Page 63 of Love Thy Brother
Fuck’s sake.
A heavy sigh slipped out as Rubi returned to the room, an arm hooked around his big body, limping.
He’s hurt.
Dickhead that I was, I hadn’t checked before I’d hustled him upstairs to shower, but the way he moved now was painful to watch.
I cornered him by the door and pushed him gently against it. “Show me.”
Tired, he frowned into a slow blink. “Care to be more specific? I’m guessing you don’t mean my magic wand.”
I rolled my eyes. “Show me where you’re hurt. Your ribs.”
Denial danced through his gaze, but he lifted his borrowed shirt anyway, revealing a muscled torso so covered with ink there was no way of telling if he was bruised to fuck or not.
No blood. That was good, right? But he was bleeding somewhere. I could smell it. “Where are you cut?”
Rubi let the shirt drop. “You’re such a vampire.”
“What’s your point?”
It was Rubi’s turn to sigh. He started to bend, then seemed to think better of it and pointed at his leg. “Bashed my knee on the rocks.”
Couldn’t count the number of times I’d imagined myself on my knees in front of him, but never like this. Not with him exhausted and injured from saving my life.
I rolled Oscar’s sweats up, revealing more tattooed skin, but the ink was less dense on Rubi’s leg. Less of a camouflage for thehorrificbruising on his scraped and grazed kneecap.
“Fuck.” I sank back on my heels, one hand curved around his calf muscle while I reached for the nearby freezer with the other. “You need some ice on that.”
“It’s fine, Riv.”
“Fucking isn’t.”
“Riv.”
Rubi reached down and caught my wrists, hauling me to my feet before I could resist. He brought us face to face, his shoulders rising and falling too fast for a man standing still. “You need to stop this shit right now.”
“What shit?”
He reversed us, my spine hitting the door with a thud, his proximity sucking every ounce of oxygen from the room. “Thisshit. You think I give a fuck about a couple of bruises while you’re on your knees? You think I give a fuck aboutanythingwhen your hand is sliding up and down my leg like that? Holy Khaleesi, dude. Do you think I’m dead inside?”
I didn’t know what I thought. Just that he somehow still smelled of the sea. That his damp hair was starting to dry, growing lighter and waving at the ends.
That if he didn’t kiss me,I’dfucking die.
Rubi pressed me tighter against the door, crushing our bodies together, the hard length in his sweatpants impossible to ignore as it collided with mine, the infinitesimal friction enough to rip a groan from my chest. He stared at me for a long moment, as if he expected a coherent answer from me. Then he descended and crashed our mouths together, and I swear to God, something somewhere exploded.
Stars.
Planets.
The fucking moon.
The tenuous grip on myneedfor him.
He tasted of rum and risk. Of a decade of restraint undone.
Of the blood on my lips as our teeth clashed as if it was the first time we’d ever kissed, not the third in one night.
