Chasing His Brother's Bride
Chasing His Brother’s Bride – Chapter 29

Brix walked into the house with Jolie tucked under his arm and knew she was struggling. He and Malik had messed with her head today and it hadn’t been either of their intentions. Yet, he couldn’t lie and say he felt too terribly about it. Jolie had gone from telling them she never had s****l urges to being very aware her libido hadn’t shriveled up and died as she had suspected it had. She wanted them both and it was as tactile as the woman herself.

He was replaceing she was warm and passionate. When her temper was fired up, she was bold and brazen and he relished taming her tongue. He realized after four days it wasn’t he disliked the way she fought him at every turn but how she was holding herself back. Where Val had attempted to destroy her feistiness, he wanted her to fight back. He wanted her to be in his face, telling him off and channeling her passion in all new ways. He didn’t want her to be terrified and scared. He wanted her exploding with all of her emotions.

He knew he was a hard man. An a*****e, as Malik and the guys called him, was never a description too far off the mark. He looked to Malik who had left their side to go down to the basement where his security team were setting up their base of operations in the house. Malik, his best friend, closest confidant and if the other man got his way, the third person in his impending marriage.

He followed the sight of the broad shoulder man until he completely disappeared down the stairs with a shake of his head. Malik had never, not since they were thirteen and he’d kissed him on the mouth on a whim, denied he loved him far more than most friends loved each other. Brix loved him too, but while he appreciated the affection, he had always believed he was not sexually attracted to Malik the same way the man wanted him. In fact, he wasn’t sure Malik truly wanted him sexually. It was an emotional connection they shared. They shared their deepest secrets. He knew things about Malik nobody in the world could ever know. Malik knew the things about Brix which were buried so deep torture with a truth serum wouldn’t make him spill them.

Jolie, he noted, was also looking in the direction of where Malik had disappeared. Now she was sexually attracted to them. He was certain of it and she had a bunch of questions.

She looked up at him and then before she could stop herself, she blurted out “did he really k**s you in your office today?” Her hands clapped over her mouth as soon as she asked.

He adored how she blurted her uncomfortable thoughts out. He laughed and dropped an arm over her shoulder. “Do you really want to know?”

She nodded, her hazel eyes wide with curiosity, her forefinger tapping her lower l*p.

He stepped closer, forcing her to walk backward until her back was pressed against the wall, “my stepfather was yelling at me for not paying more attention to the PR associated with the announcement of our engagement. I was ready to make my mother a widow. Will knows I can do my job and I make him a lot of money but occasionally he forgets respect and when we are in the same room, I can make him remember but over the phone he takes liberties he doesn’t usually. Malik distracted me when I was ready to put my fist through my phone, he,” Brix took her hair in his fist and tilted her head backwards, “took my head just like this and,” he pressed his lips to hers quickly with a less than a second count, “distracted me.”

She pouted not fighting the grip on her hair, “that’s all? He made it sound far more salacious. He said a k**s and a grope.”

Brix couldn’t help it and he laughed at her words, his fingers massaging her scalp as he loosened his grip. “I know what he said but it was a peck meant only to make me divert my attention. He had been teasing me all morning about being a throuple as he calls it so I think he simply went with what was in his head. Truthfully, he usually distracts me by punching me or pulling a weapon on me. You seem disappointed.”

“I don’t know,” she shrugged her eyes everywhere but meeting his. “I think if I’m going to be around you and you’re going to making out, I should be given the opportunity to get used to it.”

“You won’t replace us making out.” Now he was certain she was disappointed. He clicked his tongue at her, “Jolie, I will be making out with you. Malik will likely want to do far more than the sweet little k**s he gave you today. We might both k**s you at the same time. But me and Malik in a full blown make out session is unlikely.”

“Hmph,” she huffed and then with mischief in her eyes, “what if I ask nicely?”

“How nice?” he now had her flat to the wall, their toes touching and her neck craned as she looked up at him.

“Quid pro quo?”

“Go on.”

“I’ll k**s you both, like we did today in the office, if you k**s each other the same way.”

“Jolie, you’ll k**s me exactly as we did in the office today because it’s what you want and not because I’m coercing you to do it.” he rubbed his nose against hers. “Silly girl.”

She gave a loud sigh, “I think it would be sexy.”

