“Brant, I… I’m so sorry,” I blurt out. Glancing to my side, I find that Julia is gone.
It’s just us, and he pulls me inside so fast I gasp. The door slams behind us, and I am surrounded by the scent of his body wash from the steam of the shower and his cologne from his body right in front of me now.
I can’t read the look on his face. His brows are raised in shock, his eyes still looking me over. God, I must look horrible.
“You came…”
“I wanted to see the last show.” I smile sadly. He licks his lips and steps closer to me. I inhale his intensity all at once and am dizzied. Or I think that’s real dizziness.
“You look so pale, sit down.” He points me to his plush leather couch and then hands me water.
He doesn’t make a show of dressing by putting his boxers on before dropping his towel, then jeans and a gray t-shirt before he sits next to me. I am done with the water bottle already and feel nine percent better.
“Why did you come? Are you okay?” he asks.
“I came because… because I made a mistake. I shouldn’t have said those things to you that I didn’t mean. And I should have meant it when I said I wouldn’t ever run from you. I didn’t mean to hurt you.” My voice cracks, tears flow already. Damn me and my emotions all over the place.
Brant breathes out and sinks into the back of the couch. I don’t know how much silence passes. My eyes don’t leave him memorizing all his features again—his strong jaw and full pink lips, perfectly chiseled nose and relaxed muscular body. All I want to do is be wrapped up in his arms again, but I know I don’t have the right to jump back into them.
“Cora, I wish you’d have told me before, I’m engaged now.”
“What?” I shriek. He stares back at me stone-faced long enough for me to blame myself and hate him for just moving on before he starts laughing and shaking his head.
“I’m just kidding.” He laughs. I miss his laugh. I wish I didn’t have high blood pressure just to hear it, though.
“Brant… you’re still the same.” I giggle.
“Did you think I would change?” He arches his brow, his eyes twinkling.
Before I have a chance to respond, he grabs me and tugs me close to him. My chest on his is so close I feel his heartbeat, his scent swirls around me, and I gaze into his eyes as he cups my face.
“I’ve missed you. Why haven’t you called?” his whisper is rough, and it zaps through my entire body.
“I didn’t know what to say. Nothing seemed good enough,” I answer honestly.
“I only needed to hear your voice. I didn’t… I couldn’t believe that you didn’t want me. It would be too painful.”
I nod. “It is. And it’s not true, I do want you. I…” I swallow hard because I’ve never said this before. Not to anyone. Brant waits for me, and I bite my lip so hard it goes numb before I say anything. “I have fallen in love with you, Brant. And I was so scared… I’ve never loved anyone before, and I panicked just using anything to justify my shitty excuses. I’m so sorry,” I say again.
Brant shakes his head at me cupping my face in both of his rough hands. They are warm and calloused, different from before, and I suspect it’s because he has been playing more often than normal.
“Cora, you know I love you, too.”
“You do?”
He chuckles. “Yes. I’m starting to think you’re only book smart.”
I frown at him, and he kisses it away softly, and then again his lips urging mine apart, and his tongue darting out to meet mine. I sigh and melt into the kiss—it aligns all my stars once again, and everything is at peace. I know kissing him now feels so different because everything is out in the open. No secrets—we know how we feel about each other and to what extent.
“I love you,” he murmurs against my lips. “I love you so fucking much.”
His kiss gets deeper, and I can’t even breathe anymore. I inhale sharply and kiss him back, my arms going around his thick neck to hold him closer to me. I get tugged onto him, my legs hanging over his lap and my chest hard against his. My fingers curl in his hair still damp from his shower.
The nerves in my body start to come alive again. My senses heightened for every one of his touches, and his lips are hard against mine. He kisses me like it’s the only way to survive, like it is the fuel to everything in life, and I kiss him back the same way. It is even more dizzying, yet all I want to do is be disoriented with him.
“Fuck, we’ve got to get out of here.” He suddenly drops me back on to the couch.
I pant to catch my breath as I watch him peer outside the door. He does the same to the window in the back.
“Where will we go?” I don’t know why I’m whispering.
“My tour bus.” He grabs his wallet and keys and holds out his hands. “Come on.”
I smile wide and follow him.
He maneuvers me avoiding the paps to get to his tour bus mixed with a battalion of security cars.
“Wow.” I stare in shock at the large, dark brown tour bus, but Brant tugs me along before I can even properly look.
Brant doesn’t stop until we are in the back of the bus, and I am thrown on the bed. I smile up at him as he smiles down at me. He starts to climb on, and I stop him.
“Wait.” I sit up and look around. “You have a shower?”
“Yes, why?” He grits his teeth. His eyes are dark with arousal, and it is like torture to stop Brant once he gets started.
“I want to shower first.” I get up and am pulled back down as he hovers over me.
“Nuh uh.” He kisses me, and I smile against him as I laugh.
“I’ve been traveling all day. You won’t regret it.” My palms cover his cheeks, and I rake my nails down his stubble.
He groans and cops a feel of both my breasts before letting me go.
I rush into the shower. It’s a good size and fully stocked. I wash from head to toe and am glad I at least still kept up with my waxes. I rub over my belly and feel the flutter of excitement inside and nervousness too.
