The Better Man (Allen Brothers Series Book 2)

by Barbie Bohrman

  “You’re welcome,” Derek said, arching an eyebrow over the rim of his mug. “My Max knows what’s up.”

  “Your Max didn’t waste much time, did he?”

  “That’s because I texted him something that would pique his interest. Maybe you should take a look for yourself.” He took a sip of his tea. “Or maybe you’re a little chicken?”

  “You sexted him, didn’t you?”

  “Who me?” He placed his hand on his chest in mock shock. “I would never.”

  “Yeah, you would.”

  Derek chuckled. “Yeah, you’re right. I totally would. But I swear, I didn’t…this time.”

  A staring contest ensued between my phone and me, until Derek started to make chicken noises egging me on. The big jerk knew exactly what to say and do to push my buttons and get me to do his evil bidding.

  “Fine,” I mumbled.

  As if I were tearing off a Band-Aid, I reached for my cellphone and opened the text from Max:

  I’ve been thinking about you too.

  My smile widened and every nerve ending in my body felt as if it came to life with his words. I hadn’t expected honesty like this from Max. And maybe I should have. Because he kept surprising me. Stripped of his cockiness and without any pretentious bullshit, he was just a guy.

  And I really liked that guy.

  “Is everything okay, Max?” Veronica asked as she put her hand on my forearm. She patted it softly and assuredly as if she was my mother. Honestly, I don’t think my own mom would be as caring and genuine with wanting to know how I was doing.

  There wasn’t anything wrong.

  It was the polar opposite. I felt fanfuckingtastic.

  I felt like I was ready to take on the world. And I was ready as all hell to see Daphne later tonight and, hopefully, see all of her by the night’s end. She was the only thing I could think about at this point. I could barely remember to get up in time this morning to make it to the monthly Allen Sunday Brunch. My thoughts kept going right back to Daphne.

  Since she texted me out of the blue yesterday afternoon telling me she had been thinking about me, my whole world felt like it had been turned upside down. While we’d been texting I found myself becoming more intrigued by the same person who I had been telling myself over and over I was supposed to hate. She was funny in a self-deprecating way without going overboard; smart as a whip, stubborn as a mule, and sexy as fuck. And dear Lord, when I replayed the sound of her coming in my head from the other night, my cock gets hard and my brain goes to fucking mush.

  I couldn’t remember a time when a woman was so fucking distracting to me. For me, pussy was pussy was pussy. It had always been that way for me. A dime a dozen. A drop in the bucket. Whatever other euphemisms you could think of, that’s how I thought about women. But Daphne…she was more than that. She was worth more than all of them put together. She was more than a woman. Daphne was it, I think.

  And that kind of scared the shit of me.

  “Max? Sweetie, are you all right?” Veronica asked again.

  “He’s fine,” Trevor answered. “He’s probably thinking about all the ways he’s going to get out of doing the dishes again.”

  “I envy those that have never met you,” I told him.

  “Is that right? Because you’re so dense that light bends around you.”

  “God, you’re clever. If genius skips a generation, your kids are gonna be brilliant.”

  That burn felt especially mean to say given that I was the only one here who knew that he was going to actually be a father soon. But a quick glance over to Veronica made me feel less guilty about saying the burn out loud. She was giggling with her every barb that was being thrown between Trevor and me.

  Trevor came back with, “You have the charm and charisma of a burning orphanage.”

  “Anyone who has ever said they loved you was lying.”

  “Okay, that’s enough you two,” Jack chimed in from the kitchen. He had been prepping that god-awful vegan casserole dish that Avery had brainwashed him into believing was delicious. “Between the two of you, I feel like I’m in a tennis match in my own house. Quit fucking around and help out for a change.”

  Avery sighed loudly as if on cue.

  “Sorry, honey. It’s just that these two,” he motioned with the serving spoon he had in his hand to where Trevor and I were facing off. “They get the best of me sometimes. I’m weak and I beg for your forgiveness.” Jack was smiling and reaching across the kitchen island to pull Avery towards him into a big bear hug.

