“Please, Jesse. You promised. You promised you would take care of me.” She went up on her toes and let her mouth rest against the outer edge of his ear. “I could take care of you, too.”
“That’s disgusting,” Ten muttered under his breath.
But Jesse pulled her around so she was cradled against his chest. He stared down at her and she reached up to wipe the blood off his face. “Phoebe?”
God, she was going to miss him. “Yes.”
It took him a moment, as though he needed time to move from one place to another, one time to another. “I’m sorry.”
She nodded, enjoying the closeness. It felt good to be in his arms as herself, with no untruths between them. “I am, too.”
“Are you all right?” Taggart asked.
Jesse’s arm tightened around her. His eyes found the floor and she could practically feel the shame rolling off him. “I’m here. I’m sorry. I forgot for a minute.”
“You’re fine.” She understood PTSD. Maybe not in the way Jesse experienced it, but she remembered how even after she moved into the big house in Virginia, she’d slept with a knife under her pillow, and she’d almost taken Jamie’s head off one night. “Ten deserved it.”
Her brother stepped forward, holding his left arm. “He bit me. The little fucker bit me. And he told me how much you liked him fucking you. He’s a liar because I know damn well you wouldn’t sleep with him.”
She felt her whole body go hot and she tried to step away from Jesse. She didn’t want Ten to know how close she’d come to betraying Jamie. He wouldn’t understand. She didn’t understand. She’d promised to be faithful to him and Jesse shook that vow.
“Did she call Ten her brother?” Charlotte asked. “I thought Ten was alone.”
Taggart stepped up, handing Charlotte his SIG. “Are we done with the preliminaries? We can get to the explanations later.”
Ten’s body seemed to swell as he faced off. “Yeah, we’re ready to get on to the main event, son.”
“Oh, I am so not your son, but I’ll show you that I’m definitely your better, you son of a bitch. You think you can walk into my house?”
“You threatened to kill my sister,” Ten growled. “You think I didn’t know what you meant with that phone call?”
“Does it matter that he didn’t hurt me?” Phoebe tried.
Charlotte moved in. “Nope. I think we need to let those two hash this out like men, and by men I mean ridiculously immature boys. Come on. I think we could all use a drink after this. Well, I can’t, but I can find the Scotch for the rest of you.” She winced as Li started things off by getting to his feet and immediately punching Case Taggart.
“Get off me, you little pervert,” Erin said, elbowing Theo. “Do you always get a hard-on when you attack a woman?”
“Only you,” Theo admitted as he tried to offer Erin a hand.
She took the proffered hand and used it to toss Theo on his back and begin a fight of her own.
Jesse stepped back, shrinking away as if he was dirty or something. She couldn’t handle that. She would have to leave him soon, but she wasn’t going to leave him like that.
Ian threw the first punch, but Ten was way meaner than he looked. He ducked hard and kicked Taggart right in the balls.
Charlotte groaned and put a hand over her belly. “I am really glad I already got that man’s sperm. It looks like this baby might be an only. Oh, jeez. I hope Ten froze his swimmers. Ian did not take that well. I think he just punched Ten’s balls back inside his body. That was a good uppercut. You get him, baby.” She sighed. “Who wants cake?”
Mike Malone looked away from the fights going on around him. “Cake?”
Charlotte’s eyes narrowed. “Fine, but I’m going to poison yours. I’m joking. It looks like my party is fucked. We should eat what we can. Sean, are you all right?”
Sean had joined his brother, leaping into the fray.
“And there go the appetizers.” Charlotte was surprisingly calm for a woman whose husband and employees were currently engaged in battle. “Jesse, come on. We need to get you cleaned up.”
“I’ll take care of it.” She wanted to be the one who made sure he was all right. It was all she could give him at this point.
Jesse pulled away, stepping around her. “I have a clean shirt in my office. I’ll be back.”
She watched as he walked away, his every movement stiff.
Charlotte eyed her as the room got worse. Jake Dean was getting into it with Deke and Alex and Adam walked in, carrying bags of groceries. They both stared at the chaos around them. Alex looked around and the minute his eyes lit on Ten, he was working his way toward the middle of the massive fight.
Adam sighed and joined Charlotte. “I’ll finish the bruschetta. It looks like Sean is having fun. Give me a couple of minutes. Simon, any way I can get you to help?”
“Well, I’m not getting involved in that. I just had this suit pressed,” Simon said, taking the bag from Adam.