Chapter 17
CHAPTER 17
GUS
T hey get to the convention center just in time for Brittany to eat the rest of her breakfast before starting her panel, one of the last ones for her weekend at Kickoff. As Gus watched her answer questions on stage, he couldn’t help the affection that lodged in his chest as she effortlessly charmed hundreds of people. Brittany was amazing, and Gus was done pretending he wasn’t crazy about her.
His phone buzzed in his pocket for the fiftieth time, and Gus ignored it once more. Robbie had been blowing up his phone. After the fourth time he had accused Gus of betraying him, Gus began to hit ignore, not wanting to engage with Robbie when he was in his ranting mode. Gus was used to Robbie’s moods, used to calming him down and de-escalating whatever situation they were in. But he found when it came to Brittany, he just couldn’t. The only way to de-escalate would be to stop seeing her. Stop touching her. And that just… wasn’t something Gus was going to be able to do.
And yes, that should worry him. Watching her, seeing the fans around her who loved her and loved her content, made him think back to Robbie’s original warning: that she wanted more than some regular guy like Gus.
Shaking the thought out of his head, he found himself suddenly caught as Brittany looked at him, a small smile on her face. Someone else on the panel was answering a question, and her eyes had found him in the back of the crowd. Gus refused to look away. While her eyes were on him, he brought his hand up, the one that had recently been inside her, and rubbed it on his mouth. The shiver that ran down her body was worth it, as was how she shifted in her chair, uncrossing and recrossing her legs with a restlessness he felt in his cock. Gus decided then and there that however long she wanted this to last, he was along for the ride. And when she broke his heart, he could at least say that he’d had her, if only for a little bit.
She was worth it.
After Brittany wrapped her panel, they went to another conference room, this time to watch Hayden’s panel as he talked about his new game. Hayden was known online as DeathsHead, a popular video game streamer who, up until last year, had never shown his face to the public. But after a lot of drama and a big tournament, where Min had trounced him, Hayden had revealed his face to everyone in order to clear Min of the accusations of cheating… and to be with her.
Now, Hayden was releasing his own video game, something he and Theo had been developing in secret for years. The release party was that evening, and Brittany was attending, which meant so was Gus.
Inside the room for the panel, they found seats toward the back. Gus tried to step away to stand against the wall where he could keep a better eyeline on everything, but Brittany pulled him down next to her.
“Just sit with me,” she said.
Helpless to argue with that, he sat in the hard, too-small chair, having a small elbow war with her. When he caught a couple guys down the aisle giving Brittany an interested look, he draped his arm over the back of her chair casually, not enough to be obvious, but definitely enough to make it clear she was with him.
“Smooth.” She smirked at him.
Okay, maybe a little obvious.
He let the hand behind her slide up to grip her neck, firm but not hard, and he heard her catch her breath.
“You love it.”
“I do.”
Caught off guard by the admission, by the look in her eyes that made him want to drag her out of here and find somewhere they wouldn’t be interrupted, Gus just gave her neck another squeeze and then left his hand there, loving the feel of the soft hair in her ponytail against his fingers.
Finally, Hayden was announced, and the crowd lost their minds. Even after exposing his face, Hayden was incredibly popular, and the people here were excited about his game. As Hayden started the showcase for the game, someone pushed down the aisle toward them.
“Sorry, sorry, sorry.”
They plopped down next to him, and Gus tensed until he recognized Devery, Min’s little sister. She leaned over him to talk to Brittany.
“What did I miss?”
“Just the intros,” Brittany told her.
Devery nodded and then really looked at them, at the arm Gus had around Brittany.
“Wait, are you two… two?”
Gus had no idea what that meant, but apparently Brittany did.
“We’re figuring it out. Don’t make a big deal.”
“Me? I would never.”
She pulled out her phone to start texting, and Brittany was immediately suspicious.
“What are you doing?”
“Texting Min to see if she knows, and then yelling at her if she says she did but didn’t tell me.”
“Dev, that’s literally the definition of making a big deal.”
“It’s a small deal. Minuscule. Besides, Min’s seen Hayden’s presentation many times. She’s probably bored back there in the green room.”
Gus didn’t think Min would be bored by anything to do with Hayden, but he certainly wasn’t going to speak up, even when Brittany shot him an exasperated look.
