by Stone, J. M.
He released my lips on a sigh. “God, every time with you is just as intense. You fucking rock my world, Allie!”
I giggled. I couldn’t help it. And then, heaven help me, a little bit of the green eyed monster came out and there was nothing I could do about it. I scowled and asked, “You sure there’s no one else you’d rather rock your world instead?”
He grabbed my shoulders and eased me back to look me in the eyes. “Where the hell is that coming from, babe?”
I shrugged and shook my head, wishing like hell I hadn’t said anything.
“No, tell me. Are you worried about Chloe?” he asked, his voice soft.
I shrugged one shoulder and shook my head again, leaning down to kiss him. “No, it’s nothing. Don’t even worry about it,” I said. I kissed his lips gently again and lifted myself off of him, moving to his side so he could get up and dispose of the condom.
He came back into the bedroom and laid beside me again, pulling me close to him and holding me tight. He kissed the top of my head and then, after looking over at the clock on the nightstand, asked, “What time do you have to open the store?”
“Oh, shit!” I cried, jumping up and running into the bathroom to get ready. I took a shower in record time and, toweling off as I went, headed to the closet to grab clothes to put on. I heard a noise behind me and turned to see that Brandon was still laying naked in my bed, nothing covering even an inch of that sexy ass body of his.
Quirking my eyebrow at him I asked, “Don’t you have to work today, too?”
He nodded and grinned at me before saying, “Yeah, but seeing as how it’s only 6:30, we’ve got plenty of time.”
I looked over at the clock and scowled at him, stalking toward the bed and letting my towel drop in the process. “You ASS!” I growled. “Why did you make me think I was running late?”
He kept on grinning as he replied, “All I did was look to see what time it was and ask what time you had to open the store. You’re the one who ran off like a mad woman. A naked mad woman…and it was pretty hot, too, by the way.”
I reached out and smacked his shoulder but he snagged my arm and pulled me down on top of him. He rolled quickly over, pinning me to the mattress, somehow managing to get both of my arms over my head and locking them together in one of his hands. He ran the other hand down my side before cupping my breast and then pinching the nipple, making me arch into him and moan softly.
“You know,” Brandon began, lowering himself until he was speaking directly in my ear. “I think I’m gonna tie you up, baby. Maybe on the kitchen table again. Tie you up all spread out and leave you there. What do you think about that?”
I gasped, my breath becoming ragged as desire curled heavily through me. He opened his mouth to say something else but his words cut off when the bedroom door opened and Jackson came in. He looked exhausted and Brandon released me quickly, sitting up on the edge of the bed and grabbing the sheet to cover his hips.
I jumped up and went to Jackson, wrapping my arms around him and holding him close. His arms came around me and he bent to kiss the top of my head before releasing me and sitting heavily on the other side of the bed.
“Is Chloe okay?” I asked.
He nodded. “Sorry I wasn’t in bed with you. I couldn’t sleep and when I got up, Chloe was whimpering in the other room so I went in and sat with her. I just…it’s fucking killing me to know that that bastard put his fucking hands on her! And I wasn’t there for her!” His voice broke even as it rose until he was almost shouting.
I moved to embrace him again, smiling sadly as Brandon, wrapping the sheet around his waist, also moved over and draped an arm around Jackson’s shoulders.
“Dude, it’s not your fault. And it’s not Chloe’s fault either. You know that. She’s smart and strong and tough and she got away as soon as she could. She’s here now and safe, so just focus on that,” Brandon stated firmly.
I sank to my knees in front of Jackson and placed my hands on his thighs. He looked down at me and the corner of his mouth curved up with a hint of a smile.
“He’s right. She’s safe here now, and she can stay here for as long as she needs to. And then you’ve got plenty of room in your house so she can stay with you-”
“NO!” Jackson said roughly. He shook his head as I stared at him in shock. “No, I mean, yes, she can stay with me there but I…I know I’ve said it before, but Allie, I built that house hoping that you’d live there with me. That you’d be happy there. You and Brandon.” He turned his head to look at Brandon who was looking back at him in surprise.
