Unleashing My Boyfriend's Brother Desires

Red-handed

A wave of disgust washes over me as the realization of what was going on strikes me. There have been clues everywhere for the past few months, and even my friends pointed them out countless times before, and I refused to see them. I refused to admit it. I refused to acknowledge that for him, for my goddamn fiancé, I was nothing but a toy.

I remain pinned in the doorframe of our bedroom, watching Max f**k another woman. As soon as they see me, she yelps and pulls away from him, grabbing the blanket and covering herself as if I hadn't already seen her in the most obscene pose she could have pulled, and Max lets out a low, frustrated groan for being caught right in the act.

My mouth falls open, but there is nothing I have to say.

"Selena-" Max grunts as he grabs the discarded robe from the ground and throws it at the other woman, to cover herself.

"This is not what it looks like, I swear!" the woman rushes to speak, interrupting Max, and I have never felt dumber in my whole damn life.

"Sht!" Max hisses at her, brows narrowed in a deep frown. "I got this-" he mutters as if I was not right there, witnessing this whole thing.

The ring on my finger started weighing heavy on me, while my thoughts ran in all possible directions. I knew of his infidelities for a very long time, but I begged him to never bring them home....

Seven years ago, Max had managed to scoop me off my feet and make me feel like the luckiest girl alive, when he told me he had fallen in love with me. Of course, now that I look back, I should have noticed all the red flags that he brought along into my life, but I was 18, naive and easy to impress.

Especially when the son of a nobleman offered me attention, I bent over almost immediately. I fawned over him like the whole damn world did. And I believed and swallowed each and every lie he told me. Signs of infidelity appeared as early as the first few months, but I was far too in love to not buy his lies and excuses, his promises and all the gifts he had gotten me.

It started small, with indecent sized flower bouquets and then jewelry and designer bags, and when I finally developed a taste for this kind of life, he continued to buy me over and over again with gifts and acts of wealth and power display.

Last year, after one of my friends caught him cheating, he crawled back on his knees when I wanted to break up with him. The fight escalated to the point rumors had started spreading, tainting his family's image. In order to silence me, he proposed, and promised me the moon and the sun, over and over again, and I was too heartbroken to say no to him.

We moved together, and he offered to build me an art studio, right in the same house we lived, and I was far too foolish to say no.

And now, I am here. Standing in the doorway of my own bedroom, watching him try to come up with an excuse for what I was seeing, while putting on some goddamn underwear to cover his indecency.

"We can talk about this-" he started and took a step closer, completely unfased about the fact that he had been caught red handed.

"Talk?" I interrupted him, my voice broken, pitched and hoarse at the same time, as I fought tears and borderline hysteria right now.

I deserved to be hysteric! I deserved to march downstairs into the garage and trash all of his cars! I deserved to break his watch collection and take it out on his expensive laptop! I deserved revenge, but I was far bigger than petty material damage, no matter how tempting it was.

"Talk?! You want to talk?!" I continued, an unamused huff escaping me, my arms flying up in disbelief.

"Let's not escalate this..." he threatens me and, despite the chill I feel rushing down my spine when our eyes meet, I roll my eyes and give him the attitude he deserves, despite knowing the consequences of getting cocky with him.

"Escalate?! Escalate to what?! Do you, for even a goddamn moment, think of anyone else's feelings rather than your own?!" I accuse him, pointing a finger at him, tears streaming down my face freely, my throat burning with the way my voice was raised and the fact I was practically screaming.

Max was never one to enjoy active conflict. He avoided fights, and I have never heard him raise his voice. Of course, he disliked hearing me scream, yell, "make a scene", or whatever he might have called this right now, but he never stepped away from ending a conflict with physical abuse.

"Enough, Selena!" he grunts as I take a moment to breathe in.

Enough? Enough?! Was this all he had to say?!

I swallowed past the lump in my throat and wiped my tears with the back of my hand, my eyes trailing to the terrified woman behind him and, right now, I didn't even feel angry with her. Poor thing looked traumatized and I got it. I truly do...

"Unbelievable..." I whispered, looking right back at him, taking an abrupt step backwards, as he had gotten far too close to me for my liking.

