Fractured Freedom: A Brother’s Best Friend Second Chance Romance (Tarnished Empire)
Fractured Freedom: Chapter 10

Dante

We’d only been near one another for a few days, yet already the smell of her was fucking with my head.

I rubbed a temple as I got two guys stationed on staircases of the hotel that very next morning just in case.

I’d left her alone all night, which was more than enough leniency. In my mind, she should have been in witness protection. I wasn’t putting Delilah in any unnecessary danger. I called Cade to watch the security cameras so no threat would go under the radar. “Make sure no one suspicious is down our hallway.”

“I’m not watching a fucking camera for hours, man,” he said it like it was above him.

“You watch a damn screen all day while you fiddle on computers. What’s the difference?”

“Fuck off.” He knew he didn’t have to dignify my question with an answer. “I’m waiting on this cruise ship to set sail so I can see what guys leave on it. I got other shit to do. Call someone else.”

“I don’t trust anyone else,” I griped into the phone as I heated some water on the stove.

“Man, unless this girl is your girl, I’m not spending this much damn time on her. She’s not Izzy. There’s barely a threat—”

“Any threat is a problem.” I wouldn’t have Delilah exposed to anything I did, ever.

“Why? Izzy’s threatened daily.”

“Izzy signed up for this job, dumbass. She’s trained. I’m not working unless I know she’s safe.”

“So, she’s your girl, then?”

“Fuck off. She’s my best friend’s kid sister.”

“She’s a hot piece of ass, isn’t she? She hotter than Izzy?”

“Say it again and I won’t be working on torturing anyone but you.”

He laughed like he enjoyed all this. Cade hid behind the screens and coding. He didn’t let many people into his world, and most who knew him just a little thought he was a bit off. Yet, I knew he’d gone to great measures to make sure his now sister-in-law and brother ended up together. There was a soft spot for love in the man that he didn’t want anyone to see.

“I’m going to enjoy seeing you get pussy-whipped, man,” he said.

I didn’t have time to argue with him, because my cell lit up with Dom’s name flashing on the screen.

“Shit,” I grumbled. Delilah was up. I’d heard her moving around and then talking with someone. It meant my best friend knew I was here, and I was going to have a hell of a time explaining why to him. “Do as I say, Cade. I’ll talk to you later.”

I switched over and didn’t even start with a hello. “Before you say a word, you know I’m special ops here and your mom told my mom. It didn’t take much else.” I poured some of the hot water from the stove into the manual pour over coffee maker I’d bought. It was only right to drink Hacienda San Pedro coffee that way. It was some of the best in Puerto Rico. After the hurricanes there, I was happy to be able to replace some.

“Before I say a word? What the hell do you think I’m going to say?”

That I was fucking around with his baby sister.

We sat in silence because I wasn’t admitting that. Ever.

Then he sighed. “I’m calling to say thank you.” He emphasized the word, and it made me feel like a pile of shit right away. “I heard Ma talking to Lilah. Jesus, I almost flew down there today to try to work something out.”

“We got it under control.”

“She okay? She look shaken up or anything?”

“Nah. She’ll be fine. I’m going to be here for a while, so I’ll be able to check in on her.” I didn’t tell them I’d moved her right next to my hotel room. I wasn’t even sure Delilah knew there was just a wall separating us.

Which was probably for the best.

“Alright. Good.” I heard his breath of relief over the phone. “I’m happy you’re looking out for her. She’s more of a kid sister than Izzy, you know? And Izzy needs to be in jail long enough to realize the consequences of her actions.”

“Izzy’s probably just going through a rough time.” God, they gave her hell, and she took the beatings in stride because she wanted this mission to play out.

“You always had a soft spot for her, Dante. Probably too soft.”

“Fuck you,” I grumbled. Dom was way too protective of both his sisters, and I’d already gotten one fist to the face after taking Izzy on a date.

“We can’t keep giving her passes. She got Lilah locked up this time.” I heard him sigh, and the turmoil in his voice was palpable.

I ignored it, though. My job was to ignore the pain and trek forward at any cost. “Delilah’s fine.”

“How long you there for? I’m going to fly down in a few weeks. Mom and Dad are working on bail money for Izzy but are researching rehab facilities first. I think she needs time there.”

I winced at that, but it was what Izzy and I were banking on. She would build her name in prison, dig out more intel on the drugs being smuggled, and then we’d replace enough evidence on the boats Cade was watching to hopefully bust a cruise ship or two.

“I’ll be here.”

“So, you and Lilah are good?” He asked the last question with a bit more caution. Izzy was one thing—I’d gotten a fist for that. I’d get him trying to kill me for Delilah.

With Delilah, no one was good enough.

“We’re fine, man.”

“Nothing going on there?” His voice was low like he wasn’t sure he should have asked the question.

“What the hell does that mean?” I didn’t have a right to be offended, but I still was.

“I got to ask. I know she’s like family to you too, but she’s still my little sister.”

“What if there was?”

Silence stretched over the line before he ground out, “There better not be, asshole. You might be military, but I’ll still kill you.”

“You know I’d take care of her.”

“Do I need to get on a plane right the fuck now? What the fuck are you talking about?”

I didn’t know what I was talking about. Didn’t know why I even pushed the idea. “Nothing. Nothing’s going on.” The lie slid out faster than I would have liked. Truth was, there was always something between me and Delilah, even before I slept with her. Maybe it was the fact that we all put her on a pedestal and, in the dark of the night where my thoughts ran wild, I wanted to drag her off it. Or maybe it was because she looked at me like she didn’t want to be up there in the first place. She’d been locked up there for ages, always wanting to come down and explore. For far too long, I’d ignored it. Until she took the leap down from the pedestal herself.

Now, I’d had a taste and I couldn’t seem to forget about it.

“Just keep it that way, Dante. You got a world full of women. My baby sister isn’t one of them.”

“You’re on some shit today,” I countered and then changed the subject. “Go out and have a drink. You got a world full of women too.”

That had him laughing, and his concern was forgotten.

So easily was a mind distracted. I wished I could distract my own enough to not think about the woman on the other side of the wall. She may not have known that I was just a room over, but I’d made sure I was. I needed to keep her safe.

I went on to take a shower, one that was cold enough to freeze my balls off. Didn’t stop me from gripping my cock and thinking about the blush that rose up over her tits and cheeks when I’d said that her pussy might still taste as good as I remembered.

“Fuck.” I jacked my hand up and down, over and over again. I told myself she couldn’t taste as good. I was putting her on that pedestal again where no woman belonged.

Still, she’d been sweet and salty and so damn wet for me. I remembered how the smell of her sex had mixed with that coconut oil she used as lotion and that floral shampoo of hers. She still smelled the same, and it made me wonder if her pussy did too. It’d been years, but I still wanted her. If only for the pure goal of proving she wasn’t as delectable as I remembered.

Yet, as I fucked my hand harder, the head of my cock reddening as I got to the edge of reason, I pictured her dark hair and how it had grown out long in waves that curled around her curves in all the right places. How she’d gasped when I’d told her my dick was always happy in her pussy. How her lips had parted so wide that I could imagine them around my cock.

“Delilah,” I groaned as I came harder than I had in a long time. Women weren’t doing the trick the way Dom had said. Unfortunately, his baby sister was it for me.

I had all the women in the world, but the one I wanted was off-limits, and that just made me want to cross the line even more.