Chapter 7
CHAPTER 7
GUS
G us had still been at the coffee shop when he got the text from Brittany. He had immediately sent the screenshot to Val, who said she would do her best to track the number, but blocked numbers were often impossible to trace. When Brittany had insisted he not meet her to walk her home, Gus had to breathe deeply to control the sudden protectiveness that overcame him when he got Brittany’s text. Brittany was a small woman, but Gus knew she hit hard, and was no stranger to yelling at the top of her lungs when the situation called for it. Hell, sometimes when it didn’t call for it. Brittany liked yelling.
It was… endearing.
Attempting to put aside thoughts of his brother’s ex-girlfriend, Gus was deep in thought when he let himself into his condo, which is why he stopped short at the sight of Robbie, standing near the front door, looking mad as hell.
“Are you out of your fucking mind?” Robbie asked in that pissy voice he always used when he didn’t get his way.
Gus hung his keys on the hook by the door, counting in his head to control his temper. Robbie must have used his key to let himself in. And while this is usually not a big deal, for some reason today, it bothered Gus. A lot.
“You’ll have to be more specific,” Gus told him in a dry voice. “There are a lot of reasons I could be out of my mind. Currently I’m wondering why I gave you a key.”
“You’re hanging out with Brittany? Walking around with her, showing up at her meet-and-greet? Are you purposefully trying to piss me off, or is there actually something going on there?”
Gus leaned against his kitchen counter, his arms crossed. Usually, Robbie was best dealt with by keeping your voice even and not letting him get a rise out of you. Still, this reaction was over the top, and Gus wasn’t having it.
“I wasn’t aware that hanging out with a friend was about you.”
“She’s my ex, of course it’s about me.”
Gus blinked at that. Sometimes Robbie’s narcissism was truly astounding.
“So when you went to Disneyland with Annabelle after we broke up, that was about me?”
It had been about a month after the amicable break up, when Annabelle had confessed she no longer felt a spark with Gus and wanted to move on. At the time, he hadn’t even been mad. He and Annabelle had dated for about six months, and at most when he thought of the relationship, he considered it ‘fine.’ When she had gone out with Robbie a month later, it had stung, but Gus had spent his life being the less interesting brother and didn’t hold it against either of them. Robbie couldn’t help being charming, and Gus couldn’t help being the boring one.
But still, if he was going to pull this shit with Gus now, Gus was going to say something.
Robbie pointed a large finger at him, his color heightening.
“This is different, and you know it.”
It wasn’t, not even remotely. But Robbie apparently still viewed Brittany as his and was determined to throw a tantrum about it.
“She’s a client. I’m her security for the weekend.”
Robbie laughed in disbelief.
“Is that what you’re calling it?”
“That’s what Val was calling it when she begged me to take the case.”
“What could Brittany possibly need security for?”
“Her stalker. The one you apparently knew about.”
Robbie had the nerve to roll his eyes.
“She’s really worried about some creep in a basement stroking off to her photos? The guy is harmless.”
Rage. A burning rage had been kindled in Gus’s chest.
“He’s not harmless. He’s been escalating for a while now. And I can’t believe you knew about this and didn’t tell me.”
“Why would I tell you?”
“Because I work in security, Robbie. I do this shit for my job. If Brittany was having issues, I could’ve helped.”
The sound that came out of Robbie just then could only be described as a snort.
“You know why I didn’t tell you. I was doing you a favor.”
Gus’s head spun with confusion.
“A favor? What fucking favor? Why wouldn’t I want to help?”
“You would want to help. That’s why I didn’t tell you.”
They stood there, staring at each other. Robbie clearly thought he had the upper hand, some knowledge that he believed Gus had, but for the life of him, Gus couldn’t figure it out. And it was pissing him off. Immensely.
Robbie gave him a look.
“Gus, I saw your face.”
“What face?”
“I saw your face when I first brought Brittany home. You looked like you had been hit by a bus.”
Gus froze, ice in his veins as he tried to compute what Robbie was telling him.
“What the actual fuck are you talking about?”
“I had never seen you react that way to a girl before. It was like you forgot how to breathe.”
Gus turned to go into his kitchen, needing to get away from the words because they absolutely weren’t true.
“You’re out of your mind.”
“I’m not,” Robbie said. “You like her. You’ve always liked her. I just had her first. And now she’s single and you think there’s a chance for you.”
“That’s not what I’m doing.”
Robbie was on a roll, and definitely not listening. “And it’s fucked up, Gus. She’s my ex-girlfriend.”
