“I knew that too. I figured the money I make off the back of these fights could help us build a decent future. I don’t have anything else I can do, Harper. This is who I am.”
I could have spent the rest of the afternoon talking about all the wonderful things that made up Brandon Mathers. Reminded him of what he had to offer the world that didn’t involve fists and getting hurt. But I knew that wasn’t the point. He didn’t need to hear that from me, not at that moment. What he needed was my support.
“I know who you are.” I laid my hand on his chest and felt the racing beat of his anxiety held deep within.
He took a long, drawn breath, and what he said next made my heart want to burst out of my chest and fall at his feet.
“I won’t do it if you don’t want me to. You’ll always come first with me. Always.”
I needed to add selfless to the list of what I loved about him, because right now, he was putting his whole life on the line for me.
“What sort of girlfriend would I be if I stopped you doing something you loved? A pretty shitty one, I reckon.” I lifted my head up to look him right in his eyes. I needed him to really hear me. “Do I like that you’ll be getting into a fight with some random guy who might beat the shit out of you? No. Will I stop you doing it? Also no.”
He dropped his forehead softly against mine.
“I don’t want to upset you. If this is gonna cause a problem for us or make you want to end this then I’ll walk away from Pat this second. I’ll ring him now.”
“No. Don’t.” I stroked his bristly jaw and gave him a gentle peck on the lips. “This might make me a little… nervous. But it won’t change the way I feel about you. Why would it?”
He screwed his eyes closed as he kept his face close to mine.
“You don’t need the stress. You could find yourself a great guy with a posh office job; a career and a decent pension plan.”
“What? Like Jensen?” I scoffed. “Fuck that. I don’t want a great guy. I have the best sat right in front of me. I want you.”
He opened his eyes to look at me and he smiled, making my heart do a little flip and my stomach go from knotted to fluttering butterflies instantly.
“Even if I end up with a broken nose and cauliflower ears?”
I rubbed my nose against his and put both of my hands on either side of his face.
“I’ll wipe your wounds and kiss them all better.”
I gave him another gentle kiss, and just as I felt like it might go deeper, he pulled away, making me give a little groan.
“Will you be there?” he asked. “I mean, would you come and watch?”
“Of course I would! Did you think I’d sit at home watching T.V. like nothing was happening? How could I, when you’re going through something like that? I might hate it, but I’ll be the first one to stand there and cheer you on. I’ll cheer the fucking place down… Unless you don’t want me there?”
“I want you there,” he said, but I wasn’t sure he truly meant it. He seemed apprehensive.
“Talk to me. You don’t sound convinced.”
“I don’t want you to have any flashbacks. You know, after last time.”
He really was putting me first. Taking my feelings into consideration and second guessing everything.
“I’ll be fine. The last thing I want you to do when you’re supposed to be focusing and studying your opponent is thinking about me and what happened. You need your head in the game. That’s how you’ll win, and you will win. You’ll beat the shit out of whoever it is, and you’ll come home to me. That’s how I’ll get through it. You’re the best, Brandon. You are amazing. Never doubt that. I know it, Pat knows it, and soon everyone else in the boxing world will know it too. I’d never hold you back. I’ll always be holding you up.”
He put his strong arms around me and hugged me tightly. I hugged him back with as much strength as I could muster. Any fears I had needed to be boxed up, locked away, and buried as deep as possible, as far as I was concerned.
“You’re a fucking awesome girlfriend. I bloody love you,” he said and pushed me backwards onto his bed.
I fell back with my hair fanned across his pillow and I laughed. He crawled up over me and the weight of his body on top of mine pushed me into the soft, lumpy mattress.
He started to kiss my neck and squeeze my ass as his hips ground into me. I couldn’t let myself go though. Not with Grannie Grim sitting downstairs.
“Brandon, your nan.” I gasped as he worked his way round to that sweet spot behind my ears.
“What about her?”
“She’s downstairs. We can’t do anything.”
