Thomas was an athletic, damn handsome guy with smoky dark gray eyes, long black hair, and skin so perfectly tanned that Sam was pretty sure he lay sliver of fiber naked in the summer sun. How did she know that? Thomas presented as much bare skin as he could on every conceivable occasion.

Just like today. Samantha bit back a grin as Thomas swept past a young waitress, ignoring the poor thing who nearly dropped her glasses for being so outspoken once more. He had pulled on a rumpled dark shirt that hung open around his finely defined, lean frame while the top button of his jeans was undone and sat damn low on his hips.

He was a sight to the gods, most women would say once they saw his assets. It was only later that they realized that Thomas himself was not interested in the female assets presented to him. His sunshine-like disposition was as engaging as that perfectly surrounded aura that screamed in everyone's face, I'm gay and damn proud of it.

"Sami, my star in the eye!" Thomas exclaimed, who took her in his arms effusively and pressed her to his bare chest, while Sam warmly returned the stormy hug.

She liked Thomas, he had been Killian's best friend for as long as she could remember and for her as much a brother as her own.

"Hello, TomTom. Heartbroken already today?" Sam asked jokingly, whereupon Thomas demonstrated his seductive crooked smile.

"Jealous, Sami? You know I'd be happy to be your virginity research subject, anytime." Sam didn't lose her smile at the wicked invitation.

When she was younger, such an offer from Thomas would have brought her red cheeks and a pounding heart, but now she interpreted his flirtations as what they were: pep talk from a good friend who was trying to get her mind off things: "I think if I ever went into it, I'd have to call it quits early to give you enough head start to see Killian." to escape."

Thomas grinned wider, put an arm around her shoulder and strolled down the aisle with her.

"Oh, your brother is an even bigger grouch than usual. I'm glad you're there to take his mind off things. But you might want to stay away from Gideon in the future. Killian overheard a comment about your ass slipping out after you entered. So don't add fuel to the fire."

Gideon the bouncer. The six-foot-tall guy with dark skin and a fierce look that turned into something hungry whenever she caught his eye.

He'd never touched Sam or exchanged only one private word with her, but his interest was obvious. Killian had thought about firing him more than once before, but had always dismissed it because Gideon always kept a respectful distance.

"So today I can only be with you flirt?" Sam asked, pouting where Thomas let his hand slide off her shoulder and cup her waist.

"My eyes, please spare me. Even my homosexuality has limits and if anyone can pull me over the edge, it's you with your pouty lips." She loved to flirt precisely because Killian didn't like it at all and apart from the fact that she liked her brother with his protective posturing...she just loved it.

Samantha wasn't shy, quite the contrary. The knowledge that she could always hide behind her big brother had even made her quite naughty at times. Plus, she didn't date and craved it to gain their first experience.

"Always these empty promises and then all I get is a kiss again." On her sixteenth birthday, Thomas had stolen her first kiss in front of her brother and the entire clique - which was also hers - because Killian had said a few minutes earlier that the guy he allowed that to be gay. Thomas had a lot of fun teasing his best friend about it today.

"But don't worry, I'm here to finish my essay, nothing more." She said and laid her head briefly on his shoulder, while Thomas kissed her on the tip of the nose.

"Then you're not hiding from your father?" he asked and the smile left Sam's face. Actually, it had been clear that Killian and thus Thomas himself would find out they weren't idiots after all and Samantha was actually pretty easy to read.

She bit her lip and looked down. Thomas sighed, stopped with her and looked at her piercingly. "You have a good heart, Sami, but you have to stop protecting your mother. She's grown up and she'll never be able to completely break away from your father. And Killian can't protect you if you don't tell us that he's back home." Even after her father's attempted assault on Samantha, her mother hadn't been able to divorce him. It had been Killian, hers kicked my father out of the apartment to give his mother and sister the space they needed, but things hadn't really gotten any better.

Even without her father's presence, her mother remained trapped in her depression and although Killian had pleaded with his sister more than once to move in with him or let him find her own apartment, Samantha didn't have the heart to leave her mother alone.

There were also good days with her, beautiful days. With waffles for breakfast and a mother-daughter movie night. But those days were becoming rarer, especially now that her father had reentered her mother's life and with it hers.

It started with visits while Samantha was at the college, hourly. He seemed to have been decent, sober. But it wasn't just the alcohol that made her father the monster he was. As the visits became more frequent, her mother had made her promise not to tell Killian about it. Her mother firmly believed that her husband had reformed.

But Samantha was still scared. Fear that drove her to come here when she discovered her father's shoes in the hallway of the apartment.

"I'm not ready to give up my mother yet, but I'm not stupid enough to sleep in my room when he's in the apartment."

Thomas nodded in understanding and caressed her cheeks with his finger. He seemed satisfied with the answer, put an arm around her again and pulled her further down the corridor until they entered the front door of the lounge, where her brother is supposed to be.