My Brother's Best Friend
Page 36
I’m not going to make Daisy do anything, and I’m not going to stop her from doing anything either. She’s in charge this time.
“You’re late tonight,” she says from the couch. She’s wearing her skinny jeans and a plain black shirt. I hear the sound of a laugh track from the TV. Apparently, she’s watching something funny.
My chest tightens. I don’t want her to leave after fifteen days. I don’t want her to leave after fifteen thousand days, or fifteen million days. I want her to stay.
I just hope she wants the same thing.
“Yes, I made a stop at my father’s.” I join her on the couch.
“Oh, how is he?”
“He’s doing really well, actually. He told the nurse to go home, now that Bertha’s there to take care of him.”
“She’s staying there now?”
“I think so.”
“Good for them.” Daisy smiles the most adorable smile. “I’ve been rooting for them to make it.”
They’re rooting for us to make it, too, I want to say. I keep my mouth shut, though. I don’t want to pressure her into anything.
She slides closer toward me and touches my face, her fingers small and delicate. She smiles as she plays with my five o’clock shadow. I think I see affection in her eyes, but is my mind playing tricks on me? Is it just wishful thinking?
She leans closer and grazes her lips lightly against mine, and I lose all control. I crush her lips with mine, kissing her with the desperation of a man who knows time is ticking, time is running out. I want to savor every little breath, every little lick of her tongue, every little taste of her sweet lips. Her hand on my face pulls me closer; she wants this just as much as I do, needs it as much as I do.
When we pull away from each other, her lips are wet, red, and swollen. I salivate, thinking about how I could also make her lower lips look that good.
But this is not the time. I put my hands on Daisy’s shoulders to keep her at arm’s length.
“Listen, Daisy. Can we talk?”
She nods, and I reach for the remote to turn off the TV.
“I’ve thought about it. A lot. I don’t want you to stay if it’s only to fulfill your end of the bargain.” I watch as her face falls, and quickly add, “I do want you to stay, though. But not because of the contract. Not because we’ve agreed on it.”
She remains quiet, studying my face like she’s trying to figure me out.
And, for once, I let her. I put my guard down, and let her see the real me.
I won’t try to hide my real thoughts and emotions again—not from her, or any woman I might get involved with in the future, if Daisy tells me to fuck off. My insides twist at the thought of having to let go of Daisy again and seeing another woman instead. She’s the only one I want. I’m sure of it.
“Daisy, I… I meant what I said at the hospital that night. I love you.”
Her gaze softens. She nods. “I know,” she says.
“I can’t play this game anymore. It’s too much. I can’t be your client, or your employer, or your sugar daddy, or the random guy who happens to offer you money anymore. You understand me?”
She nods again.
“I need this to be real. No, I mean… I mean I want the real you, whatever that means. If that means you want to leave and never see me again, that’s fine. If that means you want to stay and never leave, you’ll make me the happiest man alive.
“If that means you want to stay for the next fifteen days and no more, then… Then we can do that, too. It will hurt for me, but I want to spend as much time as I can with you. However much time you want.”
Daisy’s eyes fill with water.
“No, don’t cry. Please. What do you want? What can I do to make things better?” I panic.
“I’m not crying because I’m sad,” she says, tears escaping her beautiful green eyes. “I’m crying because I’ve been hoping you’d say that. I’ve been wishing you’d want to keep me, but I didn’t think you would. I’m happy.”
“So you’ll stay?” My voice sounds pathetic. I sound like I’m begging, pleading, but I don’t care. I’d get on my knees and grovel in front of her if she’ll stay with me and make this real.
“Yes, I’ll stay. I love you, too,” she says shyly.
Happiness fills my chest and pulls up the corners of my lips. I’m grinning like an idiot, but who fucking cares? She fucking loves me and nothing else matters.
I cup her face in my hands and wipe away her tears with my thumbs. “You have no idea how happy you’ve made me, my little flower.”
“I do,” she protests. “I do because I’m happy, too.”
Once again, I ravish her with my mouth, with my lips, with my tongue. Something has changed, though. Something subtle in the atmosphere.
There's still that fear of losing her—I don't think that will ever go away, which doesn't bother me because that's just a part of giving a shit about someone.
No, what's different is this surge of possessiveness within me. Nobody’s going to harm her because I’ll protect her. No one’s going to take her away because she belongs to me. She’s never leaving me again, ever.
We shed our clothes and I lay down on the couch, pulling her on top of me, parting her thighs with mine. She looks so small and delicate, compared to my own body. She's soft where I'm hard. Feminine. A woman's body.
“Put me inside you, kitten,” I say. My cock is already hard as stone, thick with need. I can’t take it slow this time. I want her now. I want to claim her body, brand her as mine.
Daisy lifts her ass and reaches down. I groan when her fingers touch my shaft, the volume getting louder when she sinks herself onto my cock.
She looks shy at first, avoiding my gaze, but the way her pussy muscles grip me tells me all I need to know.
I adjust the angle of my hips, watching Daisy's face to gauge her reaction. When I hit her sweet spot, it's like I’ve just pressed the button for dispensing raw sexual pleasure. Her jaw slackens and she takes a sharp breath. Her eyelids flutter shut.
