by J. S. Scott
“If you think I’m bad, wait until you meet my brothers,” he said in a falsely beleaguered voice. “And you’re meeting my family shortly, and there is a hell of a lot more of them than I have to meet in Michigan.”
“I can’t wait to meet them,” I told him sincerely.
It boggled my mind that there were more Lawson brothers, two sisters, and Harper’s kids.
And every one of his siblings was successful at whatever they’d chosen to do in life.
His parents must have had incredible genes.
“Bedtime,” he said roughly as he grasped my hand and pulled me back to the bed.
“We’ve already been there once.”
He pulled me down with him onto the rumpled sheets as he said, “We’re sleeping this time.”
We got comfortable, and I straightened out the top sheet as I said, “You sure about that?”
He reached over me and shut off the light. “Positive. No matter how much I’d love to hear you screaming my name when you come, I want you to be able to walk tomorrow more.”
My mind was screaming in protest, but I knew he was right. I wanted to enjoy every intimate moment that Carter and I had together.
He was planning to take me into the nearest town tomorrow, and it would suck if I wasn’t able to explore with him.
He wrapped his arm around me and pulled me against his side.
I put my head on his chest with a sigh.
He put my needs before his own, and that was when I knew I was totally, completely, and head-over-heels in love with Carter Lawson.
That should probably terrify me, but it didn’t. Maybe I’d gotten used to trusting someone, and my fears didn’t haunt me anymore. Or maybe I’d…changed. Having Carter accept me for all that I was had lifted the black cloud over my head, and he’d helped to convince me that I really was okay, murderous father and all.
“Thank you,” I murmured against his bare shoulder.
“For what?” He sounded puzzled.
“For this trip. For putting my needs before yours. For worrying about me. For caring if I’m happy. And for accepting me, no matter what. Should I go on?”
“You don’t have to thank me for caring about you, Brynn,” he answered.
“Maybe I don’t, but I wanted you to know how much it means to me. And I want you to know that I feel the same way about you.”
He kissed me, his embrace filled with promise, but gentle at the same time.
Moments later, I was asleep.
Brynn
“How’s the visit with your mom going?” Laura asked while we were in the middle of a video chat.
We’d spent about thirty minutes discussing her clothing line and the designs for my handbags.
We were only just getting to the personal stuff.
Carter and I had stayed in the mountains for almost a week, having sex in almost every room of the “cabin,” and now we were in Michigan visiting with Mom.
“Fine. But she’s already asked every embarrassing question I could think of, and more.”
Carter had managed to get into my mother’s good graces already, so I wasn’t worried about the two of them being together at the mall.
I’d stayed behind so I could chat with Laura.
“He’s your boyfriend now, right? You know she’s going to grill him,” Laura said with a teasing expression. “Does she like him?”
“Too much,” I answered with a sigh.
Honestly, it had been a relief that Carter had been able to charm my mother, but I knew, in her head, Mom was already planning her grandkids and wondering what they’d look like.
Aunt Marlene, who had ridden along with them, seemed to adore Carter just as much.
“And I’m not sure he’s really my boyfriend,” I added.
“You’re sleeping together,” she countered.
I hadn’t needed to share that fact. Since I’d been shacked up in a mountain cabin with Carter, she’d made her own assumptions.
I nodded. “But you and I both know that sleeping together doesn’t make a lover a boyfriend.”
Her eyes widened. “Come on, Brynn. This is me you’re talking to. You’ve never been this way with any other guy. I can tell you’re crazy about him. And I know he feels the same way about you. I think he realized it before you did. I could tell when we ran into each other at your condo.”
I shrugged. “We haven’t really talked about a future together, Laura. We both have busy lives.”
“You will when you’re ready. Does he know about your father?” she said in a softer voice.
“Yes. And he’s been amazing about it. It doesn’t matter to him, Laura.”
She crossed her eyes. “Duh. Of course it doesn’t. It had nothing to do with you.”
“I think I’m actually starting to believe that,” I confessed.
“It’s okay to take it slow if you want to,” she suggested. “But don’t think he won’t be wanting a future.”
“I’m in love with him,” I blurted out to the only person I’d trust with that information.
She smiled. “I know. I can tell. Everything will be okay, Brynn. I know you’re always waiting for the other shoe to drop, or for something to go wrong, but it won’t this time. I can feel it.”
I grinned back at her. “I don’t know what happened. We really couldn’t be more different.”
“Only on the surface,” she stated. “And really, it isn’t that unusual for a model with your popularity to be married to a man who’s loaded.”
“The funny thing is, our money was never even an issue,” I said wistfully. “I love Carter for the man he is, not the billionaire.”
I heard voices coming into the house.
“They’re back,” I warned Laura.
“I’ll let you go,” she offered.
“You better say hello to Mom. She’s been talking about how long it’s been since she’s seen you.”
