Grim and annoyed, Trey had watched Brittany disappear down the short hallway to the guestroom. Not actually a guestroom but more of a workout room with a hastily added mattress and box spring and plastic carts with drawers to accommodate her stay. The drab green walls matched the drab green floors. A girl like her needed a bright, colorful room to match her personality.
He and Bryson glowered at each for one more moment, two alpha males vying for control. Turning and retreating to the kitchen, Trey cursed. A few months ago, he’d lost his mind and gone back to her dorm room with her. But Brittany was too damn special to Trey for him to use her so he’d had an abrupt change of heart about returning then compounded his stupidity by blurting he had a date with another woman. A complete lie but his resistance wouldn’t have held up to her arguments. His resistance never held up against anything she wanted. He’d had to put a barrier between them, which had been so much easier to do away from her and the scent and taste of her.
She was such an enigma, seemed so ignorant of lovemaking, shy and unsure, as if she were a virgin. Jealousy tore through him; the same feeling had risen in him when he realized he wouldn’t be her first lover. Somewhere in the back of his mind, he thought of Brittany as his.
She hadn’t been a virgin, however. Had even asked him to pull out. Trey glowered, the thought of another man filling her sending another hot wave of jealousy and anger through him. But the tension in her body had been as real as her flashes of fear. Whatever else had been going through her head, her desire for him had trumped everything.
After she’d ridden his mouth to completion, it had taken an iron will to ignore his sexual urges, his judgment-stealing need for her, and not bury himself inside her and wash away the thought of any other man from her mind.
She’d given him her cell phone number but he’d neglected to give her his. However, his number would’ve shown up on her screen when he called to break their planned tryst. He’d thought she might call him back after a few days when her emotions settled. But he’d hurt her and her determination had always been as strong as his.
He’d been determined to avoid her. If he’d given in and contacted her again, he would’ve fucked her. He’d thought his way the best solution, but a fat lot of good not calling her had done. Her memory tormented him. That one night with Brittany had shown him the beauty of passion as she saw it. Her emotional connection to him had guided her, not the raw lust motivating the other women he associated with. She was his best friend’s little sister and he’d known Bryson before Brittany was born. What Trey had done—and still wanted to do—was tantamount to treason. Making love to the younger sister of a man you’d known for twenty-two years fell under the category of Things Not To Do.
But seven months ago, he’d thought of nothing and no one except Brittany from the moment he’d seen her walk in the door of the club. She hadn’t seen him but Trey seemed to have radar in his body where she was concerned. He could find her anywhere. Her steps had been hesitant, her dress loose and long, so unlike the micro skirts, mini dresses and Daisy Dukes she’d once worn, he’d taken a second look.
Not that he doubted it was her floating amidst the crowd, her features pale and panicked as if her surroundings frightened her. She’d always been a beauty, full of brass and sass. Her soft, creamy brown complexion seemed perfect for her eyes with colors that blended together to create a dark citrine. Her hair was long and black. Good hair as Karl, his cousin, called it, a vernacular embedded in the African-American culture to describe soft, silky hair that needed no chemicals.
Once he’d seen Brittany, Trey hadn’t been able to follow the conversation with the girl he’d met a day before, his curiosity concerning Brittany’s whereabouts nearly stealing his sanity. If she wasn’t on a date, she should’ve been out on the dance floor, enjoying herself like the three pretty girls she’d walked in with.
A date. Distaste filtered through him at the thought of Brittany on a date. He’d decided to find her—them—and check out the dude. He’d sent his date off so he could holler at Brittany and scope out her man. Damn it, but he’d had every intention of keeping his booty call with…hell, he couldn’t even remember her name.
But then he’d found Brittany, miserable, alone and looking lost. Worse still, he’d frightened her so much she’d almost fallen from her chair trying to escape him. Her reaction had been as odd as everything else about her that night. From the moment he’d caught her arm, the entire evening had been about her.
Where Bryson was a big, overgrown Cyclops, Brittany was wraith-like, her face delicately carved. Small breasts highlighted slender curves that dipped at her waist and flared at her hips.
Trey’s response had been instinctive, honed from years of wanting her. His offer to drive her to her dorm had been made out of concern and without ulterior motives. He’d merely wanted to see where her head was at and what had her so frightened. Trey had sworn it had better be a what and not a who.
During the ride home, their conversation, free of pretense and sexual innuendos, reminded Trey he could let his guard down with her, be himself and she’d understand him.
He’d almost ignored Rule 101 on how to treat a lady—always see them inside for safety’s sake. Unable to allow Brittany to leave his truck and get inside on her own, he’d vowed to keep his hands to himself. And then she’d stood on his running board, slipped her arms around his neck, and asked him to make love to her.
Damn! Damn! Damn! He should’ve refused her invitation but he was living and breathing Brittany by then.
As always he’d felt her touch, body and soul.
And now…
Damn it all.
Trey had a bad feeling about her being here. Scenarios ran amok in his head. Brittany living right under his nose for six damn weeks. Bryson acting like a goddamn jackass. Trey’s cock perking at the prospect of sinking into her.
Oh yes. A very very bad feeling.
All the women he’d had affairs with were Amazons but Brittany was the polar opposite. Sweet and petite and she drove him wild. He wanted her. Period.
He slammed the cabinet door closed, not realizing he’d opened it.
“Keep the hell away from Brittany,” Bryson ordered, blowing into the kitchen and stopping in the breakfast area where they ate most of their meals. He slid a chair from under the round table with seating for four, then dropped into it.
