Prologue
Maris - Sixteen years earlier from present day
“I’d endure any pain for those I love. If only they’d let me.” - From the journals of Jedidiah Smith.
“Maris!” I hear my name being shouted above the cacophony of sound as I’m being escorted by a tall, handsome black man into the VIP area. My brother, Jed, face flushed, swings me around to face him. “What the hell are you doing here?”
The guy, whose grip on my elbow makes the bouncer at my father’s bar who caught me trying to sneak in when I was eighteen appear useless, raises a brow in a silent question.
I just flap a hand at him. “It’s fine. This is my brother. He’s one of Nick’s best friends.”
The impassive face clears, and he winks down at me. “Then you’re in good hands, Ms. Smith. The Champ is just beyond those doors. I’m sure he’ll be awfully glad to see a woman who could knock someone out as hard as his last punch.”
I blush even as Jed drags me closer toward my final destination—Nick. “Thanks for helping me through the crowd!” I call over my shoulder graciously.
He flicks out a two-finger salute before he goes back to guarding the entrance of the hall that I just passed through.
My mind is still down at the arena where Nick pulled out a win no one expected—not the sports reporters, nor the announcers based on the way they were screaming into their microphones. But in my heart of hearts, I knew he had it inside him. He always did.
I dig my nails into Jed’s arm. “Can you believe it? I thought I was going to lose my voice I was screaming so hard.”
“What are you doing here, Sunshine?”
“I got an invitation from Nick.”
Jed’s face turns a furious shade of mottled red. “I’m going to kill him,” he bellows.
More than a few heads of people passing by the mouth of the hallway hear him and turn toward us at the angry sound. I’m a little confused myself. Reaching into my purse, I pull out the letter that came with the credentials I have slung around my neck, identical to the ones my brother has on. “See? This came in the mail a few days ago.”
“So you dropped everything and flew here?” Jed’s voice holds a note of frustrated bitterness I don’t understand.
“It’s Nick,” I say as if that explains it all, and maybe it does. Of all my brother’s friends, the moody, irreverent Nicholas Cain has always been different. Maybe it’s because I know deep inside there’s something between us that’s always been different. There’s something between us that heals the pain in the other. “Anyway, it’s not like I didn’t have a million hours of vacation. Dad said to take off, that he’d watch the bar. See? No issues.”
Jed opens his mouth to speak, but before he can, one of the double doors of the suite behind him flies open. Suddenly Nick’s standing there. His shredded body is barely covered by an excuse of a towel that’s riding just below the title belt he won a short time earlier. “Ernie! Where the fuck are…” His voice trails off when his eyes collide with mine. For just a moment, unadulterated joy shines before a mask drops down over them. “Hey. You came.” Stepping forward, Nick pulls the door partially closed behind him as he approaches.
When he leans down to offer me a one-arm hug, a pungent scent fills my nose. I take an inadvertent step away. “Don’t touch me.” My body brushes back against Jed’s. I take comfort in my brother’s presence.
Because it’s not the smell of his powerful fight I’m recoiling from. Nor is it the booze he so rarely drinks.
It’s the smell of sex wafting off his skin.
“Congratulations,” I offer coolly.
“What? That’s it? I just won the belt! Doesn’t that even rate a hug?” His grin splits his handsome face wide open.
I lean away from Jed. I know from the many years of working at the Brewhouse how to deal with arrogant pricks. “It would if you were even halfway decent.”
He laughs in my face. “Sorry, Sunshine. I didn’t have time to shower once I got back up here.”
“But you sure found time to fuck?” I cock my head around his broad chest, and at that moment, I hear a voice whine, “Nick? Where are you going?”
His face pales.
“Apparently had yourself a hell of a time, Champ,” I congratulate him mockingly.
“You don’t understand.” A dark flush stains his cheeks.
“Actually, I do. I thought you sent me the tickets, the pass, because you wanted to share this moment with people you cared about. I should have done what I originally planned.”
“Which was?” he challenges.
“Stay in my corner of the world with a front-row seat to pay-per-view. At least I could have maintained my illusions you didn’t do this to rub…whatever you’ve become…in my face. Why the hell did you bring me here, Nick? You promised to keep in contact with me, and you didn’t. I’m the fool who jumped when I finally do hear from you. I thought you actually cared.” He steps forward, and I hold my hand up to ward him off. “Don’t. I should have just let you go in my heart when you never reached out just like Jed told me I should.” I turn away and shove past my brother, my long legs eating up the distance to get away.
I make it to the end of the hall before I hear Nick yell, “Maris, no. Wait!” As I whirl, I see Jed physically using every ounce of his strength to hold him back while I make my escape.
Grateful for the intervention, I slip past the same guard who escorted me to the door. The suite is filled with rising noise that overwhelms me. Using it to my advantage to avoid both Jed and Nick’s bellows, I escape.
Thank God my hotel’s not far from here. Then again, is anything far in this illusion called Las Vegas?
Two days later, I’m curled up next to Jed in my bed at the hotel. I’ve tried everything possible to get an earlier flight to get out of Vegas, but short of dumping my entire savings, there’s just no way possible to leave any earlier than my return ticket has me booked for. I’m stuck in a nightmare of my own making—the last one I’ll allow myself.
I’m exhausted from lack of sleep, but to know Jed has essentially abandoned the festivities to be by my side—just like he always has been—is a testament to the man my brother is. “There’s no one in the world like you.”
“I broke the mold,” Jed declares.
“I agree,” I say, even as my heart sighs sadly knowing there’s no one I’ll ever love the way I love my brother.
I just wish Nick would disappear and leave us alone. Instead, he’s taken to randomly dialing Jed at all hours asking how we are. The last call a half hour ago involved him asking if we wanted anything to eat. “Someone’s running out for me,” he claims. “I can have them swing by where you are.”
Jed politely declined. I ignored the whole conversation by rolling to my side and texting my best friend, Kara, in Florida. I want to know how her little boy Kevin is since he’s been battling a spring cold.
“Probably a euphemism for something. Running out for ‘something’ to cover his dick,” I grumble against Jed’s shoulder.