Gone - Anna Brooks Page 0,46
to come to me. I know she’s afraid I’m going to be mad, but I’m not. Especially after all the shit I threw on her about my family and what I’ve dealt with the past few days, I just want her. Whatever family or history or future she comes with, I don’t care as long as she’s with me. If I wasn’t so fucking infatuated with her, I’d have put the clues together before, but between finally having the woman I’d practically become obsessed with and getting her free and clear of Danny, she’s blinded me of all logical thinking.
“Hi,” she greets with uncertainty.
I raise a brow expectantly, and she rushes to me, throwing herself into my arms where I actually feel the relief flowing through her. I squeeze her tight, letting her know everything is good. I do want an explanation, but for now, that shit can wait. “How’s my Izzy baby?” Damn, I missed her. Genuinely wished she was with me the whole time I was gone.
I get it now, what some of the guys have already experienced recently. Especially Royce and how he was about to quit unless he could be guaranteed to be home every night with Paisley. It shames me to admit that when he first hooked up with the boss’s daughter, I gave him hell. But after having Izzy, it’s so clear what he was going through. I don’t want to spend a moment away from her. Ever.
Now that she’s moving in, and we’re actually going to start a life together, I’m not going to be able to be apart from her. I decide not to waste time thinking about that right now, and instead, I hold my girl and let her welcome me home.
I drink in the sweetness of her skin, nipping at her neck and ear, needing to taste her after being without her far too long. I cup her tight ass, and just as she starts to push up onto her toes to press herself against me, I hear a throat clear, and I know exactly who it is. I need to make a statement, though. She’s mine, and he can’t scare me away. Nobody can. “Wanna get your hands off my sister’s ass?”
“Shit.” I lift my head slowly, not quite knowing how he’s going to react but preparing for anything.
He blinks rapidly, and his entire body coils tight. “You’re joking, right?” Gio growls at the sight of Izzy and me together. “Please tell me you’re fucking joking.”
Izzy turns to the side and has the audacity to look beautifully guilty. “Oops, did I forget to mention that you two knew each other…?” She bites her lip, and I can’t help myself when I bring my thumb to it and tug it away from her teeth.
“Stop touching her!”
“Don’t yell at him.” My girl is quick to stick up for me, which was cute the one time because of the circumstances, but not so much anymore. I defend her, not the other way around.
“Don’t act like a slu—”
Hell. Fucking. No. “You do not want to finish that sentence, G.” I put a defensive hand at her hip and step closer to Gio. I don’t know if he’d brawl with me in his own yard, but I know how protective he is over his sisters, and I wouldn’t put it past him to try to lay me out right here, right now. And if he wanted to go, then I’d go. I get why he’s pissed, but nobody talks to my woman like that. “Izzy and I are gonna have a conversation about some things. But as her man, you finish that sentence, and we’ll be the ones having words, and I won’t be doing any talking.”
Gio takes a step toward me, clearly not intimidated, not that I expect him to be. Gio’s an ex-MMA fighter and trains all of us at Royal. No matter how many other guys are here for the party who could tear us off each other, it’d be nasty for as short-lived as it was. “I know you didn’t just walk into my yard, put your mouth all over my sister, your hand on my sister’s ass, and threaten me.”
“Like I said, she and I will have words about why she hid it from me that you were her brother until she gave me the address to here about twenty minutes ago. I’m just as surprised as you are. We can talk about that later.” I extend my arm