Eighteen Years Old ...

I can’t fucking believe I thought bagging this girl was gonna be fun.

I glared down at my opponent that I had just beat bloody, and I felt slightly bad for him. He could fight—there was no doubt about that—but I had too much anger and aggression in me thanks to Bronagh Murphy to let him off the platform in anything other than bad shape. The girl had my head all kinds of messed up, and what was worse was that I still wanted her more than my next breath. She was hot for me one minute, then cold the next. It was driving me crazy ... She was driving me crazy.

I turned to the cheering crowd, and my eyes found her instantly. She was staring up at me with wide doe eyes and her mouth hanging open. I shocked her with my performance, and that pleased the fuck out of me, so I grinned down at her. It took her zero seconds to snap out of her trance and mouth, “Fuck you,” at me. Inside, I was seething that she had so much anger towards me, but on the outside, I winked at her to show her she didn’t bother me when, in reality, everything she did bothered me.

After I jumped down from the platform, I checked on Drake, the guy I had fought. Once I was sure he was okay, we hugged to show what happened on the platform stayed on the platform, and I went to the back rooms to shower and change into regular clothes. When I finished, I re-entered the club and found the crowd screaming and cheering for the current fighters on the platform beating the shit out of one another. I rolled my eyes over the bodies of people who came for blood, and I was surprised to find Bronagh and Branna right in the mix, cheering and clapping just like everyone else.

“Interesting,” I said to myself as I walked back towards the booth reserved for my brothers and me.

They were all there, and Alec had his nightly conquests on either side of him. A woman and a man who both looked infatuated with him. Kane was sitting in the middle of the booth with his arms folded over his chest and his glaring eyes roamed around the room. Damien was on his phone, and Ryder ... well, big brother had his eyes locked on the eldest Murphy sister, and I could have sworn he wasn’t blinking.

Seems I’m not the only one who a Murphy girl has messed up.

“Branna’s right hook is better than most fighters I’ve faced.”

Ryder didn’t smile or acknowledge what I said as I sat down next to him. My other brothers greeted me, congratulated me on a fight well won, then announced they wanted to go home. Just then, the lights of the club came on, and Kane looked so relived as he jumped to his feet. Alec’s play things kissed him goodbye and left the booth with pouts.

“Why didn’t you bring them home?”

“I already fucked them both earlier,” he answered with a shrug. “I don’t like to double dip.”

I laughed and shook my head. My attention went back to Ryder who was on his feet. I followed his eyes and saw they were still locked on Branna and Bronagh who were stumbling towards the exit of the club. I shook my head at the pair of them. They were both trying to hold the other up and were failing miserably.

Without a word, my brothers and I walked towards the exit. Alec was giving invitations to certain people to come to our house for a party. I looked at him as we climbed the stairs, and said, “I hate house parties.”

“It’ll be fun,” my brother replied. “I invited that guy you fought and his team.”

“And who else?”

“A few others.”

That meant a lot of others.

I shook my head and breathed in a deep breath when we got outside. I searched for Branna and Bronagh, and when I spotted them talking to Drake, the guy whose ass I whooped, I stalked towards them, wondering if I’d have to beat the shit out of him again when he said something to make Bronagh laugh. When I came up behind her, my eyes went to her butt, before I looked over her head and locked eyes with a grinning Drake. I caught the end of their conversation, and my lips twitched when I realised Bronagh was making it known that we hated each other and that she wouldn’t be allowed come to the party at our house.

“I’m sure Nico won’t mind ye’ comin’.”

Bronagh chuckled.

“No, seriously,” she stressed, “he would mind.”

“I wouldn’t mind at all, pretty girl.”

Bronagh froze, then said, “Go fuck yourself, Dominic.”

Drake raised his eyebrows, and asked, “Is she your missus, man?”

Bronagh cackled with laughter.

“His missus?” she said with distaste. “In his fu-fuckin’ dreams—”

“Yeah,” I cut her off. “She’s mine.”

She was mine, and deep down, she fucking knew it.

I hardly noticed when Drake departed because I was too concentrated on the little spitfire who whirled around to face me. She looked like she was trying to glare at me and my brothers, but her drunkenness made it seem like she was just making eyes at me. She lifted her free hand that wasn’t wrapped around Branna and pointed it at my face. I folded my arms across my chest, fully aware that she was going to cuss me out.