“Ride me, my dirty little flower. Show me what a horny slut you are for me.”
Like oil to a flame, my words whet her lust. She picks up her pace, grinding against me harder and faster. The head of my cock massages her G-spot, while she rubs her clit against my pubic bone with abandon.
As if hypnotized, I stare at the movements of her hips, and the way she slides up and down my cock. She may not have done this before, but she quickly realizes what to do; she looks more and more confident by the minute. I look at where our bodies are joined together, her pussy spread wide open by my thick cock.
I grab her dainty little waist and pull her down, thrusting up into her. I’ve been holding myself back from taking control, but I can't stand it anymore, the way Daisy's looking at me with lust and surrender in her eyes.
“You’re mine.” I raise one hand up and wrap it around Daisy's neck, making her clench harder with dark desire. She throws her head back in complete submission, letting me do what I want, trusting me to not harm her. “You’re my very own dirty little slut. I’ll fuck you so good you won't get any satisfaction from anyone else. I’ll hurt you and you'll only want more.”
Daisy gasps and moans as her body goes into overdrive. She has stopped moving. She places two steadying hands on my chest, just taking it as I claim her body and soul as mine. She can only hold on as I thrust up into her again and again. She starts to grab with her hands and cry out, milking me for all I'm worth.
“Come for me, kitten. Cream yourself all over me and show me how much you like this. Show me that you're mine.”
Daisy surrenders, giving up all semblance of control over her body as she quivers on top of me with my fingers wrapped around her throat and my cock slamming into her, taking possession of her with every thrust. Come boils in my balls. With one last hard plunge into her gripping pussy, I shoot my load deep inside her, marking her as mine.
She collapses on me when I let my hands drop onto the cou
ch. I caress her hair, grab a fistful, and kiss the top of her head.
“You’re mine,” I whisper. “My own dirty little flower, mine for me to fuck and defile.”
“Always,” she says.
Daisy
“Damn, this is like, the end of an era or something,” Katie says as she drops yet another cardboard box of medical textbooks on the sidewalk. A cloud of dust flies up into the air at the impact, glittering in the afternoon sunlight
“Oh, it’s not that bad. I promise I’ll visit.” I feel bad, but I laugh at her coughing.
“I totally blame Caine. You were right the first time you met him. The dude’s bad news.” She straightens her back and puts her hands on her waist, catching her breath. “Your stuff is super heavy, too.”
“Yeah, when did I acquire all this stuff? Caine said to get some movers to do the job, but I didn’t think I had a lot. I mean, I was always broke. Where did I even get all the money to collect these?” I scan my belongings, which are quickly blocking the sidewalk. Brown boxes upon boxes of clothes, books, and crap.
“We’re almost done!” Jack yells excitedly as he wobbles down the stairs with a big box that almost blocks his vision.
“Careful!” I yell back. “I’m way too busy to have to take you to the ER today.”
“Eh, I’m sure Caine wouldn’t mind,” Jack says off-handedly.
It took Jack a while to warm up to Caine—not surprising, since it took me some time, too—but they get along well now.
Caine, being the cool, detached guy that he is, doesn’t talk much or joke around with Jack much, but he comes through when Jack needs him, now that they’re family.
He’s been coming to every single one of Jack’s school musicals, even the ones I had to miss because of work. He makes time, even though he’s busy himself. He listens to Jack and gives him little gifts that show he cares—like coupons for acting classes.
I almost cried when Caine showed us the spare room in his apartment, decorated in Jack’s favorite colors—blue and yellow—and decked out with a TV and the gaming console Jack’s always wanted.
The gaming console was supposed to be the main gift that Jack could take home because it was his birthday, but he also wanted to plant the seed that he wanted us to move in, to live together, to be a family.
As much as I wanted the same thing, I resisted at first because Katie and I had signed the lease together and there were still eight months left. I wanted to finish the term first so I wouldn’t leave her hanging.
But Caine can be persuasive. With his smooth negotiating skills, honed by a lifetime of practice with the best the business world can offer, I had no chance of winning.
I’m pretty happy with the deal, though. We agreed to keep paying the rent until Katie finds a new roommate, but I insisted on making those payments myself, since I still have a buttload of money, even after paying all my debts.
I told Katie that Caine’s the one who’ll be paying the rent so she wouldn’t feel bad about enjoying living on her own for once, at least until the lease expires and she absolutely has to find a new roommate.
I still haven’t told Katie about the money, about how Caine and I began. I feel like that would make Caine look bad in her eyes, and now that I know he’s here to stay in my life for a long, long time, I want my best friend to like him. I don’t know if this is the right decision, but I can always tell her later if I change my mind.
The version of the story that Katie knows is the same that the rest of the hospital knows—which is that I worked for Robert Foster because he happened to take a liking to me while he was at the hospital, and over time, Caine and I grew closer and eventually got together.
Absolutely no mention of anybody’s virginity being bought by anybody else.
I mean, I love Katie with all my heart, but she can’t keep a secret and we work at the same hospital. If the news gets out that our relationship began with Caine buying my virginity, it would hurt both my reputation and Caine’s.