The panel went well, enthusiasm high for the game, and then the three of them waited for Hayden and Min to join them to walk to Brittany’s next meet-and-greet since Min was doing one at the same time.
At the meet and greet, Gus let the women have the greenroom to themselves as he scouted out the rest of the area for the event, making sure there were no more surprises from Brittany’s stalker. Though their relationship, or whatever you wanted to call it, had changed, he had absolutely no intention of slacking on his duties. She was still in need of his services, and he was going to deliver.
Even if he couldn’t wait to get her back to his place to pick up where they left off at the restaurant.
The meet and greet began with much excitement from the lines in front of both Min and Brittany, and Gus found himself standing next to Hayden, both watching the proceedings with a cautious eye. Hayden spoke first.
“If you’re with Brittany as some sort of revenge thing against your brother, then I gotta warn you it won’t end well for you.”
Gus gave him his whole attention at that. Hayden was a little taller, but Gus had a good fifty pounds of muscle on him and was trained to fight.
“I appreciate the protectiveness, but that’s not what’s happening here.”
Hayden nodded. “Good.”
They were silent for another moment, and then Hayden spoke up again.
“No offense, but your brother’s a dick.”
“I know.”
“I’ve had to stop Min several times from going over there to punch him in the nuts.”
Gus grunted. These women.
“If it makes her feel better, Brittany poured soda all over his rig and then fried it.”
“Ouch.”
“After deleting all his save files.”
Hayden winced at that one, understanding as a gamer how devastating it was to lose those files.
“You gotta appreciate her attention to detail,” was all Hayden said.
Gus let his eyes trail back to Brittany, where she was smiling full and wide for the camera, enjoying her time with her fans. Looking beautiful and irresistible as fuck.
“There’s a lot to appreciate about her.”
He felt Hayden look at him, but ignored him, focusing instead on the guy that had just smiled for the camera with Brittany at his side… just in time to see his hand slide down to grab her ass.
Gus saw red.
Before he knew it, he was ripping the guy’s arm off her, shoving him to the side of the room, the guy’s back against a wall as Gus points a finger in his face.
“You don’t touch her like that.”
Even he heard the cold in his voice. The creep looked acceptably scared just as security approached to take him away. Gus turned his attention to the crowd gaping at him, still waiting for their turn, and turned his glare up to full power. But before he could say anything, Hayden was there, his hand clamped on his shoulder, blocking his eye contact with the crowd.
“They get it, man. Come take a walk.”
He tried to pull Gus away, and at first Gus resisted, but Hayden hissed at him, his back to the crowd.
“She’s now surrounded by security, and you’re scaring people. Besides, she can handle that shit on her own. Take a fucking walk with me.”
Gus’s eyes flew to Brittany, where she was glaring at the guy that security was hauling away. Immediately he felt himself soften, realizing what a tool he had just acted like, and let Hayden drag him out into the nearest empty hall.
Once there, Hayden let him go and Gus leaned against the wall, trying to regain whatever sanity he had had before this.
“He had his hands on her.”
“I saw.”
“Fucking grabbing her, groping her.”
“I know, man.”
“What the fuck would you have done?”
Hayden took a minute to answer.
“I would’ve lost my mind and done the exact same thing. Although knowing Min, she would’ve decked the guy twice before I got there.”
“Then why are you looking at me like I fucked up?”
Hayden threw him an incredulous look. “Min is my girlfriend. More than that, she’s the love of my life.”
“Okay?”
“So what does it tell you that you’re reacting the same way I would?”
Gus was silent, thinking about that, realizing exactly what Hayden was implying and also exactly how right he was. He leaned against the wall, smacking his head back against it.
“I’m fucked.”
“That’s one way to put it.”
Gus let out a deep breath, trying to calm himself down, trying to block the image of the guy touching Brittany.
“Look, man, work yourself out. But Brittany is family to Min, which means she’s family to me. And that means I can’t let you go all toxic alpha male out there without her permission. Whether you like it or not, she’s a public figure, and you know she can handle herself without you losing it on some asshole in front of a hundred camera phones. Understand?”
Gus nodded. “Yeah, I get it.”