Gus gripped the counter, counting in his head even though he knew it was futile. His chest was tight, like it was trying to expand and was stuck. There’s no way what Robbie was saying was true. Gus had been nothing but polite to Brittany. They had never once had a moment of heat or chemistry between them before this weekend. Gus had always, always only seen her as Robbie’s girlfriend before the breakup.
But maybe, just maybe, there had been a moment when he first saw her. Before he knew she was Robbie’s. When he had looked at her and thought she was the most beautiful woman he had ever seen in his life.
Only a moment. But apparently Robbie had noticed. Fuck.
“You’re wrong about a lot of things,” Gus ground out. “But I’m also going to again point out that you didn’t seem bothered by dating ex-girlfriends when you dated Annabelle.”
Robbie rolled his eyes. “That was a completely different situation.”
“How is that different from this? Other than the fact that I’m not sleeping with Brittany?”
Even as he said the words, images flashed in his mind. Brittany’s lips. Her long legs wrapped around his waist, holding him tight. Her lipstick smeared from kissing him, her skirt rucked up from his hands.
“It’s different.”
They stared at each other a moment, both pissed and tense and angry and a thousand adjectives in between.
Finally, Gus grunted. “I told you, we’re not hanging out. Her mom hired the company for protection. She has a stalker.”
“Seems like a pretty flimsy excuse to hire security over some guy.”
Gus studied his brother, wondering. “It never seemed like a big deal that your girlfriend was scared of some creep sending her dirty paintings and explicit notes?”
Robbie scoffed, showing what a dumbass he was.
“Brittany doesn’t get scared. She’s the one people are scared of.”
Brittany’s face from earlier that day flashed through Gus’s mind, her eyes wide with worry, how her entire body froze at the sight of the flowers. Robbie really was an idiot.
“I guess that answers that.”
“What the fuck does that mean?”
“It means she was scared, Robbie, and she clearly didn’t feel like she could show that to you.”
Robbie immediately tensed.
“Don’t tell me about my relationship with Brittany. It was none of your fucking business.”
“From the sounds of it, it was barely your business.”
“Fuck you.”
Robbie stormed to the door, steam practically billowing off his head, but he paused before he left, not turning around.
“Just… don’t sleep with her.”
Gus sighed, suddenly very tired. “Nothing’s happened.”
“But you want it to.”
Gus was ready to deny it, but the words were somehow stuck in his throat. And Robbie immediately sensed his hesitation.
Robbie’s face fell into a scowl. “Fucking great.”
He stormed toward the door, about to make a classic Robbie exit, but stopped and threw Gus a look over his shoulder.
“She likes the spotlight, Gus. It’s the only thing she cares about. Likes and profiles and followers. She’s not going to be happy with some regular guy. Don’t let her hurt you.”
He was gone before Gus could react, the door slamming behind him. Gus was left alone with his second thoughts and third thoughts all fighting for supremacy. But the one thing that held him by the throat was the possibility Robbie was right.
Gus liked Brittany as a person. She was funny and strong and charming and extremely easy to be around. But he couldn’t like her more than that, or want her as more than just a friend, because Robbie was right. Because besides being his brother’s ex, he was just regular guy Gus. He liked his job. He liked living in his condo, in a quiet town that got loud once a year with his favorite convention. He didn’t like paying attention to his social media. He was nothing like Robbie, which meant he wasn’t Brittany’s type. Brittany lived her life in front of the camera. She had a million fans. Hell, hundreds of people had shown up for a meet-and-greet today just to spend time with her. She needed someone who could meet her on her level.
And that wasn’t Gus.
For all that Robbie was a shithead, he had still given Gus a great reminder that he needed to not get attached to Brittany, because she wouldn’t be getting attached to him.
T he next morning, Gus was determined to keep everything with Brittany professional, and pretend the elevator never happened. He was hired to protect her, and he was damn good at his job. Time to focus on that. Whatever he had been thinking the night before, the nonsense Robbie had brought up, he was wrong. Gus only saw Brittany as a friend, and he was lucky to call her that.
While he was brushing his teeth, he got a notification that Brittany was going live. When he clicked over to her page, his phone screen filled with Brittany as she got dressed for the day. He had watched a few of her live streams in the past, mostly out of curiosity about the woman who was dating his brother. This one was obviously catered to the Kickoff crowd, a more casual version of what she would normally put together, but even with that difference Gus couldn’t get over how natural she was in front of the camera. She had an ease to her that pulled the viewer in, making you feel like her best friend instead of a voyeur. She answered questions on chat about her bra, where she got her shoes, the deals she was able to find for the whole wardrobe. She sat on the bed and pulled on her signature knee socks, one by one, keeping up her banter with her chat as she did, and Gus felt himself start to sweat. Brittany was short, but she was all leg, and watching her slowly encase those calves was going to kill him. Or make him combust.