Jackson nodded seriously at him before turning back to me. “Is that something you think could do? Would you want to live there?”
I opened my mouth to answer and then laughed when he cut me off again to say, “Or I guess I could take a page out of Luke’s book and TELL you that you’re moving in with me…”
I smacked him lightly on his leg and leaned up to kiss him before getting to my feet and heading back to the closet to actually get dressed this time.
It never occurred to me until about halfway through the day that I never did answer him…
The bell on the door of my store tinkled and chimed and I looked up to greet the customer coming through.
“Hi, Nanny!” I exclaimed, completely taken by surprise that my grandmother was walking through the door, followed by my harried looking mother. “Hi, Momma!”
She waved and my grandma huffed and scowled. “Damn fool children don’t even know how to pick up a Goddamned phone anymore to check on anyone these days,” Nanny grumbled.
I rolled my eyes as I came out from behind the counter to hug them both. “What are you guys doing here?” I asked.
“Well, Nanny had an appointment this morning and Poppy didn’t feel up to taking her, so she called me!” my mom said brightly, though her face was telling a different story.
I smiled at her and nodded, knowing that she meant that my grandmother was being extra “tank” today. Now, we love her so very dearly, but I swear sometimes she’d try the patience of a saint. Even then, she’s so much fun regardless of her cranky mood because you never know what she’s going to say or do.
“So what did the doctor say, Nanny?” I asked her.
She cocked her head and gave me a sweet smile as she said, “I’m alive.”
I snorted. Smart ass old woman. “Well, that’s a good thing, right?”
She rolled her eyes at me and wandered off to a display of old-fashioned quilts I had hung using an old coat hanger.
I turned to my mom and asked her, wanting the real answer, “What’d she go to the doctor for?”
Mom shook her head and said, “Just a check up. He says she’s healthy as a horse. I think she’s just too stubborn to get sick or anything. Again, Allie, I’m sorry in advance if I ever start acting that way.” She patted my arm and then, trying to be nonchalant, meandered over to the book display to see the new romance books I’d put out this morning.
“Allie!” my grandma yelled and I jumped, quickly making my way over to where she was standing.
I groaned under my breath when I noticed that she had stopped in front of the display of vintage lingerie I had toward the back of the store. I lost it, snorting with laughter when she turned and I saw that she had wrapped an old silk corset around her skinny little chest and was wiggling herself back and forth cackling with laughter.
“See, Allie-girl, you wear stuff like this and you just might land you a hottie!” she crowed.
I gasped and chuckled at her, glad she’d given me this opening. “Well actually, Nanny, I just so happened to have landed me a good one. Two of ‘em, in fact.”
She raised her eyebrow at me and lifted her hand for a high-five, but she froze in mid-air. “Two?”
I nodded and noticed that my mom had worked her way over to us and was standing there grinning like a loon, waggling her eyebrows at me. I rolled my eyes at her again (I seem to do this a lot with my family) and smiled at my Nan
ny.
“Two?” she repeated. At my nod again, she screeched, “Why you little slut! When do we get to meet them?” Before I could answer she kept going. “You know, back in my day I actually was quite the catch myself. I had a few of them ol’ dogs sniffing after my skirts. And then there was this one time that I actually let two of ‘em-”
“Wow, Nanny!” I exclaimed loudly, cutting her off. “Cool story! Did you see the weather report for this week?” She nodded and she was off on a tirade about the ‘damn Ohio weather’ and I breathed a sigh of relief. That is something I didn’t need to know about, or to ever have a mental image of. Yeesh.
They stayed for a few minutes longer, leaving only when a couple more customers came into the store to browse. Before she walked out the door my mom made sure to let me know that dinner was Wednesday at seven, and it was non-negotiable. Be there with the guys or I was in a shit-load of trouble.
