Innocence Defied (New York) (14 page)

His pathetic attempt at humor worked a small smile from her and Gage led her from the atrium the same way Brice had led Terryn. Even though it had been a joke, Gage did spare a moment to wonder if Brice had his gun on him. The man
was
seriously pissed after all.
 

Chapter Twenty

By the time Gage walked into the living room where Brice and Terryn waited, Brice had pulled himself together and was halfway through a shot of whiskey.

“Still can’t think of a thing to say to you, Brice.” Gage stood in the middle of the room and faced him head-on. He could think of no excuse because he knew there was none. Curiously, though, he also felt no need to apologize. It probably made him wrong as hell but to apologize was to say he regretted being with Zoe and would change it if he could, and that was just not the truth. He didn’t regret a single moment they’d had, nor would he change any of it. If that made him wrong then, there wasn’t a damn thing he could do about that.

“I’ve known you since we were kids,” Brice said, looking at him with contempt. “You were there the day she was brought home from the hospital. How could you do this?”

His question was full of anguish and Gage felt his heart break a little. Not a man in the world he loved more than the one standing before him.

Zoe walked in just then and he realized that his world had been upside down and inside out since the moment he’d picked her up at the airport.

Brice looked at her and Gage saw his expression tighten when he noticed the look on her face.

“Christ, what a mess,” her brother exclaimed and set his drink down before reaching out and wrapping her in his arms. “Oops, baby,” he said, kissing her on the top of her head as she burrowed in and hugged him. “I’m sorry if I hurt you up there. I’m still pissed and you are in serious trouble but you know I love you, right?” He waited until she nodded then said, “Good. I do, I love you ‘til I’m stupid with it and if you doubted that for even a second up there, I don’t think I could live with myself.”

“I’m sorry, Brice.” Zoe broke with a sob. “I’m so sorry I did this. It’s all my fault. Please don’t be mad anymore. Please?” She pulled back and looked up at her brother with tears pouring down her face, and Gage saw Brice flinch from the impact. “I did this. It was all me. I planned all along to get to stay here so Gage and I could be alone. I have been in love with him so long and I just couldn’t wait anymore. Please don’t be mad at him.” She turned those tear-flooded blue eyes toward him and Gage was as helpless against their impact as Brice had been.

“I love him. I know you think it’s a crush and I’ll grow out of it but you’re wrong. It’s real.” She looked back at her brother. “It’s as real as what you feel for Terryn and what Cade and Trevor feel for Riley. And you should know that I’m not sorry we were together, I’m only sorry that us being together hurts you so much.”

“Oops.” Brice’s hands rubbed up and down Zoe’s arms as if to ward off a chill. “Sweetheart, you are so young. Don’t”—he interjected when she opened her mouth to argue—”let me finish. You
are
young and whether you want to be or not doesn’t change a damn thing. You are also innocent. You can’t possibly be prepared for a relationship like what Gage will draw you into. It’s impossible.” He gripped hard on her arms and said, “Now, go with Terryn and pack. You are coming home with us.” She shook her head no and Brice added, “Don’t argue right now. Just go with Terryn. Gage and I have to talk and we’ll figure out the rest later, all right?”

Gage saw the reluctance in her as she nodded and followed Terryn out of the room. He could have reassured her she had nothing to worry about. She wasn’t going anywhere. He was confused about a lot of things when it came to his relationship with Zoe, but there was one thing he was crystal clear on. And that was she was his and there wasn’t a force on this planet that was taking her away from him.

“I’ve been intimate with you.” Brice looked at him like he was looking at a stranger. “I’ve shared my
wife
with you. I’d like to think I know you better than any other person on this planet.” He stepped close until they were toe-to-toe, and Gage saw deadly resolve in his friend’s face. “I’m only going to ask you this once and I want you to know that I’ll know if you are lying to me.” He paused as though bracing himself for the answer. “When did this start?”

