Love in Game (De La Fuente Family 6)

“I could eat.” I smile softly.

Minutes later we’re heading out of the hotel and crossing the road toward a Chinese restaurant. “I’ve been wanting to eat here since we arrived yesterday.” He keeps his arm around me as though he’s afraid I’m going to run off.

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Blake is taller than me with dark cropped hair, and he’s built solid. He spends a lot of time in the gym and on the ice, so he’s physically fit, and the women find him attractive. Even I have to agree that he’s good looking. The tattoos that cover his upper body and arms usually gets him more attention than he can sometimes handle, which makes me wonder how he hasn’t found anyone to call his own yet. He’d kept Bev around for a while, which had disappointed me. She was a bitch and had no real interest in Blake as a man. It was all about who he was as a player on the ice than anything else.

Often I get jealous women throwing dark glares my way after they’ve seen me with Blake, and that’s because they have no idea that I’m his little sister. They just see a woman who he always has his hands on. If they were more observant then they’d see that he only ever wraps his arms around my neck or kisses my cheek.

I love my brother, possessiveness and all, and I know he loves me. Sometimes I think that he’s the way he is with me because he’s afraid that something will happen to me and I’ll be taken away from him like our parents. Or he’s just plain scared of losing me to someone that I fall in love with. Except I’ve already fallen, and I need him to accept that, which is probably going to be a shock to him.

It’s a shock to me as well and it scares me. Kasey captured my heart in Vegas with how he treated me that night, but now, he’s in my heart and I want to see where our connection takes us. For that to work, as I’d like it to, I need my brother to be supportive instead of a jerk.

“Don’t you think it’s about time that you told me why you’ve been so distracted since Vegas.” He holds his hand up and sitting me at a table, sits opposite. “I’ve forced myself not to push, but you’re more distracted than ever and it’s starting to get to me. I need to know that you’re okay.”

“Not push?” I raise a brow. “That’s all you’ve done.”

He winces. “I wouldn’t exactly say push is the right word.”

I laugh and pause for a moment, trying to get my thoughts in order before beginning my story as he looks on eagerly. However, I sigh and wonder how much to tell him because I sure as hell don’t want him going off the handle. “The truth,” I begin.

“That’s all I want.” He grabs my hand and keeps it inside of his larger one. “I can’t make things right if I don’t have the truth.”

I softly smile. “Dad used to say that.”

He swallows and offers a wry smile. “He did.”

“It’s not that easy to talk to you about this because whatever I say, you’re probably going to lose it and then I won’t be able to talk to you at all.” His eyes search mine anxiously so I continue, “I need to talk to you because you’re not only my brother, but my closet friend. I need you to keep your shit together and actually listen to me for once.”

“I’m not going to like this, am I?” he grumbles. “I promise to listen to you.”

“I promise to really listen to you,” I prompt.

He rolls his eyes, and repeats, “I promise to really listen to you.”

“It’s about the man I met in Vegas.”

“I knew it.” He slams his fist on the table making me jump. “Fuck…Sorry. I’ll behave.”

“Really?” I sit back in the chair and watch him while he relaxes.

“I hate the position that Bev put you in. It was my fault and it pisses me off that if I’d listened to you in the first place then that wouldn’t have happened.”

“If it hadn’t happened then I probably wouldn’t have met him. Now let me talk and don’t say anything until I’ve finished.”

He slumps back in his chair and waves his hand around. “I’m listening.”

He’s so full of it, but I’m not willing to put this off. “The man I spent the night with, fully clothed,” I add, “is someone, who for the first time in my life, I feel a connection to. In the morning when I woke and found all your missed calls and text messages, I panicked and left without leaving him a way to contact me.” I glance at my hands on the table. “I regretted it the minute that I let the door close behind me. He isn’t like the guys you know. He didn’t act like he was desperate to get into my pants. I mean the attraction was there but he knew that I just needed to talk. It’s hard to explain.

“He just made me feel cherished. You make me feel that way, but it’s different because you’re my brother, and I love you for it. But this man, he has so quickly become everything to me.” I hold Blake’s gaze and see surprise in his eyes, which I find encouraging. “I met him again. Last night. I was so surprised to see him, and he was just as surprised to see me. We spent last night together.”

His eyes narrow and I see his anger rising so I quickly hiss under my breath, “I’m still untouched, dammit, Blake.”

He swallows a few times and looks around us before he finally meets my gaze. “I’m presuming you have a name this time?”

“Which I’m not giving to you until I know you aren’t going to ruin anything for me. This is important to me. He’s important to me. Please don’t ruin it and please don’t hurt me,” I beg.

We sit in silence, watching each other. He’s angry, but I also see concern behind his lids. I nearly blow with my own temper when he casually asks, “Why hide this?”