Page 94 of Damaged Protector

“Is he a good guy?”

My answer was immediate. “No, he’s not.”

“Hmm. Just sex, or are there feelings involved?”

The question made me uncomfortable, and I squeezed my fingers around the neck of the bottle until the threads bit into my flesh. “Just sex,” I said, though the words burned my throat.

“So, risk throwing away a friendship for a fuck that means nothing? I think your friend already knows the answer to his question.”

My anger flared and I looked up at Mike. “I didn’t say it would mean nothing. I… he likes her as a person.”

He was silent for a long moment, and I felt like his green eyes had super x-ray powers and could see directly into my brain. “The question isn’t so hypothetical to me. I’ve slept with my best friend’s sister many times.”

My mouth gaped open at his matter-of-fact pronouncement. “Seriously?”

Mike grinned, but it was a little sad. “Yes, because I was married to her.”

I shook my head to clear it. “Wait, you were friends with Savannah’s brother?”

“Best friends,” he clarified. “Dean and I served together, and since my parents were dead, I would come home with him for any holidays we got off. From the very first time I laid eyes on her…”

My attention was fully on him, though he was lost in his memories, staring out across the gym.

“She was an awesome lady, Mike,” I told him. “I only met her a handful of times, but I liked her a lot.”

“She was,” he agreed. “A light in an otherwise stormy life.”

“I’m sorry you lost her.” My voice was sincere and reverent.

“Fucking drunk drivers,” he spat. “They have no idea the damage they can cause to a family by being too selfish to call a goddamn cab. It’s like they don’t even think twice about killing someone’s entire world.”

“I’m sorry,” I said again, though the words didn’t seem nearly enough for what he’d gone through.

Mike was lost in his thoughts again, and I listened quietly. “That first Thanksgiving dinner, we couldn’t keep our eyes off each other. Dean was poking fun at me because I was dumping gravy on my green beans, but it was because I was too busy sneaking looks at his little sister to watch what I was doing.”

He stood and turned away from me, hands on his back as he stretched out his soreness. “The next time I came home with him, Savvy and I… got together. I ended up moving here from Kentucky. I told Dean it was because I didn’t have a family there anymore, but what I really wanted was to be close to her.”

He strolled absently, drifting his fingers across the ropes of the fighting ring. “We were together every time we could manage it, and when I was gone, I would call her and write her these long, sappy letters. I’m not gonna lie; the sex was explosive, but it was so much more than the other girls I’d been with. She was more.”

Turning, Mike leaned back against the ring and crossed his arms over his bare chest, a smile barely tipping his lips up. “It wasn’t just the sex though. Outside the bedroom, Savvy was easy to be with. We could sit together for hours and never get tired of each other. Though she did love to bust my balls. Did it every chance she’d get.”

“I remember,” I said with a chuckle. “She had spunk, that was for sure.” Another pretty face with a brilliant smile popped into my head. Someone who liked to bust my balls.

No, this is different, I told myself. I’m not like Mike.

“She fucking owned me before I even knew what was happening. I tried to resist at first, but she kept pulling me in. I felt guilty every time we were together, but there was no way I could stay away from her.”

“Did Dean catch you with his sister?”

“Not in the literal sense.” Mike’s eyes fogged over, and he cracked his neck with a sharp twist of his head. “We were deployed, and there was a firefight. Dean was hit multiple times.”

“Fuck,” I muttered at the direction this story had turned.

“Yeah. I dragged him between two burned out buildings to try and find some cover and get him some medical attention, but his body was like fucking swiss cheese. Dean was a tough bastard, but he and I both knew he wasn’t going to last.”

I stayed silent as Mike walked back to the fridge and pulled out a bottle of water before draining it in one long gulp. He tossed the empty bottle in the metal trash can.

“Anyway, he told me he knew what was going on between me and Savvy, and that scared me more than the bullets that were flying around us. I was so afraid he was going to use his last breath to curse me.”