Bloody Vodka, my mind grumbled.
“‘Bout time you showed up!” A male voice shouted, followed by laughter and cars screeching to a stop.
I looked around and when I took in all the people that were ambling up the driveway to Ryder’s house, I pressed back against his chest. His arms came around me, and his face nuzzled against my neck.
“Don’t be frightened,” he said into my ear. “We’re throwing a party to celebrate Dominic’s win at Darkness.”
A house party?
I went rigid. “Maybe me and me sister should leave—”
“Dominic is already inside with your sister.”
I broke out of Ryder’s hold and pushed through the crowd of people waiting to gain entry into his house. I heard him shout after me then curse when I didn’t turn and wait for him. I stumbled through the front door and shouted, “Bronagh!”
“I’m here!” I heard her call out.
I followed her voice over to the bottom of the stairs where she was now awake and standing up, but was still in Dominic’s hold. He kept his eyes on me as I neared them, and I saw annoyance flash across his face as I reached for my sister and took hold of her hand.
“We’re goin’ home, Bronagh.” I said firmly.
“She wants to stay here,” Dominic argued.
I cut my eyes to him and narrowed them. “I don’t give a flyin’ fuck what she wants, if I say she is goin’ home then she is goin’ home, you got that?”
Dominic set his jaw and nodded once so I turned my attention from him to my sister. She was giggling and turning into Dominic’s chest, which prompted me to release her from my hold. I was about to grab her again when hands grabbed hold of me.
“When I tell you to wait for me, you fucking wait.” Ryder’s voice growled as he wrapped his arms around me. “I don’t want to lose sight of you in a crowd of strangers.”
I struggled against him. “You shouldn’t have invited them to your house then, you bloody eejit!”
“I didn’t,” he countered. “Alec did.”
As if on cue, Alec shouted, “Paarrtttyyyyyy,” from someone where down the hall followed by loud, pulsing beats of music. The strangers in the house cheered.
Dominic laughed at his brother, but quickly turned his attention to Bronagh when she spoke to him. “I want to sleep with you,” she purred.
The lad’s entire body went rigid.
“Dominic,” my sister slurred. “Did you he-hear me? I wanna cuddle with you. Now.”
A switch flipped inside his head because without hesitation he hooked his arm around Bronagh’s waist, then bent down and slid his arm under her knees and lifted her. My sister squeaked the moment she became airborne and wrapped her arms around Dominic’s neck as he protectively tucked her into his chest. He turned then and hauled arse up the stairs.
“Dominic!” I growled after him, but he ignored me and took the stairs two at a time, with my laughing sister in his arms.
I made a move to shoot up the stairs after them, but hands clamped down on my hips.
I tensed. “Get away from me, Ryder.”
I felt his hot breath on my neck.
“Not a chance, sweetness,” he murmured into my neck and squeezed my flesh. “You’ll kill him if you get the chance, and I can’t allow that. It goes against the bro code.”
“Yeah, well, lettin’ some stranger haul me sister off to an isolated part of a big house is against the big sister code!”
“He. Won’t. Hurt. Her.”
I huffed. “He has done nothin’ but hurt ‘er since the moment he met ‘er!”
Ryder hissed when I dug my nails into the arms that were wrapped around my waist.
“That’s it,” he snapped.
He let go of me and for a spilt second I thought he backed off until I was swung around, picked up, and tossed over his shoulder like a bag of potatoes.
“Ryder Slater!” I snapped. “Put. Me. Down.”
“Destiny,” I heard Damien’s voice chuckle. “Dominic is busy right now, but I’m not. Why don’t you keep me company for a little while?”
These brothers were something fucking else!
I heard Ryder chuckle as he jogged up the stairs with me hanging upside down on his back. I screeched and used both of my hands to keep my boobs from spilling out of my top and I failed miserably because I heard some hooting from younger males who were situated at the bottom of the stairs.
I gave them the finger until they were out of sight.
One-second I was hanging upside down, then the next I was upright on my feet and inside Ryder’s bedroom. I steadied myself and backed away from him, keeping my gaze locked on his as he kicked the door closed with his foot.
“I’m not in a confined car space with you now. You can’t whisper in my ear and make me forget what happened tonight. We’re done,” I bit out. “I remember how you spat those words and how you pushed me off you in Darkness like I was nothing more than a piece of dirt.”
The muscles in Ryder’s jaw rolled back and forth.
“You punched my brother in the face,” he said, exasperated. “What was I supposed to do?”
I almost growled. “Your brother has made my sister’s life hell over the past few weeks!”
Ryder blinked. “He is the one who has been in two fights for her, and suspended from school over her. He isn’t the only guilty party here, Branna.”
I balled my hands into fists. “None of that would have happened if he had just left ‘er alone when she asked ‘im to the first fifty times!”
“I told you he doesn’t know how to handle her!” He snapped back. “He has never liked a girl before, not for longer than a few hours, anyway, but he likes Bronagh and he doesn’t know what to do about it. He has no clue how to approach her or how to behave around her, and it’s not his fault, it’s our upbringing.”
“What does how you were brought up have to do with how Dominic treats me sister?” I asked.
I saw the moment that Ryder closed up, and it pissed me off.
“Fine,” I growled. “Don’t talk, I didn’t want to hear your bullshit anyway.”
I made a move for the door, but froze when I realised Ryder firmly maintained his position in front of it and stared me down like a predator ready to pounce on its prey.
“What’s the matter, Branna?” he asked as he studied me from across the room. “Cat got your tongue.”
I nervously swallowed. “Fu… Fuck you.”
Ryder shot across space between us and got in my face.
“I intend to, sweetness,” he all but snarled. “I intend to fuck you until you can’t remember your own name.”
“No!” I spat and shoved at his firm chest. “We’re done, remember? D-O-N-E. Done!”
“You can say it, spell it, and write it across your damn forehead for all I care, because it’s not fucking true. We’re not done. We will never be done do you understand me? Never.”
My legs began to tremble.
“Ryder—”
“Branna.” He cut me off. “This isn’t up for debate, we aren’t done. Get over it.”
I balled my hands into fists. “You don’t just get to decide that we aren’t done after you already said we are. You’ll give me whiplash with your indecisiveness!”
He sighed, loudly. “We. Are. Not. Done. You’re my woman, and I’m your man. We’re boyfriend and girlfriend. We’re a couple. How many different ways do I have to say it for you to get it into that beautiful head of yours? We’re together. End. Of. Discussion.”
I growled. “I hate how… domineerin’ you are.”
Ryder grinned at me and I glared at him. I didn’t mean sexually, because we both knew how dominant he was during sex, I meant in every other aspect of his persona.