came, I ran for the door. Not caring which man of mine was on the other side, I threw open the door and lunged with my arms open.
Elliot wrapped his around me and backed me into my apartment.
“I’m sorry,” I said into his shoulder.
“You have nothing to be sorry for.”
As soon as he said it, the tears I’d been keeping on a tight leash began to flood out in uncontrollable rivers.
“You didn’t kill him, did you?”
“No.” His big palm cupped the back of my head. “I considered it, but no.”
I pushed back from him, lightly slapping his cheek. “Don’t even suggest it.”
He attempted to be stern with me. “Then don’t ever keep things from me. I don’t like knowing you’re even capable of subterfuge.”
“Obviously, I’m not very good at it since you figured us out the first time we were in the same place together.”
“He said your decision to keep me in the dark was mutual.”
I wrinkled my nose. “Not at all. He was the one who warned me the longer we hid it, the worse it would be when you found out.”
“I knew it.” He let go of me to stalk farther into my apartment. “You convinced my best friend to lie to me, which he’s never done. Maybe I should be worried about the type of influence you’ll have over Weston.”
I cocked my head. “You don’t seem mad.”
“I’m…not sure what I am. I don’t like the lying.”
“Believe me, I don’t either. It’s unnatural for me to lie to you. But I wanted us to have time, just in case you disapproved, to make sure Weston and I were solid enough to stand up to that.”
“I can’t say I do approve.” He folded his arms over his chest. “Elise, do you have any idea how much he works? He won’t be able to give you the time and attention you deserve. That bothers me, and I think, over time, it will bother you too.”
“He’s been coming home early.” I felt the need to defend Weston, though Elliot wasn’t wrong about his track record.
Elliot nodded. “That’s good. But when does he do the work that he should have done in the office?” When I didn’t answer, he went on. “I’m assuming he brings his work home. A man like him doesn’t change, even if he wants to. I want more than that for you.”
“But I had a man who gave me his time and attention, and he still wrecked me.” I pulled on Elliot’s arms, unfolding them, and squeezed his forearm. “Look, I know who Weston is. I’m not blind. I’m choosing him, and he’s choosing me. We’ll work out what we want our relationship to look like, but believe me when I tell you I’m happy with him. Happier than I could have imagined.”
His mouth pressed into a firm line. I understood where he was coming from. Elliot and Weston had been cut from the same cloth, but where Weston had remained bendable, Elliott had been dipped in iron. He was uncompromising and assumed Weston was the same way. In the past, I may have agreed, but now that I knew Weston on a deeper, more intimate level, I didn’t. Weston’s two a.m. office visits were bad, and there was no way he could keep them up, but we were new. It would take time to find the right balance. The fact that he was choosing to spend time with me over work said a lot. It gave me confidence that we could figure this out.
Elliot’s eyebrow winged. “In other words, I should keep my opinions to myself?”
“No, of course not. Your opinion is always welcome, as long as you know I’ll tell you when you’re wrong.”
“When have you not?”
“Never.” I sucked in a breath. “Well, if you want the entire truth, Luca knows. He saw us kissing last weekend.”
“Now that”—Elliot shook his finger at me—“ makes me angry. Luca will never let it drop that he knew before I did.”
“He told us we looked good together.”
Elliot flinched, looking away. “For your sake, I’m trying to be okay with this. Don’t push it.”
I took my brother’s hand in mine. “Come and sing ‘Happy Birthday’ to me. Saoirse made a red velvet cake and it would be a shame to let it go to waste.”
Saoirse had retreated to her room for privacy. When I called her name, she came out and joined us to sing and cut the cake at the kitchen table. I made the same wish every year: that everything would work out the way it was supposed to.
Elliot ate his cake, even though he rarely ate sweets. He even complimented Saoirse.
“This is good. Have you considered baking professionally?”
She waved him off. “Of course not. Then it wouldn’t be fun.” She unfolded her long legs from her chair and bent to kiss the top of my head. “Happy birthday, Lise. I’m bummed your party got cut short, but I’m glad I got to spend it with you.”
