to. I wasn’t trying to look like some romance novel cover girl feeling up some muscle model or something, but they just landed there when I ran into him. Still, they stay there because the hard planes of muscles tempt me even in this ugly moment.
Caleb, true to his laissez-faire attitude, merely shrugs and rolls his eyes. “Just negotiating price points to get your animal problem to go. Isn’t that right, Kitty?”
I look back, stabbing daggers into him with my eyes, and with a smirk, he dramatically corrects himself. “Oh, my apologies. I mean Emma. That’s what you’re going by today, right?”
Fight or flight. I’d already tried flight and ran into Nathan, so fight seems like the next logical step. It’s all I have. So I turn back to him, crossing the few steps between us to stab him in the chest with a fingernail.
“You want to play semantics, Caleb?” I ask, accentuating every other word with another jab of my finger. “Fine, as it seems you’re well aware, my name is Emma. I’m an actress and an assistant. I came in as a hostess named Kitty Williamson. I am not a whore, have never traded sex for money, and have no interest in starting now. And cherry on top, I like your brother.”
The recap is snarky, the last words more heartfelt even though I wield them like a blade. It even shuts Caleb up, who takes a step back as I glare at him. “Satisfied?”
Nathan looks between the two of us in shock, answering for Caleb. “I think you’ve answered all the relevant questions quite nicely.”
But Caleb isn’t done, not by a long shot. Taking a breath, he recovers his mojo, and his face hardens again. “To be fair to your honor, as it seems to be a sticking point for you, I’m not offering you money for sex. I’m offering you money to not have sex. I’m offering you money to go the fuck away.”
He smirks at me, but before I can even work up a single rebuttal, Nathan lunges at him, wiping the cocky arrogance from his face with a shove that sends him into the counter and spills the bit of coffee left in his mug.
“Leave it, Caleb,” Nathan growls, his eyes flaring dangerously. “For once, fucking leave it alone.”
In a flash, it’s on like Donkey Kong.
I’ve never had brothers, just Claire and me, and while we definitely had some hair-pulling catfights as teens, we never tore into each other like this. Nathan’s lunge gave him the advantage initially, but Caleb returns with a scary fury.
The punches fly toward each other’s guts, both of them avoiding the other’s face mostly, but the amount of beef slamming into every other surface of the kitchen turns the whole room into something akin to a UFC Octagon.
And I’m for damn sure no ring girl, cheering on the madness. Instead, an embarrassingly constant stream of exclamations and screeches comes from my mouth as I beg them to stop.
But they don’t hear me because mixed in with the fighting, they’re mouthing at each other. It’s an argument in two forms, punctuated with cabinetry and kitchen appliances rattling in between.
“What the fuck, Nathan? This right here is what I was talking about!” Caleb stutters around punches as he gets Nathan in a headlock.
But Nathan battles back, sweeping against Caleb’s leg to make him unbalanced. If it weren’t for the granite countertop, Caleb would go tumbling, and he just catches himself with a forearm.
As Caleb releases Nathan’s head, he battles back verbally. “Just leave it, Caleb. I’ve got it under control.”
There’s a run of snuffed grunts as they push into one another, and then as if by some gruff agreement, they reverse and push off one another, catching their breaths in great gulps of anger and oxygen.
Caleb’s laugh is bitter. “You always do have it under control, Brother. Until you don’t, and then I save your ass. What the fuck makes you think this will be any different?”
Spittle flies from his mouth, a small split in his lip bleeding bright red even in the ruddiness of his face as he pounds his chest.
Their eyes meet, fire and ice, and the moment stretches out between them. It’s almost as if they have an entire discussion, silent memories sweeping in the tension-filled air, and I wonder what fights they’re remembering.
How true is it that Caleb saves Nathan, or how often does Nathan save Caleb? I suspect they’ve always had each other’s back, trading barbs with