by Emma Scott
“What the hell is your problem, man?”
He jerked around to glare back at me by the light of the lone streetlamp above us. “You really have to ask? No, wait. Me first. I’ve got a question I’ve wanted to ask for weeks.”
I crossed my arms over my chest. “By all means.”
“What the fuck is going on with you and Kacey?”
“Nothing’s going on. We’re friends.”
“Oh yeah. Just friends.” His gaze flickered to the silver watch on my wrist. “Hey, you got the time, by any chance?”
I nodded slowly. “Yeah, I do.”
“I’ll bet you do. It’s a sweet watch, man.” Oscar’s eyes were challenging. “Where’d you get it? Let me guess. Your friend Kacey gave it to you.”
“You got something to say to me, Oscar, then go ahead and say it.”
Oscar shook his head, a short, disgusted laugh gusting out of him. “You know, I thought it was strange you kept flying back and forth to see her, but I was willing to give you the benefit of the doubt. I told myself you were just friends too. And then I saw you today. We all saw you. Including your mother, I might add.”
“Saw what, exactly?”
“Don’t play stupid. Neither of you could stop looking at each other all fucking night.” Before I could reply, he took a step closer, dropped his voice. He had the look of a man itching for a fight. “Are you sleeping with her?”
My jaw clenched and I spat the words through gritted teeth. “None of your fucking business.”
“It is my business. Jonah was my best friend and I know how you operate.”
“The fuck is that supposed to mean?”
“Why her, man? You can fuck any woman you want. And you do. So why Kacey?” His jaw worked and it seemed like he was trying to keep his fists from flying. “Why do you have to go after Jonah’s girl?”
I took a step back. “It’s not like that.”
“No? You trying to tell me this time, after years of chasing after anything in a skirt, it’s now different with her? Special?”
I fought to keep my voice even, while inside I was ready to combust. “What the hell is wrong with you? You spend one day with us and you think you know the story?”
“I know your story,” Oscar said. “I’ve heard it before. Holly. Rachel. Lana. Brandi… Shit, those are only the ones I can name. You got at least a hundred more in your phone. Different names, same fucking story. But not Kacey, man. She’s not like the rest. She’s not some chick you can bang and then never call again.”
The blood drained from my face. “I’m aware of that.”
“Are you?” He leaned close, his words hissing at me while his finger jabbed my chest. “Because it looks to me like it’s business as usual with you, only this time it’s your dead brother’s girlf—”
My hand shot out and gripped Oscar by the front of his shirt, and I yanked him to me until we were nose to nose. “Shut. The fuck. Up. You don’t know shit about it.”
“I know what I see.” Oscar tore away from me. “I know what you do with women, and I’m warning you, you can’t do that with Kacey.”
“Oh, you’re warning me?”
Kacey and Dena were on the front walk and both stopped, staring. The air thickened so I could hardly breathe.
“What’s going on?” Dena asked.
“Nothing. Let’s go.” Oscar headed for their SUV. He opened the driver door and put one foot in.
“Bye, Oscar,” Kacey said in a small voice.
“It’s a really nice watch, Kace,” Oscar said in return, his eyes hard on me. “I hope you kept the receipt. Dena, let’s go.”
I caught Dena’s eye and managed a smile. “It’s okay,” I said. “Go ahead. I’ll talk to you later.”
Dena nodded and slid into the passenger seat. I drew some comfort from the probability of Oscar getting an earful from his wife the second the door shut.
Or maybe Oscar will tell her I’m just using Kacey for sex. Another conquest.
They drove away, leaving Kacey and me to stare after.
“What was that about?” she said.
“Nothing. Let’s get you back to your hotel.”
“Tell me.”
“It’s cold out, Kace,” I said, softening my voice. “Come on, you’re shivering. Get in the car.”
I started the engine and cranked up the heat, pulling slowly out of the cul de sac when I only wanted to peel out and leave a scar of rubber a mile long.
“It was about us, wasn’t it?” Kacey asked.
“It’s not important.” My hands clenched the steering wheel.
