My Brother's Best Man

I try to forget Becca – my woman – is Alex’s sister.

I try to forget we’re in Alex’s apartment.

Becca lets out a shaking breath as she steps away. “My phone just vibrated. I bet it’s Mom and Dad.”

“Is that what you were going to tell me?” I ask. “About the crush?”

Her eyes widen. She nods, as though she’s going to lie, but then the nod becomes a shaking of her head halfway through.

“No,” she says after a pause. “But I have to go.”

“You clearly wanted to tell me,” I say fiercely. “I won’t force you. But….”

“I’m a virgin, Ben.”

She turns before I have a chance to say anything.

Before I can respond – before I can even start to respond – she’s stalking down the hallway. I open my mouth to call after her, but she’s moving too quickly.

The door slams.

I snap into action, striding to the door, throwing it open to find her already in the elevator. She’s hammering the button like she thinks I’m going to chase her and hurt her in some way.

Maybe she thinks I’m going to mock her. Maybe she thinks I’m that sort of monster. She doesn’t understand. If I ever act like a monster, it will only be to keep her safe, to keep our family safe. I’d never hurt her.

I jog over to the elevator.

“Please,” she says, when I’m about to stick my arm in the door. “Don’t follow me. I can’t…I shouldn’t have said that. I feel like I’m going to freaking cry if you come in here with me.”

There’s no reason to cry, I almost say, but then I stop myself. She doesn’t need me telling her how to feel.

“I don’t care,” I say instead, quickly.

It’s more than not caring.

My cock is somehow harder than it was when we were kissing, pushing against my pants, my balls swollen, and my shaft alight with the claim-driven sensation.

She’s a virgin, which means she really is mine, completely, forever. Nobody else is ever going to touch her.

“Really?” she whispers.

Before I can answer, the doors close, shutting her away.

I bite down on a curse, hating the fact that we had to rush our meeting, hating the fact she’s flying back to England, hating that I’ll need to wait two months to see her…and that’s if I see her when she returns.

I need to remember Alex.

But she’s a virgin, untouched, mine.

She’s waiting for me to claim her.

Nobody else ever gets to touch her, to even fucking look at her in a way I don’t like.

If it wasn’t for Alex, I’d rush down there right now, take the steps three at a time and then sprint into the lobby, yelling at her to stop. But I can’t, not with her parents there.

Alex would find out.

It would end everything.

Instead, I turn and slowly walk back up the hallway, opening and closing my hands into fists, wishing life wasn’t so damn complicated.