It took a full thirty seconds to realize Brice had braced himself for the worst. The shock and revulsion that coursed through Gage when it dawned on him what Brice had feared was bone-deep. “God, man!” he spat, horrified at the idea. “A week ago. Christ. What do you think I am? A monster?” He ran a shaky hand through his hair. “Holy fuckin’ hell. A week ago, I swear to God.” Just the fact that Brice had asked broke something inside him and he stumbled back as though he’d taken a blow to the midsection.

In a way, he had.

“I believe you,” Brice said and there was a glimmer of his friend in his face that hadn’t been there before. “I never believed it was possible but I had to ask.” His hands raised in the same helpless gesture Gage had made in the atrium.

Gage had to give him that. It was a valid question and as much as it made him want to vomit, he knew it was a question that had needed answering.

“A week, Brice, I swear to God. I never even thought of her as anything but a baby until I picked her up from the airport.”

“What a fucking mess,” Brice repeated and turned away to pour another shot. “You want one of these?” he asked and when Gage replied he did, Brice reached for another glass.

“I’m going back out there.” Zoe’s voice was frantic and Terryn had to bodily block the door to keep her in. “I can’t just sit in here, Terryn.” Zoe looked at her sister-in-law and hoped she could trust her to be on her side. “You saw what happened in the upstairs garden. Gage won’t fight back. He’s got some twisted idea in his head that he deserves to be punished for being with me and he’ll let Brice kill him.” The surety that she was right had her reaching for the door again.

“Oops.” Terryn blocked her once more and said, “Brice isn’t going to kill him. Brice is more than your brother. He’s Gage’s best friend and also a cop. They are going to work through this. We just have to give them the room to do it.” She reached out her delicate hands and cupped Zoe’s cheeks with a motherly touch that had tears springing to Zoe’s eyes.

“In the meantime. I have some questions for you myself.” The look on her face was pure affection and Zoe felt tears whelm in reaction. “Are you okay? Do you have any questions? Did he hurt you?”

“No, Terryn,” Zoe answered with exasperation. “Gage’d never hurt me. You know him better than that, don’t you?”

“I thought I knew him better than to ever touch you, period,” Terryn said with a heavy dose of bafflement. “Honey. He is much too old for you and his tastes in the bedroom are way beyond what a girl can handle.” Terryn seemed to realize how that sounded and she held up her hands with a grimace. “I’m not saying this right. It’s just. Just that he’s…well, he’s—”

“A Dom?” Zoe crossed her arms over her chest and lifted a brow. “I know. He told me what he was before we got together and I’ll tell you the same thing I told him.” She reached out to Terryn and held tight to her hands, willing her to understand. “I love him. We are supposed to be together.” Zoe felt a blush heat her cheeks but she managed to maintain eye contact. “When Gage told me that he was a Dom, I had no clue what that meant. So I researched it. And you know what I felt? I felt relief. See, ever since I was like fourteen I was having all these dark and confusing fantasies about Gage and I always felt so guilty about them.” She gripped Terryn’s hands harder, as if she needed more of her attention. “In the research I did, you know what I found out? I found out that all those guilty confusing fantasies are nothing to feel guilty about. Gage is perfect for me, Terryn. He’s perfect and he’s been nothing but patient and gentle and kind. You gotta know that he would never have touched me unless he was sure I was ready.” She stepped back and plopped onto the bed. “I
was
ready. It was time for me to grow up and be what I was born to be.” The look she gave Terryn stopped whatever the other woman had been about to say. “His.”

Terryn came forward and brushed Zoe’s hair from the sides of her face. “Oops, I’ve known you less than a year, but I’ve loved you like a sister from the first second.” She kissed her forehead and then sat next to her with an arm around her shoulders. “Sweetie, I believe you love him. I do. I see it in your face every time you look at him. But honey, a Dom/sub relationship…hell especially a Master/slave relationship like Gage is looking for isn’t a first-love relationship.” She looked at her and now gripped Zoe’s hands. “Can you understand that? Can you try to understand that this type of relationship is for people who have tried other relationships and can therefore make this choice from an experienced perspective?” She paused a moment and then added, “How can you possibly expect to know this is the right lifestyle for you when you have nothing to weigh it against?”

