-close, she’s seriously breathtaking, Brant,” Onyx remarked, causing my back to go up and him to chuckle. “I’m just saying that you better get your shit under control. If Ares finds out that she actually hates you, he’s going to go after her with everything that he’s got. Whatever she has in her head about Rochelle, you better get it out of there.”
Just then, my parents made their way over, and I just stood there as they played their parts for Onyx and Magnus. Beau was also somewhere around here, and I could see him causing trouble for me just to do it. Plus, brother or not, he wasn’t above trying to fuck my wife if it would give him one up on me.
Ignoring everyone around me, I went in search of my wife. I didn’t care if she was glaring daggers at me the entire time, no way was I letting her out of my sight tonight. My protective instincts were firing brightly, and I always trusted my instincts.
When I finally found her, she was smiling up at the waiter handing her a glass of champagne, and I wondered how it would feel to have her smiling up at me like that.
Chapter 17
Keris~
At this rate, alcoholism seemed like something that was going to be a part of my future. While I knew that I needed all my brain cells to deal with someone like Brantley Kingston, alcohol seemed like the thing to do whenever I was near him.
I knew that I was also going to have to look for a therapist when I started searching for AA classes, because there was something seriously wrong with me. Every time that Brantley growled at me or manhandled me, I dripped with lust and that couldn’t be healthy. Maybe it was because all my previous relationships had been with well-bred, refined, polite gentlemen…I don’t know. Nevertheless, whatever it was, it was embarrassing for him to know my secret. It was humiliating to have him know that I got wet for him. My mouth might be spewing hateful venom at him, but I was beginning to wonder if I did it just so that he would lose his shit on me. Masculinity was both a beautiful and destructive thing.
His cologne hit me before his voice did, and it was crazy how confused I felt. I was mad at everything, and I didn’t know how not to be. I was mad at my parents for losing everything, his parents for offering the deal, Brantley for his treatment of me and the shitty things that he’d said about our marriage, Rochelle for being so damn beautiful, Ares for taunting me the way that he had, and I was especially mad at myself. I was so goddamn mad at myself for ever agreeing to married Brantley when I knew damn well that I could have found an affordable solution for me and Lindsey had I looked hard enough.
Brantley’s arm slid around my waist at the same time that I felt his lips on my bare shoulder. With one hand gripping my left hip, his other hand didn’t stop sliding across my body until he had one of my breasts cradled in it, and the fact that he was doing it in public, at a company function no less, was inappropriate, lewd, demeaning, and insulting. However, if you asked my body, it also felt sinful, sexy, exciting, domineering, and so damn possessively hot.
With another kiss on my bare shoulder, Brantley said, “In a room full of women at their best, you are easily the most beautiful one among them.”
I stared down at my champagne flute, swirling the golden liquid inside, refusing to give him the reaction that he so obviously wanted by placing his hands on me in public. “Yeah, well…everyone knows that brunettes can’t compete with blondes,” I replied acidly. “I mean, how many blondes do you see dying their hair brown? Meanwhile, you can find an endless number of brunettes dying their hair blonde, what with blondes having more fun and all that. It was nice of you to try to pay me a compliment though, really.”
I felt Brantley’s sigh on my warm skin before he let go of my hip and breast, turning me around to face him. “I should have followed you from the hallway immediately that night,” he said. “I never should have let you believe that there was still something going on between us. For that, I apologize.”
I stared up into his gorgeous face and found myself not ready to make nice. “No,” I argued. “You never should have letherbelieve that there was something going on betweenus.She’s not the other woman in this scenario, Brantley; I am.”
“That’s bullshit,” he growled.
“Blonde, brunette, redhead…it doesn’t matter,” I told him. “Rochelle will always be a woman that you chose voluntarily, and I will always be the woman that you were coerced into marrying for monetary gain.”
“You’re forgetting that you were also a choice,” he said. “I didn’thaveto marry you, Keris. My family wasn’t the one in need of money.”
I let out an empty laugh at that. “You didn’t choose me, Brantley. You chose the mines, something that any levelheaded businessman would have done.” I shook my head before taking a drink of my champagne. “I can’t even blame you for that.”
“Look, it’s obvious that we’re never going to agree on how we came to become married, but wearemarried, Keris,” he said. “I refuse to go around and around with you for the rest of our lives. We’re married and that’s the end of it.”
“Yeah, I suppose it is,” I murmured.
“Now, while I might not have the right to expect you to love me ever, I do expect loyalty, fidelity, and respect on your end,” he continued, and for whatever reason, that got my blood boiling again. “I am your husband, and you will treat that title with the deference that it deserves, even if you do dislike me.”
