Brother After Dark

Chapter Thirteen

Blaire.

Nobody spoke. Nobody answered.

“Let go of him at once!” I said angrily.

Zach gave Andrew one murderous look, and then he released him, stepping away, keeping a safe distance from him.

Andrew staggered to his feet. And then he immediately ran inside the bar.

“What was that about?” I asked.

“Nothing,” he replied.

“You were about to murder the guy. It couldn’t be nothing.”

He took a heavy breath and shook his head. He stared at me for a moment. Though the alley was dark, I could still see his face, illuminated by the moonlight. Zachary was handsome… divine. For a moment, I forgot that he was supposed to be my brother.

“Mind your own business, baby girl,” he said.

“Is it not my business?” I asked him. I had a feeling it was.

He raised a brow. “Really? Not everything is about you, Blaire,” he said.

“True. But I have a feeling this is. You said you were watching him the whole time. Did you do that to him because he was making a move on me?”

“So, what if I am? It’s my job!”

“To what? Make sure I don’t speak to guys?”

“To make sure you don’t end up with a douche like Andrew! You deserve better than him.”

As if I didn’t know that. I deserved a lot better. In fact, I knew I deserved somebody like him. But it was not my fault destiny decided he be my brother instead, right?

“Isn’t that up to me to decide? And besides, I can take care of myself. Don’t worry, I will not end up in bed with this guy!” I said angrily, glaring at him.

He gave me a cold look. “I can’t say I believe you. After all, the last time you met a guy, you ended up almost giving him your virginity.”

I couldn’t believe he said that. I couldn’t believe he saw me like that. My blood boiled, and I could feel my face heat up. I swung my arm and hit him solidly across the face. He turned sideward with the intensity of my slap. But he didn’t duck, didn’t make a sound. It was as if he wanted to be slapped so he could also wake up from this harsh nightmare.

“Fuck you!” I shouted at him. Tears were rolling down my cheeks.

The expression on his face was both angry and sad.

“Baby girl, wait!”

But I turned on my heel and went back inside the club. I wiped my cheeks while walking back to our table, and when I returned to my friends, I was sure I looked like nothing happened in the back alley.

“What happened?” April asked me.

I shook my head. “Nothing. Where’s Andrew?”

“He left with Drake. What was that about?”

“I really don’t know. And I also don’t want to talk about it. It’s getting late. Mind if we go home now?”

“Yeah, it is past midnight. Let’s go.”

Half an hour later, I was back at home, dressed in a pair of comfortable pajamas.

I thought about what happened in the alley with Zach and Andrew. What was Zach’s problem? He ignored me for months, and now, he harassed some guy who happened to make a move on me?

Well, after giving it much thought, I realized, he couldn’t be more big-brotherly than that, could he? Because that’s what big brothers do. They ignored you most of the time, snapped at you when they spoke to you, annoyed you to no end, and then chased all the guys away from your pants.

I couldn’t sleep, so I came down from my room for a glass of milk. The whole house seemed empty. My parents were probably asleep in their rooms. Chances were Zach was still out and wouldn’t be coming home at all. That’s what he had been doing for the past months.

The lights were off, so I didn’t bother to turn one on. The kitchen was illuminated by the moonlight and the lights outside the house.

I took a small bottle of milk from the fridge, downed its entire content, and threw the empty bottle in the bin. As I took a step back from the fridge, my back hit something solid behind me. I quickly spun around and found myself staring at a hard masculine chest. I looked up and found Zachary staring down at me with his fierce blue eyes.

Oh my god! Why does he have to be so beautiful?

He was topless, only wearing a pair of pajama pants. He didn’t say anything. He only stared at me intensely, studying my face in the dark. My heart pounded in my chest, and I was afraid to even breathe.

When we were growing up, Zachary was cute. But he was skinny and short. At ten, he was only an inch taller than me, and I probably had more fat or muscles than him. But now, he towered me by a foot. His muscles were well-toned, and he had a six-pack. He had grown up into a beautiful piece of male species. And when I closed my eyes and inhaled his scent, it was the same as I remembered. He smelled fresh, minty, masculine—like Zach, the amazing guy I met at the concert, the guy who melted my brain, aroused my senses, made me scream his name in oblivion.

I felt a pinch in my heart because I realized that I wanted him—either side of him would do. Zachary, my brother. Or Zach, my would-have-been boyfriend. And I cried every night because I lost both sides of him.

He raised his hand to push a stray of lock hair away from my face. He didn’t touch my skin, but it felt like he did. The air surrounding us was charged. I could feel a tingle down my spine.

I didn’t know how it became possible, but he looked more beautiful than the last time I saw him. He looked much more formidable and sadly… untouchable. And if it’s possible, I thought I wanted him even more now that I knew he was the same brother I loved all these years.

His fingers went to my neck to touch the chain of my necklace. He gently pulled it, and then he looked down to study it. I knew he recognized it. When he looked at me again, his eyes were fathomless. It felt like he wanted to say something but didn’t know what or how to.

