Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 22

Brunch was a loud raucous affair and it was all because of a pint-sized tyrant who was hell bent on making her mother out to be a liar. Jolie’s insistence Pia was quiet and subdued while they were in public was incredibly wrong as the child came to life with three strong men paying her all the attention in the world.

She was currently standing on a chair, syrup smeared down her right cheek and a glob of ketchup at the corner of her mouth, with her head leaned back, holding her belly, laughing loudly. Elio was holding the back of her chair so she didn’t tip it backwards in her exuberance.

The three men were all grinning at her behaviour, encouraging her by telling her silly jokes only a five-year-old would laugh at. Jolie considered one more knock-knock joke and she would be forgoing her own beliefs against violence and would be knock-knocking one of them into next week.

Her head was pounding and her nerves were frayed. In the car on the drive to the restaurant, Elio had nudged Brix and Brix had laughed at him. Then like the magician straight from the Vegas strip he had said she was, Brix had plucked a ring out of thin air and had slid it onto Jolie’s ring finger. It was huge and beautiful and he’d tenderly kissed her temple and told her she never had to fear anything ever again. Pia had seen the interaction and had asked why Mommy got a ring and she didn’t and Brix had promised to get her something but this was a special ring for daddies who were going to marry mommies. Pia remembered then about the marriage and started shrieking about being a flower girl.

Now she was holding court in the restaurant, treating Brix, Malik, and Elio as her personal jesters, and telling them she was the princess and mommy was the queen and they had to do what they were told. The men were happy to play along and then she’d commanded them to tell her jokes.

Jolie on the other hand felt the weight of the ring as if it were made of the heaviest substance on earth and it were shackled to her throat. When they’d arrived to the restaurant Brix had made a point to ensure the owner of the establishment knew they were celebrating an engagement and mimosas were offered to the table in congratulations. What she hadn’t been prepared for was Brix doing a full-on performance of them as a loving, doting couple. He even made a point to comment about her snoring in front of a waiter, insinuating they slept together. Well, they had but not in the way he was making it out to be and she knew the restaurant staff were gossiping and she was pretty sure at least one server had taken a photo of them with her camera.

What surprised her most was how relaxed and casual he was being when she was very aware of how much he usually valued his privacy. He had to have seen the girl take the photograph and yet he wasn’t putting an end to it.

“What are you pouting for?” He leaned closer to her and stared into her eyes. “You seem irritated and the rest of us are having a good time.”

“I feel like a performer in a one-act play and the staff in here are captive audiences,” she spoke lowly keeping her eyes fixed on his. “One of the servers took our photo and I don’t like it.”

He frowned, “who?”

“Tall blonde with the lips full of fillers. She is gorgeous. You can’t miss her. She also doesn’t put her camera down and she has taken more than one selfie where you and Malik are in the background and multiple of you and me. I haven’t seen a single one of where she could get a shot of Pia but if she’s putting them on social media, I don’t want my kid’s face plastered everywhere.” She chewed her bottom l*p. “It’s what we’re here for right? You’re making sure we make the news so the guy who wants me dead knows not to come for me?”

He dragged her chair closer and put his forehead against hers, “you are a very observant and astute woman and I am thoroughly and once again, impressed with you. Yes, you and I are here to announce our engagement and I had a specific reporter nearby to capture the announcement but it will only be released to the press at ten tomorrow morning. I gave the photographer an exclusive.” At her grimace he lifted her chin softly, “however, I did not permit any of the staff to take our photos and in fact, a very distinct warning was given out before we arrived. She will be dealt with and I promise Pia’s and your face will not be plastered in any unflattering light. Trust me, Jolie. You must trust me.”

She squirmed at the very intimate position between them, knowing very well to every other patron of the restaurant, it appeared a sweet loving conversation between a newly engaged couple but Brix’s proximity to her was making her heart race in the silliest of ways. She strangely wanted to get closer as her eyes were focused downward on his mouth as he spoke quietly to her.

Jolie jumped when Pia’s little face got right between them as she climbed on her mother’s chair.

“Mommy are you going to k**s Daddy?” she squealed with delight, her dark eyes going back and forth between the two adults.

“No,” Jolie started to pull away as a spark of mischief matching the one on her daughter’s face was echoed in Brix’s. “No.” She eyed him with a warning glare.

