by Kasey Krane
I stood up from the chair with a jerk and spun around to find Drax at the door of the room. It felt like all the air had been sucked out of the room in a big whoosh. I hadn’t seen him in over twelve months, hadn’t so much as even heard the sound of his voice in that time.
But I hadn’t forgotten him.
I’d never got over him.
The last thing I wanted right now was for him to think I needed his protection.
“We were just talking,” I said and lifted my chin up assertively. Drax’s dark coal eyes narrowed on me. All of that day, since I’d made the decision to come here and see him, my heart had been thudding in my chest. I couldn’t wait to see him again. I wanted to see if he had changed at all.
But now that he was here standing in front of me, a part of me was worried that he didn’t want to see me. That he was going to be mean to me. This was a mistake. I couldn’t get that thought out of my head.
What was I doing here?
“Looked like you were sitting in that chair and the boys were crowding over you to keep you in place. Ease up, guys. Mary-Beth doesn’t bite. Or didn’t used to.”
Drax spoke in his usual relaxed drawl, in that deep masculine voice. It was like he didn’t give a damn. He was so self-confident in his own authority and strength that he didn’t need to speak quickly or too loudly. My heart was hammering away in my chest.
I realized that I couldn’t take my eyes off him. And that was worrying.
I remembered it clearly because I was experiencing it again—the way this man made me feel when I met him for the first time.
I knew from the beginning that loving Drax was wrong.
I had tried, with every cell in my body, to hate him. To stay away from him. But it was impossible.
He drew me in like a powerful, irresistible magnet. That was then, and I felt like I was going through it all over again now.
I wanted to run to him. Run right into his arms. Beg him to make amends. Why couldn’t we be together again? Maybe we could try a second time?
Well, I had the answers to those questions already. It was out of the question.
Drax and I could never be together again.
“Just because I never bit you doesn’t mean I’m not capable of it,” I replied to him now. One of the guys behind me chuckled and Drax’s eyes narrowed on him.
I watched as he clenched his jaws. He wasn’t pleased to see me. That much was pretty obvious.
“Everybody out!” he growled. It was a command, and everyone was going to obey it.
3
Drax
I couldn’t believe she was actually here. Even when Flash interrupted my almost-sexcapade to tell me she was waiting for me downstairs; I didn’t believe him.
Mary-Beth, back in Fifth Gear?
The last time I saw her was more than a year ago. And since then, I’d seen her every night in my dreams.
I wanted to stop thinking about her. I’d spent all this time trying to get her out of my fuckin’ head but she refused to leave. In true Mary-Beth spirit, I could never convince her to do something she didn’t want to do.
And now she was back here in person. Standing in the middle of this blasted room. Looking like the most innocent little rabbit creature when I knew she was only going to end up stirring trouble.
She didn’t look very different from the last time I’d seen her, but she looked beautiful. Maybe even more beautiful now than she did before. Her blue eyes were big and bright, sparkling with rage. She had those trademark thick eyelashes and brows. I was aware of the way other chicks looked at her. They wanted to be able to perform the kind of magic with makeup that Mary-Beth was able to accomplish effortlessly.
“I said, get out. All of you!”
I had to repeat my command to get the guys moving out of the room. I knew they didn’t want to go. They wanted to stay right here and listen to every last detail of this conversation. Nobody had been expecting Mary-Beth to turn up here out of the blue.
They all knew we were going to get into a fight.
But when I saw them standing over her like that when I came into the room, my first instinct was to jump to protect her. To pull her away from them.
But I had no rights over her anymore. She wasn’t my old lady now. We were through. So, what was she doing here?
I glared at the guys as they slowly left the room. None of them were in a hurry to go. Bastards. She followed them with her eyes too.
It was Spike who left last, and he shut the door behind him.
“Good. I wanted to talk to you alone,” she said and ran her long fingers through her silky blonde Barbie-doll hair.
“You shouldn’t even fuckin’ be here,” I growled in response and Mary-Beth rolled her eyes.
“Drax, why don’t you stop trying to tell me what to do for a change and listen to me instead?” Her voice sizzled.
We were both glaring at each other in rage, fire burning in our eyes. There was no doubt about it, this conversation was not going to end well. This was going to be a fuckin’ disaster.
I had two perfectly sexy naked chicks up in my room, while Mary-Beth stared me down. I could be up there with them right now, tying them up to my bed posts. Amara’s olive skin, her beautiful dark eyes scanning me. Sylvia’s tongue in my ear. Around my cock.
But Mary-Beth licked her lips. Glossy with a light shade of pink. I could only focus on her right now. Nobody else and nothing else mattered.
“Are you listening to me, Drax?” she asked, narrowing her blue eyes at me.
“What else do you think I’m doing right now?” I snapped.
“You look like you’re thinking of something else.”
“What the fuck is going on, MB? Are you going to tell me why you’re here?” I couldn’t help but call her that. I couldn’t just revert to calling her Mary-Beth like everyone else. She flinched a little when she heard me say that. Her nostrils flared but then she dropped her gaze down to her feet.