“Good. Now, I know you’re coming to the release party as her security. Tonight is important. You’re not allowed to pull something like that. You’re not allowed to ruin it. Do you understand me? If you think you can’t handle it, you need to find her another guard for the night.”
“I can handle it.”
Hayden studied him a long time, and Gus felt his respect for the man grow even more. Finally, he nodded.
“Good. Now get your shit together before you go in there. And stop scaring the fans.”
And with that, Hayden was gone, leaving Gus alone in the hall to figure himself out. He had never reacted like that before, never been the jealous or overprotective type. But it was different with Brittany. He didn’t like to think she was in danger. Didn’t like some other guy touching her, especially without her consent. Sure, she was obviously good at handling those problems herself since they’ve now happened twice during the convention. But Gus found he could no longer stand by when it happened, and he didn’t like how crazy he felt watching things like that go down.
But this was Brittany’s life. If he wanted to be involved in it beyond the convention, and lord knew he did, then he had to trust her to take care of herself. He couldn’t stomp around like an idiot yelling at people.
With a deep breath, he resigned himself to standing on the sidelines for a little bit longer and then went back into the room, ready to take care of her however she needed. Inside, the meet-and-greet was wrapping up, Brittany smiling for the camera with one last group of people, and then she thanked them for coming and their support. Once done, she ducked into the green room. With a glance around, Gus followed her.
“I’m sorry,” Gus said the second he walked in. “I was an ass. You are fully capable of handling situations like that without me going all alpha and making it worse. I’m an idiot.”
Her body sagged, the tension suddenly leaving, and Gus was reminded of how rarely Robbie would apologize for the stupid shit he would do.
“Why did you do that?” she asked. “There was security there to deal with things like that, they were already on their way.”
Gus held his hands out, feeling exposed.
“I don’t like seeing someone else touch you like that.”
“Don’t tell me you were jealous of that guy.”
“Fuck no.” He struggled to find the words, but he knew this was important, even if he sounded crazy in the explanation.
“Brittany, the stalker, your public profile, how I know Robbie treated you… you deserve better than all of that. You deserve your boundaries and your space and your ability to feel safe, and I get really, really angry when I think about the people in your life who haven’t respected that. I’m sorry that came out today. But you deserve the best, and you haven’t been getting it for a while now, and that pisses me off.”
Brittany stared at him, and Gus found himself holding his breath, knowing this moment was somehow going to decide something and not exactly knowing which way he wanted this to land.
And then her arms were wrapping around his torso, her face buried into his chest like she never wanted to let go. Gus’s arms immediately wrapped around her, holding her tight and firm, letting his head tip down to smell her hair, and the world felt so right that he knew he was fucked. He wasn’t going to be able to let her go. If she wanted to leave, it would gut him.
He held her tighter, enjoying this moment for as long as possible if only because she was in his arms and that’s where she wanted to be.
“You have to let me handle those situations,” she said into his chest.
“I know.”
“I mean it.”
“I know.”
She was quiet then, just letting him hold her, holding him in return, and then he heard a throat clearing.
“Sorry to interrupt,” Min said with a wry tone. “But we’re leaving. Britt, you coming?”
Brittany gave Gus one last squeeze and then looked up at Min, nodding.
“Yeah, we’ll be right there.”
Min stepped out, and Gus met Brittany’s eyes, letting himself drown in them.
“Where are we going?”
“I told Min we’d get ready together for Hayden’s party. He has to be there early to set up, and she wanted to look nice.”
Gus nodded. “So that’s where we’re going.”
“If you don’t mind. We can stop at your condo first if you need your things.”
Gus shook his head, not willing to let her go.
“I had packed a bag, just in case you were on the go.”
“Oh.”
They stood there for another moment, feeling each other, enjoying each other, until Brittany pulled back.
“We should probably go.”
She wasn’t meeting his eyes, but Gus guessed she was feeling as out of sorts as he was. Whenever he imagined his Kickoff experience, it certainly didn’t involve feelings for his brother’s ex.
Robbie. Fuck. He was going to have to deal with that at some point.
But not now. Robbie’s angry text messages had mostly stopped, which either meant he was finally getting over himself or he was stewing something up for a big explosion. Only time would tell, but Gus couldn’t find it in him to really care. Robbie was going to need to get over himself. And if he didn’t, Gus was prepared to make him.