Laura had often come home with me for the holidays. So she knew and liked my mother a lot.
“Are you still talking to Laura?” my parent asked as she came through the front door.
I was sitting on the couch, so I turned the screen in Mom’s direction.
“Oh, hi honey,” my mother said excitedly as she waved at Laura and moved closer. “I saw your swimsuit layout in that women’s magazine last year. You looked beautiful.”
Mom chatted away with Laura while my eyes automatically looked behind my parent for the man who always drew my attention.
He moved to my mother’s side and bent down to kiss me sweetly. “I missed you,” he whispered huskily in my ear after he released my lips.
My heart skipped a beat. I’d missed him, too.
“Laura, this is Carter. Have you met him?” my mother asked as she drew my man right next to her.
“I have. Nice to video see you again, Carter,” Laura said in a chirpy, polite voice.
“The pleasure is all mine, Laura,” he said smoothly. “How’s the business going?”
“Really good,” she told him. “Thanks for meeting with my marketing manager to help her make a plan.”
Carter was already doing as much as he could to get a marketing plan going for Laura’s clothing line. He was also trying to talk her into letting him become an investor since he wanted to ramp up bigger than either one of us could afford.
“My brother, Jett, is having an engagement party in a couple of weeks. Would you like to join us?” he asked Laura.
“I’d love to,” she answered. “Just have Brynn send me the details.”
I finally turned the screen back in my direction, and Laura and I ended the session after agreeing to get together as soon as I got home.
I closed the laptop as Carter sat down beside me on the couch, and my mom went to put her purchases away.
“Family and a bunch of other guests,” he said with a smirk. “The guest list keeps getting longer. If he doesn’t stop asking people, he’s going to run out of room in his penthouse.”
“Maybe he’ll be mad that you asked somebody he doesn’t know,” I said.
“Never,” he replied. “And Laura is pretty much your family. But that isn’t the only reason I wanted her to come. I like her, and I think my older brother does, too.”
“Mason?” I said with surprise. “He doesn’t know her.”
“He saw her at that charity benefit,” he informed me with a smirk. “It’s the first time I’ve seen Mason interested in anything other than business, much less a woman. I’m starting to think that he never gets laid.”
I crossed my arms and tried to give him an admonishing look. “Are you playing matchmaker?”
“Not my usual style, but yeah, this time I am.”
I laughed. “Then I’ll tell you that Laura thought he was hot, too. But I’m not sure Mason is her type.”
There was a mischievous look on his face as he answered, “She’s his type.”
“But you said he’s only obsessed with Lawson Technologies.”
He shot me a heated look. “I think we both know that when the right person comes along, we can easily be distracted from work. Mason is a good man. He was actually the kindest of all my siblings when we were kids, going out of his way to help anybody who needed it. I know that guy is still in there somewhere.”
I swallowed hard because Carter’s voice revealed a little bit of longing to find the older brother who had somehow gotten lost and caught up in his business to the point where Mason didn’t think about anything else.
“We’re already assuming that sparks will fly,” I told him.
“I know they will,” he said confidently.
“Then I’m glad you invited her.”
I wasn’t about to reveal that Laura was starting to look at getting a baby daddy from a test tube. It was too personal. But my best friend deserved everything.
The loving husband.
Her flourishing business.
And the child she so desperately wanted.
It wasn’t that I wasn’t supportive of her going it on her own. She was perfectly capable of raising a child by herself, but for her, I wanted…more.
I grabbed Carter’s polo shirt and pulled him toward me. “You’re a good man, Carter Lawson.”
What billionaire would ever try to play matchmaker just on the possibility that it might make his older brother happy?
He wrapped his arms around me. “So you keep saying,” he answered hoarsely, his breath warm on my lips.
“Believe it,” I murmured as I pulled his mouth to mine.
Carter wasn’t perfect, but he was everything I’d always wanted. I just hadn’t realized it immediately.
He made me happier than I’d ever dreamed possible.
So why was there a little sliver of my soul that was terrified about that?
Brynn
“I’m getting completely and totally spoiled,” I said to Carter as his private jet lifted off to take us back to Seattle. “It’s nice to travel like this.”
I loved my parent, and spending time with her and my Aunt Marlene, but I was anxious to have Carter to myself again.
Not knowing exactly what our relationship was when we’d arrived, Mom had put us in separate bedrooms, and I’d been so self-conscious about the idea of her knowing that I actually had sex that Carter and I had just suffered through it.
“Guess it’s a damn good thing you have the man who owns the jet,” he said in a husky tone. “I’d really prefer that you travel this way. It’s a lot safer than having layovers everywhere.”
What was he saying? “Carter, I’m not going to take your jet whenever I need to get somewhere.”
“Yes, you are,” he countered highhandedly. “I just haven’t convinced you to do it yet.”
I smiled. “You do realize that I’ve traveled all over the planet alone for over a decade, and nothing has happened to me yet.”