  He held onto her tightly and started whispering something in her ear. Avery’s demeanor changed in a flash from being frustrated with her husband’s inability to keep from cursing in the presence of their kids to blushing bride. It felt almost uncomfortable to be in the same room with them while they shared this private moment between them. Beautiful seemed kind of too hokey a word and so overused, but it fit perfectly. It made me feel almost guilty for cursing in their house sometimes.

  Almost.

  “Thanks for being concerned about me, Veronica. I sincerely appreciate it,” I told her. With a smirk, I turned to Trevor. “At least someone gives a shit about their family around here.”

  He started to laugh. “Yeah, right. That’s a good one, Max.”

  I was biting my bottom lip to keep a straight face. “Relax, I was just fuc—”

  “Jesus Christ,” I heard Avery mumble.

  “Sorry, Avery. I meant to say, I was just joking around.”

  Everyone in the room froze in disbelief that I had caught myself from saying the big bad “F” word out loud. So much so that when my twin nieces picked that exact moment to come running into the room, they were both taken off guard as well. They were dressed exactly the same from head to toe; both in adorable pink gingham dresses and each of them had only one sock on the same foot, the right one. Which was so odd. Because all I wanted to know was what the fuck had happened to the other sock?

  Isabelle ran over to her mother and urgently tugged on the sleeve of her shirt. “Mommy, daddy, are you playing freeze tag? Who’s it? Can I be it next time?”

  “Maybe they’re being robots,” Annabelle said. “Let’s pretend too!”

  “We’re not playing a game, sweetheart.” Avery bent down and kissed the crown of Isabelle’s head. “Brunch is almost ready, though. Can both of you girls go and wash your hands before coming to the table, please?”

  “I’m going to beat you to the crapper,” Annabelle said to her twin sister before becoming a blur of brown hair and pink cotton.

  “No you’re not!” Isabelle yelled running after her.

  Avery gave Jack a look of complete and utter exasperation. The rest of us were trying hard not to laugh. It failed the moment we heard Isabelle in the background yelling, “Let me in the crapper, now!”

  Even Avery was chuckling a little bit as she left the room with her cellphone in hand.

  It felt good to laugh. It felt good being with family and laughing.

  And while we were coming down from the comic relief and started prepping the table to sit down and eat, Veronica came over to me. “Seriously, I hope everything’s okay. You look a little preoccupied,” she said.

  I didn’t have the heart to tell her I was preoccupied with, let’s face it, pussy. So I nodded and smiled. “Everything’s fine, thanks. I’m just tired. Plus, I have to work tonight, so I might take a quick nap after this before I head out later.”

  We all started sitting down at the huge farmhouse-style kitchen table since it wasn’t assigned seating at Jack and Avery’s house. Another reason I loved coming to their house. I remember having to eat dinner in a fucking blazer and khakis almost every single night growing up at my parent’s house. It was stupid and a waste of time. It didn’t make me any more of a gentleman than I was supposed to be. If anything, it made me want to break with the whole rich-kid stereotype. It must have had the same effect on Jack and Trevor, because I don’t think I’ve ever seen either one of give on
e single fuck about where we came from. Don’t get me wrong, being rich was fucking awesome. If anyone tells you being rich isn’t awesome, then they’re not doing the whole being rich thing right.

  We were all seated and about to start digging in when Avery came back into the room and took a seat next to Jack.

  “The hospital called. If it’s okay with you, I’m going to take the overnight shift for Maddie at the ER.” Avery took a bite of some vegan crap. “If you need help with the girls or anything, I can tell them I can’t cover.”

  He waved her off. “Me? Help? Pfft, I got this covered. I’ll feed the girls some chocolate until they puke and maybe take them to a rager. What do you think, Max? Any ragers you know about in the city tonight I could hit up with a couple of hopped up almost five-year-olds?”