He lifted his head slightly then reached over to his bedside table to grab his alarm clock.
“It’s seven p.m. She goes to bingo on Sundays at seven. Give her a minute and she’ll be out the door. She never misses bingo.”
We both stayed still, listening out for a tell-tale sign that she was leaving, and sure enough, a few seconds later we heard the front door shut.
“See. Told you.” He smiled to himself as he went back to kissing my neck, spreading goosebumps all over my body.
I could tell he had wicked thoughts and even more wicked intentions. But so did I.
I wriggled my hips underneath him and he chuckled.
“Now she’s interested.”
“I’m always interested.” I nipped his earlobe, and he moved his attention from my neck to my lips, taking the kiss deeper and driving me crazy with the way his tongue slid so deliciously over mine.
His lips were made to fit perfectly with mine. He was such a good kisser, and I ran my fingers through his hair, feeling like I needed to get even closer.
I heard a growl low in his throat, and he stopped the kiss to tell me, “I love the way you scratch your nails on me. Do it everywhere, baby. Mark me everywhere. I’m yours.”
Hearing him say those words flipped a switch inside me, and I grabbed the bottom of his t-shirt and ripped it up and over his head.
“Damn, baby. You need me bad, don’t you?” He chuckled, going back to sucking and nibbling my neck then working down to my shoulder.
“I always want you,” I said in a breathy voice that made him moan and bite down on my neck then kiss over the sting. “I want you bad, Brandon.”
“Only way I know how to be.” He lifted himself up to look at me and the twinkle in his eyes made my lust levels go from abso-fucking-lutely smoking, to hell-would-complain-about-these-heat-levels.
“Bring it on.” I grinned back and he gave an evil cackle, settling back onto his knees and pulling my t-shirt up and over my head. His eyes burned when he looked down at me lying in my red lacy bra.
“My favourite colour,” he said, leaning forward and squeezing my tits in his hands. Then he put his mouth over one and sucked me through the lace. He soon got tired of having a barrier though and snaked his arm around my back to snap my bra open and pull it off.
He kissed over my chest and groaned. “I really wanna fuck your tits.” Then he popped a nipple into his mouth and sucked hard, making me hiss and arch my back. “Every inch of you is so fuckable.”
I closed my eyes and grabbed a fistful of his hair, crying out for him to do whatever he wanted to me. I could take it. I could handle anything he had to give.
“It’s a good job you said that.” He smiled. “Because I had absolutely no intention of holding back.”
He lifted himself up off me and yanked the buttons of my skinny jeans open. Then he pulled them down my legs, complaining as he did that they were, “too fucking hard to get off in a hurry. Save these for the days when we can’t fuck.”
I laughed and wiggled my hips to help him, and eventually he got them off and threw them over his shoulder. He licked his lips when he saw my red thong and bent down to kiss in-between my legs. Then he took the lace material in his teeth and pulled them down to my thighs, but he got too impatient and used his hands to pull them the rest of the way down.
I
was laid out for him. Totally naked and very turned on.
Luckily, he had his sweats on. He’d made it a lot easier for me than I had for him. So, when I sat up and curled my fingers into the waistband, they slid off with little effort. His cock sprung out long and thick and pointed right at my face.
What was a girl to do in that situation?
I grinned and quirked my eyebrow at him, kneeling on the bed like he was.
“Are you just gonna look at it or are you gonna suck it like I want you to?” he asked in a gravelly voice.
“I’ll do anything you ask me to,” I answered, leaning forward and running my tongue along the underside and then across the head.
He wrapped his hand around his cock and then grabbed the back of my head with the other, showing me exactly how he wanted it. He wanted it deep, hard, and intense. He wanted me to suck him good.
I put my hands around his hips, gripping his ass and pulling him into me. His cock hit the back of my throat, but I wouldn’t gag. I wanted to take all of him, every inch. So I coaxed him deeper and deeper into my throat until he moaned loudly. I sucked and let him swivel his hips as he fucked my mouth.