“I heard enough,” she said. “And your mom. Jesus.”
“I know.”
“We haven’t even figured anything out between us but they’ve already made up their minds.”
“Yeah, they have.”
“Where are you going?” she asked, frowning at the streets outside her window.
“Your hotel. You have an early flight tomorrow.”
“Teddy…”
“Let’s just call it a night, Kace.”
“Why? I thought we were going to talk?”
My gaze slid over to her, to the smooth skin of her thighs and the curve of her breasts beneath her dress. What if Oscar was right? What the hell did I know about getting serious with someone? I knew brute, emotionless sex. I could barely put together two words to tell Kacey how I felt.
I walked her to her hotel room door, where she hesitated with the key card in her hand.
“Teddy…”
“Look, it’s been a monumentally shitty night,” I said. “You have the most important meeting of your life on Monday. You should get some sleep, get back to New Orleans, and prepare for it.”
“Is that what you want?” she asked softly.
My hand itched to reach out and touch her face, but I didn’t dare. “I want you to be happy, Kace. Your whole life is about to change. Now isn’t the time for all this unnecessary headache in your life. My mom and Oscar and all the rest of it.”
She nodded slowly. “I’m sorry today wasn’t what it should’ve been for you. You deserve better.”
I bent and kissed her temple. “Have a safe flight.”
At home, I changed out of the suit into flannel pants and a wife-beater. I shut off all the lights and put SportsCenter on the TV, but I wasn’t watching. It was all mindless chatter.
The part of me feeling like I’d done the right thing was getting its ass kicked by the part of me worrying I was letting Kacey go without a fight.
“Just talk,” I said. “Talk to her. On the phone. No kissing. No sex.”
I picked up my phone and pushed her number. It went to voicemail. I checked the time—a little after eleven. Maybe she was sleeping.
I sent her a text.
You there?
I’m here.
Then I heard the knock on my front door.
My phone slipped out of my hands and my heart clanged against my ribcage like an animal trying to get out. I strode into the kitchen, flipped the light on and opened the door.
She came in, breathless and beautiful. Pushed the door shut and leaned against it. Her eyes raked up and down my skin.
“You want to talk?” I said.
Kacey reached and turned the light off, plunging the kitchen into darkness. “Fuck talking.”
Kacey
As the dark enveloped us in soft blackness, I reached for Theo, my hands slipping around his neck. He froze for a moment, then brought his mouth to mine in a crushing kiss.
In the dark, in the silence, we were alone in the world. No prying eyes, no judgment, no words to break the spell, no names spoken. We had the wrong names, he and I. I was wrong for being here and he was the wrong brother.
But not tonight.
We fell back against the wall, writhing, grasping, and yanking at clothes. Desperate to expose more skin, to touch more, to kiss harder, to finally take what we wanted.
We kissed until kissing wasn’t enough.
Theo’s hands roamed my back, found the zipper of my dress. He flipped me around, and I braced myself on the kitchen counter as he slid it down, exposing my back to the air. He made a growling sound of want as my dress slipped into a silky puddle at my feet, leaving me in my bra, panties, and heels. Theo’s hand made a fist in my hair, pulling it aside, exposing the skin. His mouth worked along my shoulder. Voraciously, like a starving man. I gasped as he trailed open-mouthed kisses up to my ear. My skin turned to fire under his grazing teeth. His tongue was hot and wet, tasting me, sucking my skin, biting and then licking again.
My legs trembled as I pressed back into him. His hands slipped up to my bra-clad breasts, kneading me while his mouth continued its assault on my neck. I arched until my head rested on his shoulder, as my hand slid between our bodies to find the length of him—huge and iron hard—straining against his pants. I stroked him through the material, then slipped my hand inside, wrapped my fingers around him.
“Jesus…” I breathed.
He let out a small grunt, and bit down on my neck, sending fresh licks of fire down my back.
