I watched them moving around each other, and I knew. Charlie was a fucking wanker. He knew that I liked her, and he had to get in there and go and have her for himself.

“I’m going out to the barn to work.” I sulked.

Jude raised an eyebrow at me. “It’s a fucking blizzard out there Finn.”

“So?”

“Christ you’re such a child, what the fuck is wrong with you?”

I glared at Charlie. “Why don’t you ask him.” I zipped up my coat, and I stropped out into the freezing wind and snow. I had no idea what it was that I was going to do out there, but I was pissed enough to just need time out of the way so I wouldn’t end up trying to kill my oldest brother.

Jude had been right though. I was behaving like a child, I was huffing because someone was getting something that I wanted. I wanted Ellie, I had liked her, really liked her for a long time, and there was my brother like the cat that got the cream. Okay, so he wanted her too, but he didn’t need to rub my damn face in it. I hated him right now.

I didn’t care how childish it made me, it was just like the lifetime of being the younger brother. ‘Oh, but Charlie’s older than you.’ I had heard that my whole life. And Charlie knew just how much I liked her, I always had.

I started to tidy stuff up in the barn. Sure it was cold, but at least it was sheltered from the elements. I had the door closed over, I had the battery-powered lantern in there with me, and I just bummed about in there, tidying stuff up, sorting out the crap that we still had to get rid of into one corner, moving the old haybales that had been left here and getting everything just out of the way. I thought about whether or not we should actually have a few animals around here, turn it into a bit of a thing, eggs from our own chickens, that kind of crap.

I hear the door open and close behind me. I figured it was one of my brothers. “If you’re here to lecture me on how juvenile I’m being, or how much of a dick I am, you can just fuck off,” I called over my shoulder, not even bothering to look around.

“That wasn’t what I was going to say, but I can still fuck off if you want me to.” Her voice gave me, and I turned in an instant to stare at her.

“I thought that you were Jude or Charlie.” I glared.

She stared back. “Well, I think it’s safe to say that I’m not.”

“Did you need something?” I wasn’t in the mood for this crap. I needed to get myself sorted I needed to have this time to be pissed off so I could let it go.

“I needed to talk to you.”

I wasn’t in a talking mood. I stood there, waiting for her to take the hint and go away, I didn’t want to be talking to her right now.

She didn’t move. “Finn, are you going to talk to me?”

“What about?” I huffed.

“What is it that’s pissing you off.”

Oh yeah, like she didn’t already know. “Nothing.”

She got very stern in expression, put her hand on her hip and waved her other hand in my direction. “Ugh. It is so obvious that something is pissing you off. So much so that you’re now standing hiding in a barn in the middle of a fucking snow storm. So, would you like to change your mind and tell me what the fuck has you sulking out here, ready to catch pneumonia?”

“You.”

“Me?”

Oh, playing the innocent card, are we? “Yes, you. You and my darling brother Charlie.”

Colour crept over her face. Well, that was something, at least she had the decency to be embarrassed when she was confronted about it. “Finn, I don’t even know what you’re talking about.”

“Oh really? I’m sure you don’t.”

She screamed out her frustration. “UGH! I can’t talk to you when you’re being like this!” She turned on her heel and went to head back out into the snow. Oh no, not this time. I sprinted across the floor and caught her by the elbow, spinning her around so hard she lost her balance and fell into my arms.

“Let me go.” She snarled.

“No,” I growled back.

“You always did this, even when we were kids, why can’t you just say what you’re thinking for a fucking change.”

So, I did. In the only way that I could think of. The only way that would best illustrate to her just how much I needed to be with her, and for her to be with me. I kissed her. Not a simple kiss, a begging, passionate, needy kiss that told her exactly why it was that she wasn’t meant to be with my fucking brother.

And for a split second, I thought that she was going to let me get away with it until she pushed me hard off her and slapped my face. Before I had the chance to complain about her treatment of me, her mouth was back on mine, and she was kissing me back with everything that she had.

I didn’t waste the invitation that I was given, I kissed her back, I tugged her tight against me. I slid the zip of her coat down so I could get my hands on everything that was underneath it. I glided my hands around her waist, loving the fact that I could finally get touching her like this. She felt better than I had ever imagined she would.

I pulled her scarf from her neck, moved my mouth from her lips across her jaw and to her throat. Kissing and nibbling her as I moved over her sweet-scented skin.

“Oh God, Finn.” She moaned, her hand finding my head as she ran her fingers through my hair. I had wanted this for so long. It would appear she wasn’t opposed to the idea herself.

“I want you, Ellie, fuck, I want you.” I breathed against her ear.

“God, I want you, Finn.” She moaned.

I stopped and looked at her. She frowned at me.

“What?” She really had no idea.

I pulled her tight against me again, and I whispered into her ear. “I know something happened with you and Charlie last night.”

I felt her body stiffen in my grasp.

I looked at her, not taking my eyes off her for a second. I could see the cogs going around in her head. I waited. I needed to hear her explanation.

“Okay.”

“Is that it? Just okay?” I was starting to get angry.

“Would you like to know what happened? What exactly is it that you want from me?”

“How about the fucking truth, Ellie. You were in my brother’s bed and from the look on the both of your faces this morning, something happened. And yet here you are telling me that you want me? Which fucking is it?”

She glared at me yet said nothing. My mouth was opened now, and it was determined that it was on a roll and not stopping.

“Oh right, nothing to say then? Fuck me, Ellie, I would never have pegged you for a cheap slut fucking anything with a pulse.”

SLAP!

Her hand connected so hard with my face I thought that my eyeball had been popped out of its socket.

“Fuck you, Finn.” With that, she turned on her heel and stomped back out into the snow, and this time, I wasn’t about to stop her.