“I bet you do. Do you know what else would be sexy?”

“What?”

“You, having an o****m from my touch, would be the definition of sexy.”

She blinked at his blunt words and it almost made him apologize. Almost. Her mouth opened and closed as if perplexed by his comment.

“Jolie, you let me give you an o****m with these,” he wiggled his fingers he’d had tangled in her hair, “and I will k**s Malik so well he’ll nut in his pants.”

“Brix,” his name was breathy on her lips.

“Think about it gorgeous. We’re not going anywhere. We have the rest of our lives. You simply have to let me know.” He pointed to the stairs. “You should go check out your new bedroom and make sure the furniture we picked out is correct.” He turned her towards the stairs. Halfway up the stairs she turned and looked at him, her eyes curiously focused on him before she continued her ascent.

He laughed and looked up to see Malik coming back up from the basement. “Are the guys set up?”

“Three bedrooms created in the basement with partitions. Surveillance and security room in place. We’ll get the false walls for weapons in by the end of the week.” He looked up the stairs, “where’s Jolie?”

“Checking out her new bedroom.”

“Your new bedroom?”

“Her new bedroom,” Brix corrected. “She deserves her own space until she is ready for more.”

“She isn’t as skittish as I expected her to be,” Malik was still looking up the stairs.

“She wants to watch us make out.”

He flicked startled eyes at Brix and then laughed, “I knew it. Horny little girl.”

“Mm,” Brix whacked him in the back of the head. “You told her you kissed me today and she thought it was something wicked and sordid and not a prank.”

“Yes, but we both know you liked it.” Malik laughed as Brix shook his head.

Brix looked over his shoulder as the front door opened and Elio came in carrying a laughing Pia. He set her on the floor with a grunt and complaint of how heavy she was. Considering she barely weighed thirty pounds, he knew it was to tease Pia.

“Daddy!” she screamed and ran at him.

He lifted her up in the air and hugged her tight after peppering her tiny face in k****s. God, she had him wrapped around her little pinky. She giggled loudly before calling for Daddy Malik and launching herself into his waiting arms. He gave her as many k****s as Brix had and threw her up in the air and caught her the way she loved so much.

“Did you have a good day at school?”

“No. Norman was a jerk and mommy said I can’t punch him. He said his mom said he can’t call me shorty anymore so he called me squirt. I don’t want to go back there.”

“Well, you need to go back there but maybe we will go have a chat with Norman’s parents.” He rubbed her shoulder and looked to his father with a cool look. “It seems they didn’t care to express to their little bastard to leave our princess alone and didn’t heed Jolie’s conversation from Friday.”

Malik tossed Pia up in the air, “I will make a stop on my way back from the safehouse to have a conversation with the family. She will be in private school soon anyway.”

“Pia,” Brix motioned to the stairs, “mommy is upstairs looking in her new bedroom. Your bedroom is all ready for you too. Why don’t you go replace mommy and we will be right up soon?”

“Okay!” she raced off up the stairs, her tiny little legs pumping as hard as they could go.

“Might need to put an elevator in for her. She’s so tiny,” his father commented seriously.

“Jolie would ring our necks,” Malik grinned before his smirk turned deadly. “Speaking of ringing necks. We found Acevedo. He was holed up in a shitty motel off the highway. We got him before he could tip off his boss. Our guys have him by the port in the warehouse. He had put bugs in Jolie’s house and her shitty little car sitting in her driveway was bugged. I think he thought she was going back there. He didn’t believe us when we said she was with Brix. He had to have believed we’d let her go back there. We took all of his equipment and I have the guys working on getting into his computer. I’m heading there now. You guys coming?”

“Yes,” Brix didn’t hesitate. He looked around. “Who are we leaving here with the girls?”

“Leave the five guys downstairs but make three of them come up to the main floor. Leave the six guys outside. Eleven should be enough considering nobody knows yet where we have her. If anyone replaces them here, it’ll be a fluke.”

“I want to leave Fabrizio here.”

Brix exchanged a look with Malik, “Dad I don’t know.”

“He is my most trusted man. He will keep them safe.”

“He’s weird.”

“He’s also protective of her,” he looked up the stairs. “He was with me when I found her that morning you know. He’s the one who wrapped her in a blanket and carried her down to the SUV to get her to hospital. She’s close to the same age as Keely. If Val hadn’t been dead already, Fabrizio would have torn him apart.”