I acknowledged her in exasperation, waving and shaking my head at them fondly as they walked out with my Nanny grumping at my mom that she always takes too long.
The rest of the day went fairly quickly and just before I left the store, I heard a voice yelling at me from across the parking lot. I looked up and around, trying to determine where it was coming from when I saw Calland, Emma’s brother, running toward me.
He stopped in front of me, panting like he’d just run a marathon and I couldn’t help but pick at him like he always does everyone else.
“Getting a little out of shape there, buddy?” I asked with a smirk, reaching out to poke him in his stomach.
He glared at me, saying, “You’re a pain in the ass,” and then got down to the reason he had sought me out. “So do you know if Jackson or Brandon are planning on doing Luke’s bachelor party?”
I grinned at him and shook my head. “No, no one has mentioned anything. Why?”
“Cause I have got to get in on that shit!” he exclaimed.
I laughed and told him, “Well, come on over to the house and talk to them, then.”
He said he would and then jogged back to his car, hollering back over his shoulder that he’d stop by after he got something to eat.
Chapter 10
Wednesday snuck up on me so quickly that I didn’t have time to worry about it, let alone to prepare the guys for it. I did remember to call my mom and let her know that Jackson’s sister would be there, too. No way in hell was I gonna leave her sitting alone at my house while we all went for dinner.
We pulled up at my parent’s house a little early and I led everyone into the house. Something I regretted almost immediately.
“MOM! DAD! OH, GOD!” I yelled as I stopped so quickly that Jackson and Brandon both rammed into me from behind, and then poor Chloe let out an ‘oomf’ as she hit Brandon’s back . I threw my hands up, waving them around like a crazy woman as I tried to back up and get the guys back out the door to protect them from the shudder-inducing sight that is now seared into my eyeballs.
It didn’t do me any good because they were like a solid brick wall behind me, stunned into complete silence, their bodies frozen and unmovable. Chloe was trying to peek around them but couldn’t see anything, which I was grateful for. I gave up shoving at them and turned, resigned to dealing with what we’d walked in on. Thank fuck my parents had actually stopped the semi-horizontal mambo they were doing on the couch and were casually grabbing up their clothing and stepping into it like they had all the time in the world and I wasn’t standing there with guests waiting to be introduced.
“Allie! Honey, we didn’t expect you until later!” my mom said brightly. Clearly being caught in flagrante delicto posed no embarrassment for them.
“Mom, you said seven, it’s seven and we’re here! What…why…ugh!” I shook my head and threw my hands up, completely at a loss as to what to do or say at this point.
I felt movement behind me and noticed that the guys had finally unfrozen enough to have turned their heads and were now nervously looking everywhere but in front of them, and Chloe had pushed her way to the front, her eyes wide as she took in my parents dressing in front of us.
“Well, I guess we let time get away from us!” my mom said, laughing. My dad looked at her with a doting expression before turning to us, grinning.
“So these are your guys?” he asked in his booming voice. He moved to walked toward us with his hand outstretched, clearly intending to shake hands with them.
He stopped and inclined his head, acknowledging the small shake of my head I gave. I really didn’t want the guys and Chloe to have to shake the hand that was just…where it was on my mother. He smiled again, this time sheepishly and grabbed my mother’s hand, pulling her down the hallway.
When they left the room, I turned back to the three who were standing there behind me, all with expressions of confusion, shock, amusement, and a hint of disgust on their faces. “I’m sorry…” I trailed off, pretty much at a loss as to what to say. There was really nothing I could say to make them unsee the things that they’d seen. I, myself, wish I could rinse my eyeballs with bleach to rid myself of the image. Seriously, though, I should have been used to it by now. This wasn’t the first time I’d walked in on things like this. “Well, I told you my family was unconventional…worse than me! I warned you! So now you know!”
They all laughed and I felt the shock of the moment dissipate some. My parents came back into the room and Mom led us out to the back patio where she had a cooler full of beer on ice before she ran back inside and came back out with a veggie and dip tray for us to munch on while dinner was finishing up in the oven. She’d made lasagna and garlic bread and we ate and drank beer and generally had a pretty good time.
