28. Briggs
Chapter 28
Briggs
“Carpe diem.” ― Horace
T here was something different in the way she was looking at me now. I couldn’t quite decipher what it was, but those baby blues tore through me a lot harder than usual. Yet I knew that little viper was still in there—she was still mad, flustered at me and possibly herself and the events that unfolded.
“Stay right here,” I whispered against the shell of her ear, recalling a few days ago when I pulled her into the billiards room. I took a few steps to the right, found the light switch, and turned it on. She blinked at the brightness, so I reached over and turned one of the sections of lights off. “Better?”
“Yeah. Thanks.” She blinked at her surroundings. “So this is where you come to let it out and get incredibly ripped?”
I couldn’t hold back the laughter that escaped me. “I guess you could say that.”
Her eyes roamed my body, lighting a fire inside of me that shot right down to my dick. But that would have to wait.
“Why here?”
My fists clenched at my sides as I was brought back to what I’d just witnessed. Rose was close to being raped. She might not have fully come to terms with that yet, but I knew what kind of man August was long before he had the chance to show it. It just so happened he chose to break free from what little control he had and test those waters on the wrong girl.
My girl .
I hadn’t planned to kill him then. Wasn’t entirely sure if I still could with the way she thought I would go to jail over it. I didn’t lie to her when I said I hadn’t killed anyone before—but that didn’t mean I hadn’t brought them close to it, that the urge to do so wasn’t sitting right at the precipice of my sanity, especially when I thought about August and the rotten things he no doubt had in mind for her .
“I know you, baby. I saw your hand in your pocket, curled in a tight fist as I pulled up.” I cocked my brow up at her as I closed in on her. Tucking my fingers under her chin, I forced those beautiful eyes of hers right up to meet mine. She leaned into my touch again, my jacket she still wore beginning to slouch off her slender shoulder. I reached up with my other hand and readjusted it instead of ripping it right off and taking her like I so desperately wanted to do. The past two days had been pure agony without her touch. “Your tongue has bite, but I want the rest of your body to have that ferocity, too.”
“You want—” Her words were breathy until she cleared her throat, pressing a hand to her neck. “You want to teach me how to fight?”
My lips curved up. “In a way, yes.” I took her hand in mine, bringing her knuckles to my lips. Her body bowed in closer to me as I brushed my lips over the back of her hand. I told her she was mine, and she seemed to accept that in the car. Rose being aware that I owned her in ways no man ever would was only part of the battle. Now, I just needed others to fucking know, too. “I want to teach you how to punch.”
“And how do you know I can’t punch?” she snapped back like the little viper she was, making me smile more.
I made a show of flipping her hands over, inspecting them for scrapes and bruises I knew I wouldn’t find with her lack of experience. Still, I humored her, which she didn’t seem happy about. “Show me how you were making a fist in your pocket.”
She made a cute little sound of annoyance and rolled her eyes. “I wasn’t going to punch him. I was going to…um… ”
Curiosity overcame me. “What were you going to do with your hands then?”
She reached into the depths of her pockets, shifting my jacket to the side to do so, and then her eyes snapped back up to me. “Don’t say it, by the way. I know you’re thinking it.”
I put both hands in the air, unable to wipe the smirk from my face. She thought I was going to judge her for the amount of times she’d been caught wearing that very jacket, but that wasn’t where my thoughts went whenever she wore my clothes. Rose looked damn hot in it, but her wearing it while she was out of the house made something akin to pride bubble to the surface. It was one of the small ways she showed she’d been mine all along.
When she pulled out her house key, my smirk turned up more. “You were going to stab him with your key?” I tried to keep my voice neutral, but the amusement burst through.
She crossed her arms. “Says the guy who put a gun to another guy’s head.”
“A gun that wasn’t loaded,” I reminded her.
She looked me over as she put her keys back. “I don’t get it, Briggs. My grandpa taught me that was the best thing to use in a situation like that.” Good thing I gave that man a Bentley. Definitely deserved it. Possibly needed another. “But your first instinct is to pull out a gun? And what was up with August’s face? Are you going to tell me why he referred to you as my dog ?”
Huh, I kind of liked that.
I reached a hand to cup the back of my neck as I looked down at the little viper whose voice was much clearer now and full of that venom I loved to get from her. Rose’s arms crossed tighter over her chest as she waited for me to answer, while I just couldn’t stop feeling so hopelessly obsessed with her.
“You told him that he didn’t listen the first time, Briggs. So what the hell happened the first time to warrant that kind of—”
“I know what he tried to do to you,” I finally answered.