When he tries to grab me, I turn on my heels and rush downstairs, tears clouding my eyes, anger clouding my judgment. I was ready to get the f**k out of here, but as I stepped off the last stair step, I bumped right into a wall. Or so I think. The impact makes me stumble backwards and almost lose my balance.

Until the wall reaches out for me, I don't realize that I have just bumped into someone. Sturdy hands grab my arms and steady me, and I have to take a moment to get my balance back and understand what just happened. Narrowed, dark blue eyes look back at me and I feel at a loss for words when I realize I had just bumped, at full speed and power, into none other but Alexander, Max's older brother.

My heart sinks into the pits of my stomach and my knees threaten to give in.

I have never met someone with such a strong presence as Alexander.

The man was so tall that I barely reached up to his sternum. His eyes were a dark, almost stormy blue, his jaw rough and sharp, the definition of a perfect masculine face, his shoulders broad and an overall athletic built for someone in their mid 30's. His hair was peppered gray just like his neatly trimmed beard. He kept his hair long enough to be combed backwards and carefully styled.

And it was not just the towering presence that made the man feel as if he had the power to unmake me, but even the way his lips pressed in a thin line and his eyes squinted lightly whenever he was displeased, made me fidgety and anxious.

He looked and felt as if he was pulled out of a history book that spoke of an old, maybe even ancient empire, ruled by a man both powerful and handsome to the point people started revering him as if he were a god.

As I blinked away the fogginess in my eyes and met his, I was almost shocked to see his fox like eyes were not squinted, but rather wide and rounded in surprise. His lips are not pressed in that almost judgmental way, but they are lightly parted, as he seems to try to find the right question to ask me.

"I- i-" I stammer, trying to find my words as I got the hang of myself again, completely at a loss for words and any sort of excuse.

"Selena!" Max's voice rings through the house and I get nauseous again as everything comes back to me in an instant.

Alexander's eyes moved up the flight of stairs to his brother, who hesitated to approach.

I looked towards Max for a brief moment. He had managed to cover himself with a robe, but that did not hide what happened from his brother, whose hunter eyes narrowed lightly and darkened like the sky before a storm.

"I'm sorry, Mr. Callahan." I murmured under my breath, rushing to put distance between me and anyone else. "I need to be elsewhere right now-" I add, my words barely murmured as I walked past the man who followed me with his eyes.

"Selena, wait!" I heard Max shout as I rushed out the front door.

I don't make it too far though, because a steady hand reaches out and stops me, right as one of my heels gives in and snaps on the slightly uneven pavement. I lose balance only for a moment, because Alexander grabs my arm and offers enough support so that I don't fall.

"Do you really think running away from it will make it better?" he rasps, and I feel like I am going to throw up.

Was he blaming me for this? Because at this very moment, it certainly feels like he tells me I am a coward and, for a brief moment, I don't care that I am looking at the most influential man in the whole damn country.

I slapped his hand away and straightened myself, glaring at him as if he had just told me I was nothing but a b***h. He has never really said it to my face, but I always knew he judged me for my relationship with Max. I've heard him on enough occasions talking about me as if I were there just to benefit off the wealth of the family, to know I didn't matter to him. To know that he was ready to get rid of me if given the occasion, and smother me if I dared say a bad word about his brother and family.

In the doorframe of the house, Max stood, itching to get out, grab me and drag me back in. But he didn't dare step out now, not when his brother stood witness.

Alexander watches me, his eyes filled with an unspoken plea to find a peaceful resolve, and I feel too weak and meaningless to deny him. Just as I am about to say something, the woman from upstairs runs past us and I feel as if I am about to crumble. Alexander's eyes follow her for a moment, completely taken aback, before they trail to his brother, questioning what the hell is going on, but never letting go of me.

"It's just-" Max grunts, shrugging his shoulders, while tears flood my eyes all over again.

If Alexander felt anything, I'll never know. If he thought anything but the obvious fact that this could escalate in a horribly ugly way, he didn't show any signs of it.

His cold demeanor makes me freeze and remain silent as I follow him back inside.

As soon as the front door closes behind me, I flinch, and I wordlessly beg all the gods above to not let Max lay a hand on me, but I had a feeling this was not going to ever happen for me.