Best Friend's Brother #5 (Best Friend's Brother Romance Series - Book #5) (6 page)

“Wow, tell him thanks,” Ian said.

When she walked away I told him, “You better get
used to that. You’re the closest thing this town has ever seen to a celebrity.”

He looked almost embarrassed and said, “It’ll wear
off.”

“Until your next title,” I told him. He reached
across and squeezed my hand.

“Thank you,” he said.

“For what?”

“Everything.
I think if you hadn’t been here after Emma died, I may have just shut down
right alongside my parents. I honestly don’t think I could have done any of
this without you.”

“You would have been fine,” I told him. “But for the
record, I’m really glad I was here too. Going back to school would have
probably just caused me to stuff the grief and try to ignore it. Staying here
made me have to deal with it. I will always
miss
Emma…but it’s easier to remember her here, and I never want to forget.” He
squeezed my hand again and I could tell that he felt the same way.

Ian ordered a steak and baked potato. Fighting
always made him hungry. I had the chicken parmesan. While we were eating he
said, “So what about school? Have you thought about when you’ll be ready to go
back?” I had. I’d thought about it a lot. This semester was almost over and a
few weeks after that, the new one would begin. I knew I couldn’t put it off
forever, but I couldn’t imagine leaving him.

“I should go back when the next semester starts,” I
told him. “But I really don’t want to leave.”

“I don’t want you to leave either. But, I also don’t
want you giving up an opportunity to do better for yourself like I did either.”

“You did okay for yourself,” I told him.

He shrugged and took another bite of steak. After he
chewed and swallowed it he said, “I guess, but now that I accomplished my goal
of taking the title I really need to think about at least maybe doing some
online classes. I don’t want to be one of those fighters that gets hurt and has
no way to support
himself
because he has no skills.”

“What would you go to school for?” I asked him. I
didn’t want to think about him getting hurt. I suddenly wanted to change the
subject.

“I’d like to get into sports medicine,” he said.

“Like the medic guy who patches you up?” I asked.

“Yeah, kind of.
I’d like to get a degree if nutrition and minor in fitness…maybe I could be a
personal trainer or a consultant or something.”

I thought that would be a really great choice for
him and I told him so and said, “I have the fall catalog at home. I’ll give it
to you and you can check out the program.”

“Thanks. You know I’ve heard they practice things
like massage and touch therapy with live subjects. Would you be interested in
volunteering for that position?”

“Hmm, I don’t know. Does it pay well?”

“It hardly pays at all, but it does come with lots
of benefits,” he said. I grinned.

“I’ll take the job,” I told him. He laughed. I
wasn’t kidding.

After dinner, we went to the eighteen and older club
again where we’d met up with his friends the night I’d found out about his
steroid use. It was basically the same crowd and everyone was really friendly.
For me, things were a lot different tonight. That first time we’d come here, I
was still so devastated from losing Emma and things with Ian were so new and so
tenuous. I’d almost been ready to grasp at any reason that we shouldn’t be
together then. I still had the feeling we were doing something wrong, I think.
I remember thinking his friends were a bunch of losers. I think that I was
judging them way too harshly, with way too little to base it on.

Ian got dragged away by some guys who were fans and
while he was gone, his friend Brock and I were alone at the table. He smiled at
me and said, “Ian seems really happy.”

“He is. He’s so excited about winning the title. He
deserved it, he worked so hard.”

“You’re right,” he said. “He does deserve it. But I
was talking about on a personal level. I haven’t seen him this happy in…well,
probably ever.”

“Really?
Not even back in high school?”

He smiled again. “None of us were really “happy” in
high school. Unless you’re part of the popular crowd in high school, and we
weren’t, the whole experience kind of sucks.”

I laughed, “Yeah, you’re right.”

