Chapter 5

The moment the front doors closed behind them, the cavernous marble foyer seemed to amplify the silence. Eleanor Finch, the housekeeper with a spine of steel and eyes that missed nothing, gave a stiff, formal nod.

Joshua released Avery, leaning in to whisper, "Good work. Keep it up." He was referring to her 'shy' act outside.

Avery fought the urge to laugh hysterically. That wasn't an act. It was pure, unadulterated terror.

She was just starting to breathe again when she heard the soft click of the door behind them and the sound of Brodie's unhurried footsteps on the marble.

He tossed his car keys to a waiting footman without a glance, his attention locked on Avery's back.

"Stop."

The word was quiet, but it carried the absolute authority of a man who had never been disobeyed.

Avery and Joshua froze, turning in unison.

Joshua's brow furrowed in annoyance. "What do you want now, Brodie?"

Brodie ignored him. He walked directly to Avery, stopping so close she had to crane her neck back to see his face. He was a mountain, casting a shadow that swallowed her whole.

"My brother's fiancée," he said, his voice a low purr that did nothing to hide the sharpness of his gaze. "I think I should get a proper look at her, don't you?"

He stared pointedly at her downcast head, at the hair still shielding her face. "Look at me."

Avery's body began to tremble, a violent, uncontrollable shiver. If she looked up, it was over. Everything was over.

Joshua stepped forward, placing himself between them. "Brodie, that's enough. She doesn't like strangers staring at her."

"Strangers?" Brodie's laugh was a cold, sharp sound. "I'm about to be her brother-in-law." He reached out, his fingers aiming to grab her chin and force her to look at him.

Panic, white-hot and absolute, exploded in Avery's mind. She had to do something. Now.

In the split second before his fingers made contact, she made the wildest, most reckless decision of her life.

She surged upward. Not toward Brodie, but toward Joshua.

Her hands flew around Joshua's neck, she went up on her toes, and she smashed her mouth against his.

It wasn't a kiss. It was a collision. A desperate, frantic act of concealment, fueled by pure survival instinct.

Joshua's brain short-circuited. He stood there, frozen in shock, as she kissed him. Her lips were soft, trembling, and cold with fear, but the pressure was fierce, demanding, as if she were trying to merge with him, to disappear inside him.

The kiss did more than just block Brodie's view. It silenced the entire room.

Brodie's hand froze in mid-air. His eyes widened, his pupils contracting into pinpricks of disbelief and something else. Something much darker.

He stared, his jaw clenched, at the scene unfolding before him. At the woman who was so aggressively, so possessively, kissing his younger brother.

The kiss was a perfect, maddening shield. From Brodie's vantage point, all he could see was the sharp angle of her jaw and the frantic flutter of her eyelashes against Joshua's skin. He couldn't see her whole face.

Joshua finally recovered from the initial shock, his hands coming up to push her away. But Avery's arms tightened around his neck, a silent, desperate plea. Don't stop. Not yet.

He could feel the terror thrumming through her entire body. This wasn't part of the act. This was real.

Brodie's face was a mask of thunder. His chest rose and fell in ragged breaths, his eyes churning with a storm of fury and a pain so profound it was almost unrecognizable.

He watched them, his hands clenched into fists at his sides, the knuckles white. He looked like a man watching his world burn to the ground.