Meet My Overprotective Brothers

her chest. She clutched the handlebars of her rusty delivery bike, he

spered, then louder,

band was going to be a star! After all those failed auditions, all those nights he came home defeated, al

crowded street with a grin that would not quit. "The casting director called me this morning. Sh

e would grab her and spin her around their tiny apartment. How he would kiss her and

rm and aching. Love. That was what this

ver this parcel, I have to rush home. I need time to cook something special. Maybe that spicy noodle dish he loves? No, wait-pasta! The one wi

hard times. His family hated her-they made that clear at the wedding. They called her worthless, a nobody, an or

omething. That had

Maybe he bought flowers, or booked that restaurant I mentioned last month. Or maybe-" She laughed at he

painting the sky in shades of pink and orange. It was beautiful. Roman

lace Cora could only dream of living in. She parked her bike and grabbed th

m her supervisor: "Last deliv

shoving her phone back into her po

. The security guard barely looked at her as she rushed to the elevator. People

dy at home, already planning the evening. She would light the two candles they had left over from last year. She would put on that dress L

them. The way i

r dinged. Tw

ounting doors. 1205... 1206... 1207. She knocked firml

an

uder this time. "Hello

l not

de-low and muffled. She hesitated. This was not right. She should just leave the

ghter. A woman's laught

"Our condoms are here! Perfect t

a fr

d not be hearing this. Customer privacy was everything in her job. You delivered the package. Yo

thing about that voic

ne dripping with seduction. "This role is going to make you a s

Cora like a p

She sai

s voice called back, lazy and satisfied. "S

slipped from

N

o, no,

per "I love you" a thousand times. She had heard it lau

rd even though her brain screamed at her to run.

She pushed the door open

r furniture, modern art on the walls. And there, on the whi

r body. Her long black hair fell over her shoulders like silk. She was beautiful-the kind of beautif

the m

here was a small scar on his left shoulder blade, a jagged line from a fight he g

r chest tightened so ha

nd and time stopped,

was

. The man whose career she had fought for, begged for, sacrificed f

naked. With another wom

l everyone was obsessed with-smiled slowly, like a cat who had

e. His mouth opened,

t, raw and ragged and full of every

LI

artment, through her chest, throu

and unstoppable. Her whole body shook. "Are you... are you ma

er, frozen. while