I leaned my head against her hip. “Thanks for being a goddess.”
She left Elliot and me alone again. He stared at me for a long time while I dragged my fork through the frosting on my plate. I was antsy to speak to Weston, but at the same time, I needed to know things with my brother were settled.
“He paid for your college.”
My head shot up. “What? Who did?”
“There was no money left when Elaine died. I had no idea until I came back and took over, but our mother’s financial situation had been dire. I was going to sell the house to support us, but West stepped in. He used his trust fund to pay off the house. He seeded my first business. And when it was time, he paid your tuition. I tried to be prideful and deny him, but he wouldn’t allow it.”
I was in shock. My mouth fell open, but I had no idea what to say. We’d never been wealthy, but I also had never been worried about money, even in those post–Dad years when Elaine went off the rails. I guessed I should have been paying more attention.
“He never told me.”
Elliot smirked. “No, he wouldn’t have. He asked me to keep it to myself. He didn’t want you to know what a shit show our mother was.” He shook his head. “He’s been protecting you for a long time. I suppose I’ll have to trust that he’ll keep doing so.”
He rose to his feet and pulled me up into his arms. “Happy birthday, El. I love you.”
“I love you too, El.”
He let me go, taking a step back. “I’m going, since I know you’re about five minutes away from tossing me out so you can go to him.”
I snorted. “Maybe ten.”
He ruffled my hair, but he didn’t quite smile. “I don’t like change.”
Elliot eschewed change so much through elementary and middle school he’d been like a cartoon character, owning multiples of the same pieces of clothing so he could wear the same outfit daily, only changing with the seasons. Fortunately for us all, he had a much better fashion sense these days.
I smiled at him. “I know you don’t.”
I let myself into Weston’s place, finding it quiet, which wasn’t surprising. I carried a plate with a slice of cake on it through his apartment, searching him out. A glow came from his office, unsurprisingly.
I peeked through the crack in the door. Weston was hunched over his desk, his fingers clasped behind his neck. His computer was on, but he wasn’t reading the screen.
“Hi,” I called softly, pushing the door open.
He shot to his feet, storming toward me before I could take one step into the room. He took my face in his hands, tilting my head to one side then the other, then he grunted and kissed my forehead, the tip of my nose, and my lips.
“You’re here.”
“I’m here,” I confirmed. “I brought you cake.”
“I thought he’d convince you to stay away from me.”
I crinkled my nose at him. “Well, you don’t know either of us as well as you say you do. I would never allow Elliot to change my mind about you and he loves you. He would never try to trash you to get me to break it off.”
He blew out a breath, his gaze raking over me like he was confirming I was really here.
“Fuck,” he gritted out. “I was sitting here, no idea what was happening, going out of my mind.”
“I’m sorry.” I pressed my lips to his in a long, lingering kiss. “I had to make sure everything was okay with Elliot before I came to you. I hate that you were alone.”
I put the cake down on a nearby table so I could wrap my arms around his neck. He yanked me against him, his palms smoothing down my hips to my butt, then he buried his face in the crook of my neck.
“He told me you paid for my college,” I whispered.
He stiffened but didn’t let me go. “You weren’t supposed to know.”
“I was going to say I can’t believe you did that, but I can. Thank you, Weston.”
“You don’t have to thank me, baby.”
We held each other for a long time. His breath was hot on my skin while he stroked me from the center of my back to the bottom of my ass. As time ticked by, I melted into him.
“It’s okay,” I cooed. “It’s all okay. We can just be us now.”
He released a shuddering breath and raised his head. His mouth slanted over mine in a soft, deep kiss. His tongue slid along mine, claiming me with every gentle flick. His relief was palpable. He’d really been worried I wouldn’t come back to him. That hit me hard in my chest. I put everything into kissing him back, into showing him I was just as deeply into this as he was. That this was something big and real for me, and it would take a lot more than my brother’s disapproval for me to walk away.
