Page 21 of Ice Cold Christmas

She sat up in bed. The first thing he noticed? She was still wearing his shirt. The second thing? Her breath shuddered in and out. Her hand flew out and hit the lamp next to the bed. Illumination immediately flooded the room.

Terror was clear to see on her beautiful features.

“Bad dream?” Victor asked softly.

Her delicate shoulders shuddered. His shirt swallowed her. She hunched in on herself, as if waiting for a blow to come.

Fury coiled within him. Maybe it hadn’t been a nightmare. “Bad…memory?” he guessed.

Her head whipped up. Tears gleamed in her eyes as she stared straight at him.

“What in the hell happened to you, baby?” He wanted to destroy someone for her.

Her lips parted.

A heavy fist thudded into the door. “Some of us are trying to get some freaking sleep!” Dario blasted.

She flinched.

“Don’t move,” Victor ordered her. He spun away from the bed and marched for her guest room door. Without a single hesitation—and maybe with utter deliberation, too, because the rules would be different this time—Victor yanked open that door.

Dario gaped at him. “What—” He blinked. “I…she was screaming?”

Yes, she had been. “And instead of checking on her, you decided to be an asshole and pound on her door?”

Dario closed his mouth. Then opened it again. Then he leaned to the side as he tried to look around Victor.

Because he knew exactly what Dario would see—a rumpled Melody, wearing his shirt—Victor let him look.

“What is going on here?” Dario asked, voice lower.

“Melody had a bad dream. Don’t worry.” Victor didn’t think the prick had been worried, even for a second. “I’ve got her.” He made sure the possessiveness in his voice was evident.

Dario rocked back a step. Suspicion clouded his pale, blue eyes. “Just what game are you running, man?”

The game where he would win. “Thanks for your concern. So nice that her brother came to look out for her.”

Dario swallowed. “Thought we were getting a DNA test before we all believed she was Melody. A woman flashes one tiny scar at you, and suddenly, you’re all in?”

When it came to Melody, he was always all in.

But he heard the rustle of the bedding behind him. Seriously, one order. He’d given one simple order to her. He’d told Melody to just stay where she was. And, yet, he could hear her padding toward him. Dammit.

“I’m taking the DNA test.” Melody’s voice. No longer fearful. Determined.

She edged to Victor’s side.

Dario gave a low whistle.

She wore Victor’s shirt. Nothing else. At least, nothing that he could see. Or that Dario could see. Her long legs were bare.

Victor thought he could also spy her nipples poking against the front of the shirt. She’d ditched her bra.

Did she have on panties? “Fuck,” he breathed. He might just have to beat the shit out of Dario that night, after all. Because if the prick kept gaping at her…

“If the DNA test doesn’t prove that I’m Melody Mage, I’ll get out of your life.” She nodded. “That’s a promise.”

Dario’s gaze swept between them. Then dropped. Lingered a bit too long on Melody’s legs.