Whatever she was about to tell me was going to be difficult to say.
“I want you to leave Crash alone,” she answered.
It felt like she’d just slapped me across the face. I couldn’t believe she actually used those words. She wanted me to leave her brother alone? How clueless was she about what was going on?
She scanned my eyes, searching for an answer.
“Drax…” she said and took a step toward me. My hands were on my hips, I was glaring right back at her.
“What did you just say?” I asked.
She licked her lips again and shook her head.
“Look, I don’t know what’s going on between you two and frankly, I don’t want to know. There’s always something going on between the two of you. But you know what? I’ve had enough. I want this to stop. I want you to leave him alone so we can all just move on with our lives.”
While she spoke, she appeared suddenly less defensive. More vulnerable. I saw flashes of the Mary-Beth I used to know, the girl I had fallen for, so hard. The girl I could wake up next to in the morning and talk to. She used to be a good listener before things got bad between us.
And now it seemed like the last thing she wanted to do was hear my voice.
“You’re telling me that I should leave your brother alone? You think I’m the one causing all this shit?” I growled at her.
She shook her head like she couldn’t believe it. Couldn’t believe how petty I was being. This wasn’t child’s play. Someone needed to get that into her head. None of this was a joke.
“Let’s not play the blame game right now, Drax.”
“I don’t have to. If you bothered to find out the real history of this war, you’d know the answer is pretty crystal clear.”
While she stared at me like that, I couldn’t help but imagine what it would be like if I took her up to my room right now. What if it was her lying naked on my bed instead of Sylvia and Amara? What would a real relationship feel like? I hadn’t experienced one before I met Mary-Beth and I was determ
ined never to face another one again.
I wasn’t built as one piece of a pair; I was built to survive alone.
She drew in a deep breath, snapping me out of my daydreams.
“This is what you always do, Drax. You find a way to turn things around on the other person. You are never willing to claim responsibility for your actions.”
This was fuckin’ frustrating. She sure knew how to get under my skin. Under any other circumstance, if she was anybody else, I would have kicked her out of this room a long time ago. I didn’t usually care what anyone else thought of me.
But it was hard for me to admit I did care what she thought of me. I didn’t want her to go on believing that her lunatic brother was a saint or dependable.
“Crash flipped one of my guys. He bribed him into helping him steal a shipment from me. That is how this whole thing started.”
She was watching me carefully. For a moment, I thought she was going to crack. She’d come around. She’d see what I was talking about. But Mary-Beth shook her head.
“If you have any respect for me or for what…we…for our relationship— even though it’s in the past now—you will leave my brother alone. Just end this, Drax.” Her lips quivered a little as she spoke. What the hell was she talking about? I couldn’t just end it.
I didn’t have magic in my fingers that I could just snap.
I rubbed a hand over my face in frustration and grumbled under my breath.
“You. Have. No idea.” I stepped toward her; sure she could see the anger on my face. It was slowly starting to go redder. I was losing my shit. This was fuckin’ ridiculous. “You have no idea what you’re talking about.”
She held my gaze. She wasn’t about to look away. Mary-Beth never looked away. She was so sure of herself, thought she knew everything.
But she didn’t.
“You shouldn’t even fuckin’ be here. Do you know that?”
“Yes, I know, being here is a touchy subject with my brother…”
“No. When I say you shouldn’t be here. I mean, you really shouldn’t.” I took more steps toward her with every word. I was growling at her, but she held her own. “You have any idea what you’ve put yourself in by coming here? What your brother is capable of doing if he finds out you’ve been talking to me?”
In response to that, Mary-Beth said something that proved just how clueless she was. She rolled her eyes and shook her head. “Oh, come on, Drax…Crash would never hurt me.”
My first instinct was to grab her by her shoulders and give her a good shake. How could she be this naive? My next instinct was to kiss her. Hold her. Protect her. She had no idea who she was dealing with.
“I hate to break it to you, MB, but your brother is capable of a lot of things you don’t know about.”
I saw the way her jaws moved in anger while she kept her mouth firmly pressed together.
“Oh yeah? Like what?”
She challenged me with her burning eyes.
I could tell her. I could tell her exactly what Crash was capable of. What he had already done in his career as President of the Silver Knights. In fifteen minutes, I could shatter the persona he had created.
But what was the point? It wasn’t like she’d actually believe me.
When I remained silent, she rolled her eyes. “Yeah, that’s what I thought. Nothing. You can’t give me any evidence that he’s in the wrong here.”
“No, I don’t have any evidence because that’s not how we work. You should know that by now. Leave no trail. You’ll just have to take my word for it, which I know you’re not capable of doing.”
Her breasts rose and fell. She had her mouth parted a little. I wanted to grab her by the back of her neck and pull her to me, push my tongue in her mouth and feel the burning heat of her soft supple body. No other woman ever felt as perfect as she used to.
