Not even when I was little, do I recall crying like this. Then it hits me that I have to be strong for Angel and our kids now. So I suck it up.
I can fall apart later. Right now they need me to be their rock. I pull out of my grandfather’s arms and pat him on the shoulder. “Thank you, Grandfather. Thank you for being here for me and my family at such a hard time. Thank you for showing me what it means to be the man of the family. Without your influence, I’d have no idea of how to be a man, a husband, or a father.”
“You’ve become a man I’m proud to call my grandson, Benjamin. No matter what happens, I know you can handle it the best way possible.” He takes my hand and pulls me back to sit down between him and Rebecca.
I see how pale she is, and it suddenly dawns on me how frightened she must be for her granddaughter. I take her hand and hold it. “I’m sure she’ll be fine. I think that girl always runs on higher octane than most, anyway.”
She nods her head and looks at me. “I’m sure you’re right. She has always been a little high strung and quick tempered. Maybe that spike looked big to them but not so much to her.”
I nod and hope we’re right about that.
Because I don’t know what I’d do without her being her anymore.
ANGEL
A bright light flashes into my eyes as someone asks me, “Mrs. Worthington can you see me?”
“No,” I answer in a scratchy voice that makes my throat hurt very bad. “There’s a light in my eyes.”
The light goes away and there’s a shadowy figure in front of me. “Good.”
“Her voice sounds clear,” I hear some man say from the corner of the room. “The scan is up on the monitor, Doctor.”
I watch the blurry figure move away from me and go towards a box with gray fuzzy stuff on it. I close my eyes to try to get the blurriness to go away as I listen to them talk.
“Okay, I see no damage,” the doctor says.
“Damage?” I ask. I open my eyes and blink and things start looking normal. “To what?”
He comes back to me and looks down at me then removes the strap that’s holding my head down. “You had a spike in your blood pressure. We had to check for signs of a stroke. How do you feel?”
“Like shit, to be honest.”
He laughs and moves the bed up just a little. “Yeah, that’s normal. Can you think and focus?”
“Yes.” I look around and can see everything clear. “So, how’d the surgery go? Are my little girls two separate kids now?”
He nods. “It all went really well. The interns are going over the video in the gallery right now. They’re excited to see the procedure. I think you’ll be really happy to see your babies when they arrive. I foresee little to no scarring. It’s amazing really.”
“What about my husband?” I ask. “And did you guys tell him about thinking I had a stroke?”
He nods and I feel awful. “You need to hurry up and let him know I’m fine. He’ll be worried sick. I can’t imagine what all went through his head. What torture.”
He looks over at the nurse. “Go get her family, will you?”
The nurse hurries out and I ask, “So when can I get the hell out of here?”
“After the babies are born,” he says.
“What?” I shake my head. “That’s like a month away.”
“Didn’t your doctor tell you that?”
“No. Damn!”
The door opens and Benny comes in alone. “Angel?”
I nod and he comes to me and leans over the bed, rubbing my shoulder and I see his eyes are all red and his nose is too. “Benny, you’ve been crying.”
“You’re damn right I have. I was worried sick about you.” His hand rubs my shoulder harder like he’s trying to tell himself I’m really okay.
“Sorry,” I say with a little smile. “I didn’t mean to scare you.”
He kisses my forehead. “Well, you did. And I don’t want you to do that anymore. I’m never going to ask you to do this again. This will be our last pregnancy.”
“Hold up there, Big Daddy.” I take his hand in mine and give it a little squeeze. “That’s jumping to conclusions. We can see how things go. I’m not getting on that wagon just yet.”
“I thought you’d be the one telling me that, to be honest. I was just wanting you to know I’m onboard with that idea. My heart nearly gave out, and this thing isn’t even all the way over yet.” He kisses my forehead again. “I’m not cut out for this.”
I laugh then stop as it hurts pretty damn bad. “It’s just life, Benny. I had a dream while I was under. And in that dream, there was another son. He looked like you. I can’t think of not having another kid right now.”
He pats my shoulder and smiles. “Okay then. I’m leaving that all up to you, Sugarplum.”
“Good.”
Somehow I think everything’s going to work out fine.
BLAZE
“Hush, girls,” I hiss as Serenity and Harmony run into the nursery where I’m rocking the latest edition to our little family.
“Daddy, I want to hold him. You’ve been hogging him for over an hour,” Serenity gripes as she puts her hands on her hips.
The girls look just like me only with feminine qualities. They just turned sixteen last week and think they’re grown.
Harmony holds out her arms. “No, Daddy, give him to me. She held him last. Oh, and Mom wants you, anyway. Woody took your old Harley out last night and he accidentally ran over something. She wants you to see what happened before she fixes it.”
I set my jaw and get up out of the rocking chair. It’s the same large wooden chair I rocked all of my kids in. Harmony sits down, and I put little Ronald Reagan Worthington in her arms.
Grandfather has passed on, but he told Angel his favorite president was Ronald Reagan just before he died. She was adamant our last son would carry on the tradition he started. We call him Ronnie.
Her grandmother joined my grandfather in the hereafter only three months after he left us. I guess she just didn’t want to go on without him.
