“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.
“You know what I mean,” I angrily stated. “You’re quiet around your brothers, and you never voice a problem if we have one. You wait till we’re alone to go all cave man on me.”
“I’m a private person,” Ryder shrugged, not allowing his eyes to stray from mine. “Anything between us will always be private so if I have to cuss your sexy ass out, or spank it and kiss it better, it will all be in private. I’m a patient person, you can piss me off all day and I’ll smile and nod… until we’re alone, then your ass is mine.”
I shuddered. “I don’t doubt you.”
“Good, never doubt me.”
I frowned. “I never have.”
“I’m sorry about tonight, okay? I regretted what I said the instant it was out of my mouth. I knew it, and so did my brothers. It was Dominic who told me to go and kiss your ass until you forgave me and took me back, you know?”
The brother I physically whacked?
I blinked. “Dominic? Really?”
Ryder nodded. “You impressed him tonight, and not many people do that often.”
That pleased me because I wanted Ryder’s brothers to accept me, but I didn’t want him to know that so I shrugged it off like it meant nothing to me.
“I impressed ‘im by punchin’ ‘im in the face?”
Ryder grinned. “Yes.”
“You’re all so weird.”
“Trust me,” Ryder chuckled. “I know.”
I thought about my sister and said, “She’ll really be okay?”
Ryder nodded. “He’ll tuck her into bed and they’ll go to sleep, I’d put my life on it. Dominic would never hurt a woman. He’d never hurt anyone unless he had no choice. He isn’t a bad person, Branna, he just has to do bad things.”
Has to? That wording worried me.
“Tell me what you mean about him,” I pressed. “So he likes me sister, big deal, millions of people like other people and—”
“She is the first person he has ever taken a liking to.” Ryder cut me off.
I blinked. “How can that be possible? He is gorgeous. Surely out of all the girls throwin’ themselves at ‘im one would have ignited these feelin’s within ‘im.”
Ryder shook his head. “Dominic is focused, and he believes women are a… distraction. To a point, he is right. He fights, and he cannot afford a distraction when he fights, so he distances himself from women until he… needs one.”
Disgust must have shown on my face, because Ryder sighed and rubbed his face with both hands.
“He has sex with women, lots of women, and don’t let his age fool you. He has fucked women older than you.”
I swallowed. “That’s disgustin’, he is only a baby!”
“It is what it is,” said Ryder with a shrug of his shoulders. “When he wants to have sex, he finds a willing woman, and he has sex, but that’s the extent of things.”
“So what’s his deal with me sister then?” I questioned. “She isn’t willin’. She doesn’t even like ‘im so I know she won’t have sex with ‘im.”