Brandon and Jackson took everything in stride, answering my parents’ off the wall and probing questions with ease and laughing at the stories they told about me growing up.
“So,” Jackson said a little later, “You’re okay with Allie being with both of us?”
I’d been waiting on that subject to come up all night and, frankly, I figured it would have been Brandon that would have asked it.
My parents both shrugged and Mom said, “As long as she’s happy, that’s all that matters. Now, what happened to you, missy?” She turned and pinned Chloe with a motherly look.
Chloe just waved her hand and offered a short, terse answer. “Bad decision that I rectified as soon as I could and won’t be revisiting again.”
My mom shot a worried look my way and shook my head slightly, pleading silently with her to let it drop. Chloe hadn’t really offered any information to us about what happened, and Jackson hadn’t said much about it either.
“Oh!” my mom shouted out of the blue, thankfully changing the subject. “I have pictures!”
I groaned as the guys both grinned at me, their eyes sparkling in the waning evening light. My mom jumped up and went inside, flipping on the porch lights as she lugged out four huge photo albums spilling over with pictures.
She took great pride in going through all of them, and we all laughed our asses off at the various crazy poses and outfits I’d sported throughout my life. Brandon found a picture of me and Emma standing together, me in a sport coat of my father’s and an old top hat, Emma wearing an old white lace dress of my mother’s and her oversized heels. Emma was holding a bouquet of wildflowers and we were arm in arm in front of my old teddy bear that had a big book propped up in it’s arms. We were grinning into the camera, both of us missing front teeth and looking so cute and innocent.
“Holy shit!” Brandon crowed, laughing. “Does Luke know that Emma’s a bigamist?”
“Ha ha, very funny, Brandon,” I said sarcastically, giggling over the picture myself. “I forgot about that! God, we were obsessed with everything wedding back then…” I sighed wistfully and then doubled over again when Jackson pointed out a picture of me sitting on my potty chair with the newspaper spread out over my lap, pretending to read it. In the picture, I was scowling at my mother or whoever was taking the picture, obvious
ly not impressed with being interrupted.
We stayed until almost eleven, finally getting up and saying goodbye to my parents after my dad got into a discussion with Brandon and Jackson about Luke’s bachelor party. They started talking about ideas that Calland had thrown out when he’d come by the house the other night and I called an end to it when they started whispering to each other and shooting suspicious looks over their shoulders at us. We walked to the door and my mom wrapped Chloe in a gentle hug and told her to come back anytime, especially if she ever needed to talk. She then hugged both the guys, kissing their cheeks and then laughing hysterically when they both jumped as she goosed them. I just sighed and shook my head. Mothers.
I was woken up at three in the morning by my bladder, who was protesting the four beers I’d consumed at dinner. I stretched and started to wiggle my way out from between the bodies wrapped around me but found that I didn’t have to because Brandon wasn’t in bed with us. I shook it off and stumbled up out of the bed, headed into my bathroom to take care of pressing matters. When I was done, I moved to get back in bed but stopped as I heard soft voices in another room. I quietly slipped into the hall and padded toward the spare bedroom. The door was cracked open and a faint light was coming from a nightlight that I’d put in there for Chloe at her request. I peeked through the opening and tensed when I saw Brandon lying in bed with her, one of his arms wrapped loosely around her while the other gently stroked her hair. He was murmuring to her soothingly, trying to calm the whimpering sounds coming from her throat.
I took a breath and when I did, the door moved, creaking slightly. I winced and peeked back through to see that Brandon was watching me. He smiled at me and motioned me into the room. I mentally berated myself for being nosy and being caught at it as I slowly pushed my way into the room and padded toward the bed as quietly as I could. He held his arm out to me and I shook my head, backing away again. No way in hell was I getting in bed with them and being all lovey-dovey while the poor thing was bawling her eyes out.