Then he took a deep, heavy breath and said, “You weren’t wearing this at the concert. If you did, I would have recognized you.”

“My friends held it hostage for twenty-four hours. They knew… I would do anything to get it back,” I said.

“What did they ask you to do?”

I sighed. “They wanted me to hook up with a guy.”

He drew his brows together. I saw anger cross his face, and I knew it was a mistake to tell him. “Hold on. I was a fucking bet?”

Fuck! I didn’t mean it to sound like that. But shit! He was! I couldn’t deny that. I couldn’t answer him. I was afraid I would provoke his anger even more.

“You’ll sleep with a complete stranger for a fucking locket? And you claim to still be a virgin? Wow! You really fooled me.”

A fucking locket? He has no idea how sensitive I am about this locket! And he mocks my being a virgin?

Slap! One solid hit across the cheek.

“Don’t talk to me like I’m a complete slut just because I almost slept with you! And you have no idea how important this locket is to me! When you weren’t around all these years, this locket was the only thing I had left to hold on to! It kept me strong! It reminded me that I wasn’t alone, that I wasn’t completely unloved. It was the only thing that gave me comfort when I lived with a father who couldn’t even look at me, a mother who lets out her frustration in me, and a brother who was taken away from me! My life had been difficult too and this was all I had. So yes! I would do anything for this fucking locket! Itis all I have left of the brother who actually cared about me!”

Tears rolled down my cheeks, and I shouted at him. I didn’t care who heard me. Everybody was asleep, and my parents couldn’t care less anyway.

“You can call me a fucking slut if you want, I don’t give a shit! I hate you!” I hit him again, causing his face to turn sideways.

When he stared back at me again, the look on his face was so devilish it almost made me run. But I held my ground. It was time I showed him that I wasn’t afraid of him.

He took a step toward me, making me back away until my back hit the fridge. He didn’t stop, and soon, I found myself trapped between the cold surface of the fridge and his warm body.

I didn’t speak. I didn’t move. Damn! I didn’t even dare breathe. I felt his hands on my waist as he leaned his face forward toward my neck. I could feel his hot breath against my skin as his nose grazed the base of my neck.

“Zachary, please,” I whispered.

“Please what, baby girl?” he whispered against my ear.

Please stay away from me! I wanted to shout that at him. But his breath and the feel of his skin felt all too familiar. In the dark, it was easy to forget he was my big brother. My body knew him as somebody else—Zach, the first guy who ever touched me in ways nobody ever did and made me cum.

“You can’t…” I said.

“I can’t what?” he asked. “Touch you like this?” His hand went up under my shirt, touching my skin… higher and higher until his fingers lightly grazed my breasts and rubbed over a nipple. I felt his lips on my neck, hot and teasing. He gave my skin a gentle bite, making me moan. Then I felt him suck on my skin, making me involuntarily cling to him.

“Oh my god, Zach!”

I felt him smile against my skin at the mention of his name. “Say my name again,” he said.

I closed my eyes and gave in to the pleasurable current flowing from his skin to mine. “Zach…” I whispered.

When I opened my eyes, he was staring down at me with a look of desire and happiness on his face. He no longer looked angry. He looked much like the incredible guy I met at the concert grounds. The guy I actually thought I fell in love with.

I shook my head at him. He leaned his face down toward mine, almost kissing me.

“We can’t…” I whispered.

“Why the hell not?” heh asked in a frustrated tone.

I wanted to. If I had a choice, I would kiss him. I would slap him, provoke him, even beg him to take me up to his room and claim his stake on me, make good of his promise to take my cherry, make me scream his name over and over as he fucked me for the first time… one more time… even for the last time.

His hands squeezed my waist as he pulled me toward his body. His mouth went to my neck again, sucking against my skin for the second time.

I was reminded of every second I spent in bed with him—how I helplessly surrendered my body to him, how I almost begged him to take me.

He was tempting me. I was not even sure if he was thinking straight. Maybe he was just horny, and I happened to be the closest available female. But I couldn’t give in to this. When we crossed that line, we could never go back. And I was not sure I can handle that.

“Zachary, please…” I whispered. “You’re my brother,” I managed to say. “That’s… all we could be. That’s… all I want you to be.”

He stopped moving for a moment. And then I heard him take a deep breath before he slowly stepped away from me.

Tears peered from my eyes as I watched him stare at me with cold, undisguised anger. It was a look that resembled frustration and loathing.

“Go back to your room,” he said in a low, hoarse voice.

“Zachary…” I started to protest.

“Now!” he growled.

I gave him one defiant look and then ran back to my room, slamming the door behind me, throwing myself in bed and crying my heart out.

That guy!

Every night I didn’t see him, every second I knew he was ignoring me, I cried. Now, he finally gave me attention—too much attention—I ended up crying again.

What the fuck has happened to us?