  “Rager? It’s not nineteen ninety-three, Jack. So, no, there are no ragers that I’m aware of.”

  “I’m joking, you—”

  “Don’t you dare,” Avery said in a lighthearted voice. She turned her attention back to her meal. “So you’re okay with me working tonight? I probably won’t be home until late tomorrow morning and won’t be of much help until I get a good sl—”

  “Honey, I’m good. Go and cover for Maddie tonight. I got this and the crazies over there,” his fork motioned to Isabelle and Annabelle who were busy making faces at each other and not bothering to eat one bit of food that had been heaped onto their plates. “I’ll drop them off in the morning and pick them up, too, to give you some time to catch up on sleep tomorrow.”

  Avery leaned into Jack and gave him a kiss on the cheek. “Thank you. I owe you one.”

  With that kiss, everyone at the table went right back to eating the delicious meal and chatting and joking around like we usually did when we got together for our monthly brunch. Hell, I even had a bite or two of the shitty vegan casserole dish, that’s how happy I felt right at that moment.

  And the fact that I was going to see Daphne in a few hours…well, that just made my smile grow wider until I felt like I might explode with excitement like a fucking teenager about to go on his first date.

  The owner wasn’t lying when he said this club was making a comeback. By the looks of the crowd, the pulse of the room, the beat of the music, and the general vibe, it wasn’t making a comeback, it had arrived and was here to stay.

  I had promised the owner we would come check it out and consider featuring it on our show…only if it was worth a shit. Looking around the place, it was already a hit and the decision to do a segment for it wasn’t even a question. It was just a matter of planning it out with Daphne and Adam. Speaking of which, Daphne was already here.

  But this time it didn’t bug me at all that she had arrived before me.

  Not even one bit, because it afforded me the opportunity to watch her from afar without her knowing at all. It was one thing to look straight into those big brown doe-eyes of hers and not get sucked in. But it was quite another to look at her when she thought no one was watching. Her guard was down. Her body language was more relaxed.

  I had seen her dressed up when she went out many times before tonight. Hell, when I thought back on it, I had been watching her from afar long before we were partners or whatever we were now. And I could honestly say that I had never seen her look more beautiful than she did at that exact moment. Her black, skin tight, off the shoulder crop top showcased so much of her luscious skin that I could almost taste it. And with her hair up in a high ponytail, the long column of her neck was ripe for the taking. She had on a jean mini skirt that hung low on her hips and left little to the imagination. At least to everyone else, because in my mind, I was imagining how wet I could make her again if she would let me. She looked comfortable and confident in her skin and something else I couldn’t quite put my finger on that simply radiated from the inside out. It made her stand out in a crowd.

  And fucking hell was this place crowded.

  Because even though Daphne was standing off to the side of the enormous dance floor full of writhing bodies, I was able to pick her out in a matter of seconds. That’s how fucking gorgeous she was. She put everyone and everything around her to shame.

  Without waiting another second, I started making my way over to her. With each step that brought me closer to her, my heart picked up its pace and my palms started to sweat. It reminded me so much of what it was like to hit up a girl at a fucking dance back in junior high school. Because God knows by the time I was in high school, the girls were coming to me in more ways than one. In a weird way, the nervousness Daphne stirred in me only fueled my desire to get to her faster.

  Once I was within a few feet of her, Daphne’s gaze found mine and when our eyes met…I fucking felt it. This yearning I had been having for her since our elevator rendezvous, since the bathroom interlude, since way before all of that when we were sworn enemies; it was pulling me towards her like a goddamn beacon in the night. Like a fire burning low in the pit of my stomach, I knew that something special was going to happen tonight between us.