I open up the door, steam billowing out as I walk out naked to meet a naked Brant on the bed too.
25
Brant
My woman is back, and I can stop seeing in black and white. It truly felt like that before. To hear her say she loves me, that this is real… it’s the best music I’ve heard, and I am currently number one in the nation.
“Get over here,” I growl.
I need my woman now more than ever. She straddles me, her hands over her belly as she climbs higher on her knees. I take her hands and kiss them both before I suck each of her fingers in turn. I want to take my time with her, but my cock has other ideas.
She grasps my base and starts to pump me up and down, way too slow but just tight enough.
“You don’t know how much I have missed you, Cora.” I look up into her eyes.
She bites her lip and smiles at me.
“I missed you, too,” she says. I love her voice masked with desire.
“How much?” I palm her breasts, and she flinches. I think I must have done it too hard so I soften my touch, even though it’s always the same.
“Very much.”
Cora rubs her dripping sex over my cock, her warmth soaking me up in just her lips as she glides me up to her clit. Shudders take over her body as she keeps going, and I just lay back and watch ignoring the need in my cock begging to be inside her. She rubs against me, her face contorted in pleasure as her wet hair falls over her shoulder and clings to her.
She comes in seconds, literal seconds. She must have really missed me.
“That was gorgeous. You’re beautiful, doll.” I pull her down to me and kiss her.
“I missed you calling me that,” she murmurs over my lips.
“I did text you… and call.” I chuckle and kiss her again. She shakes her head against me and then kisses me back.
“I have to tell you something,” she whispers against my lips.
“I hav
e to fuck you first. Then the other.” I smile.
She tries to pull back, but I don’t let her. I kiss her again, my tongue dancing with hers as I don’t hold back. I grab her thighs and pull her up to the tip of my aching cock.
“Brant…”
“Fuck, Cora, I’m going to tape your mouth shut.”
“Brant…” She breaks the kiss fully and sits up. I look at my cock and her seated at my tip and growl.
I look up at her, the expression on her face is uneasy.
“You’ve been with someone else?” I ask the first fear that comes to mind.
“No, Brant. I could never, not even… no.” She shakes her head. “I just want you to know that I didn’t come here to tell you this.” She blinks.
I swallow and pull her close to me, then lay us down on our sides.
“What is it? Cora, you know I love you.” I smile at her and cup her soft cheek. She looks the same if not even more beautiful. I had her ten-year-old Facebook pictures to look at, and that was it.
“I know. And I love you, too.” She bites her lip and swallows, tears brim her eyes, and I wonder what the hell is going on, but I don’t press her.
“Brant, I’m pregnant.” She closes her eyes and exhales, relaxing like she held something in for a long time. And I think she did.
I don’t know what to say. I can’t find the right words, and I sure as hell don’t want to use the wrong ones. So, I turn her on her back and touch her instead. My hands dust down her stomach resting on her lower belly. She is soft and warm, but I don’t know, I just keep imagining it.
“I’m not quite four months yet, you can’t see anything.” She opens her eyes and looks at me, staring down at her until I meet her gaze. Maybe I’m in shock because I haven’t found the right thing to say yet.
“I found out last week when I went to the doctor. I had no idea. And I was so worried because, well, I didn’t know, and I had been drinking wine almost every night. But they did full blood work and tests, and she’s fine.”
“She?” I finally say.
Cora giggles softly. “Yeah, it’s a girl. I only told Damien,” she says.
I smile and kiss her again tugging at her lips until I feel them on mine even as I pull away.
“Cora, this is… Shit, my mom is going to be so happy,” I say thinking of how she never had a girl, and now she has a grandchild to spoil.
“Really?”
“Yes, of course. Why did you think I wouldn’t be happy?”
“I thought you would think I only came to tell you and trap you or something.”
I laugh. “You’ve had me trapped since I first laid eyes on you, Cora Arnold. Now I’ve gone and made a mother out of you. This is amazing.” I laugh and hold her close to me rubbing her stomach again.
“How are you still hard?” she whispers and wiggles against me.
“Because you’re fucking incredible.” I kiss over her breasts softly now knowing why they were tender before. “And beautiful.” I kiss down to her stomach and get between her legs. “The mother of my child.” I kiss her belly and am up on my feet before she can blink.
“Brant,” she calls after me.
I pick a string from my least favorite guitar and cut it before I wrap it around my pinky. I come back and kneel next to Cora on the bed, she sits up distracting me with her naked and pregnant body. Her tits are going to get bigger. I’m the luckiest man in the world.
“What are you doing?” She holds my shoulders.
I take her hand and kiss her ring finger.
“What I should have done when we first me. I knew you would be my woman, Cora.” I slide my makeshift ring on her finger without hesitation. “I’ll get you a real diamond when we get back home.”
“I don’t care about that… you can’t marry me just because of our daughter.”
Those words make me swell—our daughter.
I look in the kind brown eyes of the woman I love and climb over the bed to kiss her. I’m inside her in the next moment, and we’re moaning together with how good it feels. It just feels so good.