She finished getting dressed and signed off with a kiss, the screen going dark, and Gus realized he was standing alone in his condo smiling like an idiot.
Shaking it off, he finished getting dressed and headed to the coffee shop, eager for caffeine and a distraction that didn’t have him thinking about Brittany’s legs. He placed an order, including a chocolate scone against his own better judgment, and headed over to Brittany’s hotel room.
By the time Gus knocked on her hotel door, he had gone through an entire speech to himself in his head about how professional he was going to be today. Brittany was a client, and she needed protection. That’s it.
The door swung open, revealing Brittany in those damn socks and her heels, her skirt short enough to make Gus’s heart stop just for a moment.
“Here,” he said before she could say anything. Gus handed her an iced coffee and a small pastry bag, which she took automatically. She looked in the bag, curious.
“What’s this?”
“Treats to butter you up.”
She glared at him with suspicion even as she took a sip on the straw of her new drink.
“I don’t know what’s more suspicious, that you need to butter me up or that you know my drink order by heart.”
“Think of it as a personalized service available to clients.”
She continued eyeing him, then peeked inside the pastry bag.
“Chocolate croissant?”
“You know it.”
She sighed. “Lecture me on the way. I’m already running late.”
She took another sip of her drink, relaxing as the caffeine and copious amounts of sugar hit her at once. Gus smiled at the sight of her, then glanced up when he sensed movement in the corner of his eye. It was one of her roommates, the shirtless guy from before, who swiftly put down the phone he was holding and walked out of Gus’s sight. Weird. Gus narrowed his eyes, his mouth opening to start asking questions, when Brittany grabbed his arm and stepped through the door, closing it behind her.
“Let’s go. I’ve got a big day, and I don’t have time for you to yell at Kyle.”
She was already speed walking down the hall, so Gus settled for throwing a glance at the door before hurrying to follow her.
Once they were out on the street, Brittany smiled at the sunlight beaming down at them, then turned to Gus.
“Okay, hit me.”
“Stay close and do what I say.”
“That’s your lecture?”
“I prefer getting to the point.”
Shaking her head, Brittany sashayed down the sidewalk, in a good mood that Gus couldn’t help but admire. He watched as she walked ahead of him, her tight ass swinging with the confidence she always felt. Gus had a brief vision of those legs, encased in those socks, wrapped around his waist, his hands running up the silk until he reached the skin of her thighs. Fuck, it was going to be a long day.
Shaking his head and very specifically looking away, Gus caught up with her, pulling her toward him on the sidewalk and out of the way of the sign spinner who had taken one look at Brittany and dropped his sign. She was laughing and waving while Gus glared, pulling her away.
“Gus, chill. He’s not chasing us.”
“Not at this moment, but you never know. You can’t just flash that smile of yours and expect men not to act like idiots.”
“Of course I can. You resist me all the time.”
“I’m a special case.”
“More like you’re a head case, but I’m not judging. You’re fun to be around.”
Gus snorted. He had been called a lot of things in his life. Dependable. Trustworthy. All the boring adjectives that made women fall asleep once they started dating. He had never been called fun in his life.
Brittany heard him snort and eyed him, curious. “Do you not think you’re fun?”
“I’ve been told on numerous occasions that I’m pretty boring.”
“By who, Robbie?”
She was laughing when she said it, but when Gus didn’t respond, she sobered up. He kept walking, eyes scanning the streets for anything out of the normal.
“Gus, wait.”
He turned to find Brittany had stopped walking. She had her hands on her hips, her ponytail and her socks making her look more cute than fierce. But her eyes were showing the beginning of her temper.
“Robbie’s an idiot,” she said. Gus opened his mouth, but Brittany held up her hand, stopping him. “Just listen. Robbie is loud and extroverted and thinks everyone has to be like him in order to have a good time. But he’s wrong. You’re kind and funny and sexy and a hell of a lot more fun to be around than him. Don’t let him and his bullshit convince you otherwise.”
Gus stared at her a moment, not sure what to say, not sure what to do about this weird feeling blooming in his chest.
“Did you just call me sexy?”
She rolled her eyes at him, moving past him toward the convention center.
“Moderately attractive if I squint in the sun and am feeling slightly nauseous. Now hurry up, buttercup. I got a full day of panels to get to.”
Shaking his head, Gus could only follow.