His Darling Bride (Echoes of the Heart #3) Read Online Free PDF Page A

earth was she supposed to do about how badly she didn’t want to let him go?
    “Your cologne,” she whispered. “It’s . . . nice.”
    He thumbed her bottom lip. “Some men are nice, darlin’.”
    “Nice or not, you’re going to be in a world of hurt,” said an all-too-familiar masculine voice that most definitely didn’t belong to Benjie, “if you don’t take your hands off our sister.”

    Mike settled the delightful darlin’ against his side. Her petite body had gone rigid. The sweet softness that had melted into his kiss had frozen up, brittle enough to shatter. He hadn’t a clue what he’d gotten himself into. But he had no intention of getting himself out until he knew she was going to be okay.
    He studied the mountain of a man who’d spoken.
    The guy stood, arms crossed, next to the jerk whose mouthing off had been Mike’s excuse for diving headfirst into helping the auburn-haired, purple-banged pixie he’d had his eyes on since she’d claimed a corner of the bar with her girlfriends. Two equally large and angry guys flanked the mountain—all of them looking to be the same age and shaped from the same Don’t make me angry, you wouldn’t like me when I’m angry . . . mold.
    Mike’s protective instincts kicked up a notch. He edged in front of the woman her friends had called Bethany, partially shielding her. She stepped right back around him—not so much rejecting his support as not wanting to need it.
    “Bethie?” The mountain wore a navy pinstriped suit, a ruthlessly starched white shirt, and a loosened maroon tie.
    All of it was Armani, if Mike didn’t miss his guess. But the guy’s street fighter’s stance and the cold glint in his blue eyes hinted that the road to becoming whatever success he was had been neither straight nor narrow.
    “Who the hell is this?” Armani demanded.
    The dirty dog—Did a grown man really allow himself to be called Benjie ?—had puffed up again.
    “He’s the jerk who just had his tongue down your sister’s throat,” Benjie slurred, well on his way to being blackout drunk. “He’s prob ably in her pants, too. Says he’s her plus one to Dru’s wedding. I heard Bethany’d lowered her standards since I left for college.” He directed the last bit of verbal poison at the woman standing proud and tall between Mike and the others. “Must be exhausting,” he said to Bethany, “panting around Atlanta for lowlifes to hook up with.”
    “You son of a bitch,” Armani said as Mike’s hand clenched. “You need to shut up before I—”
    “Don’t,” Bethany told her brother. She glanced back at Mike, then down at his fist. “Both of you back off.”
    “Listen to her.” Benjie’s next slimy smile was for Mike. “You’ll do your time for assault, and then I’ll come after you in civil court. My parents’ lawyers are sharks. You’ll be bartending the rest of your life to cover my settlement. That’s an awful lot to put on the line for a cheap piece of country ass.”
    Armani flattened him with one lightning-fast punch.
    Benjie dropped like a stone.
    A whoop went up around the bar.
    “Oliver!” Bethany shouted over the commotion.
    Benjie pushed himself up, rolled over, and flopped back down on his ass. Armani braced to take another swing. The other brothers, none of them looking anything alike except for their size, appeared to be just as pissed and ready to wade in. Benjie shook his head, his bell clearly rung.
    “I’ll have your ass,” he slurred at all of them.
    Armani reached into his suit jacket’s inside pocket. He pulled a card from a small leather folio and tossed it to the ground.
    “Have your mommy and daddy’s legal team call me,” he said. “A half-dozen witnesses will vouch that you took the first swing.”
    “I’m in.” Bethany’s blonde girlfriend took a long pull of her Stella.
    One of the brothers stepped to her side and kissed her soundly. “My kind of woman.”
    “That’s the story as I saw it.” The