“Peachy,” Brian said with a grunt of pain.
“Haven’t you ever needed to knock some sense into a friend?” Sed asked the guard.
“Not in a hospital elevator,” the guard said. But he removed his weight from Brian’s back.
“Sorry about that. We could do a repeat in the parking lot if Brian’s game,” Sed said.
“No thanks,” Brian said. “I’m good.”
Someone helped Brian to his feet, and Sed wrapped an arm around his shoulders. Brian wasn’t sure if the bro-hug was for show—so that the security guards would believe they were friends—or because he needed someone to lean on, but Brian didn’t mind. In fact, Sed’s arm around him gave him a sense of strength and well-being. Sed had that kind of effect on people. He just had horrible taste in women.
As much as Brian liked hearing the guards reminisce about ass-whuppin’s they’d delivered and received at the hands of friends, he was awfully glad to see his beautiful new wife step off the elevator a few minutes later. He didn’t even care that Jessica was with her. Soon he and Myrna would be alone together in their hotel room and Brian could pretend he was okay about Trey, without everyone watching.
Chapter Ten
Back in the hotel room, Myrna circled the suite to turn off all the lights except the lamp next to the bed. Brian sat on the edge of the mattress and fiddled with the alarm clock.
“We have to be up in two hours,” he said, his voice hollow with exhaustion. “Sorry our wedding night didn’t go so well.”
She sat beside him on the bed and took the alarm clock out of his hand to set it on the nightstand.
“Me too,” she said. “But we can take an extended honeymoon in a few months. Once the tour is over. And Trey is better.”
He lifted his head, allowing her to see his dark eyes strained with fatigue. The bruises around them weren’t helping him look any more alert.
“I could try to make love you to you if you want,” he said.
“We don’t need to have sex again,” she said and almost laughed when his shoulders sagged with relief. The poor guy was used to having to satisfy her insatiable sexual appetite for him. “I’ve had plenty of sex today, but I do need to make love to you.”
She scooted off the bed and settled on the floor at his feet. She untied one of his boots and pulled it free, tossing it aside before massaging his instep through his soft, white cotton sock. He murmured a sound of pleasure in the back of his throat. She repeated her attention on his other foot and then urged him to lie back on the bed with his legs dangling over the edge so she could unfasten his jeans. He lifted his hips and she tugged them off. Staring up at her wearily, he held his arms open to her.
“Come here, wife. I need to hold you, remind myself that you’re really mine, and think about all that’s good in my life when everything else has gone to shit.”
She blinked back tears, her heart panging with empathy. She knew he loved Trey—not in the way she’d been fixating on for most of the day, but as a friend, a colleague, and someone he could always depend on.
“I was going to massage your back,” she said. “Help you relax.”
“I’ll feel most relaxed with your head right here.”
He patted the center of his chest, and she couldn’t deny that she very much wanted to rest her head over his heart. He tugged his shirt off, and she shed most of her clothes. She left her panties in place, hoping to remind her eager pussy that she didn’t have to fuck Brian to show him how much she loved him.
They snuggled together beneath the covers, her head on his chest and his heartbeat thudding steadily against her ear.
“I’m sorry I behaved like a regular asshole at the hospital,” he said, his voice rumbling through his chest. He covered his eyes with one hand and sighed.
“That was behaving like a regular asshole? What are you like when you behave like a huge asshole?”
He chuckled halfheartedly. “You don’t want to witness that.”
She stroked his belly absently, willing her mind to calm down so she could get some sleep.
“What am I going to do if he doesn’t recover?” Brian whispered.
“I told you not to let yourself think like that.”
“I can’t help it.”
“He’ll be fine. He’s Trey-motherfucking-Mills. A little head injury won’t keep him down for long.”
Brian traced lines over the bare skin of her hip. “Maybe once he’s better we can invite him back into our bed. It would be okay when it’s not our wedding night, right?”
Myrna bit her lip. As sexually fulfilling as her threesome with Brian and Trey had been, it had been more of a mind-fuck than she’d anticipated. “I don’t think that’s a good idea,” she said after a long moment.
“Why not? I thought you enjoyed it.”
“I did,” she admitted.
“Well, I enjoyed it. He enjoyed it. What’s the problem?”
She was almost afraid to say it. “He loves you.”
“I love him too.”
The words slashed her heart to ribbons, even though she was almost certain they were talking about different kinds of love. “But are you in love with him, Brian?”
“Huh?”
“Nothing,” she said, afraid that by discussing it, Brian might realize he was in love with Trey. She couldn’t lose Brian. Not now. Not when she’d finally given him her heart. It would destroy her.
Brian was quiet for a long moment. “Do you think he’s actually in love with me?”