He rolled his eyes then and said, “I’m sure you
wouldn’t know. You seem like the kind of girl that would have had people
flocking around you…boys and girls alike.” I did have a lot of friends in high
school, but I wouldn’t say “flocked” and without a mother, I think I experienced
a lot more angst than most. He went on and said, “It really all fell apart
after Ian got expelled.”

“You guys all still seem pretty tight,” I said.

He nodded. “We are, now. Ian withdrew for a while
and didn’t have much to do with any of us. That was hard. I know that you heard
us joking about him getting into trouble, but the truth was
,
it was pretty upsetting to us all. He was so damned smart…it almost hurt me
that he lost his scholarship. I didn’t know he was doing the steroids until he
got caught, or I would have tried to talk him out of it. He never placed his
faith on his brain. Instead, his self-confidence was based on being bigger and
stronger.”

I felt bad hearing him say that. I felt bad for Ian,
and all he’d missed out on and I felt bad that I had judged his friends so
harshly. Joking about it was how they dealt with it now. I had let myself think
that night they were all a bunch of losers and they didn’t care that he’d
gotten into trouble. I guess it goes to show you that you shouldn’t judge
people based on one impression alone. I was realizing lately that I did that a
lot. I was going to start working on that. I felt his hands on my shoulders
then and he bent down close to my ear and said, “Would you like to dance with a
champion?”

“I’d love to,” I said. “Where is he?”

He squeezed my shoulders and said, “Watch it. I
won’t let you hold my belt later.”

“Oh no!
I’ll be good, I promise.” He pulled me to my feet with a grin and out to the
dance floor.

We were dancing a slow dance and I had my head
against his chest and my eyes closed when suddenly I felt my ass literally
cupped in a pair of strong hands. He only hung on for a second, but it
surprised me. So far, Ian hadn’t been one for public displays of affection. I
squeaked and jerked forward so my pelvis was rubbing against his. He pressed
his mouth to the side of my face and whispered, “Damn baby, you want me that
bad?”

“Me? You started it, grabbing a handful of my ass
like that.” He looked confused and then looked behind me. I suddenly saw his
blue eyes go dark
like
they did when he was in the
cage and I realized in that instant what was about to happen. It was Jeff, the
guy who had been such an ass to him the last time we were here.

CHAPTER
ELEVEN

ALEXA

“Ian, it’s okay. Let it go.” I could see the veins
pulsing in his neck as he looked at Jeff. Jeff knew he was pissed, but he only
smiled. I wondered if he was drunk.

“Hey!” Ian said, acting
like
he hadn’t heard me. He still had one arm on my waist and suddenly I felt myself
being moved behind him and he was face to face with the asshole. “What the hell
do you think you’re doing, touching her?”

“Chill out,” Jeff said with a smug smile on his
face. “I bumped into her. That ass sticks out, it’s hard to miss.” Either he
was drunk or he had a death wish. Ian swung and connected and the smug bastard
was now lying in the floor. The thick crowd had spread out and was now standing
circled around like a bunch of middle school kids watching a fight. Jeff was
sitting up, rubbing his chin. Brock pushed his way through the crowd and
stopped when he saw Jeff on the floor. Mike and Danielle had been dancing too
and they were standing there watching. Danielle looked amused and I wondered if
he’d tried to play grab ass with her too.

“What happened?” Brock said.

“Crazy mo-
fo
attacked me,
that’s
what,” Jeff told him. “Somebody call the cops. I’ll
bet he’s doing the
roid’s
again. That would explain
his win tonight too.” No one moved. Ian was well liked and everyone here
tonight knew that he’d just won that championship. No one seemed to like Jeff
except for the girl he was dancing
with
. She must have
only just met him.

“Fuck you!” Ian said. I’d never seen him so angry. I
was suddenly worried about what would happen when the cops did get there.

“He grabbed my ass,” I said to the crowd, surprising
myself. I wanted them to know Jeff had started this. I was terrified Ian would
get in trouble and his career would be affected because of me. “He didn’t bump
into me. He assaulted me. Ian was protecting me.” I looked down at the creep
then and said, “I’ll be happy to tell the cops that when they get here.”

