Page 79 of Naughty or Nice

We freeze. Our heads turn to the door—

Nate!

His seething form fills the doorway.

Fuck.

I shove Lucas back, leaving him to yank his zipper up as I launch to my feet.

My brother looks as if he’s about to commit murder.

‘I fucking knew it.’ He strides forward, slamming the door shut behind him, his fist raised. ‘You son of a bitch.’

I watch in horror as he swings for Lucas, and then I throw myself forward.

I see a brief second of panic in my brother’s face before his fist collides with my face. And then all I feel is pain—acute, throbbing pain—and my ears ring.

I’m on my knees, shaking my head, trying to focus, to get a handle on what’s happening.

I can hear scuffling above me.

‘See what you made me do!’

My brother is shouting, shoving Lucas back. I try to tell them to stop but I can’t make my mouth work.

‘I didn’t make you do anything,’ Lucas says. ‘Now back off so I can check she’s okay.’

‘You’ve touched her enough, you sick fuck—taking your revenge out on someone too stupid to see it.’

I know what’s going to happen even before Lucas’s fist makes perfect contact with my brother’s jaw, and inside I die.

This is wrong.

All wrong.

I don’t want to believe it’s happening.

Nate drops to the floor as Lucas rushes to my side and tries to lift me. No. I shake him off. Tears that I hadn’t known I was shedding sting my cheeks.

‘Don’t touch me.’

I can’t even look at him. Either of them.

It’s a mess. A complete and utter mess.

‘Get out,’ I say, struggling to my knees. My lip smarts...it feels too big for my face. ‘Both of you.’

The command is muffled and my cheeks flame in shame, pain, anger.

‘But, Eva...’ Lucas says softly, his hands hovering over me, not touching, but still there.

I shake my head again, putting the force that I can’t give to my voice into action. I turn away from him. ‘Get out.’

‘Sis, come on.’

‘Out! Out! Out!’

I stare at them both, my body rigid, and I almost lose it all over again when neither moves. I can’t cope with the concern on Lucas’s face, the anger and the swelling already building on Nate’s, the throbbing pain radiating through my own. It’s a real-life nightmare.