“You can’t leave me,” he murmured against my lips. “Do you understand? You can’t disappear on me. You can’t leave.”
Another hit.
“I won’t, West. I’m here with you. I won’t disappear.”
He kissed me again, walking me backward toward his bedroom. When his mattress hit the backs of my knees, he kept walking, so we fell together. He pushed my skirt up, and his fingers slipped into my panties.
“Wet.”
I nodded. I was. Heavy emotion mixed with desire had filled me with need.
He reared back, sweeping my panties off me, then unzipped his pants to free his cock. Falling over me, he rubbed himself between my thighs.
“I have to have you,” he said against my ear.
I threaded my fingers in his hair. “So have me.”
In one smooth motion, he thrust into me, filling me completely. My neck arched as I moaned, my fingers curling around his strands.
Weston cupped my face, holding me as he moved in and out of me. He went deep with every thrust, and I felt him all the way to my chest. The zipper of his pants scratched against the back of my thighs, but if he stopped, I would die, so I ignored it, focusing on him.
He never stopped watching me. He held my face like if he let me go, I’d disappear.
“I’m here, West,” I told him breathlessly. “I’m yours.”
“Mine,” he grunted. “Don’t leave me.”
“I won’t.”
His mouth covered mine again, and he hitched one of my legs over his arm so he could find his way even deeper inside me. I held on to him, giving myself to him, showing him with my body I was his for as long as he wanted me.
Later, we watched a movie in his living room. Weston ate his cake and made me make another wish. This time, I wished for Weston to believe I was in this for the long haul.
He idly stroked my bare thigh while my head rested on his shoulder.
“Were you ever going to tell me about what a piece of shit my brother is?” he asked softly.
“No. Miles and I settled things when I first started at Andes. It’s history.”
“Not to me.”
With a sigh, I lifted my head. “Miles was a dick in high school, but he wasn’t the worst by far. What he said tonight was true, he got people to like him by making them laugh.”
“Don’t defend him.”
“I’m not. He was absolutely wrong, and he knows that. Miles was part of the reason those years were miserable for me, but since he and I hashed it out, I’m over it. I can’t drag high school shit around for the rest of my life. I’m satisfied he feels like a dick for how he behaved, so I don’t really need a pound of flesh from him. It’s over, and we’re sort of friends now.”
His hands flexed, and I could tell he wished he was wrapping them around his brother’s neck.
“You can’t be friends with him, not when I’m planning on killing him.”
“You’re not killing anyone.” I rubbed his scruffy cheek. “I think you need to have a conversation with him, though. Did you hear the rest of what he had to say? He felt abandoned. I kind of think he still does.”
“Fuck him,” he groused. “He is abandoned, as far as I’m concerned.”
I pressed my lips together, frustrated. “Does it not matter to you that I’m over what he did?”
“No. You shouldn’t have had to get over anything.”
“I shouldn’t have, that’s true, but that’s not how it worked out. And Miles…I don’t know. He’s made it his mission to befriend me. I like him. Maybe if you guys really talked, you’d grow to like him too.”
He glowered at me. “We’ll never be like you and Elliot.”
“No, probably not. But Elliot and I are trauma bonded.”
He let his head fall back on the couch cushions, heaving a sigh. “You’re really not going to let me kill him, are you?”
“No.”
“I want to.”
Laughing, I tucked myself under his arm and curled into his side. “I know you do. It means a lot.”
“I’d do anything for you, Elise.”
Maybe Weston telling me he’d kill his own brother for me shouldn’t have felt like a romantic declaration, but it had. When Weston Aldrich said he’d do anything for me, he meant it.
Something deep and achy came awake in my chest. It stretched and bloomed while we snuggled on Weston’s couch, the last minutes of my birthday slipping away. Though this day hadn’t gone quite as I’d expected or hoped, I’d begun and ended it in Weston’s arms, and that trumped everything else.