“Let’s see if the server takes a photo,” he dared her. “Chicken?”

She knew he knew how much she disliked being called a coward.

“Mommy,” Pia was gripping her shoulder, “k**s him.”

Jolie turned her head to her daughter, “why?”

Pia’s eyes were full of excitement and her smile was huge, “because it’s all about love!”

“What is all about love?” she frowned in confusion at her daughter. “What are you talking about?”

“Opal told me before when we watched the movie and the boy and the girl kissed it was because they loved each other and were going to get married and only people who were in love get married.”

Damn Opal and her Hallmark movies.

“You are going to marry Daddy so you have to k**s him because it’s love.”

“Yeah, mommy,” Malik’s voice cut in behind them and she turned her head to see he was almost as close as Pia. Elio was leaned back laughing at her predicament.

“I am not kissing anyone,” she hissed around the table.

“She thinks if she k****s me once, she won’t be able to stop because she’ll like it too much,” Brix mock whispered in Italian to the group sending Pia into gales of laughter. He pursed his lips at her making kissy noises, teasing her.

“I will not!”

“Will too. You will be craving it,” he wiggled his eyebrows at her.

Impulsively, she grabbed Brix by the cheeks and pressed her lips to his taking him by surprise. Ignoring Pia’s shriek of delight, she was about to pull backwards when Brix cupped the back of her head and held her there, sliding his lips across hers, tilting her head slightly so he could k**s her deeper. His mouth slipped back and forth across hers and she was stunned by the feelings it was creating in her low belly. She realized she had been kissing him back as hungrily as he had kissed her and when he pulled away, she was panting and breathless. His dark eyes were smoky and if she were to consider it, he appeared as surprised by the heat of their k**s as she was. He had definitely felt it based on the way he was staring at her. Her chest rose and fell as his hand slowly fell away from the nape of her neck.

She looked away as Pia clapped happily.

Malik leaned sideways, “my turn.”

Elio smacked him in the back of the head while Brix suddenly rose from the table and walked towards the men’s room.

Jolie gave Malik a sideways glance, “he’s angry I did that.” Her heart was in her throat as she avoided looking in the direction of where the man had strolled off. The first man she had willingly kissed in years and he was storming away furious.

“I don’t think so, sweetheart,” Malik chuckled. “Pretty sure he went to take care of business,” he made a rude and obscene gesture with his hand under the table which made Jolie gasp and Elio curse at him. “You two proved a point I have been saying since Friday. You two,” he waved between her and the chair which had been vacated, “are going to get on like a house on fire. Can’t wait to have more nieces and nephews.”

“Not funny,” she sputtered. “I am not his type. How many times does he have to say it,” she glared at Malik. “Now I’ve made things weird and uncomfortable by playing this silly game.”

“Weird and uncomfortable as in you want your brother-in-law s***h fiancé to f**k you mad?” Malik whispered hotly in her ear.

She frantically slapped at him as he roared with laughter at his joke.

“It’s not funny Malik. He’s angry with me. He tore off.” Panic was starting to fill her chest. Would he punish her when they were back in the hotel? Deep in her heart she knew he’d never physically harm her but would he yell at her or berate her for making such a scene?

“He’s not angry,” Malik continued his rant in her ear, “he’s horny and confused. Just like you.”

“Malik, whatever inappropriate s**t you’re spouting in my fiancée’s ears, please stop. She looks ready to run screaming in terror.” Brix sat back down beside Jolie, his thigh touching hers and his arm over the back of her chair.

“I’m sorry,” she whispered to him feeling oddly on the verge of tears.

“For what, Jolie?” his fingers near her shoulder stroking her softly. “You did nothing wrong.”

“I made it weird.”

He laughed lowly and hugged her softly to his side, “it was already weird. You’re marrying the man you’ve been running from for six years. Did you think it wasn’t going to be weird?”

She sighed at his words, “you were angry and stalked off.”

“No. I was erect and had to go into the bathroom and imagine my sixth-grade principal naked to get my boner under control,” he corrected whispering in her ear.

“Brix!” she gasped at his words.

He chuckled, “breathe Jolie.”

“You keep telling me to breathe but damn could you stop doing and saying things to make me freak out?” She was really understanding how he and Malik were best friends. They were definitely on the same maturity level.

