If I find whoever it was that did that to her, they're going to regret ever having uttered her name, let alone anything else they did.
Coach blows his whistle and pulls us all over toward him, shouting at the entire team before starting to put us through our paces in practice.
Our game this weekend is against the second-best school in the area and the pressure is on for the win. To say I've been distracted at previous games is an understatement with everything we've had going on, but I'm yet to let the win slip between my fingers.
I don't intend to start now.
Especially not with so much riding on this game, and more so with the possibility of my dad disinheriting me after I told him I wouldn't marry Briar.
As I expected, it was one of his first threats, but it was also one of his only threats because there isn't much that he holds over me.
He knows as well as I do that I don't really need him beyond paying for the rest of college.
Scouts have been interested in me for years and, if I wanted to, I could enter the draft this season, but I've held off because that's not what my father wanted.
By the time practice wraps up, my muscles burn in the best kind of way and my chest heaves from the workout that we've been put through.
I shower quickly and get changed, resolving to head home and speak to Briar about what Dante told me, because I want to find out who the fuck it is that went after her. Who it was that thought they could put hands on our girl without repercussions. Because I'm going to make them regret ever having even the slightest thought about her.
When I’m done with them, they’ll be lucky to be able to touch another girl ever again.
* * *
"Why would you go to him rather than me?" I ask her again, trying not to let my anger get the better of me. Yelling at her, especially with everything that’s happened the last day and a half, isn’t going to help one damn thing. But my temper is barely restrained, and I’m not sure if I want to scream at her or just fuck her into submission.
"I didn’t go to him, he found me," she tells me again, her frustration apparent.
"Of course he fucking did." He’s half in love with her, and just that thought is enough to push me over the edge. "You aren’t his, Briar. Do you understand me?"
I look down at her, hands gripping her arms, and her big blue eyes stare up at me, still a little guarded, but there’s so much fire in her, and I can see it.
"You are ours. Mine." I move my hands to her ass, lifting her flush with my body, and take the last few steps into my room, pushing her back against the door, pressing my hard dick against her warmth. My heart pounds as she sucks in a breath.
Oh yeah, she’s mine.
I let go of her ass, my hands sliding over her hips and up either side of her ribcage with her t-shirt trapped between my fingers. In one smooth move, she's in her bra—a black silky contraption that pushes her tits together perfectly—and it makes my mouth water.
"Take your jeans off." My voice is gruff, my emotions running wild with the thought of any other man touching what's ours. What’s mine. Hell, even looking at her should be a fucking crime and she needs to understand the lengths we will go to to protect what we have.
I place my palms at the base of her breasts and squeeze them together, my mouth lingering on her smooth skin, my tongue toying with her silky flesh, before sinking my teeth deep enough to make her gasp out loud. That sound makes my dick insanely hard so I do it again on the other side. Instead of telling me to stop, she throws her head back, and when she smiles, I bite her again. Just because I can.
"I said, take your jeans off." I keep on distracting her with my hungry mouth, but this time she pops the button and slides the zipper open while my fingers pull the cups of her bra down to expose her to me. She's soft and delicious. Addictive, even.
Shimmying out of her jeans, I watch as she quickly undresses for me, exposing every inch of what I crave. Once her jeans reach her ankles, I have to hold back a chuckle as she frantically steps on one leg then the other before she kicks the denim to the side of the room.
All desire to laugh escapes me as my hands palm her ass cheeks again and I pull her closer to my aching cock.
"The sight of you like this, naked and willing, does things to me, Briar. Now…" I don't tell her what I want, I just flip her around so her face is pressed to the door and her ass is pushed out, rubbing up against my sweats-covered groin.
My hand shoots out, pressing at the base of her neck to hold her tight against the wood. It's clear it's not a comfortable position for her, but the need to punish her, to make her understand that when she needs something, someone, anything, she should never feel the need to go to anyone else, is driving my every action.
Leaning in, I place my tongue at the base of her jaw and lick a slow, torturous path up her cheek, past her eyes and over her temple before whispering in her ear, "Tell me, Briar. Who owns you?"
I'm expecting a quick answer, a right answer. What I'm not expecting is her silence that tastes like defiance. Reaching back with my free hand, I snap my t-shirt up and over my head before curling my big body around her small frame. Her skin is warm and inviting, calling to me to touch it, which is exactly what I do as my mouth finds her earlobe, my tongue flicking back and forth.
"I suggest you answer, baby." I bite down on her flesh when she finally speaks.
"I don't belong to anyone. Now, you are you going to fuck me or do I need to do it myself?"