Daniel glared past her head at Graves, his face reddening as he held back with visible effort. Chloe was so mortified with embarrassment that she could barely look Graves in the eye. Of course Graves hadn’t wanted a problem like her—of course he’d resisted her. He knew this would happen and yet Chloe had insisted, like a stupid, spoiled, little girl…
She heard a crack of knuckles nearby, and her head shot up in fear. Danny rolled up the sleeves of his shirt, his forearms huge and muscled, his veins popping out of his throat. “You know what? I don’t fucking care what my sister says. We’re settling this right now, asshole, and you’re not touching her again.”
“Fine, Daniel. Have at me,” Graves said flatly.
Chloe stared at them in complete horror. She’d die if Daniel hurt Graves again. And what if Graves ended up harming Danny because of her? Graves was a patient man but she didn’t want his limits tested, and despite his initial chivalry, she was getting the sense Graves was warming up to the idea of beating Danny to a pulp as well.
She frantically jumped between them and faced her brother, trembling with fury now and desperate to get Daniel out of here. “Danny, stop this! Stop this right now! I seduced him, all right? It was me—I practically forced Graves to do it when I told him I’d get someone else to take me to bed if he didn’t. I promise you I did all this and more. I even forced him to kiss me. He doesn’t even like it and he doesn’t like touching, either. Please, please, let’s just go home, all right?”
Her words made Daniel pause, but when Chloe turned to look at Graves, she was overcome by his expression.
His mask had broken for a fraction of a second, and although it was so brief she hardly noticed, it was enough to make her realize that she’d just hurt him. Like a stab in the heart, or a slap in the face, he’d visibly retracted like she’d poleaxed him with a paddle.
She blinked, and the next instant, Graves seemed to recover. But her heart cracked in two as he crossed his arms over his chest, widened his stance, and looked…defensive.
Because he’d been somehow attacked…by her.
She wanted to weep when she realized he’d opened himself to her, and she had repaid him like this. She ached to go hug him. Kiss him all over. But she’d have to apologize later, for Daniel was her biggest worry now. Her brother was as angry as she’d ever seen him, almost hyperventilating, his nostrils flaring, pacing the area like a bull.
She grabbed him by the shirt. “Danny, it’s my life, okay? I’m the only stupid virgin among my friends. I needed to do this.”
“You were the only virgin. No thanks to this asshole!”
She stared at the man her brother pointed at accusingly, the passionate man who’d pleasured her all night and had surpassed every fantasy. The only man she wanted to be with—even though he may not want to be with her. Maybe it was too much trouble to be with a Lexington, after all. “I’m sorry, Graves,” she told him.
She spun around, suddenly unable to bear staying here for a second longer. “Elevator!” she screamed, shoving back into one of her shoes and almost falling in her haste.
The elevator did not move.
“It only works for Graves unless he programs your voice in,” Daniel grumbled, holding her elbow while she slid into the other shoe.
She turned to Graves and waited for him to say something, and their gazes held through a sudden, deafening silence. Every cell in her body was frantic to decipher the expression on his face, know what he was thinking behind those veiled gold eyes. Then he said the words, a coarse, sunken murmur that filled her with both relief and dismay. “Elevator up.”
The elevator rolled up, and Chloe swallowed the lump in her throat.
“I’m really sorry,” she said again.
“What are you apologizing for? Apologize to my sister, motherfucker!” Daniel thundered.
The elevator pinged and she hurried inside, strangely overwhelmed but at the same time totally desolate, almost numb. Because in all of her imaginings of having an affair with the man of her dreams, she never imagined she would leave like this, and that when she left him, Graves would look so tormented.
When Graves spoke, a flash of wild grief ripped through her, for his voice was soft and had a wealth of regrets in it. “I’m sorry it wasn’t what you wanted, Chlo.”
Her heart broke a little when the door started rolling closed.
“You and I are having words, Buchanan!” Daniel yelled. “You better start planning your funeral, motherfucker!”
“Bring it on, asshole!”
The doors snapped shut after that sharp, impatient bark.
Danny whirled around when Chloe was just about to burst into tears, his mouth clenched in disapproval. Danny was, quite simply, the best brother she could’ve ever asked for, and she knew that if she cried right now, he would hold her. He wouldn’t stay back like Graves…Danny would put his arms around her and squeeze her until she could barely breathe from the force of his hug. But she was wrong. For when he saw her crumpled expression, it only riled her brother further.
“What in the hell were you looking for here, Chloe? A fast track to heartache?” He looked aghast and incensed at the same time. “Mom and Dad are going to hear about this!”
Anger surfaced within her, and thank goodness it managed to push her tears to the background. She thrust her chin out and jammed a finger into her brother’s thick, hulking chest. “No, they won’t hear about it, unless you want me telling them about your dirty little secrets, too! And that sexual playground you have down in your apartment!”
He glowered down at her, then stared deep into her stinging eyes. “Are you going to cry, Chlo? Goddamn it, if he ever, ever, sets a hand on you again—”
“I’ll be the happiest woman on earth!” she shouted back.
Daniel shook his blond head. “You don’t mean that, Chloe.”
“I love him, Danny.” She rubbed her chest where her heart hurt and then she just flung herself at him and buried her face in his shirt. “God, I’ve loved him for so, so long.”
Danny’s arms immediately engulfed her, and she wished they were Graves’s arms, even though these felt so good anyway. He smoothed his hands down her back with his big, splayed palms and spoke in a worried whisper against her hair. “Chlo, damn, Buchanan wouldn’t even know what to do with someone like you. He was raised differently. He wasn’t coddled like you were, Chloe. He’s not that…affectionate.”