My Best Friend's Brother

by Candy Gray

  “What’s for dinner?” I asked.

  “You’ll see.”

  We rode through the town before we hit the main highway, leaving all the restaurants I knew about behind us. I knew about the types of restaurants L.A. had: there were the vegetarian restaurants and the hipster cafes. There were the high-profile restaurants and the specialty ones. Then, there were the ones men brought their girlfriends to when they knew they’d fucked up. Ones with ambiance that dripped of ‘sorry sex’ and served only aphrodisiacs for meals in order to bring couples closer together.

  They made their money by temporarily fixing other people’s problems, but all those restaurants faded into the background while we cruised the coastline of the beach.

  “Thomas?” I asked.

  “Just hang on,” he said.

  He slipped his hand over to me, and I felt his fingertips dance along my knee. I was furious at him for thinking he could whisk me away like this when I knew he’d been with another woman. I was enraged at the fact that his touch still melted me, even though I knew he’d been sinking it into another woman for weeks.

  He wasn’t getting out of this that easily.

  By the time we pulled to a stop, we were parked just beyond the beach. He got out of his car and opened my door for me, but all I could do was stare in confusion. He offered me his hand, and I took it mindlessly. My stomach slowly dropped to the ground when I saw the line of rose petals cresting the sand dune he expected me to walk up in those heels.

  That is, until he swept me off my feet and walked me over the sand dune himself.

  “Thomas, what the hell’s going on?” I asked.

  “You can’t walk this sand dune in those shoes, though I might ask you to keep them on later,” he said.

  “You’re not touching me until we talk,” I said with a growl.

  “Fair enough.”

  He set me back on my feet when we got to the beach, and my heels sank into the sand. We were surrounded with red rose petals and the crashing of the waves against the shore, and my eyes connected with his for a split second before I remembered why I was here.

  “Thomas—”

  “Just let me go first,” he said.

  I heard footsteps behind us and turned around to see Lacey and his parents, and I wondered what he had trapped me into. Maybe he knew what was coming, and he thought if his family was here, I wouldn’t accuse him. Maybe this was some sort of ploy to manipulate me and keep me around for my fame and fortune, or maybe he was about to spring the media on me and spill my secret to the world for a lifetime’s worth of money.

  But everything fell to the wayside when Thomas dropped down onto one knee and pulled a box from his pocket.

  “I’ve seen your suspicious looks for the past few weeks, and I know what you’re thinking. You’re wondering if I was seeing someone else. If I had somehow given up on us but didn’t want to let you go because of your money.”

  “Thomas,” I said breathlessly.

  “And it’s all right you thought that. I promise. But it’s not what you think.”

  He cracked the box open to reveal the most beautiful diamond ring I had ever seen. The three-carat ring had one light pink stone in the middle with beautiful yellow ones cascading down the sides. It glistened in the moonlight as tears rose to my eyes, and my hands flew to my face while Lacey squealed with delight in the background.

  “You are, without a doubt, the greatest thing that has ever happened to me. Moving into that home with you and creating this life with you has been one of the best blessings my life has ever received. I see you with Lacey, and it warms my heart. I watch you laugh with my parents, and it brings a joy to my soul I’ve never experienced. I hold you close to my body at night, and I bury my face into your hair, and the moment I wake up, my heart is filled with every single emotion a man in love could feel.”

  “Thomas,” I whispered.

  “There are no words to describe what you’ve brought to my life, but I do have the words to tell you that I don’t want to let you go. I don’t want another day to go by where you question where my loyalty lies or where my body lies. I don’t want another moment to go by where you question what might happen in the future or what will happen if this falls apart. I love you, Bridget Meyers, with every single part of my being. Will you marry me so I can spend the rest of my life protecting you and giving you exactly what you deserve?”

  “And what is it I deserve?” I asked.

  Thomas stood up and plucked the ring from the little velvet case, taking my left hand within his before he poised the ring at the tip of my finger. I could feel his hands shaking around mine, with all of his energy flowing directly into this very moment while he hung onto every word that flew from between my lips.

  “The world,” he said.

  “Yes,” I said, nodding relentlessly. “Yes, yes, yes! I’ll marry you!”

  He slipped that beautiful ring onto my finger, and I threw my arms around his neck. I heard his parents clapping as he picked me up and swung me around, but when my feet hit the sand, I felt a small hand tug at my dress.

  “Bridget?” Lacey asked.

  “Yes, baby?”

  “Will you be my mommy?” she asked.

  Tears streamed down my face as I picked her up and swung her around. I planted kisses all over her face while she giggled and kicked in my grasp, and then I set her down and cupped her beautiful face with my hands.

  “I would love to be your mommy,” I said.