I make my way down the stairs and out to the shop to find Woody and Angel looking over the bike I had when I meet the mother of my children and love of my life.
“Gross!” I shout as I see blood covering the front fender. “What the hell, Son?”
Woody shrugs his shoulders. “I think it was a jack-a-lope, Dad.”
“It bent the rim a little, Baby,” Angel tells me. “I have one I can swap it out with. But I wanted your permission first.”
I look at her with a lopsided grin. “Baby, when will you understand that I completely trust your judgment where any bike of mine is concerned. You are the top designer of the lightweight Harley, you know. Your call is always great with me.”
She smiles back at me and nods. “Okay then. If you’re sure.”
I walk over and pull her into my arms as Woody makes a face. “Geez, when will you two get too old for this mushy crap? I’m out of here. Sorry about your bike, Dad.”
Angel cocks her head as she asks, “Are we ever going to get too old for this, Benny?”
“I sure as hell hope not, my Angel.” I kiss her and her sweet mouth still takes me to the place it always has.
Beyond this place and time to another world where only she and I exist. And hopefully, it always will.
And we all lived happily ever after…
The End
The Billionaire’s Brother
An Alpha-Male Billionaire Bad Boy BDSM Romance
Thriller
By Michelle Love
Chapter 1
JENNA
“Rod? You home?” I call out as I come into the little apartment we rented last week.
After only a few months of dating, we decided to take it a step further and move in together. To say my parents were pissed would be an understatement.
Try furious!
But what Rod Manning and I have is as real as it gets. Even if I am just eighteen. A thing my parents tell m
e is a real issue. Though it’s not really.
Rod’s a few years older than I am. Okay, five of them, but that’s not a big deal to me. My father made me wait until I turned eighteen to date, Rod or anyone else for that matter.
Rod’s been after me for the last couple of years, but being underage had him waiting for me. Dad threatened all kinds of hell on the poor guy if he touched me before I turned the legal age.
The funny thing is Rod’s mother has cautioned me about their oldest son as well. At a senior party, my graduating class had at one of my classmate’s ranches just before I turned eighteen I saw Rod’s mother. She was helping chaperone the party.
She had no idea of Rod’s interest in me and took me aside then asked me if I knew her son, Reed. I knew of Reed, of course. We all live in a minuscule town in Jerome, Arizona.
Reed is only two years older than I am. And I was shocked when she told me he and I would make a perfect couple. He was away at college at that time but would be home for the summer and she wanted to know if she could give him my phone number when he got home.
Her dismay when I told her it was her son, Rod, who was interested in me and me in him, confused me. She was very open about him being a difficult person. Which I found crazy.
He doesn’t seem difficult to me, at all. Quite the opposite. He seems so rugged and manly and tough as nails, but in all the right ways.
His job as a mechanic keeps his muscles tight, and he keeps a five o’clock shadow thing going on his handsome face.
I’ll admit it. The man does have this dangerous edge to him. But I find it exciting as hell.
The way he handles me is so hot!
And he’s told me he has a surprise for me tonight when he gets home. Which I thought would be by now.
“Hey there, Baby,” his deep voice calls out from our bedroom.
I go that way, turning down the short hallway that leads off the living room. There he is, leaning his tall body against the door frame.
His dark ash blonde hair hangs to his shoulders in waves. His steely blue eyes running up and down my body give me chills. “Hey, Rod.”
Clad in only his tight black underwear I see he’s taken a shower and rid himself of the grease of the garage he works in. The smell of his soap fills my senses.
My insides are already melting as he looks me over. “I brought home that surprise I told you about, but we have something to talk about first.” He pulls me into his strong arms as I come to him.
His mouth covers mine as he thrusts his tongue into my mouth. The way it moves like he has a purpose to touch every place in my mouth makes my knees weak and I lean against him.
A handful of my ass he grabs and squeezes it as he growls. My body is hot and now I’m wet and can hardly wait to get out of these clothes and into our bed.
His other hand moves up my arm then over my shoulder and he grabs a handful of my long hair and pulls it back hard. His mouth leaves mine and his teeth graze over my neck then he bites it hard.
The noise I make has him pulling back, and he looks intense.
I love that look. Like raw power.
“I want something permanent with you, Jenna.” His words make my heart pound.
“K.”
A grin creeps across his handsome face. “I haven’t told you what it is yet and you answer already?”
I nod and he smiles. “Permanent is what I want too. I love you, Rod.”
“Love is for the weak, Baby. What did I tell you about all that love shit?” He lets me go and moves away from me. “Life is about other things. Life is hard, Baby. Love is fleeting. Commitment isn’t though. I want that from you. A real commitment.”
He moves to the bed and sits on the edge and pulls a pack of cigarettes out of the bedside table. A long neck bottle half full of beer sits on top and he takes a drink then lights his cigarette.
That’s the one thing I hate. I hate the smell of cigarettes and he knows it. Yet he’s not about to do as I’ve asked him repeatedly to, smoke outside.
But I think he might be about to propose so I’m not going to bring that up right now. Instead, I go to sit next to him on the bed. “So what is it you want, Rod?”
