She turns away, hiding her hands under her thighs. “Because I wanted you to treat me like… well,me, not related to anyone. My brother’s shenanigans didn’t exactly make our family popular.”
Her brother. Her brother?
It would make sense if I wasn’t pissed right now. All I want to do is drop her off right here, turn around, and get the fuck out of here, but it’s Alicia, and I promised her I’d be here. Even when she lied.
“Alicia.”
She keeps looking outside so I call again.
“Alicia, look at me.” I put my hand on her knee, and she tenses under my touch, but I keep my hand firm, ready to bolt any moment if she freaks out. There is always a thin line with her when touches are involved, and for the thousandth time, I want to hunt down the motherfuckers who hurt her and kill them. She eventually turns toward me, and I keep alternating between looking at her and the road. “Because I didn’t want you to think of me like you did at first. All right? You know, all judgmental.”
“I did n—”
She stops me with a slightly raised voice. “Please, don’t insult my intelligence. You thought I was a spoiled city girl at first, and I’m not.” Then her brows furrow. “I suppose I was a spoiled kid at some point, but not anymore. So yeah, Jake is not a popular person nowadays, and I figured if you knew he was my brother and all that, you’d look at me even worse.” Her leg tenses under my touch. “Turn right there and park on the side by the blue house.” She points at the huge-ass house, and lead settles in my stomach.
“What’s your last name, Alicia?” I repeat the question as I park next to this gorgeous home I could only dream of owning one day.
Unfortunately, I already know the answer.
She turns toward me with a tight smile. “It’s Attleborough. Alicia Attleborough. Nice to officially meet you.” She offers me her hand for a shake, but I’m frozen. I can’t breathe.
I should have known it was too good to be true. I had been having this feeling since the night in the mountains that the second shoe would drop anytime now. She was too perfect to be mine. I gave myself hope when I agreed to her proposal, but now I’m so deep, I can’t climb out.
And I was right. About all of it. She’s Justin Attleborough’s sister, the asshole who beat the shit out of me that night. The asshole I let do that to me.
About eight years ago, we had a nasty fight when I slept with his girlfriend, and he went to jail. He thought Kayla, his now fiancée, had something to do with it, and he had been bullying her for years for it. How she forgave him is still a mystery to me, but she never told me what exactly happened between them and how it all turned out. The only thing I know is that night I let him beat the living shit out of me because I felt fuckin’ guilty. The dude was in the navy while I was shagging his girl, so yeah, he deserved to throw a punch.
But it never stopped there. Something escalated in his life after that night, and I don’t think it had anything to do with prison where he spent a couple of years, I think. He brought that on himself when he beat the cop who arrested him. The man has some serious anger issues. Regardless of what’s been happening in his life, everywhere our lives overlap, we fight, quite literally. We’ve had a few nice brawls over the years, and every time I wanted a fight, I made sure to stick around the places I knew he’d be. Me and him in one room is a sure recipe for disaster.
And now, she tells me she is his sister—the sister I saw in passing when she was a kid at school. I don’t even remember her because I was a few grades older. I didn’t even know her name since I wasn’t interested.
Justin and I were never in the same circles, so I knew nothing about him. I’ve never even seen Alicia around town before, which makes sense now, since I know what happened to her. Otherwise, I’d never miss her. She’s the most gorgeous woman I’ve ever seen. The woman of my dreams. You know when you’re a teenager, you have this crush on someone and then you grow up just wanting the person? She was always that, the dream in my mind. And when I saw her, she turned into reality. My dream had a body and face that belonged to a goddess.
And the goddess had a dickbag brother.
Fuck my life.
“Mark. Mark, are you okay?” I finally notice Alicia calling out to me.
I try to focus on her and blink. Her hand isn’t outstretched anymore, her face is full of concern.
“What happened, Mark?”
“Nothing,” I lie through a forced smile. “Are you sure you want me in there?” I nod toward the house. “It looks fancy, and I’m anything but.” I ask jokingly. Partially.
“What are you talking about?” Her brows draw together in a genuine confusion.
I let out a long sigh. She’s really so far from what I thought of her at first—too pure for her own good—and I want to punch my own face in for judging her too soon. Plus, she clearly doesn’t know our history, or I wouldn’t be parked next to her parents’ house. What does she know about me besides those few glimpses of the old me I’ve shown her? She knows me as a firefighter who saves lives.Now.She doesn’t know where I came from and what I did when I was younger. Not entirely.
“Just joking. C’mere.” I take her hand and pull her to me. My gut tells me it might be our last kiss, and she’ll hate me later once her brother tells her all about me.
“It’s my parents’ house.” She giggles but lets me pull her.
“It’s all right. They can’t see us from there.” I place my hand on the back of her neck and angle her head for the kiss. I brush my lips across hers, and she whimpers.
“You know what this butterfly kiss does to me, and you still do it before family dinner?” She murmurs against my mouth.
“Yeah.” I breathe out and swipe my tongue across her lower lip. “You’ll be wet, and I’ll know it.”