  I wrapped her up in my arms once again before Thomas wrapped both of us up in his. I didn’t know how I could’ve been so stupid as to think this beautiful man would wander off on me like that, but as his grip tightened, I realized I would never feel anything but this for the rest of my life. I felt beautiful, loved, and protected in the arms of this man, and I’d spend every waking moment of my life making sure Lacey was happy and making sure Thomas knew how happy he made me.

  Every single day and every single night.

  “Come on, you guys!” Mr. Jeffries called out. “I’m hungry!”

  “Not gonna lie, but I kinda am, too,” Mrs. Jeffries said.

  “How about it?” I asked. “You hungry, Lacey?”

  “Always!” she exclaimed.

  “What would you like to eat?” Thomas asked her.

  “Could we have macaroni and cheese and popsicles?” she asked.

  “We can do a popsicle when we get home,” I said.

  “But macaroni and cheese for dinner, right?” Lacey asked.

  “Whatever you want,” I said.

  “Exactly,” Thomas said as my eyes fluttered up to him. “Whatever you want.”

  And as his eyes stared directly into mine, I rose up on my toes and captured his lips in a kiss underneath the light of the ocean moon.

  ***The End***

  Continue on to read ‘Claiming Cinderella – A Dirty, Billionaire Fairy Tale Romance’

  Claiming Cinderella

  A Dirty Billionaire Fairy Tale

  Description

  I'm supposed to marry a princess, but I'd settle for a Cinderella.

  Promises and commitments? Nah…that’s not me.

  So, when mother asks me to marry a rich high society girl,

  I have a flawless game plan.

  I invite locals to the masquerade party.

  And when I see her pleading with the gateman,

  My heart skips a beat.

  Seems like she’s bribed God himself to hook her up.

  One look into her ocean blue eyes

  And I know I am in trouble.

  I want to feel her all over, kiss those f*ckable lips, sm*ck that round a$$ and have her in more ways than one.

  She’s come to my party.

  And now, I’ll have her coming all night long….

  But why am I dreaming about…..a future?

  I don’t do commitments. That’s not me!

  Chapter 1

  Ella

  If there was one thing about my job t
hat I hated more than anything, it was that I was constantly having to argue. Today it was the personal chef for the Blue family, Jon Staff, who was being resistant. I couldn’t blame him. “Do they ever realize that they aren’t the only people in this house? I can’t just change the entire weekly breakfast rotation without asking their mother, and she’s said no a thousand times.” He was shaking his spatula at me, but I knew his anger was directed at my clients, Halle and Sadie Blue, also known as the Blue Twins, daughters of rock icon, Scott Blue, and the just turned twenty-one reality stars who I’d worked for a grand total of three weeks. The hardest three weeks of my life.

  It wasn’t as if the job itself was hard, but since the two were a pair of the biggest spoiled brats I’d ever met, much less worked for, it wasn’t a cake walk either.

  “I’ll pass that along, but they’re just going to send me back. Maybe I could ask Nola? Surely changing the breakfast menu isn’t that big of a deal?”

  “They’re sending you on a fool’s errand. Nola will never allow such changes, and because of her food allergies, I’ve got to keep things the way she wants them. The family always has breakfast together.” I wasn’t sure why he hadn’t just told me that to begin with, but I had a feeling that the Twins were in on that too.

  I didn’t say a word as I turned around and headed for the stairs. I had to go over their weekly schedules and make sure everything was coordinated and luckily their reality show was on break. The writers were busy writing their scripts so that their lives would look more meaningful and counter the bad press the girls had recently landed themselves in.

  Halle, the older of the two had gained attention when her ex-boyfriend released nudes she’d sent him, and then, of course, there was the rumored sex tape that was reported to have been confiscated, including both sisters, together, showing a bit more than your normal sisterly love. But nothing had yet surfaced.

  Sadie, the younger by three minutes, was the quiet one of the bunch, and that didn’t make her any easier to deal with. On the contrary, it made her a proper psychopath. She was a ticking time bomb waiting to explode, and her temper had gotten the best of her three months earlier when she’d wrecked her car and punched a paparazzi.

  I walked up the stairs on my way to their suite of the Blue Mansion, where I’d lived since taking on the job per request of Nola Blue, who was my mother’s best friend before she died of breast cancer.

  She’d been a famous jewelry designer, but apparently, it wasn’t enough to leave me anything. Most of her fortune, even our small beach house, had been confiscated. Nola was not only helping me out by letting me be the twin’s personal assistant, but she was handling all my debts as well.

  As I hit the top landing, I took a right and went into their wing of the grand estate. Sadie was on the couch, and she waved me away before I could say a word. I headed into the bedroom like I’d done a million times before, but on this occasion, Halle wasn’t alone.

  She was bent over the side of the bed, her legs spread wide, her ass tilted upward and she was getting worked over by a guy I’d never seen before. I froze in my tracks, and when I turned around to leave, Sadie blocked me in, smiling at the couple behind me.

