Collin turns to me. “You think I’m scared of this, this,” he snorts, “thug in a suit?”
Tobias’s laugh is maniacal. “I can see why you like him. He’s funny.”
“This stops now!” I move to wedge myself between them and know the effort is futile.
“I was just leaving,” Tobias says, stepping away, his gaze darting to me and zeroing in on the ring resting on my finger. “It’s your turn, Cecelia.”
My turn, my turn to keep up my end of the bargain. He wants to leave it like this?
Hell no.
“We aren’t done talking,” I snap before turning to Collin. “Please wait for me inside.”
“No need, she’s all yours,” Tobias says, twisting the knife in.
Collin rips his gaze from me, barking after Tobias who is barely a step past him. “Make sure you recite that to yourself on the way home. Or better yet, write it down,” Collin snaps. “That is if you can spell.”
“Tobias, no,” I groan in anguish just as Collin yelps when Tobias pins him to the snow-covered lounger. He lifts a clenched fist to his line of vision before playfully popping Collin on the nose with his knuckles. Bright red blood starts trickling out of his nose as I rip at Tobias’s shoulders. In one cruel move, Tobias has completely emasculated Collin.
Tobias shrugs me off easily as he leans down just an inch away from Collin’s gushing nose. “How does it feel to know that when you were fucking your future wife, she was thinking of me?”
Collin’s eyes bulge and water as he looks at me over Tobias’s shoulder, utter devastation etching his face.
Enraged, I pound on Tobias back. “Damn you, let him go!”
“I’ve got that thug dick she craves,” he sneers, sliding his crotch along Collin’s stomach as I rip at his shoulders as he leans in. “Can you make her come with just a finger and a whisper in her ear? I mastered that.” Tobias glances over at me, his eyes lit before turning back to Collin, hauling him off the lounger and righting him to stand before straightening his jacket. “If you needed some tips, all you had to do was ask.”
Tobias’s eyes go dim, all traces of humor gone. He brushes Collin’s shoulders as Collin glares at him, nose gushing. “Don’t insult me again, pretty boy, or playtime will be over.” Tobias releases him and turns to me. “Take him home, and while you’re at it, stay there.”
“You’re such a horrible bastard.”
“I never claimed to be a good man,” he says, taking long strides toward the gate. “Not once. That’s part of the story you made up in your head.” He smashes out of the gate, and I call after him.
“I’m not leaving!”
“Yes, you are.”
As if out of thin air, a car pulls up and Tobias slips in the passenger side. They tear off out of the driveway through the dense and heavily falling snow, disappearing out of sight.
I turn back to Collin, who glares at me from where he stands, holding his bloodied nose with his hand.
Fuck.
I bite my lip to fight a smile as I slide another tampon into Collin’s nose. He’s the polar opposite of Tobias with light, feather-soft blond hair, deep blue eyes, a runner’s build, lean and muscular, but absolutely no match for the blunt force he just thrust himself up against.
And I love him all the more for it. He’d charmed his way into my life with his British quirks and devoted friendship before he smuggled his way into my heart. And I do love him for his patience, for his caring, for his understanding, for the man he his, and the friend he’s been.
And in return, I’ve been selfish.
He looks up to me utterly baffled, his English accent muffled by the tampons clogging his nose. “This is not funny.”
“I know it’s not. I’m sorry you’re hurt, but I told you not to mess with him.”
“Who in the hell is he?”
“More than a thug in a suit, but man,” I can’t help my smile, “am I glad you said it.”
“This is the man you still claim to love?”
I slowly nod, knowing the truth is hurting him.
“Why?”
“I wish I knew. I would stop it in a heartbeat and walk down the aisle to you if I could. But I don’t deserve you. And I never did.”
“He didn’t fight for you, not at all. He told you to leave.”
He killed for me, made deals with his enemy for me. Protected me at the cost of losing his brother, all the while denying himself his own happiness.