Breaking Brent by Niki Green

brother’s usual form, he didn’t let it go. Instead, he sat directly across from Jocelyn at the table and stared her down.
    “Well, since you asked I’ll tell you, but I’ll clean it up a bit for your young ears. Most girls who act like that are called a tease, pure and simple. You figure out the word that goes in front of that, little girl, and you’ll know exactly what you were acting like.” Brent inwardly winced and then covered his eyes, peeking like a kid between his fingers, and waited. He heard the chair Jocelyn was sitting in scrape the tiled floor and then heard it smack against it as it turned over.
    “I am not a cock tease! You take that back.”
    “Not goin’ to happen, doll. You act like one, you should be ready to be called one.” Brent saw Jason take another sip of his coffee before placing it back on the tabletop, scratch his chest once more, lean his chair back so it balanced on two legs and then smile Jocelyn’s way.
    Silence filled the room.
    The only noise Brent could hear were the long, deep breaths Jocelyn brought in and out of her body. The seconds ticked by and Brent waited for the ticking time bomb to explode.
    Brent watched as she rolled her shoulders, took a deep breath and smiled sweetly in Jason’s direction. She bent at the waist, returned her chair to its original position, grabbed her bowl and spoon and walked with the dirty dishes to the sink located directly behind Jason’s chair.
    She brushed invisible crumbs off her hands as she moved slowly and with purpose toward Jason. She placed her hands on the back of the reclined seat and leaned in close to his ear and then retaliated, loud enough for Brent to hear as well as Jason.
    “I think you’re just jealous,” she said into Jason’s left ear. “I think you’re jealous because it’s not your cock I’m teasing.”
    Brent saw Jason suck in a chest full of air, watched as his eyes widened and blazed. He struggled to set all four legs on the floor and grab at the little imp grinning over her short-lived victory.
    He never made it.
    Jason lost his balance and crashed to the kitchen floor, making every plate, bowl and glass they owned rumble and tumble along with him.
    The look he gave Jocelyn told her to run and run fast. And she knew it. Before Jason could get to his feet, Jocelyn was out the door and running at her full speed toward the main house.
    “No wonder Harrison has her on a leash.” He growled from the floor. He pulled his body from the tile and took a seat in the chair. He was quiet for only a minute before his temper got the best of him. “Damn it. I am so sick of her…her…her temper tantrums.” He took another sip from his mug, burned his tongue once more and swore a line of profanities until Brent figured the sting subsided.
    “Maybe the leash is the reason she’s acting out the way she is. Maybe she just needs a little bit of freedom.” Brent walked to the counter and refilled his cup, all the while feeling his brother’s stare burning a hole in his back. When he turned, Jason’s scowl pierced into him. “What?”
    “Maybe she needs a little bit of freedom? Acting out? What the hell are you talking about?”
    “I don’t know. Maybe she just needs a little room to spread her wings.” Jocelyn wasn’t a bad kid. He frowned at the moniker. He needed to quit thinking of her as a kid. She wasn’t one. No more than Nick or Hayden were kids. There were only a couple of years separating Jocelyn from Hayden and even less between her and Nick. They both had turned twenty-two just months apart, leaving Hayden as the baby at nineteen, even though some days he seemed to be the ripe old age of twelve. One mark Jocelyn had against her was that she was female. A female living among a den of males, with her father being the alpha controlling her. As long as she lived in his house she went by his rules and so on and so forth.
    “You have lost your mind. Telling Jocelyn to spread her wings and live a little is