The First Time Again: The Braddock Brotherhood, Book 3

by Barbara Meyers

  She barely acknowledged Trey’s presence even when he put his face close to hers and said her name. Her eyes weren’t focusing. She mumbled something incoherent.

  “What’s wrong with her? How much did she have to drink?” He didn’t spare a glance in Cassidy’s direction. He started buttoning Baylee’s dress. “This the only way you can get a woman back to your place?”

  “Of course not. But there are occasions when I find it more expedient,” Cassidy stated without a hint of remorse.

  Trey slid a glance his way to find him leaning against the wainscoting in his stocking feet, arms crossed. Never in his life could Trey recall wanting to rearrange another man’s face as much as he wanted to at this moment. Not in all the games he’d played, not after all the bad calls, the sacks, the unsportsmanlike conduct he’d seen on the field. Not even when Spoley had pulled him over for speeding and handed him a sheaf of citations.

  That had all been personal behavior directed at him. This was about someone else, and he was angrier on Baylee’s behalf than he’d ever been on his own. He’d figure out why later. Right now, all he wanted was to get her out of there, away from the scumbag standing less than ten feet away, into Hiram’s cab and back to the hotel.

  He finished with the buttons and tugged the hem of her skirt down. One of her shoes had slid off her foot and he put it back on.

  He stood and took the few steps needed to put him in Collin’s personal space. Collin straightened to a defensive posture. Trey clenched his fists but kept his cool. “Relax. I’m not going to beat the shit out of you even though it’s exactly what you deserve. What am I going to do is mention this incident to Charlie.”

  “Tattletale,” Collin spat.

  “I’m not sure when or in what context,” Trey went on using the same reasonable tone of voice, “but I will make certain he’s informed. Your contract probably has the same broad moral turpitude clause as mine. Which means the network can fire you for anything they deem as falling into that category. Anything that might embarrass them, create negative publicity or stimulate a lawsuit in regard to your professional or personal behavior.”

  Trey inched a bit closer and lowered his voice. “I’ll be spending a lot of time here this fall. I’ll make it my personal business to keep an eye on you when I’m here. You don’t know me very well, so maybe you don’t know I’ve got a big mouth. I’ll tell every woman I see who comes within ten feet of you about what you tried to pull tonight. In fact, I probably won’t stop there. Hell, I’ll tell everyone.”

  “Most of them won’t believe you and the others won’t care,” Collin sneered.

  Trey raised an eyebrow. “Maybe. But you and I both know the only way to stop a rumor is by not adding fuel to the fire. Behave yourself and you won’t have anything to worry about.”

  Trey turned back to Baylee. “Come on, baby.” He helped her up from the couch, and as soon as he did, her knees sagged. He kept her upright by using both arms to hold her against him.

  He didn’t look at Collin or say anything else. He got Baylee out into the hallway and let the door slam behind him.

  In the lobby the doorman hustled to hold the door open for them. He gave Trey a dubious look. “She don’t look like she’s in any condition to take pictures of anyone,” he said.

  “Thanks for your help,” Trey said.

  Hiram turned to look at them when Trey got into the backseat with Baylee. “She all right?” he asked.

  “Yeah. I think she’ll be okay. Take us back to the hotel.”

  Hiram nodded. Trey placed a grateful number of bills into Hiram’s hand when he dropped them off. Trey still had to half drag, half carry Baylee through the lobby to the elevator. He hoped the surreptitious looks he received from the staff and the few guests lingering about meant they understood Baylee’d had too much to drink, but he couldn’t concern himself with the thoughts of strangers.

  In the room, he got Baylee to her bed. He pulled back the covers and laid her down. She was like a rag doll. It was a little scary and not at all a turn-on for him. He wondered how a guy like Cassidy could perform with a woman in such a state. Personally, Trey liked his sexual partners to be enthusiastic participants, not nearly comatose victims.

  He slipped Baylee’s shoes off her feet. She could sleep in her clothes. He sure as hell wasn’t going to undress her.