“I’m not going to put up with this shit for six weeks,” Trey growled.
“I didn’t like the way you two were looking at each other. We’ll be fine as long as you keep your cock out of her.”
Couldn’t be any blunter. “And if she wants it in her?” he growled, flexing his hand at the memory of her satiny heat gripping his fingers.
Bryson looked ready to murder him. “Then I suggest you go hunting for wedding rings. Because I refuse to allow you to fuck her and then leave her as if she’s nothing but a receptacle for your pleasure.”
“You can’t force me to marry her. We’re both adults. Consenting adults.” Trey stalked to the refrigerator, anger, desire and lingering jealousy setting a spark to his words. “If she wants a night in my bed and I want her there, there’s not a damn thing you can do about it,” he snarled, baiting Bryson, as if he intended to pursue his sister.
“Maybe Brittany being here was a bad idea.”
Oh you think? Trey threw Bryson a dirty look then yanked open the refrigerator. He stared at the contents, not knowing what he wanted—food or water. No, he knew what he wanted. More to the point, who he wanted. He slammed the door shut and growled, “Your sister. Your choice.”
“Our apartment,” Bryson countered, his face stony. “I asked you if you’d have a problem with it since we’d have to curtail our…extracurricular activities with our lady friends while Brit is here.”
“Listen, Bryson, and listen well. I’m not going to touch her.” If she offered herself again, he’d do his damnable best to refuse her. His balls might explode but he’d keep his promise. However, Brittany, damn her, had always twisted him around her little finger.
No, she wouldn’t attempt to get him into bed again. When he’d called her, she’d offered very little protest.
As a matter of fact her quiet resignation about his change of heart—the other woman he’d mentioned—had surprised him. He could chalk it up to her knowing how he felt about relationships and knowing he’d never intentionally hurt her. But the Brittany he’d known was a little firecracker who could get spitting mad. He’d handled things with an appalling lack of finesse. She should’ve been spitting mad.
Being older—and supposedly wiser—he took full responsibility for what had happened between them. He never should’ve had such an incredible lack of good sense and given in to her in the first place. If anyone else had used her trust in such a manner and Trey found out about it, he’d be out for blood.
In retrospect, her fragility that night made his behavior even more inexcusable. Instead of taking advantage of her vulnerability he should’ve been finding a way for her to open up to him about… What? He had no idea…
And that was it. Something was going on. He just couldn’t quite put his finger on what that something was. One day she’d been a flippant, funny young lady who was just discovering her own sex appeal and fast becoming the bane of his existence, having obviously decided to test her newfound sexuality on him. And then overnight, she’d changed, as if something had sucked the soul right out of her.
A sad, haunted girl replaced the lively one they’d always known. Neither her mother nor Bryson seemed to notice how quiet and withdrawn she’d become. Trey hadn’t made much of her personality change. At the time, he’d decided she’d tired of the years she’d had to run the household while her mother ignored her.
Now, as an experienced police officer, Trey felt as if he was missing something staring him in the face.
“I expect you will be in each other’s company without me a lot.” Bryson spoke in a steely voice. “You need to remember she’s a twenty-year-old girl.”
If only. Brittany Donovan was all woman. “Has it ever occurred to you she might have already had a lover? Maybe even had her heart broken once or twice?” Trey spoke in a casual tone but another wave of deep jealousy washed through him.
“My sister is a virgin,” Bryson ground out, his edgy pose and tense features indicating he’d closed his mind to any other possibility.
Not wanting to reveal anything, Trey backed off. Bryson might act like a jackass but he was far from a fool.
“She had little knuckleheaded boys mooning over her but she wasn’t interested enough in any of them to go all the way.”
“You were such an attentive brother you can bet your life on that?” Trey snapped, indignant despite himself. Between the ages of ten when her father deserted them, and seventeen when she’d graduated and left for college, she’d had no real supervision. She had a lot of time to engage in things she shouldn’t have. The Donovan house was once overrun with her friends. And even worse, Bryson’s friends.
“I believe I’m close enough to my sister she’d tell me if she wanted to sleep with a man.”
“I’ve taken you for a lot of things, Donovan, but I never thought you were delusional.” Trey snorted. “Brittany tell you she has a lover? You’d act like a pure ass.”
“Maybe, but I still don’t think she’d do such a thing. Even if it was you, she would’ve discussed her decision with one of us.” Bryson narrowed his eyes at him. “More than likely it would have been you she talked to. Do you know something I don’t?”
Where she was concerned, Trey knew a helluva lot more than Bryson. “No. I’m just pointing out she’s twenty years old. Odds are very high she’s had a lover.”
“I don’t believe that. If my sister allowed a man to touch her, it wouldn’t be for a casual liaison. Maybe she wouldn’t have called about sleeping with a dude but she would’ve called to tell me about him and she hasn’t once mentioned even a vague interest in any man.”
Even as Trey cheered at the thought, he found Bryson’s words interesting. She wasn’t a virgin. His fingers had delved deep into her body, his thumb and tongue flicking over her clit to bring her to orgasm. He’d encountered no barrier of innocence.
“She’s isolated herself from the world. Whatever is going on with her, I don’t want you to use her vulnerabilities to seduce her. She’s always had a thing for you.”
Brittany had changed overnight. She’d isolated herself from the world. She’d been so vulnerable, so innocent, during their lovemaking.
The thought trying to form clicked in his brain and Trey froze, every muscle in his body tightening, his blood turning to ice.
Brittany had been raped.