It’s funny how my coworkers at the hospital reacted when they found out about Caine and me. By funny, I actually mean more like annoying.
They acted like I was a gold digger who’s just in it for the money. They asked questions about what his house looks like, which restaurants we go to for dinner, what expensive presents he’s given me.
When I first bought lunch at the cafeteria, one of the other nurses was like, “Nice, now you can afford to not bring bagged lunches anymore. Maybe next time we can all go to lunch at that new, expensive place and your sugar daddy can bring a friend for me.”
Sure, Caine has more money that most people can ever imagine. I’ve been broke before and I know it must seem like Caine lives in a different world.
It boggled their minds that I, a lowly fellow nurse who was always broke, could form a real human bond with the heir to a huge family fortune.
It took a few months, but they eventually stopped teasing me and asking rude, intrusive questions.
Caine laughs when I complain about people being nosy, saying he’s dealt with them his whole life. But he doesn’t have to work with meddlesome people—he’s the boss, so he can hire and fire whoever he wants.
At the same time, I guess that also means that he works with people who kiss his ass, and he never makes a real connection at the office. It makes me want to give him a hug when I think about how lonely he’s been.
I guess, one big lesson I’ve learned is that everyone has their own set of problems. Rich people don’t have money problems, sure, but they don’t live perfect lives either.
Another thing that annoys me is how my colleagues thought I’d stop working and start living the socialite life.
After all the hard work I’ve put into my career, working multiple jobs and getting into debt to put myself through nursing school, they think I’m just going to throw it all away just because I’ve found a man?
I’ve worked too damn hard to end up depending on a man like my mom. The end goal, for me, has never been to accumulate as much money as possible. Success, to me, is about standing on my own two feet.
I know Caine’s not at all like any of my mom’s shitty boyfriends. He wants us to always be together, and he wants to take care of Jack and me.
Still, anything can fall apart. The Titanic wasn’t supposed to ever sink either, yet look what happened to it.
What I’m saying is, we may have a solid relationship, but I don’t want it to be the only thing keeping me afloat. I want to work and see how far I can go in my career, even if it’s just to prove to myself that I can do it.
Insurance is always a good thing. Having been at the bottom, I know for sure I don’t want to ever find myself there again.
After realizing I could’ve died at the hands of Nathan and his men, I began putting more thought into making sure Jack’s taken care of, in case I can’t be there for him.
At the moment death was staring me in the face, honest to goodness, I was worried about what would happen to Jack. Would he fall into Mom’s hands again? Would he have to struggle from scratch when he was old enough to move out, despite my efforts?
When I voiced my concerns to Caine, without a moment’s hesitation, he suggested that he adopt Jack, too. My heart swelled so much I thought it was going to burst. I sobbed like a toddler into his expensive shirt.
Jack quickly agreed to it, too.
Caine’s lawyer is still taking care of the paperwork right now, but those guys work fast. I mean, my lawyer was okay, but these guys are in a different league altogether. The legal stuff should be done any day now.
“I’m glad I didn’t listen to you,” Caine says as he loads a box into the back of one of his father’s SUVs. “All these boxes wouldn’t have fit inside my car.”
“Okay, you were right. Happy?”
“Very.” He pulls my head close and kisses my temple. He shoots me the cocky smirk that turns my knees into noodles. I can’t wait to jump his bones when we get home.
Home.
Over the past few months, Caine and I spent most nights apart and it was getting annoying having to drive back to my place every single night.
I was always staying at Caine’s place, because we wouldn’t have any private space at my apartment. I shared the bedroom with Jack and, well, Caine and I couldn’t keep our hands off each other. We still can’t.
Now that we’re moving in together, I don’t have to feel guilty about leaving Jack all alone with Katie.
Jack tells me he likes having the bedroom all to himself and he enjoys hanging out with Katie, but I still sometimes feel like I’m shirking my responsibilities, like my mom used to when she went missing for weeks at a time without any explanation.
Everybody tells me a teenager needs some time alone anyway, but Jack will always be my little baby brother.
When Jack easily picks up the box of books Katie struggled with earlier, though, I have to admit he’s grown. Soon, he’ll be a man and he’ll probably want to move out, leaving Caine and me alone like empty nesters.
Unless… Unless we have a baby before then.
Caine and I have discussed having kids together, and we both definitely want to do it, but I still want to focus on my work. For once, I can do that without having to worry about bills and debts and my mom, and I want to enjoy that for a few years.
I’m only twenty-one. There’s plenty of time. But by the time Jack moves out… Who knows?
“That’s the last one,” Jack declares when he loads the box into the back of the car.
My heart squeezes. This is a happy occasion, for sure, but it’s also the end of an era, like Katie said.
“I’m going to miss you.” Tears prick my eyes as I turn to look at Katie, her brown hair looking like a halo as it catches the sunlight.
“I know, right?” She pulls me into a hug. “Who’s going to sweep the floor now, or wash the dishes, or take out the trash?”
I laugh. Katie’s always been messy and I’ve always had to be the responsible roommate. “I can’t wait to see what the apartment will look like in a few weeks.”