  And then I was right there, standing in front of her, close enough to feel the heat coming off her in waves. Close enough to smell whatever the fuck that perfume was that she wore that drove me absolutely crazy. Close enough to see that her breathing was already erratic and I hadn’t even laid a fucking finger on her yet. Close enough to know that I affected her as much as she was affecting me. Close enough to forget about all the fucking people around us and where we were. Close enough to reach up and take her face in my hands, tilt her chin up higher so that I could run open mouthed small kisses along her jawline and hear a surprised sigh get caught in her throat. Close enough to feel her hands on my stomach and wrench my shirt in her hands as if she had to grab a hold of something to keep her tethered to this moment and me. And finally, close enough to press my mouth to hers, first lightly and teasingly so I could savor her lips, her tongue, and her taste.

  All at once, her body relaxed and melted into mine. This turned me on to no end because it told me in no uncertain terms that she trusted me, that she wanted me, and she wanted this to happen. I let my hands roam from her neck down to around her waist where her skin was exposed and hot to the touch. Moving them further down, I grabbed her ass and pressed her closer to me so she could feel exactly how crazy she was making me. Daphne moaned into my mouth as I sucked her tongue into mine. And if my dick wasn’t already hard as fucking nails, it got even harder; hard enough to hammer fucking nails with at this point and definitely harder than it had ever been in my entire life before her.

  “Jesus, guys, get a room!” was yelled over the crowd, among other things, right then.

  It was enough to break the spell and break the kiss.

  My arm was around her waist while the other was loosely holding her chin up to look at me. I waited for those perfect dark brown eyes to open but she kept them closed.

  “Hey,” I whispered. “Open your eyes.”

  I was so close that I saw her eyelashes flutter for a beat or two just before she finally opened them. Once I held her gaze with mine, I felt like I was being sucked into something bigger than the both of us. As if a fucking tractor beam was grabbing hold of every single fiber of my being and dragging me further and further down the rabbit hole that was Daphne. And I fucking loved it.

  “Hi.”

  A ghost of a smile was on her lips when she answered me. “Hi.”

  Licking my lips, her focus slipped and moved to my mouth before coming back to my eyes. If at all possible, my cock got even harder.

  And something told me she liked it.

  A lot.

  She liked the idea of driving me fucking crazy with lust. She liked that I wanted her so badly I was willing to sell my soul to the lowest bidder. That’s right, the lowest bidder, because I wanted Daphne so badly that I was willing to drop all pretenses and get on with whatever was going to happen right then and there at whatever the cost.

  Tilting her chin up a little higher, I leaned down and ran my nose
up her neck until reaching her ear. Then, I ghosted my lips along the shell of her ear and asked her, “Do you trust me?”

  Daphne nodded.

  “Do you have any idea how much I want you right now?”

  She nodded again. But this time it wasn’t enough; I wanted the words. I needed the validation more than I thought.

  “Say it,” I quietly demanded, taking her earlobe in-between my teeth. “Tell me how you know.”

  Daphne’s hand slid slowly from around my neck, down my chest and stomach, until reaching my belt buckle. My breath got stuck in my throat as I held her gaze in mine waiting for what she would do next. I heard the click of her nails against the brass of the buckle and almost came in my fucking pants as she shyly bit her lower lip. And when her hand slid further down and traced the outline of my cock over my jeans for all of a few precious seconds before grabbing a fistful of my shirt again, I thought I might die if I didn’t get relief soon. I didn’t give a fuck if it was by my own hand and she watched or….

  Fuuck, that was a good visual.

  My brain—fuck that, my dick mostly—had zeroed in on this idea and that was it. I couldn’t think of anything else other than Daphne watching me rub one out. Somehow, someway, I needed to make this happen.

  “You’re driving me crazy. Do you know that?”

  She answered by inching herself closer, pressing her perfect curves against me to the point that I didn’t know where I ended and she began. Hooking her arms around my waist, she reached up on her tiptoes and took my mouth in a searing kiss that made my fucking head spin. Then, she looked me dead in the eye and asked, “Can we go somewhere?”

  I was running through every possible scenario that would get us back to my place in record time and knew that it would be impossible. My apartment was a good fifteen-minute drive from this club and that was too fucking long. But, I had a feeling she may be up to letting me push her comfort zone a little.