“He is my brother, Drax. And you are…someone I used to sleep with.” It took her a little effort to say those words and now they were out there. Wow. That’s all I was to her. She couldn’t even call me her ‘ex’. I was just someone she used to bang.
Had she really forgotten everything else?
“So, if you don’t think much of the relationship we had, why do you think I should?” I hissed. She looked away from me with a snap.
“That is not what I said. Don’t put words in my mouth, Drax. I said nothing about the meaning of our relationship.”
“You said you can’t trust me over your brother.”
“He’s my brother!” she cried. She dropped her hands down by her sides, with her fists clenched. I knew her well. I was acquainted with this body language of hers. She always did this when she was losing her patience.
I tried to remind myself I didn’t owe her anything. Not anymore. Her patience was not my problem.
“Then you should be able to convince him to behave himself, right? He should listen to you.”
She let out a frustrated sigh and shook her head.
“You are such a fuckin’ stubborn bastard.” Her voice was low and almost a whisper. I let out a snort at that.
“What about Crash? What is your opinion on him? He who can do no wrong…”
“Crash is a fuckin’ stubborn bastard too. You both are. And I don’t know what else I can do to stop this nonsense.”
I could see the way she worried her fingers. Clenching and unclenching her hands. Rubbing her palms on the sides of her legs. These were all signs that she couldn’t keep her emotions under control.
My voice softened a little. As much as I didn’t owe her anything, I couldn’t help but feel a weakness toward her. I didn’t want her to suffer.
“Well the truth is, MB, there is nothing you can really do about it. The war has begun. One of us is going to come out of this on the winning side and I’m going to try my goddamn best to make sure it isn’t your brother.”
“Drax. You wouldn’t hurt him!” she cried out again.
“I’m not going to make you any promises I can’t keep.”
“I am here to ask you, respectfully, to end this war between the two of you so that I don’t end up losing my brother over it. I really, really hoped you would understand.”
“You came here hoping you would just snap your fingers and I’d give you what you want. Isn’t that how it used to work between us? No questions asked. Mary-Beth is always right.”
Her lips quivered a little and then she turned her face away from me.
“You are being unnecessarily rude to me, Drax.”
“You show up here making ridiculous claims and impossible demands, and what do you expect me to do? Roll over and show you my belly?”
“How dare you imply that I always got my way with you, Drax? It just proves how delusional you are about what our relationship actually looked like. You always did exactly what you wanted. You fought me on every decision. You were never willing to listen to my side of anything…”
Our voices were raised. As usual. Our relationship had always been volatile, and it seemed that being apart for a year had made no difference. We were always going to be at each other’s throats.
“It’s either Drax’s way or the highway…” she continued.
I felt like I’d had enough. I closed my eyes and looked up at the ceiling.
“What the fuck are you even doing here, MB? Your little plan is not going to work. You’re not going to be able to stop this war between us. You clearly know nothing about your brother. He won’t stop till he gets his vengeance.”
“It’s you who doesn’t know my brother. You were never friends. How can claim you know anything about him?” she cried.
“Because I just fucking do!” I growled. I opened my eyes to glare at her. I wanted to devour her. I wanted her to see the truth on my face. I wasn’t lying to her.
The door opened and Spike poked his head around.
“Hey, boss,” he said.
“I told you bastards to leave us the fuck alone!” I thundered at him. I could feel the ange
r seeping from every pore of my skin. Spike quickly shut the door again and Mary-Beth turned to me.
“See what I mean? You’re a bossy control freak who is not willing to give people the respect they deserve,” she hissed.
“And you think you’re being very respectful toward me?” I grunted.
Mary-Beth was standing at the small window in the room. It was dark outside. After our little outburst at each other, she’d turned around and walked over to it so she could look outside. There wasn’t much to see through there but still she kept her back turned to me.
I wasn’t sure what to say or do anymore.
I should have just told her to leave.
Leave before the Silver Knights got a whiff of this and Crash sent his guys after her. But for some reason, I wasn’t willing to let go of this woman yet. Even if it meant staring at her back the whole time.
“I guess I’m expecting too much from both of you, right?” she finally said in a low soft voice. When I didn’t answer, she looked at me over her shoulder. “That is what it is, isn’t it? I should just give up on you both ever getting along.”
“Why does it matter if we get along or not?” I asked.
She turned to me fully now.
“Because I don’t want to imagine what all this is going to one day lead to. It’s already been going on for years. You two fighting each other. I feel like one of these days, one of your luck is going to run out.”
I wanted to ask her the thing that was really on my mind—did she really care what happened to me?
“MB, your brother is capable of taking care of himself,” I said instead. “He doesn’t need you to look out for him.”
“And yet here I am, asking you to do this for me.”
Fuck me. Seriously? This again? Did she really have no idea what her brother had done?
“You know what our biggest problem always was? That you believed and trusted everyone else, but you refused to trust me.”
She scoffed and shook her head. “Are you seriously suggesting that was our biggest problem?”
