Page 17 of His Public Claim
Guilt washes over me, but even so, it takes all my control to keep my arms at my side. His fist comes up and for a split second I’m certain my best friend is going to knock my lights out and I’m not going to raise a finger to stop him, because I deserve it.
I want the pain. I want Nicole, and I can’t regret that I was her first. Being there for her was an honour.
“No!” She pushes her way between us, forcing David to release me with a grunt of annoyance, pressing her little frame back into my chest.
“Get out of way, Nicole,” David snarls. “I have a score to settle with my friend.”
“He’s mine now,” Nicole states, voice unsteady but certain. She reaches for my hand and instinctively I take it, then wrap my arms around her.
Mine. I’mhers. My heart expands like a balloon.
“He’s old enough to be your father!” David falls back, shaking his head in confusion.
“Don’t talk to her like that,” I snap, and I have to restrain a growl in my throat. It’s one thing to shout at me, but Nicole is innocent.
“Sixteen years older, actually,” Nicole corrects him tightly. “Learn to count.”
“I told you so you could help, not so you could…” David gestures crudely. “Not withmy little sister.”
“Oh it’s fine for me to be sold like a whore, so long as it’s not to your friend, is it? Or is it seeing kissing that isdisgusting to you, David? Because believe me, someone was going to do a lot more than kiss me tonight. Youknewthat.”
“He’s. Too. Old for you,” David says to Nicole, slowly enunciating every word.
Any retort dies on my tongue, because he’s right. But that doesn’t mean I’m letting her go. She’s in my arms and she’s said she’s mine. She claimed me.
“He’s not.” Nicole’s spine straightens. She gets taller, though the top of her head remains beneath my chin. I think this night, for all its awfulness, has clarified something for her. She’s not going to be treated like a kid anymore. She hasn’t been a child for years, as I well know, but her family is only just realising. “If I’m old enough to sacrifice myself for this family, I’m old enough to kiss a man.Any man I choose. And you don’t get to be all neanderthal about it, as though this was a matter of your honour rather than my virginity.”
“David, step away,” Mr Highbury’s voice cuts in.
Although he’s vibrating with rage, David obeys his father. The older man still has the authority of kinship and being the mafia boss of Highbury, despite all the mistakes and problems.
“What exactly happened tonight?” Mr Highbury hasn’t put down his gun, and it’s not wavered from my head.
“Lev saved my life. He had to take me in front of everyone,” Nicole says before I can speak. She slides her hand over mine and grips it tighter. “There was no option. They had guns. They’d have killed us if he hadn’t.”
David swears, Mrs Highbury gives me a keen look, and Mr Highbury sighs and lowers his weapon.
“And he made sure nobody saw anything.” There’s pride in her tone that seeps into places inside me I hadn’t noticed were empty. Parts waiting for my love to speakabout me in that way. To know what I was doing, and why. To see me, for all she’s facing her family, her hand keeping mine on her warm silk-covered abdomen.
“I’ve heard enough.” Her father shakes his head, resigned. “It’s time to go home.” He indicates to Nicole with a flick of his fingers.
“I’m not going back to Highbury.”
David gapes.
“She’s staying with me.” That feels good. Really, really good. Nicole glances around and up into my face, eyes full of hope.
“But why?” David asks.
“Because he saved me.”
“He fucked you,” David snaps. “That’s not the same thing.”
“I love him.”
There’s shocked silence. No one moves.
She loves me? Sparks tingle through me and my heart feels like it might explode. It’s too good to be true, more than I deserve. I drop a kiss on her hair and think of how I’m going to keep her and spoil her and love her better than she’s been?—