  As her sister panted and moaned, through what sounded like the orgasm of her life, Sadie’s eyes narrowed. “Don’t tell me a little sex bothers you. You came all the way up here. Now tell us what you want.” Halle wasn’t paying much attention, but the guy she was with laughed.

  I turned, not quite facing the busy couple, but enough to let the twins know I wasn’t intimidated, but then the guy caught my attention. “Hey, blondie, you want some of this?” I turned to see him stroke himself, fresh out of Halle’s channel, his cock glistening with her juices, and then she spun around to drop to her knees laughing.

  She eyed me up and down. “You’re welcome to have a taste. I’m sure you’ve read we don’t mind sharing.” She took the man’s hard length into her lips, and my eyes widened as she took it down deep until his balls pressed against her chin.

  “She’s amazing, isn’t she?” Sadie gave me a saccharine smile and crossed her arms in front of her.

  I straightened my posture and held up my chin. “Truly. I talked to the chef, and he said that your request is denied and before you send me back, he also told me about your mother’s allergies and how the menu needs her approval.” Sadie laughed, and then her attention went to her sister who was still deep throating the man. I took a quick glance but looked away.

  “Are you sure you don’t want a taste?” Halle crooned from her knees. I glanced that way solely to tell them they didn’t intimidate me, but my cheeks burned red as he shot his load all over her tits. She dragged her finger through the mess and gave it a taste. She got up and used the silk sheets to clean the rest of his release from her and then dropped it to the floor. She pulled her robe around and kissed the man.

  “I’ll be waiting in the shower,” he said. Then he glanced in my direction. “You’re welcome to join us, Blondie. Actually, both of you.” Without a word to Halle, he strolled into the bathroom and turned the water on, leaving the door, so all three of us had a view.

  He looked a bit older than her but not much older than me—maybe twenty-five or six at most, and he was incredibly handsome with a dark tan and sandy brown hair and smoldering eyes. Not to mention his impressive size, which Halle took like a pro.

  At twenty-three I was hardly a prude, but I didn’t care to see things on display, and I despised the girls that they played these wicked games. I didn’t understand why they couldn’t just be normal, but then I guess they’d never been.

  I turned to Sadie. “We still need to go over your schedule. I know it’s freed up a bit, but you still have that promo shoot and that guest appearance.”

  Halle walked up behind me, the smell of sex wafting around her. “Relax, our manager will remind us.” She was referring to their mother who had taken on the job as their manager since they were old enough to say Hollywood.

  “No, she won’t actually, your mother told me to handle it. That’s why she hired me.” I let out a breath as they laughed.

  “Is that what you think?” Sadie and Halle both said at the same time in creepy twin fashion, but then Halle continued alone. “That’s what she wants you to think. You’re her charity case, nothing more, and she’s simply trying to make you feel relevant since your mom died.”

  Ouch. My jaw clenched, and I lifted my chin, determined not to let them get to me. “Wouldn’t be easier just to let me do my job?”

  The two exchanged a look, and then a shared smile spread across their faces, but this time it was Sadie who spoke, “What would be the fun in that?”

  Halle sauntered away to join her man in the shower, and Sadie stepped out of the way so I could escape.

  There was no sense in complaining about anything that had happened to Nola. She’d take her daughter’s sides in any matter I put before her.

  As I headed down the stairs to the second story landing, the sound of music filled the air, a familiar sound, but not a familiar song. I crept down to the open door and peeked inside the music room where Scott Blue, a rock legend, played his guitar. He was so handsome for an older man, and there was something so familiar about him. It wasn’t just that I’d known him most of my life since his wife and my mother were best friends, but it was like when he looked at me, something in his soul recognized mine. It was like a kindred spirit of sorts, but maybe it was because I’d grown up listening to his music, to his voice, and the poetic lyrics that the world knew and loved.

  He kept his head down, his shoulder length, brown hair tucked back in a ponytail, which looked very similar to the twins’ in color, as he strummed his guitar. I left him undisturbed but ran into his mother on the way down the hall.

  “I don’t care how old we get. I will always love to hear him play his guitar.” Mama Blue, or Millie as I called her, had a faraway look in her eyes as she listened to her son play.

  “I’ve listened to him
my entire life, too. I suppose that’s something we have in common.”

  She laughed. “I’ve got that in common with millions, but no one gets to hear the imperfections, the rough notes, or when he tunes his guitar. Those times are special to me. No matter how famous, no matter what an icon or idol, he’s my baby boy.” She released a breath and turned her head to meet my eyes. “What’s troubling you? Don’t you like it here?”

  “I’m not exactly a guest, I’m practically staff and please don’t take it the wrong way, but my job is a bit testy at the moment.” I had to watch what I said about her granddaughters.