From under the pillow he sleeps on, he pulls a sheet of paper. I can see the large words at the top, ‘Dom/Sub-Slave Contract’ my heart stops and my eyes go wide.
I pick up the sheet of paper and look at it, then at him. His face is sterile.
No emotion. Not a thing.
“Slave? Why is the word, slave, on this paper? And what is it all about?”
His strong hand moves up my arm and tightens around my bicep. “I want you. I want all of you. I want to own you, Baby.”
My heart starts to pound in my chest. “Own me?”
He nods slowly and I can’t think. Then one thought floods my brain. “My father will kill you, Rod.”
“This has to be our little secret. This town is too small to let this kind of thing out.” He takes a drag off the cigarette and the smell intensifies and I cough.
“A secret?” I look around the little bedroom. My eyes fall on a hook that’s on the wall near the closet. A hook that wasn’t there before.
Then I look back at the paper I hold in my right hand. It’s shaking and I hold it with my left to steady it so I can read what he wants from me.
Words pop out at me. Punishments. Sexual tortures. Expectations.
“Rod, is this a joke?” I look into his eyes and find no humor there.
He shakes his head slow and easy. “It’s no joke, Jenna. It’s what I want. And I always get what I want. You know that.”
Smoke encircles his head as he taps the ashes off the cigarette into the clean ashtray on the night stand. “This doesn’t look like a thing I want to be a part of. I thought you were talking about marriage, Rod.”
A low laugh comes from him. “Marriage? Nah. I’m not into that. That can end in divorce. What I’m asking from you can’t end. It’s forever, girl. Isn’t that better than a marriage?”
“This says, you want me to stay available for your every need.” My eyes move to his and find them squinting as he takes another puff of the cigarette. “My job, though.”
He shakes his head. “That little job ain’t making you no money, anyway. See, the way I’m thinking is it’s better for me if you can come to me or I come home and you’re here and you can take care of whatever I feel I need at that time.”
“Sex?” I stare at him. “Are you saying I don’t give you enough already?”
“You don’t. But that isn’t your fault. It’s your job’s fault,” he says as he grinds the cigarette butt into the ashtray. “Like this afternoon I wanted a piece of ass so bad I nearly went across the street from the shop and found one at that little bar.”
My heart stops. “You didn’t though, did you?”
“No,” he says with a shake of his head, sending his wavy locks swinging around his broad shoulders. His eyes move to mine and pierce me. “But, as you’ll find in the contract, that is a thing I can do if I see fit and you aren’t meeting all my physical needs. And you have to take it, Baby. You can’t leave me over it.”
My stomach hurts all of a sudden and I bend over and place my hand on it. ‘No! No, Rod! No, fucking way!’
Okay, I said that only in my head.
My voice is shaking as I say out loud, “Why do you want to have sex with other women?”
“I don’t want to. But if I can’t do the things I want with you then I’ll have to. I have certain desires and if you won’t let me do those things with you then I’ll get that elsewhere with someone who will.” His hand runs over my shoulder and down my arm. “But I really want to do that stuff with you, Baby. Only you. But I’m a little afraid you’re too vanilla to do any of it.”
I turn my head slowly to look at him and my age and experience or lack thereof hits me. “I’ll let you do whatever you want to me. I’m no child, Rod. I can be everything you want. If I lost you, I don’t know what I’d do. And I c
an’t stand the thought of you with anyone else.”
“Here’s the thing, Baby. You can’t tell a soul. Not only would your dad kick my ass but mine might do the same damn thing to me. He’s told me as much.” He looks away and rubs his jaw.
“You’ve talked to your dad about whatever it is you like to do sexually?” I look at him with a face full of confusion.
I don’t even talk to my mother about the things I find arousing.
“Nah, I didn’t talk to him about it. He found some of my literature on the subject. He told me when he found out you and I were a thing that if I ever tried to bring you into that dark world he’d hold me down while your daddy beat my ass then he’d beat my ass himself.” His arm goes around me and he kisses my shoulder.
“God! What kind of literature are we talking about, Rod? That doesn’t sound like your average porn.” I watch him as he peers at me through his thick lashes.
“It isn’t average. I’m not an average man. A bit above, you know?”
I nod then say, “I think you’re the smartest guy I know, Rod.”
He laughs. “Not like that. Like the way I feel. I feel more than some. I want more than some. Fuck, Baby. You don’t know how bad I want you to come down to the shop and suck me off in the men’s room.”
My face heats. “Rod!” I laugh and look at him and see he’s dead serious. “Really?”
“Yes, really. I want to fuck you in the alley behind the grocery store during the rush hour. I want to finger fuck you in the small café on the square while the people we know eat their lunch without a clue as to what I’m doing to you. I want your panties to be soaking wet when we walk out and I want you to hand them to me when I ask. With no hesitation.” His eyes go light and sparkle.
“That’s really bad, Rod. Really bad. We could get caught and then everyone would look at us and think bad things about us. Oh, no. I can’t…” His mouth slams into mine.
Shattered: A Billionaire Romance Series (Contemporary Romance Novels) Page 68