Page 71 of Love Thy Brother
Right now, I had to focus on keeping him alive.
I choked him a little more, then eased off. “Listen to what I’m saying. If you still don’t like it, fine. But give me a chance.Please.”
River groaned, screwing his eyes shut as he rolled his hips a fraction, rubbing his cock on my leg. “This is fucking blackmail.”
“It’s persuasion. And it’s all I have left when you’re thisfuckingcontrary.”
The sound that tore from River’s chest was pure sex. A hollowed, primal growl. I bent my neck and his mouth met mine, his scorching tongue barging past my lips, his teeth as aggressive as the rest of him.
But there was something else too. Not defeat, but an acquiesce we desperately needed if we were gonna survive this.
His kiss faded.
I let him retreat, still holding him firm. “You gonna listen?”
He shrugged. I took that as his answer and eased off, releasing his wrists. It pained me to lose the closeness, but as much as dominating him got my blood pumping, it was only a matter of time before he kneed me in the balls.
I backed up, taking a seat on the edge of the bed. “You don’t know this because you don’t want to, but the club has other ways of taking people down now. Clean ways, ish, without violence and a life sentence in the slammer.”
River took a shaky inhale and rubbed his arms. “Thatishmakes me nervous.”
“It should, if you’re on the receiving end of it, but that ain’t gonna happen as long as your brother keeps the mad Russian happy.”
“Alexei?”
I nodded, watching River carefully. Being mostly estranged from the club meant he had no real relationship with Alexei, but I’d seen them together when Cam had been hurt. When Saint had been so close to death. Given the chance, they’d probably get on. “He’s the new brains of our operation. I can’t really explain what he does cos it’s too complicated for us mortals to understand, but when I tell you he could annihilate Timmersons from his fuckingiPad, I need you to believe me.”
River was a clever dude. Not books and shit, but he was sharp, his synapses firing as quick as his temper. “He’s a hacker?”
“More of a fixer if he’s on your side, but yeah. That’s the bones of it.”
“How would that help here?”
“No company is gonna buy your land if they’re bankrupt. If their directors are drowning in personal loans and CCJs. Trust me, Alexei can fuck shit up.”
River’s gaze flickered and my poor word choice churned my belly.Trust me.That was the problem, wasn’t it? He didn’t. And he hadn’t for a long time.
I retreated into my tea mug.
River went back to poking around in my phone, and with him so far away, the frigid temperature of his house prickled my skin. I stretched to touch the radiator. Stone fucking cold. In goddamn January. “Is your heating broken?”
“Hmm?” River didn’t glance up from scrolling on my phone. “What? No. It’s just off. I put it on when Oscar’s home.”
“Because...?”
He shrugged as if it was obvious.
It wasn’t. At least, not in any way I wanted to contemplate. “You need a lecture on how damp works?”
“Shut the fuck up.”
“Spark your boiler and you’ve got a deal.”
River vibrated with discontent but yanked the bedroom door open anyway and stomped downstairs. A moment later, the groan of neglected pipes rumbled through the house, and I took the hollow win.
Discombobulated, I finished my tea and lay back on the bed, checking the ceiling for bubbling and cracks. River’s house was old. He’d renovated the areas he shared with other people, but his bedroom was stuck in a time warp. Artex. Swirly carpet. Congealed gloss paint on the window frames. I hadn’t paid much attention last night, too tired and headfucked, but this room held a mountain of fucking metaphors for a man who was surviving, not living.
“What’s she like?”