“What’s going on?” A deep, booming voice said. The
bouncer had pushed his way through and was looking from Ian to Jeff. The
bartender was standing behind him. Jeff was still looking at me
like
he was trying to gauge if he thought I’d cry sexual
assault or not. I still had my hand on Ian’s arm and I guess the look on my
face convinced him I wouldn’t hesitate to do it in order to help Ian. It wasn’t
like
I’d be lying anyways. Finally, he looked at the
bouncer and said, “Sorry man, I got carried away with my moves and hit the
floor.”

The bouncer looked at Ian again. Ian was still
staring at Jeff. His breathing was heavy and his fists were clenched at his
sides. I put my hand on his arm and slowly, I could feel him start to relax.
“That what happened?” the bouncer asked him.

Ian looked at me then and I tried to convey with my
eyes that this was the best outcome. He looked back at the bouncer and said,
“Yeah, he tripped and fell into me. I stepped back and he hit the floor. I
think he hit his face. He might need an icepack and a ride home.”

The bouncer didn’t look convinced, but I don’t think
he really wanted to deal with it. “Okay, break up the crowd here everybody. Let
the man up. Give him room to breathe.” He put his hand out and helped Jeff to
his feet. Jeff looked at Ian and again, I felt his arm tense underneath my
hand. He stood there, not moving or saying anything until the bouncer had led
Jeff away.

“Are you okay
,?
” I asked
him.

“I’m fine,” he said. “Are you okay?”

“I’m okay,” I said. “A little insulted by what he
said about my ass.”

Ian grinned and pulled me back into him. I could
feel him shaking as he held me. His muscles were still tense and I was suddenly
overcome by how protective he was of me all of a sudden.

“Thank you,” I said. “I didn’t want you to have to
fight for me though.”

He held his face back and looked at me. “I’d fight
dragons for you, baby.” I shuddered and laid my head back against his chest.
That was the most incredibly sexy thing that anyone had ever said to me. There
was a lump in my throat as he held me against him and stroked my hair. That
song stopped and another started and we continued to say to the music. After a
while he slid his hands down my back and just quickly across my ass.

“It’s the most perfect ass I’ve ever seen,” he said.
“But I’m the only one that gets to touch it.”

Tonight was the first time I’d ever seen him
protective like this…almost possessive. I was almost embarrassed at how turned
on it got me. I really didn’t want him getting into fights over me and getting
into trouble, but it felt so good to know that he’d be willing to. I don’t know
if that’s wrong or not, but regardless, I was extremely flattered. I pressed
into him tighter. He had his face against mine and I felt him grin again.

“You know, there’s a really big bathroom in the
back. We could slip in there and…”

Was he really suggesting that we have sex in public?
Dampness of my panties all of a sudden aside, I’d never even considered it.
“You mean the unisex bathroom over there in the corner?” I said in a seductive
voice. What the hell was I thinking?

“That’s the one,” he said in a low growl.

“What were you going to suggest we do in there?” I
asked him. I felt his lips on my neck. He lifted them long enough to say, “I
was thinking maybe a prequel to the reward you were going to give me at home…”

“Like a kiss?” I said, teasingly. He kissed my neck
again and said, “Yeah, maybe more than one…” I felt his tongue trace along my
shoulder.

“On my lips?”
I asked, breathlessly.

“Sure, we’ll start there,” he said. The music
stopped, but neither of us stopped moving.

“Where will we end?” I asked him.

“Wherever you want it to, baby.” I love it when he
calls me baby.

“Maybe we could just see where it leads us….” he
suddenly stood up straight and grabbed my hand. He led me across the dance
floor towards the bathroom. He didn’t even look around to see who was watching.
He just stepped inside and pulled me in behind him. As soon as we were inside,
he closed the door and locked it.