“You…” I watched her throat work as she swallowed to get to the rest of her words. “You know what, exactly?”
Taking a step closer to her, I pressed my palm to the wall above her head, making her arch her neck to stare up at me. My molars clenched, and my vision flashed red, but not because of her. I reassured her of that by holding the soft curve of her face in my palm. “I know that he thought he could just go to your house and do things to you that you didn’t want him to do.”
Her eyes narrowed, her hand pushing on the front of her throat like she needed the support to find her words again. “You were following me? Watching me in my house?”
I shook my head. “No, Rose.”
“Then how do you know—”
“Jim.”
Her brows scrunched up. “Jim?” She rolled her lips in, confusion filling her perfect features.
“Yeah. Jim.” She looked close to reaching down for her keys in her pocket to use them on me. I knew I was being vague as fuck, and that was one of her biggest pet peeves, but I wanted to try to be open with her as much as I could without scaring her off. Yet, I was failing. I exhaled deeply, my words going with it. “Jim called me while August was out in the parking lot of the gas station that day. That fucker was being pretty loud about what his plans with you had been and what he believed had happened between you. Talking to his friends about it, too.”
“What…what did he say?” she whispered, her fingers tapping along the side of her neck, her fair skin turning red with the touch.
“Vulgar things.” It wasn’t completely vague, but I was sure repeating what he said wasn’t going to get her imagination going. It was already there, in gear, churning away. I leaned down to kiss her forehead, wanting to comfort her. She didn’t pull away, her body bowing into my lips just like she did with my hands. I pulled back, lifting her face to meet mine. “So, I put him in his place and warned him to stay away.”
Not that he fucking listened.
“You…but, we weren’t…” Her mind looked like it was running on empty. As if the idea of someone other than her grandparents and Jasmine caring that deeply for her and being there for her at every turn just wasn’t adding up. Like I needed to be close to fucking her in order to beat the shit out of anyone who disrespected her because if her body wasn’t mine, then why even bother? She’d be wrong to think that, but that’s what being friends with a guy like August Coleman will do to you.
It was crushing my chest almost as bad as the day she made me take her home and told me it was over.
“I said it before, and I will say it again—you have never been nothing to me.” I bent down, brushing my lips against her cheek. “Let me be everything for you, Rose. Tell me you’re mine. ”
She hesitated, goosebumps flooding her skin as I dipped my fingers into the curve between her shoulder and neck. “I’m still really mad at you, you know,” she said on a breath, one she seemed to struggle to catch. I loved the way she reacted to me.
“That’s okay,” I replied. “I’d be upset if you weren’t mad at me. Did I mention you’d be practicing those punches on me?”
Her brows lifted, her plush lips curving at the thought. “Do I have to be yours for you to teach me?” There was a hint of a taunt in those words.
I chuckled because, of course, she was going to be mine, regardless of what she believed. “Of course not. But if you knock someone out, and they ask who taught you to throw a hook like that, you better tell them it was your boyfriend.”
“Was,” she replied as she pushed me away slowly.
I groaned as her palms lingered on my shirt, right above my chest. My heart was pounding, there was no way she couldn’t feel it. When she flushed over and started shrugging off my jacket, I knew the past tense of her one word wasn’t going to last long.
She was mine and would be forever more.
She knew it just as much as I knew one thing for certain—I was completely gone for her.
I reached for her and pulled her back to my front, making her gasp. Leaning down, I took her earlobe into my mouth and bit it gently. Her moan was almost enough to make me forget all about teaching her how to protect herself. “Let loose on me, baby. Let me give you that release you need.”
Her head bobbed against my chest. “Okay. Teach me. ”
I released her, ignoring the way my cock was about to break through my fucking jeans against her ass. “Be right back. Don’t go anywhere.” I ran back out to get my duffle bag from the trunk, and when I came back in, she was standing beside my most frequented spot. I had to bite my tongue from asking if she was wearing the black lace bra I envisioned ripping from her body. The one that black bag always brought the memory of to the surface.
“Sit down over there,” I said, pointing to the bench along the back wall, not far from the punching bag. Rose put her hands on her hips, but then she dropped them and obeyed as I approached the bench myself.
I could almost envision pushing her down along the bench and eating her sweet cunt until she told me she was mine. I wanted to hear those words from her like I needed to breathe. Desire for something you couldn’t have for years was one thing. But wanting her so bad it made my chest feel like it was cracking in half going two days without her? I was pretty sure I knew what that was. Dean was the one who’d put that into perspective real quick for me.
I slid in beside her and opened the bag. “Let’s start with protection.”