  He covered her with the sheet and supposed she’d sleep now. He had a feeling she was going to feel like hell during their trip home tomorrow.

  The bedside alarm clock glowed three thirty-four in red when Trey came awake. He sat up, trying to figure out what had awakened him. Baylee’s bed was empty and he could see the glow of light surrounding the closed bathroom door. He pulled a T-shirt on over his pajama bottoms and listened for a moment outside the door. He heard water running and thought he heard her utter an unladylike oath.

  “Baylee?” He tapped on the door. “You okay?”

  She opened the door and stared at him. She had on those same sexy nightclothes from the previous evening, but frankly, she looked like hell. Her hair was a mess and there were dark circles under her eyes. Her eyes themselves were red and puffy. Had she been crying? He hoped not. He hated to see a woman cry. Whatever he did or said always seemed to be the wrong thing.

  “Are you okay?” he asked again.

  She shook her head. “I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” Her voice quavered. “I feel weird. I’m super thirsty and I’ve got the mother of all headaches.”

  “Come on.” He led her back to her bed and tucked her in. “Did you take anything for the headache?”

  “No. I don’t have anything to take.”

  “I’ve got over-the-counter stuff. It might help.”

  He went back to the bathroom and got his bottle of ibuprofen and filled a glass with tap water. The rage he’d felt earlier came back to boil below the surface. The image of Collin Cassidy’s face beaten and bloody, complete with a broken nose and a black eye and minus a few of those pretty white teeth, swam before his eyes. The thought of it sent an exultant river of potential satisfaction through him. But his concern now was the same as it had been before. Baylee’s welfare. He shook tablets into his hand and she took them, along with the entire cup of water.

  “I keep drinking water, but it doesn’t seem to help. My mouth’s like a ball of cotton.”

  He went back to the bathroom and filled the cup for her again. He opened the small refrigerator and found a sports drink and a bottle of water.

  “I don’t know what you had to drink, but it’s got some nasty side effects.”

  He opened the sports drink and handed it to her.

  She took a gulp and massaged her temple with her fingers. “Everything’s kind of a blur.”

  Trey sat on his bed across from her. “What do you remember?”

  She thought for a moment. “Being at some club with Collin. He ordered me a drink. Something sweet that tasted like peaches. I went to the restroom.”

  “Was the drink there when you came back?”

  “He’d ordered another one for me.”

  “Did you finish it?”

  She frowned. “I don’t remember. But even if I did, I only had two drinks.” Her voice rose in her own defense.

  He leaned forward, his gaze locked with hers. “Baylee, you didn’t do anything wrong.”

  “But I don’t understand. I shouldn’t be this messed up from two drinks. What aren’t you telling me? What did he do to me? What don’t I remember?”

  Trey moved to the edge of her bed. He patted her calf through the sheet and kept his hand there, hoping to offer some kind of comfort. “He didn’t do anything. I—sort of busted up your date.”

  “You did? You were there?”

  “Yeah.”

  “But if you hadn’t been—he could have—oh, Jesus. You told me not to go.”

  Trey shrugged. As far as he was concerned, she never had to know how close Cassidy had come to getting away with whatever he had in mind. First thi
ng in the morning he’d put in a call to Charlie.

  “Nothing happened. We came back here. I stuck you in bed.”

  “Thank you,” she told him, her voice a soft caress.

  “My pleasure.” That was the truth. For the first time in a long time he got to be the hero instead of the failure. He patted her leg. “Drink up. Try to get some sleep.”

  “Okay.” She chugged some more of the drink and then set it next to the water on the nightstand. She slid down beneath the covers.

  Trey turned off the bathroom light and got into his own bed.

  “’Night, Trey.”

  “’Night.”

  The sense of disorientation dogged Baylee the following day. She awoke to a fully dressed Trey pushing her shoulder back and forth with such force her entire body moved from side to side. Even so, getting her eyes open and her brain to kick into gear was like swimming up through a sea of mud.