“You suck my cock so good, baby,” he groaned, and I looked up through my watery eyes as he gazed down at me. “I fucking love it. I love you.” He ran his hand tenderly under my chin and I could feel him thicken and pulse inside me. I loved that I made him feel like that.
He did a few more hard, forceful thrusts, and then he pulled out. I wiped my mouth and was about to question what he was doing when he flipped me over so I was face down on the bed.
“Ass in the air, baby. I wanna fuck you hard from behind and watch my cock sinking into your tight little pussy.”
I tingled from his words alone.
“How high do you want me?” I asked, lifting up on all fours and glancing seductively over my shoulder at him as he palmed his cock and stared at my ass.
“Head down, remember. Ass as high as it’ll go.” I did as he told me, and he put his arm under my hips and pulled me up even higher. “Good girl.”
He leant over to open his bedside table and take out a condom. I heard the rustle of the packaging as he put it on. Then I felt him run his cock in-between my legs, teasing my folds and rubbing against my clit. His breathing became deeper, more of a pant, as he started to slide slowly into me, then he whispered, “Hold on to the bed. This could get bumpy.”
I reached my hand forward, and I’m glad I did, because he slammed into me hard and made me scream out loud with how fucking amazing it felt to be filled by him like this. My body jerked forward, and I cried his name as he pounded into me. The bed shook and the floorboards creaked, but we didn’t care. We both wanted it hard and fast. I pushed back into him, tilting my ass to take him as deep as I could, moving my hips to get better friction. When he reached his hand around and started to circle my clit as he was thrusting into me, I lost it completely. I begged him to fuck me harder, give me everything he had. I didn’t hold back and neither did he. We were like two animals that’d been lost in the wild for a lifetime. We couldn’t get enough.
“I. Fucking. Love. You,” he stated on every hard thrust.
“I love you,” I managed to gasp in between my breathy pants.
He pounded into me and I couldn’t get enough. Each thrust felt more divine than the last.
“Oh, Brandon.” I used both hands to brace myself against the headboard. “I’m gonna come so hard.”
“Yeah, you are,” he said, working himself deeper and deeper, harder and harder.
I tried to hold it, but I couldn’t. My walls contracted tightly around him and my whole body started to quiver with the force of my orgasm. I was no longer in control of my body, he was.
“That’s it, baby. Milk my cock,” he moaned, but he wasn’t done with me yet. He swivelled his hips and kept on grinding into me, making me shake and whimper. Everything was so sensitive, so heightened. The way he gripped my hips, the feel of him slamming into me and the sound of his moans all sent me spiralling into a euphoria I never wanted to leave. Then, without warning, I climaxed again. Wave after wave of the most amazing aftershocks rippled through me and I cried into his pillow. I’d never felt anything like it. Brandon owned me, body, mind and soul.
“So fucking perfect.” He grunted and then I felt him thicken inside me and groan as he came hard. His hands held me tightly in place as he rode out his orgasm, and I turned my head on the pillow to watch as a look of pure love and satisfaction washed over him. He gazed down to where we were joined like it was the most beautiful thing he’d ever seen.
“I fucking love you, Harper,” he said before he covered me with his whole frame and pulled me down to lie next to him on the bed.
We were both panting and covered in sweat, but we didn’t care. We were only bothered about being close to each other, lying in each other’s arms.
“That was amazing,” I whispered.
“It always is with you.”
We stayed entwined for a little while longer, but eventually, he had to take care of the condom, and like the true gent he was, he brought a warm cloth back to clean me up. I had plans for a shower together, but the cloth would have to do for now.
As I lay in his arms, basking in that indescribable afterglow, the memory of what his nan had said sprang clear into my mind.
“Do you have a photo of me?” I couldn’t see his reaction because I was nestled into his chest and he wouldn’t let me go, but I felt his muscles clench and heard him take a breath.
