It Must Be Your Love (The Sullivans #11)(34)

“I can’t believe you just did that!”

She looked furious and embarrassed, but Ian was so lost in his haze of fury that he couldn’t stop himself from shooting back, “I can’t believe you were in there with that scumbag!” He worked to pull away from her grip. “You and I are going to have a long talk about just what the hell you were doing later. After I tear him to pieces.”

“No!” She yanked harder on his suit jacket, until they both heard a seam begin to tear. “I can handle him myself.”

“That was handling him?” He cursed, one harsh word that landed between them like a stone. “Did you want him to kiss you?”

She paused just a little too long before sighing and saying, “You know what, I actually think I did.”

“Damn it, Mia, it’s my job to protect you. You’ve got to let me—”

“If you do one more thing to embarrass me like that again, I’ll never forgive you.”

His sister had always been full of fire, but he’d never seen her quite this worked up.

“You know I’d never do anything to hurt you,” he tried to explain in a calm, reasonable voice, “but I can’t let anyone else hurt you, either. And I’ve known guys like him. They’re too rich, too famous, to think they need to play by anyone else’s rules. You’ve got to understand that.”

Now that they were standing behind a large hedge of roses, she’d relaxed her grip on his jacket. “I do understand. And you’ve been the best big brother ever, but what happened between me and Ford isn’t something I want anyone to know about until I’ve figured out exactly how I feel about him. This reaction you’re having is exactly why I didn’t tell you about him five years ago.”

Ian’s blood pressure shot all the way back up as he asked, “You didn’t just meet him here today? What the hell, Mia? How could you keep a secret like this from me?”

“Because if you’re acting like this when I’m a twenty-eight-year-old woman who runs her own very successful business, how do you think you would have reacted five years ago if I’d come to you and said, ‘Guess what, big brother, I’m dating a rock star. Can I have your blessing?’ Would you have actually given it to me?”

He had to admit, “I would have hunted him down.”

“Exactly. And the thing is, you’ve always let me make my own mistakes in business, but never with love.” She put her hand on his arm more softly now. “I know you don’t ever want me to get hurt, but what if falling in love sometimes means risking enough to royally screw up a few times along the way?”

Intellectually, Ian knew his sister was an adult. But there was a big difference between respecting her business acumen...and accepting that she could lose her heart to some douchebag without his being able to protect her.

“So you’ve been together with him for five years without any of us knowing?”

“No. It was just one week. I didn’t see him again until a couple of days ago.”

“What does he want now that he’s back?” She’d never been able to lie to him, and he knew how difficult it must have been for her to keep her relationship with Ford a secret for so long. “Apart from the obvious,” he added in frustration.

“A fresh start.”

Ian wanted answers to a dozen other questions, but there was really only one that mattered. “Are you in love with him?”

His sister sighed again, and there was so much pain in the sound and in the expression on her face that Ian put his arms around her.

“Once upon a time I thought I was, and then I was sure that I wasn’t.” She laughed against his chest, but there was no humor in it, only frustration. She pulled back to look up at him. “Have you ever wanted to punch and kiss someone at the same time?”

He grimaced. “Please don’t remind me of that kiss again if you want me to keep my fists from changing the entire shape of his face.”

“Does that mean you’ve agreed to stay on your side of the ring today?”

This time he was the one sighing. “For today,” he agreed against his better judgment. “But no promises come twelve-oh-one.”

She laid her cheek against his chest and snuggled against him the way she always had from the time she was a baby. When their mother hadn’t been able to get her to stop crying as a little girl, all Claudia Sullivan had to do was hand Mia over to Ian and she’d immediately settle.

They’d always been so close that he hated to think she’d kept something from him because she thought he couldn’t handle it. Then again, he’d never really talked with her about his marriage, had he? Both of them had kept secrets from each other, and even now that she’d told him hers, he was still keeping his.

Forcing down his frustration at not being able to deal with Ford the way he wanted to, Ian gently brushed her hair back from her forehead. “Looks like they’re ready for pictures with you now.”

Mia stepped back and smoothed a hand over her dress. “Do I look okay?”

“You’re absolutely beautiful, as always, little girl.”

“And you’re devastatingly handsome, as always, big brother.” As the two of them headed toward the area where the wedding photos were being taken, she said, “I wonder what Tatiana is thinking after what she saw?”