  Her head felt thick. Her ability to concentrate had deserted her. Somehow she’d managed, with Trey’s help, to get herself and her things together. Her eyes were sticky since she hadn’t removed her contacts the night before. She knew from looking in the mirror after her shower she looked like hell.

  Oh, what did it matter, anyway? Trey wasn’t interested in her, and at the moment neither was any man other than Justin Spoley, whom she found to be a major turn-off, and Collin Cassidy, who apparently only wanted one thing from her and had used some truly questionable methods to try to get it. She shuddered every time she thought of what might have happened. But Trey had prevented it.

  Trey also got how awful she felt. He didn’t try to carry on a conversation with her. He was more solicitous than usual, doing his best to make her comfortable.

  Once they were on the plane, she closed her eyes. Bits and pieces of the previous evening flashed through her head, but they were out of order and didn’t make any sense.

  A taxi ride.

  An elevator.

  A dimly lit room.

  Trey buttoning her dress. Or unbuttoning it. She wasn’t sure.

  Trey holding her against him. She thought it was him, anyway. Not Collin.

  She recalled Jenny’s long-ago warning about the worst thing that could happen to her.

  Wouldn’t it be worse if the first time she had sex was with a man who took her and left her with this vague sense of unease? This sick, disoriented feeling? Worse if he took something he had no right to take and she had virtually no memory of the encounter? She had no idea what those drinks Collin had ordered for her contained. She only knew she might never be able to enjoy anything peach-related again.

  She sniffed and rubbed her fingertips against her eyelids beneath her glasses.

  “You okay?” Trey bent his head close to hers and spoke softly near her ear.

  She nodded without opening her eyes.

  “Come here.” He guided her head to his shoulder.

  Her thoughts had been chasing themselves around in her head ever since she’d woken up this morning, but one thing had crystallized overnight. Trey was no longer that seventeen-year-old boy who’d passed out on her. She’d allowed that one incident to cloud her judgment about men and to make her doubt her own appeal. She saw both herself and Trey more clearly than she ever had before. Last night he’d proven himself in a way she’d never expected. Her insides hummed whenever she was close to him. Being around Trey made her happy. What, she asked herself, could be wrong with that?

  She lifted her head and planted a kiss on Trey’s cheek.

  He looked at her in surprise.

  “You’re my hero,” she said softly.

  He flashed her a quick grin while several emotions warred for dominance in his expression. The tips of his ears turned pink.

  He bent toward her and crooked a finger beneath her chin. “I’d never let anything bad happen to my girl.” His gaze dropped from her eyes to her lips. He gave her a quick, light kiss on the mouth, so fleeting she wasn’t sure she hadn’t imagined it. But there was a flare of something in his eyes when he looked at her again.

  Maybe, just maybe, he was interested in her that way. Whether he was or not, she planned to take every opportunity for contact with him, every moment she could touch him, no matter how innocently.

  She slid her arm beneath his and made herself comfortable against him, in case this was all she’d ever get.

  By midafternoon the plane had landed in Asheville, and they were on their way back to his house, where she’d left her car. Tiredness still dogged her. She’d dozed off on the plane, but she hadn’t really slept. She dreaded going home, where she’d be surrounded but mostly ignored by her family.

  On the outskirts of Edna Falls, she broke the silence between them. “Could I ask you a favor?”

  Trey took his gaze from the curving road for only a second to glance her way. “Sure. Anything.”

  “Could I stay at your place for a little while? Maybe take a nap before I head home?”

  “Damn, I didn’t even think of that. I can take you home. Come pick you up tomorrow so you can get your car.”

  “No, no. It’s okay. We’re almost to your house. I understand if you’d rather I didn’t stay. You probably have stuff to do.”

  “Hey, no. You’re welcome to stay. Stay as long as you want. Whatever you need.”

  Baylee didn’t have to fake a yawn. “Thanks. I think all I need is a nap.” Liar. What I need is you.

  Once she’d made herself comfortable in Trey’s bed, she couldn’t fall asleep even though she desperately wanted to. Her thoughts kept returning to what if in a way they never had before. What if Trey hadn’t rescued her?

