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She strode around the long counter, dipped into the refrigerator, and reemerged with a bottle of rosé.

She grabbed two glasses, then strode over to the table.

She poured the pink bubbly into stemmed glasses, and we both sat as she slid one to me.

She lifted hers, and her voice shifted in wryness. “To the pride and agony of loving men who aren’t afraid to fight for what’s right.”

I chuckled a heavy sound and clinked my glass against hers. “It’s not an easy lot, is it?”

Brinley’s expression dimmed. “No,” she whispered. “I never imagined my life would be like this. Sometimes it doesn’t seem real. Like I’m living in some sort of fabricated story I’ve conjured in my mind.”

Then she sent me a wild grin. “I mean, it should be impossible for a man to be as hot as your brother and this good in bed. I’m clearly delusional and dreaming it all.”

I choked over a laugh. “None of these boys should be real.”

I mean, I could hardly imagine what they were engaged in right then. The savagery they possessed. The horror of what it might look like.

“But things got real with you and Trevan…” Brinley pressed, arching a brow.

I knew she’d barely been able to contain herself from asking the entire evening.

A flush rushed to my cheeks. I imagined they were even pinker than the wine. I took a steeling sip of it, rolling the sweetness over my tongue.

“We almost had sex this morning…”

She shot forward, but kept her scream concealed, mouthing, “Oh my God. I knew it. I knew that man wouldn’t be able to keep his hands off you. I could feel you two getting ready to explode last night at the party.”

“Don’t celebrate too hard,” I told her. “He…” I shook my head at the memory, trying to process what it all meant.

The way he’d treated me like glass in the shower after. What had been in his eyes.

“He thinks it’s wrong to have me,” I whispered into the tension that floated the room. “Thinks protecting me should be his only role in my life. He doesn’t think it’s right for him to look at me any other way than as a little sister.”

Brinley’s eyebrows jumped for the ceiling. “Um, I can assure you that man doesn’t look at you like you’re his little sister. But he thinks it’s his duty to view you that way. With the rules your brother has made?”

I flinched. “Those rules aren’t fair.”

“Not in the least, and I’m trying to convince him of it. But it’s hard for him to trust any man to be around you, let alone get close to you.”

Sympathy filled Brinley’s tone.

“But this is Trevan we’re talking about. How could he not trust him?”

Her shrug wasn’t light. “I’m not sure your brother can see a single person as worthy of you. He doesn’t think this life is worthy of you. He blames himself for everything that happened to your family, and I think the only thing he can process is the need to protect you from everything that transpired from it. He was terrified of letting me into it. Of bringing Kai into it. And he hates that you’re a part of it now.”

“I wouldn’t want to be anywhere else. This is my home, and I believe in the Crimson Crows’ mission every bit as much as he does.”

She took a sip of her wine and blew out a sigh as her gaze drifted over the quiet murmur of the room. “He still wants to protect you from it. The thought of something bad happening to you…” She looked back over at me. “To any one of us? He carries that like a millstone around his neck.”

“Love is never a burden.” I repeated what Meems had told us our whole lives.

Adoration spun her mouth into a soft smile. “No, it shouldn’t be, should it? But sometimes, it bears a weight. The weight of worry and dread and the possibility of grief.”

“But it’s worth it,” I said.

Her nod was knowing. “Yeah. I believe that it is.”

“And I just want Trevan to love me back.”