Derek’s eyes turned dark. He didn’t reply but I could feel that he was happy with my response. I didn’t need anyone to protect me. I had saved myself and I would do it again if I had to.
“How’s life at Momma’s?” Maze tried to change the subject.
Derek laughed as I untangled myself from my brother and threw myself onto their couch. “It’s terrible.”
“They’re making you guys stay in separate rooms?” Maze asked. Her voice hinted that she was horrified, but Kia looked satisfied just like Kota.
“Good,” Kia smirked.
“Did you wait till marriage?” Derek sat down next to me and slid his palm up my thigh. I didn’t know where he was going with this but a part of me liked it and a part of me was scared.
Maze rolled her eyes and ran her fingers through her red hair. “No, we definitely didn’t.”
“Why the double standard then?” Derek’s hand continued up and up until my head started to spin. He was playing a dangerous game here.
Kia’s eyes followed his hand and his jaw ticked. I kept my face expressionless and my thoughts blank. I could not get hot in my brother’s living room. “She’s my sister.”
“And she’s ahot-blooded female.” Derek tilted his head to the side and watched my brother like the predator he was. “Would you prefer I marry her?”
Kia’s chin jutted up. My heart fell through my chest and disappeared. What the hell was happening? “You won’t.”
Oh, gosh. I couldn’t handle the testosterone. There weren’t many things that I ran from in life, but this was one of those things. If Derek hadn’t had his palm holding my leg into the couch, I would have darted out of there. Maze looked about ready to flee too.
“You can’t challenge me to do something that I had already planned on.” The air was sucked out of the room. I couldn’t breathe, move, or even think. Had he just said what I thought he said? There was no way. We had just established we were boyfriend and girlfriend. Was this just a show? Questions swirled around my head a mile a minute.
Chapter Forty-Seven
Derek
And just like that,I laid all of my intentions on the table. I couldn’t take them back and I didn’t want to. I had thought about it. Marrying Aiyanna. I didn’t need to know what she looked like naked or how she made her coffee in the mornings. I didn’t need to know what her grandmother’s name was or even if she wanted to stay in Virginia. But I did know that someday I was going to put a ring on her finger.
I had thought about it as she had played Barbies with her nieces, as she cooked breakfast with her dad and even as she laid in bed depressed. I didn’t know when the first marriage thought had popped into my head, but I didn’t push it away like I would have before. I could imagine her in a white dress, walking down the aisle to me. I could imagine having kids with her. I could imagine our entire future and I wanted more. I craved the very thought of it.
But based on the way she was staring at the fireplace, I had possibly said the wrong thing. Kia just stared at me with shock written all over his features. He seemed like a cool dude if he could just get past his own ego. But I guess the same could be said about me.
I rubbed my thumb in lazy circles on her thigh and watched as her eyes got bigger. Her brother didn’t miss a thing and his face was starting to turn crimson. His wife jumped up from where she was perched on the arm of the couch and ran down the hall. I didn’t think I had scared her, but there was no telling. She wasn’t an easy woman to read.
“You want to marry my sister?” Kia looked between us like he couldn’t believe it.
“Once upon a time I didn’t want to get married to anyone. I thought I was too far gone for romance.” I looked into his brown eyes. “Soft women won’t survive a SEAL lifestyle, you have to understand. But Aiyanna showed me soft, vulnerable, strong, and stubborn all wrapped up in one woman. I have never met a woman quite like her. A woman that is so dead set on surviving but also enjoying it. She proved to me that I was the one that had been the coward all of these years.”
Kia looked at his sister with new eyes and I removed my hand from her thigh. As soon as my hand was gone, she jumped from the couch and raced after Maze. I expected no less. I had scared her or I had confused her, either way, it didn’t matter. I was determined to lay all of my feelings out on the table, the rest be damned. She deserved the best and dammit all if I couldn’t give it to her.
“Don’t bullshit on your feelings when it comes to my sister.” The big bad brother act was gone and there was a softer note in his tone.
I leaned back. “I’m not.”
“You haven’t told her that you love her but you just told her you have thought of marrying her.” Kia sighed. “You are doing this all wrong.”
I scoffed. “Your sister is a very particular person, do you think she wants what everyone else determinesright?”
Kia chuckled and sipped on the water his wife had brought him before we had our showdown. “You ain’t wrong.”
“My profession isn’t an easy one, so I know I need to lay it all bare before I leave again. I can’t have her wondering if I don’t come back.”
Kia’s smile slipped from his face. “You seem like a stubborn man, I doubt death will come for you and if He does, you will not go without a fight.”
After about an hour, I came to find that I really liked Kia. He wasn’t too bad of a guy and all he wanted was to see his sister happy, which I couldn’t fault him for. He had just heard all the awful things that had happened to her and here I was, ready to take her away from them. But that wasn’t what I wanted. I wanted her to be happy, even if it meant she didn’t go back to Virginia.