“She’s not going to like him.” Brix considered the man who resembled a sinister version of Uncle Fester of the Adam’s Family movies and shuddered. “He’s creepy as hell.”

“Pia loves him. Calls him Uncle ‘Rizio and asked him to push her on the swing at the playground.”

“Fine. I will let her know.” Brix sighed and looked to Malik. “Get the car ready. Brief the men. Make sure they know if anything happens to a hair on these girls’ head, I’ll make them pray for death.” He took the stairs two at a time as Malik went to deliver the messages.

He found Jolie comforting a sobbing Pia. “What is going on in here?”

“I don’t want my own room!” Pia sobbed and ran at him. “Tell Mommy we have to share. She said you told her I have to sleep in my own bed. I don’t want to. I want to share with mommy!”

“Oh Pia,” he chuckled as he swung her up. “Don’t you want your own big girl room?”

“No. I want my mommy. I want to sleep with my mommy!” she wailed, fat tears tumbling over her rounded baby cheeks. “She has such a big bed. We can share.”

Jolie looked to him and he noted she was also in tears. He extended his arm and she moved to him and sniffed against his shoulder. He shook his head, “the pair of you are something else. How about for the first few nights, while we get used to the new house, Pia can stay in here with you but, Pia you have to try to sleep in your own bed. It’s important for big girls to get a good night’s sleep in their own beds.”

He kissed Jolie’s forehead, “is this okay with you, mommy?”

“Yes.” She sniffed.

“Okay. Crisis averted for now. I need to go out for a bit. Malik and Nonno are coming with me, Pia. I need you to stay here with Uncle Fabrizio. You can play with your new toys I had put in your room.”

“You’re leaving?”

“Unfortunately, yes.” He set Pia down to the floor and she immediately ran to Jolie’s new bed and began jumping on it, “we have a lead on the fella who went through your house. I need to personally check it out. Dad’s number one security agent, Fabrizio is here in the house along with five men in the house and six outside. Fabrizio is Keely’s dad.”

She sighed, “what about dinner?”

“We likely won’t be back in time for dinner, Jolie. This is important and I need to make sure Juan Rueda knows I’m not messing around. He sent his number two, Jolie. I want to know why.”

“We’re safe without you three here?”

“Yes. This house has been retrofitted since we took possession on Saturday. It’s a fortress filled with soldiers.”

“Soldiers?”

“The mercenary kind.”

“I don’t like it.”

“Tough.”

“Fine. I’ll make dinner for me and Pia and then get her ready for bed.”

“Thank you,” he kissed her forehead. “I will check on you when I’m back. Go explore Pia’s new bedroom and her toys and I’ll be back as soon as I can. Okay?”

She nodded and twisted her lips with annoyance. “What choice do I have? I can’t go back to my place because it’s tainted now. I can’t go with you. I can’t go to the hotel. I’m stuck here.”

Her whining was getting on his nerves. “This is your home, Jolie. You’re not trapped or stuck here. This is home.” He knew there was bite to his words but her pouting was making him annoyed. “You don’t get to throw a temper tantrum simply because you aren’t getting what you want. The reason she uses waterworks to get her own way is a learned behavior.”

Jolie pulled her head back as if he’d slapped her, “excuse me?”

“Pia’s act of crying when she doesn’t get her own way is because you have taught her this behavior. If you quit pouting, she will learn not to do it as well.”

“f**k you Brix,” Jolie snapped suddenly. “You really are an a*****e. Leave.”

“You don’t get to talk to me,”

“I can talk to you how I want,” she interrupted him, “especially in my own house!” She shoved his chest, “now get out of it before I make you really uncomfortable and cry in front of you.”

“Jolie,” he took an impatient breath, “get it together. I have to go to work.”

“Fine.” She looked over her shoulder, “Pia, off the bed. Let’s go check out all the new toys Daddy Brix put in your room.”

He tried to reach for her arm but she yanked it away and stormed off. He noted Malik coming down the hall and Jolie flipped him off as well before disappearing into the room Pia had chosen for her own.

“What’s that all about?”

“Who the f**k knows?” Brix grunted and moved back towards the stairs. “Let’s just go. I need to f*****g kill something and Acevedo is it.”