“Ye’ little cock sucker, I am not yours,” she declared. “I am no-not anythin’ to ye’, and if ye’ so much as hint that I am again, I’ll—”

She cut herself off when Branna suddenly heaved. I watched as Bronagh struggled to hold her sister up.

“No, Branna, don’t do this,” she pleaded. “Don’t you pu-puke on me or die. I can’t carry ye’ home. I’m we-weak as shite!”

When my brothers and I chuckled, she looked up and glared daggers at us.

“Fuck all of ye’ ... except you, Damien. You’re ni-nice.”

Damien laughed, and I rolled my eyes.

“Give me her,” Ryder said to Bronagh. “I’ll carry her back to the house.”

Bronagh stared up at my brother and shook her head. “Eh, no, she thinks you’re a pr-prick—as do I—and will punch ye’ if she realises you’re wi-with ‘er.”

Ryder’s lips twitched as he looked down at Branna as he said, “I’ll take my chances.”

My brother took Branna in his arms, and it left Bronagh to sway at little, so I stepped forward and steadied her.

“I got you.”

She opened her pretty green eyes and stared up at me.

“Let. Me. Go.”

“Okay,” I did as demanded, only to grab her again when her knees buckled from under her. I chuckled and hoisted her against my body. “It looks like you need me, pretty girl.”

“I don’t even look pr-pretty.”

I smiled down at her as I lifted her bridal style and placed a kissed on her forehead as she snuggled against my chest. As I walked towards the parking lot with her in my arms, she was mumbling about my brothers and I cutting her and her sister up into tiny pieces, which made me shake my head. I laughed, however, when she said, “Except Damien. He won’t help them because he is nice.”

When I climbed into the back of our car, I cuddled Bronagh against me, and I was very aware that having her body snug against mine with her arms around me and her head on my chest made me feel the most content I had ever felt in my life. It didn’t take a genius to figure out that I was falling for this girl ... and she fucking hated me.

That summed up my life in a nutshell.

When we got back to our house, people were arriving for the party that Alec invited everyone to. Bronagh was in and out of consciousness. She kept telling me she wanted to sleep in my bed with me, and though I knew it would most likely kill me, I gave into her and brought her up to my room. She fell onto my bed, and I loved how perfect she looked even though her makeup was smeared, her hair was all over the place, and she was as drunk as a skunk.

I didn’t dare remove her dress, so instead, I took off her high heels, then settled her under the covers. I removed my clothes and left my boxer shorts on as I climbed into my bed next to her. She rolled over almost instantly and wrapped her body around mine. My cock hardened, but I didn’t focus on it. I focused on Bronagh and just how much I loved having her in my bed.

When she suddenly opened her eyes and looked at me, I swallowed. There was no anger or frustration in her luminous eyes, just a vulnerability I had never seen before. At this moment in time, her guard was down, and she looked so damn tired from fighting with me.

“Ye’ scare me, Dominic.”

I frowned. “I would never hurt you, Bronagh.”

“Yeah, ye’ would.” She yawned. “If I loved ye’ and ye’ left me, it’d break me heart.”

I realised she was talking about emotional hurt and not physical pain.

“Is that the only reason you don’t want me?”

She nodded and said, “I want ye’ so bad it hurts, but it’d hurt way worse if I lost ye’.”

“Bronagh, I want you too.”

She hummed.

“I dream about ye’,” she said just as her eyes drifted shut. “Ye’ do baaadd things to me.”

“Sweet Jesus,” I said as she hooked her leg over my thighs, slung her arm over my torso, and rested her face against my neck. “You’re killing me, baby.”

She hummed in response, and I knew she was already on her way into a deep sleep.

I stared at her while she slept, and I was very aware that I felt an enormity of happiness by simply holding her. She was as sexy as she was beautiful but holding her at that moment was nothing sexual, and that scared the shit out of me. I never had an interest in a girl past her looks and whether or not I could fuck her, but with Bronagh, it was so much more than that. I had never gotten stupid butterflies from just holding a girl before. I never held one all night in my bed .... In fact, a girl was never in my bed for anything other than sex.

I reached out and ran the tips of my fingers over her creamy, soft skin.

“What are you doing to me, pretty girl?”