“Want you,” he growled, his right hand sliding down between my breasts, down my stomach, to the top of my panties. “Wanted you for so long…”
His fingers slipped inside my panties, and my thoughts broke into the air. “Oh God yes,” I whispered. “Touch me.”
Two fingers slid inside me and with a cry, I arched harder against him. His mouth worked against my neck, my ear, sending currents of heat down to where his fingers pressed deliciously hard, until I unraveled from top to bottom. I writhed against him, my hand still stroking him but hands and fingers weren’t enough.
“More,” I whispered. “Please, more.”
Theo withdrew his hand and spun me around. Our mouths crashed together, all teeth and tongues and our breaths rasping in our noses. His hands cupped the back of my neck and the curve of my waist as we mauled each other’s mouths, raw and frenzied. He groaned into my mouth and I took it, gave it back as a whimper—a silent cry as my entire body screamed for his.
My hands tore across his broad back, the muscles of his shoulders, into his hair, down to his tight ass. His kisses overwhelmed me. He overwhelmed me with his relentless presence, the solidity of him, his scent, the taste of his tongue dueling with mine, the feel of his strong body mashed against me. In his grip, I was small and fragile yet utterly desired and powerful. I’d never seen a man want me this badly. Ever.
He lifted me and sat me down on the counter. My legs instantly wrapped around his waist, my arms around his neck, still kissing, biting, sucking until I tasted the tang of blood—his or mine, I didn’t know. I was lost. Delirious with him. Blindly we tore at each other’s clothing. His large hands went to the front of my bra, found the clasp and tore it open.
“Yes,” I cried, as his hands sought my breasts. I wanted to scream Yes to everything he was doing to me, but I swallowed the sound and kissed him harder, my own hands finding the bottom of his shirt and hauling it off.
It was too dark to see each other. Our hands and mouths did all the looking. My fingers trailed up the hard cut of his abs, up over his broad chest, to his right nipple where I found a hard glint of metal. A tiny barbell piercing. I hadn’t known it was there. I’d never seen him without a shirt. I bent to put my mouth on that piercing, nipping at it with my teeth and tugging it gently.
Theo hissed a breath and let me work over his nipple with my tongue, then drew me back to his mouth for another bruising kiss. His hands slid up my thighs, his fingers hooked my panties and slid them down. My hands tore at the ties on his pants, pushing them off his hips. He was huge and hard, soft velvet over steel.
“Wait,” I whispered.
“I got it,” he said. He pulled a condom from his wallet on the counter and rolled it down, his mouth on mine again. With delicious roughness, he thrust my thighs apart.
I thought he’d drive straight into me but he was slow—for the first and last time all night he was slow—pushing into me, gripping my hips until his touched mine, joined completely.
“God, yes,” I hissed, then bit his shoulder. The feel of him inside me, the heavy pressure, the heat and hardness of him. He was so much, stretching and filling me.
A few slow, deep thrusts, and then Theo began to move.
He braced himself with both hands on the counter and I wrapped myself around him, my legs tight to his waist, my high heels digging into the small of his back. I clung to his neck, our mouths trying to form something like a kiss but merely touching, teeth clacking together, tongues stroking one another. I held him tighter as he drove into me, fast and hard, and his mouth moved to latch onto my neck, biting and sucking. My fingernails answered, clawing at the ropes of muscles along his back, until finally the sensation building in me stole every bit of energy.
“Come for me,” he growled.
His hand gripped a fistful of my hair and he brought my mouth to his, hard and deep. I came then, pain and pleasure driving me over the edge. Theo showed no signs of being close or tiring. His body was powerful with lust while mine felt limp from the climax that ripped through it. I clung to him, content to let him take me however he wanted, to stay inside me as long as it took to find his own release. But another orgasm, stoked on the fires of the first, began to build in me.
“Again,” he grunted against my lips. “Come for me again.”
I arched back and he held me with one arm tight around my waist, driving into me over and over. Until the second climax—a thousand times stronger than the first—tore through me.
I cried out as my body tensed, every muscle and sinew threaded tight, bound together in an ecstasy I’d never experienced. His hands were locked on my hips, hauling me to him as he thrust and just as my second orgasm began to wane, he came.