I’d become very good at traveling, getting myself organized so much that the trips went as smoothly as possible.
“You’ve been lucky,” he grunted. “But you’ve been victimized by thieves.”
“Which is bound to happen to somebody who travels as much as I do.” When I was building my career, I took every single job I could get, and I was on the road more than I was home throughout those years.
“Not anymore,” he said firmly.
I opened my mouth to say something, but when he entwined our fingers together on the armrest, I shut it again.
Traveling safer was something we could talk about when we actually decided what we were to each other, and if this was going to be long-term.
It wasn’t exactly a compromise to travel in a private jet.
I sighed and leaned my head back against the cushiony, butter-soft headrest of my seat.
“I actually liked Mick,” I confessed. “Did you?”
“I did. He seems like a pretty good guy, and his background check was squeaky clean.”
I turned my head, flabbergasted. “You actually checked him out?”
“Of course. You weren’t going to relax until you knew that he didn’t have any nefarious intentions. But I told him that I did it.”
My jaw dropped. “What did he say?”
“Actually, he was pretty cool about it. He understands that this is difficult for you, and he has enough balls to roll with it. The guy has nothing to hide, Brynn. He’s owned his own businesses since he was young, and he’s been successful. He’s more than financially secure, and I think he really does love your mother.”
“What else?” I asked breathlessly.
Maybe it had been presumptive of Carter to check out Mick’s background, but I had to admit that any doubts I’d had about him marrying my mom were fading away.
“He’s donated a lot of money to charity over the years, he’s built homes for the disadvantaged with no financial gain, and he can give your mom a great life. Not that you haven’t done that already,” he drawled.
“Thank God,” I said on a sigh of relief. “He seemed really nice, and he seemed like he loved Mom, but sometimes—”
“It’s over, Brynn,” he interrupted. “The past is behind you and it’s definitely put to rest for your mother. Mick isn’t going to hurt her. He wants to retire and travel with her. He just wants to make her happy.”
I hadn’t realized how many doubts I still harbored, even though Mick had been a very nice man. “I’m glad he wasn’t angry. I’m not sure how I’d feel if somebody had to check out my background to like me.”
“The guy had nothing to hide. So he didn’t care. I think he just wants you to be okay with their relationship.”
“I am,” I said in a tremulous voice. “I was just afraid. It had nothing to do with him exactly.”
“He knows that,” Carter said in a soothing voice. “And he understood that you weren’t going to let go until you knew everything about him.”
“How do you always know what I need before I do?” Not in a million years would I have considered doing a background check on my mother’s fiancé. But now that Carter had, I was relieved.
“Maybe because my primary purpose in life right now is to make you happy,” he said lightly.
I searched his eyes, and I could see nothing but truth, even though his voice was slightly teasing. “You do,” I said in a whisper because it was hard to get the words out.
And I wanted to make him happy, too. There was nothing I loved more than seeing Carter ecstatic.
I unbuckled my seat belt now that we were at cruising altitude, and st
ood. I unbuckled his restraint, making sure I brushed over his cock several times in the process.
“Come to the bedroom with me?” I entreated.
Carter was up so fast his muscular body was almost a blur. He took the lead and tugged me along behind him until we were in the bedroom at the back of the jet.
The door closed loudly behind us as he pushed it closed.
“Jesus, Brynn! I’ve missed you in my bed so damn much,” he growled as he took me roughly into his arms and kissed me.
We exchanged a passionate kiss like we’d been apart for years and not just a week.
I ached for him, but I wasn’t going to surrender right now. I wanted to see Carter lose it, and I wasn’t going to be happy until I did.
When we surfaced, I told him adamantly, “This time, I’m in control.”
He gave me a hungry look, but he didn’t argue.
I pulled the polo shirt over his head, and tossed it aside. And then started on his jeans.
“So you’re just planning on having your way with me?” he said in a teasing but rough tone.
“Yep. That’s the plan. You got a problem with that?” I questioned.
He slowly shook his head. “I’m all yours, sweetheart.”
My heart tripped. I wanted Carter to be mine. I was still in awe of the fact that this powerful, strong, gorgeous man was with me, and cared about me.
And to have unfettered access to him was heady as hell.
I dropped down to my knees and took his boxers and jeans to the floor. He kicked them off, and we landed with a tumble on the king-sized bed.
Keeping Carter on his back, I said, “Don’t move.”
“Do you really think I’d want to be anywhere but exactly where I am right now?” he asked gruffly.
Carter was an alpha male, and he liked to be in control. But for once, I wanted to test his limits.
I stared down at all his hot, naked, totally masculine body, and I melted. “You’re the hottest man I’ve ever seen,” I breathed out in awe as I put my lips on his chest.
I’d wanted the chance to explore Carter the way he did to me, but things had always gotten too hot and heavy for me to have that opportunity.