“I’m marrying you because you’re mine, Cora.” I slip out of her and then back again.
She moans and widens her legs for me. I hitch her leg over my shoulder, and we moan at feeling each other deeper.
“I’m marrying you because you’re the love of my life.”
“I want to marry you, too,” she mewls, and her nails scratch down my back to my ass as she holds me to her.
My need to come takes over, and I let her have it. I’m pretty sure we are rocking the damn bus, but I don’t care. I haven’t had her in so long. I need so much of her, I might explode. I kiss brand new welts on her neck. I want them always there as a reminder of who she belongs to.
But a woman like Cora could never belong to any man. She lets me have her. And that’s what means the most.
“Cora, come with me, I need to feel you,” I grunt. I cage my arms around her holding her under me.
Her hands go up to my shoulders as she hangs on grasping me tighter. She clenches around my cock tighter taking me way too close, and I feel it tumbling over.
“Brant, I’m coming…” she cries out, and as she comes hard, I still inside of her with the first wave of the most intense fucking orgasm I’ve ever had and slide in and out as I empty myself inside of her.
She holds me close and kisses me. Our lips are soft against each other, and my hands roam over her body as I hold her against me.
“I love you, Brant. I love you so much.” She holds my gaze before burying her head in my chest.
“I love you too, Cora. I love you, too.”
The next morning, I make her breakfast on my tour bus. Then I get a real talking to from my publicist and manager. I calm Julia down with the news of my engagement. Rick is still pissed, and when he sees Cora here, he gets more pissed.
But I tell him to fuck off me and my girl, and that if he wants to drop me as a client, he should just fucking do it because I don’t give a shit anymore. What matters is my Cora, my fiancée, and our daughter. Nothing else. Fortunately for me, money has always grown on trees, and I can give them everything they need.
Alas, Rick chills out with the threats. And then I discover she doesn’t even want her job back.
“Is it the hormones?” I ask her.
“No.” She giggles. “Just a lot of thinking.”
Rick knows he lost something good, and we get everyone the hell out of our tour bus. Julia gets Cora some clothes to wear for the flight back. My jet is waiting, and we take the three- hour plane ride back to LA. I already know my mom will lose it.
“Back in the bus, you said when we get home. What do you mean?” Cora is snuggled against me on the plane.
“I guess I don’t know. I can’t ask you to move Damien out of the house.”
She laughs aloud. “He would prefer your mansion.”
I rub her warm thigh over her jeans. “He’s more than welcome there. Or anywhere. It doesn’t matter.”
“My lease is almost up anyway.”
“We could move out of LA, too.”
“What about your studio time and work?” She looks up at me.
“I need some time off. I’m old. Got no creative juices flowing. And I don’t want to miss a thing with you and the little miss.” I hold her tummy, and she squirms. She’ll get over this body thing when she no doubt gets bigger with a pregnant belly.
“Okay. Time off then. I have to find a new job.” She groans.
“You could wait until after she’s born.”
“And do what, max out your credit cards?”
I look at her and grin. “Oh, doll, they don’t have a limit on them.”
26
Brant
Four Years Later
I’m not sure why my brother, Holden, plays these semantics. Dragging me across the states and taking me away from Cora and Malia for God knows what.
I miss my girls. Malia says real sentences now. Cora still has the s
ame insane effect on me except now it is amplified because she is pregnant again. I’m distracted, but my family is a good distraction. Then there are my brothers…
The lot of us pile into the family estate, car after car. Mom is in the living room, her age the same on her face but not in years. I notice she is crying and get worried—this could be serious.
“Mom, what is it?” I hug her as we all do in turn. Everyone is here except the usual, no Isaac.
“I’m fine. Don’t worry.” She smiles at us, and we sit down.
Holden gets up with a folder in his hand. He is smiling, but I don’t know if it’s good or not.
“Is this a fucking Greek tragedy, what is it?” Evan breaks the silence. I roll my eyes at him, but he winks.
“I uh… did some digging. Some real digging for the past four years.”
I nod. A lot has happened in four years. Cora and I have a daughter with another one on the way. My brothers no longer sulk around alone, and my mom patiently waits for more grandchildren. Jeffrey reminds every one of the hospital he bought and now owns, and Holden brags about how he took the family business global.
A lot can happen in four years.
“Digging on what?” I ask. I’ve had a long flight, and my head hurts. I still no longer sleep because Malia doesn’t like shadows in her room at all, so she sleeps in our bed and sometimes right on my neck if she so pleases.
Holden swallows, his hard features taking over. He really looks like Dad now. He used to have us all in here giving announcements too. The last time we were together with this funk in the air was the signing and notary of Dad’s will.
“Isaac.” He glowers.
We all feel the room shift as we react and each try to find the words. Alec is closest to Mom and holds her close. He looks different. Maybe it’s him being a dad now too. We actually have stuff to bond over, and we FaceTime about five times a day about his two sons, Timothy and Vince, a year apart, Timothy being almost the same age as Malia. Of course, he would make his son the first Timothy Wilde, Jr. before mine, though I can’t complain about my girls at all.
Wilde About Brant - The Brothers Wilde Series Book Two Page 18