He shuddered and bit back a cry through gritted teeth, turning the cry into a low rumbling growl. His thrusts slowed, deepened, but were just as hard. God he was so deep in me, and I held him there, my legs still wrapped around him until he had emptied himself into me completely.
I slumped against him. Theo rested his head against my shoulder, his breath gusting over my skin. I stroked the broad muscles of his back, up to the base of his neck, and threaded my fingers through his thick, silken hair. I held him to me, our sweat mingling, our breaths slowing together.
He pulled away enough to look at me. His whiskey-colored eyes glinted and I could feel him searching me, trying to find me in the relentless dark. Forehead to forehead, we held on to each other, and the hunger began to build again. We weren’t done yet. Our lips met—a small touch—and then again. And again. And again until the fire was stoked and rising once more. I parted my lips wide to take him deeply, to kiss away any doubt that I was satiated. I wanted more. I wanted all night.
He pulled out and I let out a small cry at the loss of him. He disposed of the condom and then came back to me, and lifted me up off the counter. Under my knees and around my back, he carried me to his bedroom.
I’d never been in his space like this before. In the dark, there were no colors and only sparse furniture: a dresser, nightstand, large bed with dark comforter. The room smelled masculine and sharp, permeated by his cologne, his soap, his shaving cream. I was surrounded by the scent of him, and I inhaled deeply.
He set me down on the bed and I watched his dark shape move to open a nightstand drawer for another condom. I got up on my knees, reaching for him, to pull him down on top of me with a raw urge to let him use my body any way he wanted.
And he did.
All night.
I lost track of how many orgasms I had. Or how many I gave him. The hours blurred together in a tangled, sweaty mass of aching need and hunger. Finally, as dawn threatened to dispel our safe darkness, we fell heavily into sleep.
Kacey
I woke with the daylight cutting across the bed. My body pulsed in the hundred places where Theo had been. I felt hungover with him, swollen and aching, satiated
and deliciously heavy.
I sat up, brushed the tousled mess of hair from my eyes and glanced around. Theo’s room was neater than I expected. The comforter on his king-sized bed was dark blue, as were the curtains. Brown furniture, beige rug.
My eyes landed on a picture on the dresser. The sleepy smile slipped from my lips.
Jonah and Theo, the big brother with his arm slung around his little brother, smiling his bright, open smile. Theo’s was more of a smirk, but I knew him now. To find Theo’s happiness, you had to look in his eyes.
I glanced at the sleeping man beside me. On his stomach, his face half-buried in a pillow. The light fell over the muscles of his back, the smooth skin tattooed along his arms and down his right shoulder blade.
Memories of other men from my past—nameless roadies and faceless musicians with inked skin, swam up at me. Men I’d used for comfort and pleasure, and then discarded.
This isn’t the same, I thought. It’s not what I came back for last night. Not why I’m here now.
My gaze went back to the photo of the brothers, then returned to Theo sleeping. I clutched the sheets to my naked body, waiting to see which feeling was going to hit me first. The one Yvonne said held the truth.
But my eyes landed on the clock radio next to Theo’s bedside and a jolt of panic tore through me.
“Teddy! My flight! Shit…”
Theo bolted upright.
“What? Your flight…” He blinked sleepily at the clock, his hair a tousled mess. “What time is your flight?”
“7:45,” I said. I glanced around frantically for my clothes. “Oh my god, that meeting. I’m going to miss that meeting…”
“Shit.” Theo threw off the bed sheets and drew on a pair of jeans, as I raced out of his room.
In the kitchen I found my clothes lay in a heap on the floor. I dressed quickly as Theo came in, grabbing for his wallet and keys.
“Is there a later flight?” he asked, helping me zip up my dress.
“Yes, but mine is the only one that’s direct. All the others have long layovers and wouldn’t get me back in Louisiana until tomorrow morning.” I stopped, staring at the digital clock on the stove. “I’m going to miss that meeting with Sony.”