Her Best Men

“What?” she asked.

“Yeah. All those fights you always overheard with my parents? They were pissed because I wouldn’t go out with the women they tried to set me up with. See, my parents don’t control my future wealth. My grandmother does. The trust fund I plan to live off doesn’t get released to me until I marry someone my grandmother approves of. You met her by accident when she came to visit me in college and she fucking loved you.”

I waited for Kyra’s response but, when none came, I could feel my veins bulging from my neck.

“I’ve lived on an allowance for way too long because of you,” Landon said. “I was willing to let you ride for the rest of your life, never having to do a damn fucking thing, and all you did was spit it back in my face. After all the compromises I made for you. And now, because of my time you’ve wasted, I’ll have to find some other idiot woman my grandmother likes for me to marry.”

I’d heard just about enough.

I stepped around the corner, my fists balled up at my side as I strode toward Landon. I walked right up to him and got in his face, ignoring where Kyra was at that very moment. All I wanted to do was bust this asshole’s teeth in and the moment I got in his face, I saw him flinch.

That good-for-nothing douchebag needed to be scared because I was about to kill him.

But Kyra’s little voice broke through all the walls of red clouding my vision. Her cold hand wrapped around my shaking wrist, settling the blood that was rushing through my veins. I felt her hand slide up my arm, settling my body back onto the ground

while her soothing touch helped to root me back into reality.

“Get out,” I said.

Landon just grinned.

I raised my fist back to hit him and Kyra jumped in front of me. She placed her hands on my chest and pushed, trying to get me to back away from him. I wanted to curb-stomp that asshole’s face into the ground until he bled but the way Kyra desperately wanted me to stop had me in a chokehold all its own.

“I don’t know where the hell you get off calling Kyra anything close to dumb, but I think you might wanna look in the mirror,” I said. “A pathetic little boy like you could never satisfy a woman like Kyra.”

Landon started laughing again and, for a split second, I actually debated running past Kyra and slugging him until I broke his fucking jaw.

“Kyra’s just an idiot who wants to be internet famous,” Landon said. “It’s a pathetic goal, really.”

I took another step toward him but Kyra pressed her entire body into mine. She wrapped her arms around my waist and pressed her face into my neck and the warmth of her touch stopped me in my tracks. Instantly, my arms were around her, turning her around so I could put a barrier between her and this disgusting creature.

“You can have her,” Landon said as he walked by us. “She’s a terrible lay anyway.”

“For the love of hell, Kyra, let me go after him,” I said.

“No, he’ll get you thrown in jail without a second thought,” she said into my chest.

“I could beat him to a point where he couldn’t talk to the police. Couldn’t identify me to anyone.”

But the moment she sniffled into my body, I redirected my energy. I crooked my finger underneath her chin and pulled her watery gaze up to mine and I could see the hurt swimming around in them. The pain and the suffering. The emptiness and the betrayal.

She deserved better than this. So much better than all of this.

“Please don’t make me spend Christmas visiting you in jail when my father’s already in the hospital,” she said.

“No,” I said as I pulled her back into me. “I won’t make you do that. I promise.”

She cried into my chest while I drew in deep breaths, trying to settle my anger while my hands ran up and down her back. I pressed kiss after kiss into her hair, feeling my blood pressure settling with every whiff of her lavender conditioner that fled up my nose.

“You are beautiful, and magical, and the strongest woman I know,” I said. “Assholes like Landon will never realize what a true treasure you are. But I do. I’ve always known. And nothing that will ever happen and no decision you will ever make will change that.”

She lifted her reddened eyes back up to mine before a small smile broke out across her face.

“Thank you, Ethan,” she said.

“No thanks needed for the truth, Tink.”

I watched her face approach mine before our lips collided in a sweet little kiss. It wasn’t desperate and it wasn’t heated. It wasn’t rushed and it wasn’t begged for. It was natural and special and I could feel the respect and trust we had for one another dancing between the gaps when we came up for air.