“I could but where’s the fun in it?” he teased her. He kept her tucked to his side chuckling when Pia started dancing on her chair to a tune Elio whistled for her.

“You’re not angry with me?” she asked suddenly.

He shook his head, “no. Not even in the slightest. I pushed you there. Stop overthinking it. It was a great k**s.”

She twiddled her fingers on her lap and she was lost in her thoughts with Brix still stroking her shoulder, Malik watching her intently and Pia and Elio in their own little bubble. She was aware her entire life had changed in the last few days and while her daughter was embracing it, she felt resentment at how this trio of men were usurping her life but more importantly, she was experiencing a fear she wasn’t expecting to feel. Fear of having her heart broken.

Brix was taking care of her and Pia because he was being ordered to do so by Elio. It was about keeping her safe from Juan and any other enemies Val might have created for her. Yet, she was far more comfortable with Brix and his counterparts than any other man she had ever met in her life. Despite the fear she’d had on Friday night, by Saturday she was very much aware of him. Waking up next to him this morning with Malik and Pia in the mix had felt very much like they were a bubble of a family and it had felt right and good.

More importantly, she was now very much aware of him as a man after the way he had gotten out of the bed in his boxers as if unbothered. She had made it a hundred-fold worse by kissing him and having him k**s her back. She could still taste the coffee he’d been drinking on her lips and she knew it was his because she hadn’t coffee yet.

She knew he had been joking about his need to visit the bathroom but it dawned on her she wanted him to be as affected as she was. She shot a furtive glance in his direction as he warned Pia not to fall off the chair.

“Jolie,” Malik interrupted her thoughts. “When we get back to the room, I’m going to bring in a couple of the guys I will be assigning to you for protection. I want to introduce you to them and I want them to go over your normal routine with them. From the moment you and Pia wake up on a Monday morning until bedtime on Sunday.”

She nodded and felt Brix squeeze her shoulder when her face must have depicted her reluctance to have men following her everywhere.

“Don’t worry, Jolie. I will be there as well. If any of the men there make you feel uncomfortable or worried, then we will switch them out.”

Before she could respond, a couple of servers came to clear their table and one of them was the blonde. Malik reached into the woman’s apron and took her phone. Jolie made huge eyes at him as he gripped the woman’s hand. He had not missed it after all. It was why Brix wasn’t paying much attention. Malik was all over it.

“Unlock it.”

The woman blanched and Pia stopped bouncing on her chair and watched what was happening as transfixed as Jolie was.

“It’s my personal phone.”

“Which has photographs of my brother, his fiancée, and his daughter. Open the phone now or you and I will go to the kitchen and have a discussion about the violation of our privacy.”

“But –”

“Open the phone,” he spoke quietly but his voice was commanding and Jolie was seeing for the first time, why it was Malik was Brix’s head of security.

She shivered as Brix leaned back nonchalantly watching the exchange, opening his arm sideways as Pia moved to him for comfort.

The woman unlocked the phone and Malik went through it, deleting a collection of photographs and then he held up a social media app. “You already posted a photo? Did you not get the notification from your manager not to use your phone or post anything to social media?”

The woman swallowed, “I’m sorry.”

“You aren’t but you will be,” Malik looked to Pia and winked earning him a smile from her nervous expression. “Ms. Pia, Uncle Malik is going to go to the kitchen for your dessert. Would you like ice cream or pudding?”

“Cookies!” she said ignoring his suggestions.

“Cookies it is,” he had his hand still holding the phone as he rose from the seat, “move,” he spoke bluntly to the woman and waved to two men near the door. He paused to press a k**s to Jolie’s head, whispering in her ear, “it’s okay, Jolie. Remember what we said? We don’t hurt women and children. Ever. I’m simply going to educate her on f*****g with our family. Okay?”

Nodding, she felt a wave of relief at his words and Brix chuckled as Malik whistled carelessly while he escorted the woman back to the kitchen. She looked to Brix who was cuddling Pia and shaking his head at her. “What is so funny?”

Instead of answering he simply yanked her closer to him and hugged her tight to his chest next to Pia who giggled happily with the small group hug. Confused at his behaviour, she opted not to pull away and rested her head against his shoulder the way Pia was. It was all so odd.