Page 41 of When the Last One Falls
The pounding of his footsteps got louder as he stormed up the stairs, my name still a roar on his lips. “Keris!”
When the footsteps finally stopped, I kept my head down like a coward, my heart in my throat, needing just a minute to prepare myself for whatever this was. Now that I was no longer in denial, now that I couldn’t run from my feelings, now that it was all out there, bravery felt foreign. Vulnerability was a brutal companion, and that sucked just like everything else in this moment.
“Look at me,” he demanded after a few seconds, his voice sounding like he wanted to kill me.
The suitcase felt like an anchor, holding my gaze, but it was blurry under the unshed tears swimming in my eyes. I didn’t want to look at him. I needed more time to figure out what I wanted to say. I needed more time to get my shit under control. Suddenly, Brantley’s suggestion that we only speak through our lawyers sounded perfect.
I felt his body heat envelop my entire frame as he came to stand next to me. “I said, look at me,” he repeated, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Finally lifting my head, letting the tears fall where they may, I looked into his blue eyes, and it took everything in me to hold his gaze. Nothing was more petrifying than showing your vulnerability to another person, even if you already knew that you were going to be rejected. I had no idea why Brantley was here, but it wasn’t because he’d chosen me over his beautiful date. In fact, the more that I thought about it, it was quite possible that he was here to warn me off ever attending another charity event again. I had probably ruined his night by showing up there like I’d had, and…and it didn’t matter. Nothing that I was feeling mattered, and I had no one to blame but myself.
“Her name is Shera Holgram, and she’s one of Kingston’s charity heads,” he said, hope shredding me apart. “She was there for the same reason we all were. She was there for her expertise, Magnus was there to make sure that she didn’t go crazy with the checkbook, and Onyx and I were there to represent Kingston Industries.” I just stared up at him, not knowing what to say. “Yeah, I asked her to go with me as my escort because I knew that it would get back to you and get my point across, but I’ve never touched her, Keris.” The tears were steady but quiet. “I haven’t touched anyone since you.”
“Why are you telling me this?” I finally managed to ask.
Brantley lifted his hands, slid them up my neck and into my hair, then fisted them tighter than he’d ever had before. “Because I fucking love you,” he growled down at me. “Because I fucking love you, and I will not let our parents, our pride, or Ares fucking Cormac ruin this for me.”
“Brant-”
He shook my head painfully. “I swear to God, Keris, if you ever go near that man again, I will fucking kill you both,” he kept growling. “I give two fucks about going to prison for it, and Iwill notrepeat myself a third time. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I whispered, hope still doing its thing.
“Baby, I can’t do this in name only,” he said, and that’s when I closed my eyes and let out a choked cry. “It’s all or nothing,” he went on. “I can’t just have pieces of you. You can’t walk around with my last name and not belong to me.”Brantley loved me.“And you’re out of your mind if you think that I wouldn’t destroy my father and brother before ever letting you marry Beau.” My eyes snapped open at that. “Dylan told me about what Beau said to you, and I swear on my life that I didn’t know anything about it-"
“Brantley-”
His lips stopped my next words, and I wasted no time grabbing onto him, holding him as close as possible. Brantley had come after me, and I’d never felt so relieved in my life. We hadn’t destroyed our marriage with our stupid pride, and never again would I not give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to his wretched family.
“No,” Brantley protested when I cut off the kiss.
“Brantley, I…I need to tell you something-”
“If Cormac touched you, I’m going to kill-”
“No,” I quickly rushed out. “Nothing happened between us, but…but this does have something to do with him.”
I could see fire leap into his eyes. “What?”
“He said that you wouldn’t come after me,” I told him. “When I told Ares that you wouldn’t come after me once you found out that I was gone, he agreed. He said that you might chase a lot of things, but pussy wasn’t one of them.”
“You’re not pussy,” he said. “You’re my wife.”
Tears started to spill again because I’d come so close to losing this man. Had Dylan not stepped in and told him the business, Brantley would have served me with divorce papers. Yeah, I never would have married his brother, but I would have lost someone that had come to mean everything in a very few short weeks.
“I want to tell him that you did,” I informed him. “I want to be able to tell him that you came after me and that I finally told you the truth.”
“The truth about what, baby?”
“That I love you,” I confessed, exhausted and elated to be able to finally say it. “Ares told me that if you followed me, then I’d better tell you the truth.”
Brantley looked pained. “I donotwant to owe Ares Cormac anything, Keris.”
“You don’t,” I quickly assured him. “I just…while I have no problem never going near him again, he’s not my enemy, Brantley.”
His eyes darkened, and I could feel my entire body tremble with the look. “My enemies are your enemies, Keris,” he said seriously. “Apart from Magnus and Onyx, everyone in my acquaintance is your fucking enemy.” His hands tightened in my hair. “Youbelongto me, Keris. Understand that, because as close as I came to losing you, you’re out of your mind if you think that I’m going to let anyone else near you ever again. By the time I’m done with you, it’s going to be said that only a crazy person would dare come near you.”
God, why did that sound so goddamn hot?
