27. Keris
K eris~
It wasn’t lost on me how I’d been the star in this scene once before already.
I had one suitcase packed, the other one halfway there.
However, unlike last time, this time, I planned on taking everything with me.
I was going to erase my existence from this house, and that meant taking my shampoo, toothbrush, lotion, and whatever else I had here.
When Brantley moved back in, he was going to be able to do it without any reminders that he’d been married once.
I’d never paid much attention to the seven deadly sins, but it was clear to me why pride was one of them.
All of this shit could have been avoided had Brantley and I not been so prideful.
We’d been ambushed with the arrangement between our parents, and we’d both been determined not to let them win at all costs.
Only, it didn’t feel as if I’d won. When Ares had helped me into the waiting car, shutting the door behind me, I’d felt like I’d lost something big; something that an honest conversation could have cleared up with ease.
Yeah, I had the mines back, my parents would be back to being their self-absorbed selves, and Linsey would be taken care of once I figured out how to mine the caves successfully, but I’d lost someone that I was never going to find again in another man.
I’d lost Brantley, and I had no one to blame but myself, rightfully so.
There’d been only one enemy this entire time, and it’d been my parents.
Hell, they still were as far as I was concerned.
Shaking my head of thoughts that didn’t matter, I went to finish packing.
I’d grabbed a black trash bag from the kitchen for my toiletries, but it was big enough to also stuff some clothes into it.
I still had my shoes to pack, but those could be tossed into the bag.
I just wanted to clean the room out of my stuff, I didn’t really care what condition it all ended up in.
Besides, I had money to buy more clothes.
Forcing the second suitcase shut, I was locking it in place when the night’s silence was broken by a violent roar that had my eyes immediately watering.
“Keris!” The door to the room had been left open, so Brantley’s roar had easily reached the second floor, and I could actually feel my knees weaken. “Keris!”
Hope was a vicious mistress, so I just stared at the top of my suitcase, protecting myself. I didn’t want to jump to any conclusions. There were a million reasons why Brantley could be here, finally throwing me out of his house being one of them.
The pounding of his footsteps got louder as he stormed up the stairs, my name still a roar on his lips. “Keris!”
When the footsteps finally stopped, I kept my head down like a coward, my heart in my throat, needing just a minute to prepare myself for whatever this was.
Now that I was no longer in denial, now that I couldn’t run from my feelings, now that it was all out there, bravery felt foreign.
Vulnerability was a brutal companion, and that sucked just like everything else in this moment.
“Look at me,” he demanded after a few seconds, his voice sounding like he wanted to kill me.
The suitcase felt like an anchor, holding my gaze, but it was blurry under the unshed tears swimming in my eyes.
I didn’t want to look at him. I needed more time to figure out what I wanted to say.
I needed more time to get my shit under control.
Suddenly, Brantley’s suggestion that we only speak through our lawyers sounded perfect.
I felt his body heat envelop my entire frame as he came to stand next to me. “I said to look at me,” he repeated, his voice leaving no room for argument.
Finally lifting my head, letting the tears fall where they may, I looked into his blue eyes, and it took everything in me to hold his gaze.
Nothing was more petrifying than showing your vulnerability to another person, even if you already knew that you were going to be rejected.
I had no idea why Brantley was here, but it wasn’t because he’d chosen me over his beautiful date.
In fact, the more that I thought about it, it was quite possible that he was here to warn me off ever attending another charity event again.
I had probably ruined his night by showing up there like I’d had, and.
..and it didn’t matter. Nothing that I was feeling mattered, and I had no one to blame but myself.
“Her name is Shera Holgram, and she’s one of Kingston’s charity heads,” he said, hope shredding me apart.
“She was there for the same reason we all were. She was there for her expertise, Magnus was there to make sure that she didn’t go crazy with the checkbook, and Onyx and I were there to represent Kingston Industries.
” I just stared up at him, not knowing what to say.
“Yeah, I asked her to go with me as my escort because I knew that it would get back to you and get my point across, but I’ve never touched her, Keris.
” The tears were steady but quiet. “I haven’t touched anyone since you. ”
“Why are you telling me this?” I finally managed to ask.
Brantley lifted his hands, slid them up my neck and into my hair, then fisted them tighter than he’d ever had before. “Because I fucking love you,” he growled down at me. “Because I fucking love you, and I will not let our parents, our pride, or Ares fucking Cormac ruin this for me.”
“Brant-”
He shook my head painfully. “I swear to God, Keris, if you ever go near that man again, I will fucking kill you both,” he kept growling. “I give two fucks about going to prison for it, and I will not repeat myself a third time. Do you understand?”
“Yes,” I whispered, hope still doing its thing.
“Baby, I can’t do this in name only,” he said, and that’s when I closed my eyes, then let out a choked cry. “It’s all or nothing,” he went on. “I can’t just have pieces of you. You can’t walk around with my last name and not belong to me.”
Brantley loved me.
“And you’re out of your mind if you think that I wouldn’t destroy my father and brother before ever letting you marry Beau.” My eyes snapped open at that. “Dylan told me about what Beau said to you, and I swear on my life that I didn’t know anything about it-"
“Brantley-”
His lips stopped my next words, and I wasted no time grabbing onto him, holding him as close as possible.
Brantley had come after me, and I’d never felt so relieved in my life.
We hadn’t destroyed our marriage with our stupid pride, and never again would I not give him the benefit of the doubt when it came to his wretched family.
“No,” Brantley protested when I cut off the kiss.
“Brantley, I...I need to tell you something-”
“If Cormac touched you, I’m going to kill-”
“No,” I quickly rushed out. “Nothing happened between us, but...but this does have something to do with him.”
I could see fire leap into his eyes. “What?”
“He said that you wouldn’t come after me,” I told him. “When I told Ares that you wouldn’t come after me once you found out that I was gone, he agreed. He said that you might chase a lot of things, but pussy wasn’t one of them.”
“You’re not pussy,” he said. “You’re my wife.”
Tears started to spill again because I’d come so close to losing this man.
Had Dylan not stepped in and told him the business, Brantley would have served me with divorce papers.
Yeah, I never would have married his brother, but I would have lost someone that had come to mean everything to me in a very few short weeks.
“I want to tell him that you did,” I informed him. “I want to be able to tell him that you came after me, and that I finally told you the truth.”
“The truth about what, baby?”
“That I love you,” I confessed, exhausted and elated to be able to finally say it. “Ares told me that if you followed me, then I’d better tell you the truth.”
Brantley looked pained. “I do not want to owe Ares Cormac anything, Keris.”
“You don’t,” I quickly assured him. “I just...while I have no problem never going near him again, he’s not my enemy, Brantley.”
His eyes darkened, and I could feel my entire body tremble with the look.
“My enemies are your enemies, Keris,” he said seriously.
“Apart from Magnus and Onyx, everyone in my acquaintance is your fucking enemy.” His hands tightened in my hair.
“You belong to me, Keris. Understand that, because as close as I came to losing you, you’re out of your mind if you think that I’m going to let anyone else near you ever again.
By the time I’m done with you, it’s going to be said that only a crazy person would dare come near you. ”
God, why did that sound so goddamn hot?
“What are you going to do?” I asked, my voice sounding needy as hell. “Lock me away from the rest of the world?”
“As it happens, I own an island off the coast of Central America that is littered with armed guards,” he replied, and I honestly didn’t know if he was serious or not.
“And what happens if I don’t listen?” I asked, daring him to remind me why he was the one for me.
“Oh, baby, I was hoping you’d ask,” he drawled out wolfishly.