“You love my brother, right?” Zoe asked.

“You know I do,” was the answer.

“Okay, now let’s say you met him first. Before all the men that you dated who weren’t him. Before you had to dredge through the kind of sex that left you wondering if something was wrong with you. And before you had to go through heartaches and all the drama of breakup after breakup.” She stood and faced Terryn as she finished with, “Now, would you have walked away from him just because the timing was off? Or would you have held on to him as tight as you could and thanked your lucky stars that you found him?”

Before Terryn could answer, the door opened and Brice looked at her. “Are you packed?”

“What?” Zoe said, baffled. “Brice. I’m not going anywhere.”

“Yes, Zoe.” He stepped fully into the room, crossed his arms over his chest and faced her. “You are coming with me and that’s final.”

Zoe looked at him with her mouth hanging open in shock. He had always been her hero. She had two other brothers and one sister. She had cousins coming out her ears and a daddy that was larger than life. But none of them, not even her beloved father, was to her what Brice was. He stood over six feet, had thick dark hair and a face that she had secretly thought Superman would have if he were real.

He was the one who let her tag along wherever he went when she was growing up. He was never short with her and whenever someone picked on her or made her cry, it was Brice who came to her rescue. In all her life, he had never let her down and as far as she knew that was true for her to him, as well. There was a part of her—a large part—that wanted to tuck tail and do whatever he told her to.

It was not large enough. “I love you, big brother. I hope you know that, no matter what happens, that will never change.” As she felt tears gather anew, Zoe tried to will them back. It was important Brice see her as an adult making a conscious decision—not a child making an impulsive emotional one.

“You may not believe this but I thought about this choice for years before I took this step. What I feel for Gage hasn’t been a crush since—God, I don’t think it’s ever been one. I love him and being his, belonging to him is the only thing that I want to do with my life.”

“Bullshit.” Brice looked as impressed with her impassioned speech as if she’d just belched. “You’re a kid and you’re more than that, you’re
my
kid sister and I’m not going to stand by and let you shack up with a man more than a decade older than you.” He stalked into the room and finished with, “Now, since you didn’t pack you can send for your things later, because we are leaving.” When Brice reached to grab her arm, Gage’s voice from the doorway stopped him.

“I wouldn’t do that, son.” His voice was deadly soft and the accent was thick with his emotion. “You’ve had your say and you’ve heard us both have ours. Now, it
is
time that y’all be leavin’.” He stepped into the room and moved Zoe behind him. “But y’all will be leavin’ without Zoe.”

When Brice got nose to nose with him, Zoe gripped the back of Gage’s shirt, sure her brother was going to start swinging again. He didn’t, though Zoe could tell it was a close thing.

“You don’t want to do this,
friend
.” Brice spat the word out as though it were rancid in his mouth. “Don’t draw this line in the sand. I
will
cross it and I don’t think you are heartless enough to make her choose between you and her family.” His head cocked to the side and, if possible, his expression got even more hateful. “Or are you?” Then he lifted a hand toward Zoe and leveled her a look that had less venom in it, but not by much. “Oops, I’m not going to tell you again. Let’s go.”

Gage clamped a hand around Brice’s wrist and shoved it away from Zoe. “Bastard.” Zoe couldn’t see Gage’s face, but she’d never heard that tone from him before, and his back was quivering in his rage. “I’m not the one drawin’ lines and makin’ ultimatums. That’s you. That’s all on you.” His hands raked through his hair in frustration. “Christ, man, I’m not doin’ anythin’ to her that you’re not doin’ to yer own wife.”

Both Zoe and Terryn gasped at that, because it caused Brice to launch at Gage with a snarl and the two men locked together like stags locking horns.

“You fuckin’ know me,” Gage panted as the two unyielding forces strained against each other. “No one, no-fuckin’-one on this planet would treat her with more care than I have.”

The two broke away at the same time and Brice turned his back with a frustrated curse.