in years, and if I ever said even one of those things to Blake, he would beat the fuck out of me where I stood.
Oh my God. What did I just do?
My instinct was to cringe away, and I did, closing my eyes as I waited for a heavy fist to land. My mind screamed at me to run, but running was a waste of energy. The beating always came, no matter what I did to delay it.
"Brooke!"
I had the sense that Dylan had been trying to get through to me for many seconds, but in my panic, I'd blocked out everything except the cacophony of fear in my head. My eyes shot open as he said my name again, and I found him right before me, hands on my cheeks as he cupped my face. "I'm so sorry," I gasped out. "Don't hurt me."
Logically I knew Dylan was the one in front of me, not Blake, but my brother’s face was all I saw as the years of violence surged to the surface.
"Brooklyn Lawson!" There was command in his voice, but it wasn't as shouty as before. "I will never hurt you, baby. Come back to me. Let go of whatever has you, and get your ass back to me."
His use of the word baby was the very shock I needed to break myself out of the cycle of abuse and fear I'd found myself in. And as I shook my head, Dylan's face swam back into view, his forehead creased in concern as his gaze ran over my face.
"Shit, sorry," I cried, trying to pull away so I could hide from him. His grip, while not hurting me, didn't loosen as he held me trapped between his huge hands.
"What just happened?" Again, he sounded calm, but there was a brewing storm deep in his eyes.
Since I was still off-kilter, I found myself spilling out information that I never should have given him. "I’ve spent so many years taking his abuse and never speaking up, and I knew if I ever broke and fought back in any way, that he would probably kill me afterward. Then kill anyone I loved, too. I think my body went into shock because I don't usually get confrontational, and... it was survival mode after that."
"Who?" Dylan snapped, and as his fingers flexed on my cheeks, I flinched. He gentled his hold immediately before he dropped his hands. He didn't let me get away though, one arm sweeping around my waist in a loose hold. I didn't feel trapped, but I also couldn't have gotten away easily.
"No one," I said. "Not worth you worrying about. I'm fine. I shouldn't have told you that."
Fucking fuck. What had I been thinking spilling all that shit? I had to get it together because when Blake strolled back into my life, he was not going to accept this fractured version of me who had forgotten the rules.
"Brooke, you need to tell me now. I can find out, of course—as you pointed out, I have a lot of information at my hands—but I would prefer it came from you."
If he’d been wearing a shirt, I would have grabbed it at this point. As it was, my hands tried to wrap around his biceps, but they only made it about a quarter of the way around.
"If you care about me at all, Dylan, you'll let this go. I promise, it's no drama you want part of."
His eyes drilled into me with their intensity, and I knew there was nothing in this world that could stop him from looking into this now. Nothing.
Except maybe... I pushed myself up, slamming my lips against his. Opening my mouth, I sucked his lip in and bit down on it gently. "Brooke," he rumbled, and I groaned as his taste flooded my mouth.
"Dylan, it's been so long," I said, pressing myself harder against him. He still only wore sweats, and they were doing absolutely nothing to hide his growing erection. Now that I'd settled on this new plan of action to distract him, I was all on board with seeing that fucking amazing cock again.
"We haven't finished talking," he said, but he wasn't pushing me away. If anything, his hands dragged me closer, and when I opened my mouth to him, his tongue clashed with mine. Dylan took control of the kiss, as per usual. He was dominating, and what should have scared me didn't when it came to this man.