“I talked to Tal, Ryan, and Joe. They all agreed—”
“My brothers don’t dictate my life!” I clenched my hands into fists.
“Calm down, honey. We all just thought—”
“You all just thought!” Ire ripped through me.
“Baby…”
“Damn it! I’m so tired of everyone else in the world thinking they know what’s best for me. If you’re going to turn out to be just another Steel brother, Bryce Simpson, I swear, I—”
“Hey.” He stood and gathered me in his arms. “We just wanted you to get some sleep. Melanie and the baby are fine. Melanie wanted to make sure you got some rest.”
“So now Mel is making my decisions for me too?”
“She’s a doctor, Marj. We all take what she says seriously.”
I was overreacting. I knew I was. My brothers would all take a bullet for me. So would Bryce. I was used to their overbearing behavior. I usually gave it right back to them. Why was it angering me so much now?
Take a deep breath, Mel would have said.
Take a deep breath and let it go.
I drew in lungs full of air, held it for a few seconds, and let it out slowly.
I was still pissed.
I pulled away slightly from Bryce and met his sparkling blue gaze. “You should have woken me up.”
“I’m not going to be sorry for letting you get some much-needed sleep.”
“God! You’re acting like my brothers.”
“Your brothers love you, Marj. And you know what? I love you more than they do. More than anyone has ever loved you and ever will. I failed you, yesterday, damn it. Do you have any idea what that does to me? Knowing I couldn’t keep you safe? That someone tried to take you away from me?”
I was still pissed, but I was starting to see his reasoning. He thought I needed sleep. He was probably right. He wanted to protect me from not getting the sleep he knew I needed.
“You can’t protect me every minute,” I said gently. “That would drive us both crazy.”
“You want to know what crazy is?” he said. “Crazy is not knowing where the woman you love is. Crazy is imagining some degenerate doing all kinds of horrible things to her. None of this is your fault, honey. None of it. But I’ll be damned if I’m not going to do everything I can to protect you, whether you like it or not, and that includes making sure you get a good night’s sleep after what you’ve been through.”
I opened my mouth, but I was all yelled out. He was right, of course. I had needed to sleep, and I was just getting angry to get angry. I’d spent my entire life fighting against my controlling brothers, and now I was fighting against a controlling boyfriend. Except he didn’t want to control me.
He just wanted to protect me. Make sure I had everything I needed, including a few extra hours of sleep.
My temper finally settled down. “I love you,” I said. “So much.”
“I love you too. You hungry?”
“I am. But let’s just pick something up on the way to the city, okay? I want to see my nephew.”
Chapter Twenty-Three
Bryce
I couldn’t deny her anything. Besides, I wanted to see Joe and his kid too.
I kissed her cheek. “You’ll have to put on something besides my shirt, then.”