Blake walked to his own office and decided to wait there for a while before buzzing his brother. It was such a rarity to find Tyler in a bad mood that Blake couldn’t help but fuel the fire. Granted, that move might come back to bite him in the ass, but he couldn’t help himself. A man had to do what a man had to do!
After about ten minutes his intercom sounded and he had no doubt it was Tyler. Tyler had most likely told the security staff to notify him the minute Blake entered the building.
“Yes, Tyler?” Blake said in a chipper tone.
Tyler replied gruffly. “We’re supposed to be meeting, Blake.”
Blake leaned back. “I’m sitting here waiting for you, bro.”
The line disconnected and Blake could practically hear Tyler’s chair hit the wall as his brother stood up and stomped from the office he had down at the end of the hall.
Blake schooled his expression and watched as his door was thrust open and Tyler came storming into the room.
“I’ve known you to do some pretty dumb-ass things in your lifetime, Blake, but this has got to be a new low for you.”
No word of greeting.
“It’s been a few days, brother,” Blake told him with a smile. “It’s good to see you, too.”
“Don’t try to play games with me, Blake. I’m not one of the idiots who bow and scrape to you, and fall at your feet.” Tyler looked ready to throw a punch as he leaned across Blake’s desk and glared at him.
Blake just laughed. His brother would get to the point eventually.
“Do you like being feared?” Tyler asked.
This question actually took Blake by surprise, and he lost just a trace of his grin. “Yes,” he said, but was that still as true today as it had been a year ago — heck, even a few months ago? He honestly didn’t know. Didn’t inspiring fear equal power? That’s what he’d always thought, anyway.
“And do you like scaring women and little children?”
“I’m not trying to scare Jewell.” Blake was quickly growing weary of this line of conversation.
“Whether you’re trying or not, you have her scared, alone, and desperate,” Tyler said. Some of the fight drained from him now, and he moved back and sat, not looking away, just looking slightly sad that his brother would do this.
It shamed Blake more than he would ever admit. “I’m good to Jewell,” he said in his own defense.
“If she’s only with you out of fear, that’s not being good to her, Blake. You have to earn someone’s love and trust, not demand it of them.”
“I don’t need her love or her trust. I just need her.” Blake wasn’t willing to delve into his emotions with his brother. This wasn’t going to turn into a bonding moment for the two of them where they could hug, say I love you, man, and sing campfire songs.
“Let her go if you can’t possibly love her,” Tyler told him. “Give her back her brother — you know you have the power to do it — and let her go.”
“I can’t let her go.”
“Then I’ll step in and help her,” Tyler threatened
That came as another shock. Blake stared at his brother, wondering whether he’d been wrong to think Tyler would never step in and mess with his brother’s woman. But the look on Tyler’s face wasn’t love; it was loyalty. He’d come across a woman who needed protection, and he felt compelled to give it to her. It was just who Tyler was.
“This isn’t your business, Tyler.”
Tyler was about to say something, but his mouth closed and he leaned back, his brows wrinkled, and his eyes flew up as if in shock. The way he was giving Blake the eye made Blake want to turn away. He absolutely didn’t want to be analyzed.
“You’re not saying… Do you love her, Blake?”
“No!” Blake practically shouted that word before he calmed himself down. “No, I don’t love her. I just don’t want to let her go yet.”
“And you’ll use a child to bribe her to stay with you, even when she can’t stand the sight of you?” Tyler said.
That hit Blake below the belt.
“I can promise you that she wants me just as much as I want her.”
“That isn’t the impression that I got from her today. She seemed depressed, defeated, and out of options. Do you really want her to be with you because you’re her last resort?”
Blake sat back and thought about his time with Jewell, and the months of agony without her. Yes, their time together had been short, but in their time apart he’d thought of no one but her. Yes, he’d had the opportunity to replace her immediately, but he hadn’t felt even a twinge of desire to do so. After a week, he’d been stunned that he still felt the same way.
After three months, he’d decided to do something about the situation. If she was still on his mind, he’d told himself, he had to see this through to the end. And that’s what was happening now.
“She and I will marry, Tyler. It’s not as if that has to lock us together for life. But if I marry her, she’ll easily get custody of her brother, and she’ll be tied to me for as long as I see fit.” Blake spoke with just enough arrogance to piss his brother off all over again.
But just when he thought Tyler was going to come unglued, his brother amazed him by cracking a smile.
“You’re nothing but show right now — do you know that?” Tyler said, and laughed.
That laugh got underneath Blake’s skin far more than the lecture his brother had been giving him.
“What in the hell are you talking about now, Tyler?”
“You know you actually care about this woman; you care about her far more than you’ll admit. Are you afraid of telling me how you feel, or are you afraid to tell her?”
“I’m afraid of no one,” Blake thundered. Fear wasn’t an emotion he ever felt.
“Why not just date the woman properly, then, instead of continually buying her and making her feel cheap?”
Sheesh. Now his brother was channeling Max. “Jewell’s the one who put herself into the situation she’s in,” Blake pointed out. “She chose to join an escort service.”
“No she didn’t. You know perfectly well that she had no choice. She’d do anything for her brother, just as I’d do anything it took for you or Byron.”
“And I’ll do anything to be with her.” Blake didn’t realize how much that revealed to his savvy brother.