“Did you look in my drawers when I was in the bathroom?”
“No. I’m not a snoop. It’s just, your nan said you have a picture of a girl and she thought it was me.”
He sighed and rolled me off his chest. I didn’t like that. Was he pushing me away?
I watched him push up onto his elbow and then reach forward to open the drawer in question. When he pulled a familiar frame out, I gasped.
“Where did you get this?” I said, taking the frame out of his hands and then mentally face-palming myself.
The night he broke into our house, that’s when he got it, dummy.
“I took it. It’s my favourite picture of you. I love the way your eyes sparkle at the camera. You’re so happy. When I saw that, on the night I… well, you know. I had to take it. It was a reminder for me.”
“A reminder of what?” I asked gently. I knew this meant a lot to him. I could tell by the softness of his voice, and the way he looked at me like I was made of china.
“It reminds me of what you’ve lost. You’ve lost a lot because of me… But that sparkle in your eyes? I wanted to give that back to you. I wanted to see that happiness on your face again. That photo reminded me what I needed to do. I’m not giving it back,” he stated firmly.
“How did we not notice it was missing?” I asked, more to myself than to him. It only highlighted the fact that both my parents and I had been walking around in a daze for so long. We didn’t even notice when things went missing right under our noses. “Brodie took that photo. It was our last family holiday. We went skiing in Switzerland.”
Brandon grew stiff next to me, and I knew this wasn’t the right time to bring up anything about my brother.
“I love that photo,” he added, before he took it out of my hands and placed it on the bedside table.
“You can keep it.”
“I wasn’t planning on giving it back.”
“You don’t need it as a reminder though. You have me. All you need to do is look at me and you’ll find that sparkle again. You did that for me. You gave it back to me.”
He grabbed me into a hug and buried his face into my neck. I loved when he did that.
“My forever. That’s what you are,” he said in a muffled voice against my skin.
“Promise?” I asked, running my nails across his scalp the way I knew he liked.
“Do you honestly think I’d ever let you go? You’re it for me, Harper Yates. Bloody hate your surname tho
ugh. We may need to do something about changing that soon. Mathers suits you better.”
“All in good time, big man,” I said, smiling and curling into him like a pet monkey. “We have all the time in the world.”
He pulled away and his face faltered slightly.
“Do we though? Have all the time, I mean? If there’s one thing we both know it’s that life is precious. It changes in an instant. I don’t want to wait around, Harper. I’m an impatient bastard. If I know what I want, I just take it. And I want you.”
“You’ve got me.” I kissed him and felt the heat between us start to rise again. Looked like Brandon’s bedroom slash sex den was going to be my new favourite place to hang out.
After another round of energetic, toe-curling sex that’d probably really pissed off the neighbours, we resigned ourselves to the fact that we couldn’t stay in bed forever, and put our clothes back on. Brandon held my hand and led me out onto the landing, and I felt torn, knowing I had to leave. I had stuff to do in the morning. But I didn’t want to go.
We started to walk down the stairs and then froze when we heard a croaky voice humming from the kitchen.
“I thought you said she’d gone out?” I whisper-yelled at him.
“I thought she had.”
We crept down the stairs, trying not to alert her to our presence, and partly because I was too embarrassed to face her, but that old woman could give a ninja a run for their money. I could see where Brandon got his stalker skills from.
“Leaving already?” she shouted out of the doorway as my foot hit the last step. “Mind you, sounds like you got what you came here for.”
I hit my forehead on Brandon’s back and let out a deep sigh. Great way to impress the family, Harper.
“Nan. Why aren’t you at the bingo?” Brandon asked sharply, turning around to take me in his arms.
I didn’t want to have to face his nan, but I had no choice. I needed to man-up.
“Bingo was cancelled this week. Something to do with the water pipes or some crap like that.” The clatter of cutlery and banging of cups told us she wasn’t happy.
“But I heard you go out.”
Tortured Souls (Rebels of Sandland Book 2) Page 26