Fuck.

Marc stood in front of the open door, his hands in his pockets, his short blond hair spiked and styled. He wore a business suit, as he always did, even if it was fucking Christmas Eve. His jaw was dropped, his green eyes, almost the same hue as Erika’s, were wide as donuts.

“What?” he said.

“Marc,” Erika managed, and licked her lips. She’d already cultivated a sheen of nervous sweat on her forehead. “What are you doing here?”

“I came to visit you, sis,” he said, and took another step forward, forcing Erika to back up from the door. “Is that a problem?” Marc walked into the hotel room and scanned it, looking for evidence, it seemed. His gaze paused on the crumpled red dress Erika had left on the floor.

Oh fuck. This is it.

He shifted his eyes to the left and took note of the ripped thong, now lying on the armchair where I’d thrown it. He averted his gaze, then circled toward me. “You motherfucker,” he said, slowly. “You absolute piece of fucking scum.”

“Whoa,” I said, and lifted my hands. “Calm down, dude. There’s no need to talk like that.”

“No need? No need?! I trusted you. I told you—” Marc was purple in the face now, and he paced toward me, raising a finger, forming his hand into a fist. “I told you to stay away from my little sister!” He shoved me, and I didn’t budge, but stared down at him instead.

I’d never backed down from a challenge. Any man who’d dare think he could touch me had wound up with a broken nose or a blackened eye, but this was Marc. This was my best friend. And I’d broken his promise. “You don’t understand,” I replied, coolly.

“I don’t want to fucking understand!” Marc yelled.

“Stop! Just stop it,” Erika said, jerking toward her brother, and laying a hand on his arm. “Stop. You don’t have any right to come in here and cause a scene, Marc. This is between me and Noah and no one else.”

“Between you? Are you fucking kidding me? It’s between you?” He pinched the bridge of his nose, then let out another wordless yell. He was officially losing his shit. “Fuck! Noah! Noah, you shit, I told you not to touch her. I told you she was off-limits, but you couldn’t help yourself, could you? You just couldn’t. You had to stick your dick—”

“Don’t finish that sentence,” I commanded. “Don’t speak about Erika that way. Fuck it, or me for that matter. I haven’t done anything to hurt her.”

Erika cleared her throat at that but thankfully didn’t follow that up with a comment. She kept her hand on Marc’s arm, as if her touch could stop him from launching into whatever attack was clearly on his mind. It wouldn’t.

I didn’t blame Marc for his anger. I’d betrayed his trust. But he didn’t get what was actually going on here.

“Marc, calm down and listen to me,” I said, once again in that commanding tone. “I’m not fucking around here. I care about Erika. I care about what happens to her.” I couldn’t bring myself to say that I loved her in front of him, not just yet. Christ, we hadn’t even worked that out between us yet. How would he react if I brought it up?

Throw it back in my face. Keep up the threats. It wouldn’t change a damn thing.

“I’m not just screwing her. I give a shit, OK? So slow your damn roll.”

Marc shook off Erika’s grip and moved closer to me. “You think I give a damn about whether you care for her or not? You’re not good enough for her, dipshit. You fuck up women. You fuck them and then you leave them and that’s all there is to it. Do you get that? I warned you about this. I warned you to stay away from her, and you still went ahead anyway. You clearly don’t give a fuck about our relationship.”

“Can you both stop talking about me like I’m not here?” Erika snapped.

“Sorry,” I said.

“This doesn’t concern you.” Marc barked it out without looking at her. “This is my business with Noah. He made a promise to me, and now he’s broken it.” Marc shoved me again, harder this time, and I took a single step back.

“Marc, don’t do that again.”

“I’ll fucking kill you,” he roared and launched himself at me. “You lying son of a bitch.” He crashed into my midriff and tackled me onto the ground behind the sofa. We scuffled, him punching at every inch of me he could find, hard punches. He didn’t pull any of them.

I refused to hit back. I was much bigger. I spent more time training. But the anger built in my gut, the sheer fucking outrage at having the moment with Erika ruined, at the unfairness of all of this shit.

Of the fact that my best friend didn’t think I could offer any value to his little sister after all these years. That he’d dictate to me, to Erika, to everyone, when he had a perfect life to go home to. A wife who cared about him, who’d loved him from the start.

Marc had wound up with his high-school crush. Mine still hated me. Mine was out of reach. Didn’t want to trust, even after I’d admitted that I was wrong, that I loved her.

“Fuck!” I growled and grabbed my best friend, hooking one leg around him, then an arm. I flipped him over, got on top of him, and held his hands behind his back. “Fuck, Marc, stop! Just fucking stop it.”

“Both of you stop it,” Erika screeched and stormed into view, barefoot and still so painfully beautiful, even in her anger. “You’re acting like goddamned animals. Stop.”

“Geroff me!” Marc struggled underneath my grip. “Geroff, you asshole.”

“Noah,” Erika said, closing her eyes for a second, then flicking them open again. “I think you’d better leave. My brother and I need to have a serious conversation about what’s just happened here.”

“You’re goddamn right we do,” Marc grunted.

I weighed it up, switching my focus from Marc to Erika and back down to him again. Christ, it wasn’t that I thought Marc would hurt his sister—he loved her, wanted to protect her—but I hated that he’d won. He’d lost his control, made a complete idiot out of himself, and he’d still somehow won this altercation.

Marc wouldn’t let up on this shit. He’d convince Erika that I was nothing that I didn’t want her, and that was what ate at me. She was already on the cusp of believing it, because she was afraid of what it’d mean to be with me.

Opening up again.

“Noah.” Erika swallowed. “Please.”

“Fine,” I replied and released my friend. Was he still my friend after this? Fuck, that was up to him. “Fine, I’m leaving, but you’d better not fucking touch me as I go, Marc, or I’ll pin you again.”

“Fuck you, asshole,” Marc spat, as he rose from the ground.

I made for the door, then paused once to look back at Erika, her arms folded under her breasts, tapping her heel on the carpeted floor of her hotel room. She’d been through so much—I’d put her through some of it—and still she was strong as a damn rock.

“I’ll be back,” I said.

“You’d better not be,” Marc snapped.

Erika said nothing.

I exited the hotel room and walked down the hall, straightening my shirt as I went, tucking it in, grimacing at the fact that Marc had taken off one of my buttons. Fuck, what a disaster. Unmitigated.

And I was the one who had to walk away and let whatever happened, happen.

This wasn’t me. But this was what Erika wanted, and I’d already made a promise to myself that for once, I’d focus on what she wanted, rather than what I did.