  She’d always considered her virginity something she controlled, something she’d share with a man of her choosing. Scott hadn’t wanted it, even though she had chosen him. She could only think of one other man she’d choose. The same one she’d sort of chosen at fifteen. Except now she wasn’t even slightly inebriated. She wasn’t fifteen anymore, either. She was an adult woman, dammit, and she had needs. Needs she had put on hold for too long.

  She made a decision. She didn’t know exactly how or when. But she was going to rid herself of her troublesome virginity with her eyes wide open, fully conscious, with a man of her choosing. And she was going to do it soon.

  Chapter Fourteen

  “Baylee?” Trey spoke softly from the doorway. She hadn’t answered when he’d lightly tapped on the door seconds earlier. He couldn’t believe she was still asleep.

  The hall light spilled into the room behind him as he stepped closer to the bed.

  She was curled on her side, the same way he’d seen her sleeping before, the sheet pulled up under her arm, her hands clasped beneath her chin.

  She hadn’t wanted anything on the plane except the small bottles of water the flight attendant brought her. Trey lost track of how many she’d had. She’d bought another bottle before they left the airport and drank it, and there was a half a bottle sitting on the nightstand. Surely she needed to eat something.

  He sat down on the edge of the bed and gently shook her arm. “Baylee? Baylee?”

  Her eyelids fluttered. She moaned softly. Her eyes blinked open and she gazed up at him and smiled. “Hi,” she breathed.

  Every thought Trey had in his head when he’d opened the door disappeared, chased away by the vision of her waking up, all soft and warm in his bed, her eyes sleepy and soft, with a smile just for him.

  “Come here,” she whispered. She half sat up and tugged on his shirt. She kissed him.

  Stunned, Trey couldn’t think what to do. Although he’d been unable to stop thinking about that brief kiss he’d given her on the plane, he hadn’t expected her to respond like this. Had he?

  Her soft lips pressed against his, teasing him, sending him a signal. In seconds his body roared to life. Everything he’d been holding inside for so long welled to the surface, begging for release.

  He kissed her back, deepening the kiss instantly. He heard a soft little moan from her
direction and a sigh of surrender before she met him full force. She didn’t play games or go to war with his tongue. She took it and held on, sucking it as if she couldn’t get enough.

  Sexually, he’d always been the aggressor, but he felt weirdly out of control. His mind couldn’t catch up with his body or its reaction to hers. But like riding a bike after an extended absence, his body operated without him telling it what to do. He found buttons and zippers and clasps, and he knew how to dispense with such things as her clothes and his.

  His hands roamed all over her back and her bottom and her breasts.

  She explored him everywhere she could touch while their mouths were locked together. Everywhere except his cock. She brushed by it, around it, but her shy hand slid away each time. Waves of excitement washed through him.

  Had he ever had sex before? Even though he knew what to do, employed the same moves he’d perfected over the years, everything seemed new and different.

  “Baylee…baby,” he whispered. He slid his fingers between her legs to discover the slick, hot wetness of her. Her gasp of pleasure thrilled him. He lowered his head to suckle a nipple and she arched against him, her legs parted, giving his fingers easier access.

  “Touch me,” he whispered. He fumbled for her hand and brought it against him. “Please.”

  Her breathing quickened as she circled the length of him. It wasn’t a knowing, practiced touch, but more an exploration of uncharted territory. Somehow she knew exactly what would arouse him the most.

  “Okay, baby. Okay.” He eased away from her to open the nightstand drawer for a condom, glad that when he unpacked he’d put some there. He sure as hell hadn’t thought he was going to need them.

  There was enough light from the half-open door to see what he was doing. His hands shook. He stared at them for a second in amazement. He got the condom on in record time anyway and got back to business.

  He ran the flat of his hand down her tummy from beneath her breasts to her pubic hair. He kissed her above the navel. “You’re hot,” he whispered. Her skin felt like a fire burned beneath the surface.