“Oh my god,” I say, putting a hand to my mouth.
“She then tried to shoot him,” Cassie says with a smile. “I think he pissed himself.”
“We still need a statement,” Cody says.
“We’ll bring her in with her lawyer,” Mike says from behind me, coming forward and hugging Cassie. “You scared us all, Cassie.” He kisses her head. “I’ve called Simon, and he is going to meet us there.”
“You.” Brandon points at Kenton. “We are having serious fucking words after this.”
“Don’t,” Cassie says. “Don’t blame him. I asked him.”
“You’re grounded”—Brandon points at her—“for at least a month.”
We all walk back to Mike’s car and climb in. Brandon sits in the front, and I sit in the back with Cassie, holding her hand. “I’m sorry I went behind your back,” she whispers to me. “I know it was crazy, but the DA told me all my charges would be reversed if I got evidence on him.”
“Honey.” I pick up her hand, kissing it. “You risked your life for nothing.”
“NO”—she shakes her head—“I risked it for everything. I don’t want this hanging over my head my whole life.”
Brandon turns in his seat. “Cassie, you ever scare me like that again, and I’m putting you in an all-girls school run by nuns.” He turns around, and we both laugh at him.
When we finally walk out of the station, the sun is coming up. Somehow, someone dropped off Brandon’s truck, so we get in and start driving home.
“Can we go eat?” Cassie says from the back. “It’s not every day that I take down a meth lab and a drug dealer.”
“Not funny.” I look back at her. “Not one little bit.”
We pull up at the diner next to the club and walk in. Brandon sees some of the girls there and introduces us to them as his woman and sister-in-law. I try not to beam my smile too much; instead, I just look up at him, waiting for his kiss, and I don’t wait long.
Cassie wasn’t lying when she said she was hungry. She devoured a cheeseburger with bacon and a stack of pancakes. When we finally arrive home, Brandon sets the alarm. “No way you leave this time.” He smiles at her, and she throw her head back and laughs.
“I sneak out one time,” she jokes, “one time.” She walks up the stairs, and we hear the shower running.
“When do you think it will hit her?” I ask him, walking toward his bedroom.
“I think she’ll be okay,” he says, pulling off his shirt. “I need a shower.”
I nod my head. “Yeah, me too.” I pull my shirt over my head, showing him the black lace bra I’m wearing.
“You go first,” he tells me, and I walk to him.
“I didn’t get to play last time,” I tell him. Cupping his cock in my hand over his jeans, I rub up and down, and a moan escapes him.
“No,” he says, “I told you the next time you come, it’ll be on my cock.” He pushes me toward the bathroom. “I’ll go shower in the other bathroom. Get that pussy ready for me when I get back,” he tells me, and I have to squeeze my knees together.
I take the fastest shower of my life, and when I walk back out, I find Brandon sitting in the middle of the bed, the covers at his waist. A towel is wrapped around me, and I grab a t-shirt, bringing it to the bed. I drop the towel and get into bed with him. “Do you think Cassie is still up?” I look at him.
“No, I heard her snoring from upstairs.” He leans down to kiss my lips and then leans down and licks my nipple. “I locked the door.”
I throw the covers off him and take in his nakedness. His cock is up and ready. I fist him, my fingers never meeting as I move my hand up and down his velvety soft skin. I can’t stop touching him, and his hands feel like they are all over me. Pinching, rubbing, fingering—he’s everywhere.
I rub my clit while I jack him off, and he fingers me, tilting my hips higher to get him in deeper. “I need you.” I lean down, licking the pre-cum off his cock.
“Lie back,” he says, reaching into the side drawer and taking out a condom. “Open your legs for me.”
“I’m on the pill,” I tell him while he opens the condom wrapper, “and I’ve had sex once. I got tested after my parents died.”
“Are you sure?” he asks me, the condom hanging mid-air. “I would never put you at risk,” he says, and I just nod my head. He climbs over me and takes his cock, rubbing it up and down my core to wet himself. And just when I think he’s going to slowly ease into me, he slams into me, and we both groan.
“You’re so tight,” he says, his hips moving now, my hips trying to match his thrusts. “Fuck,” he hisses.
My eyes close, and I focus on him over me. The feeling of him going in and out of me, the feeling of him filling me. “Open your eyes, baby,” he whispers to me, and I open them and look straight into his blue eyes. “Never had better,” he says, thrusting. “Never in my life wanted anything more.”
“Yes,” I say; it’s the only thing I can say because my toes are curling, my stomach is getting tingly, and I know I’m going to come.
“Fuck.” He thrusts into me one more time, planting himself all the way in, and we both come together. Our eyes focus on each other, both of our chests rising and falling with a thin layer of sweat. He rolls to the side, and I tuck my head into the crook of his neck, forcing my eyes to stay open and failing. I feel him pull away from me, and I feel a wet cloth between my legs, but I can’t open my eyes. He comes back to bed, taking me in his arms again, and I drift off to sleep with a smile on my face.
Brandon
“Pizza is here!” I yell up the stairs, carrying in the pizza that we just ordered. Cassie comes running down the stairs.
“I’m starving,” she says, grabbing the box and opening it. “I could eat a horse.”
The kid is always starving. I thought boys ate a lot, but this kid is always eating, and I love watching every single second of it.
“Sit down,” I tell her when she starts to eat at the counter. “Grab a plate.”
She huffs. “You’re such a parent.”
“Baby, pizza is here!” I yell toward the bedroom, and she comes out wearing my t-shirt and my shorts that fit her almost like capris. She walks to me with her hair piled on her head and tilts her head back to kiss me. I hand her a plate and tell her to go sit.
When we are all sitting down, I clear my throat, having them both look up at me. “So,” I say, my palms sweaty, so sweaty, and my heart starts racing, “what do you guys think about moving in with me?” I look from one face to the other. Cassie’s face shows her first emotion when she slowly starts to smile.
“Are we voting?” She looks over at Aurora who sits there with a stunned look on her face and tears in her eyes.
“What do you mean?” she asks me.
“I mean, I want you guys to move in with me and live here.” I turn to her, turning her chair to look at me. “I want to have breakfast together in the morning. I want to do dinners at night before I go to work. I want to yell at Cassie for taking my truck and returning it with no gas.”
“Hey,” she says, “how do you even know I will do that?” She smiles. “I totally will.”
I smile at her. “I want to get yelled at for not picking up my socks. I want to go grocery shopping with you guys and do movie nights and all the things.”
“But,” Aurora starts to say, “but what about when me and Cassie get into a fight, and we are yelling at each other?”
“So?” I shrug my shoulders. “You work through it.”
“But what if you get fed up with me?” she says, looking at me.
“Get fed up with you?” I shake my head and grab her face in my hands. “I love you,” I tell her, and she gasps while Cassie yells.
“I knew it,” she says. “Called it.”
“You’ve known me four days,” she tells me, and I nod.
“Yup, still doesn’t change my mind,” I tell her, “so can we get all your stuff and bring it over here?”
She lo
oks down at her hands, and then looks up at me. “Yes,” she whispers, and tries to say something else, but my lips crash onto hers, and I kiss her while Cassie groans from the side of the table.
“Gross,” she says, picking up her empty plate. “I’m going to my room.” Then she turns around. “Do you think we can decorate the room differently?”
“No,” Aurora says while I say, “Sure.”
“Okay and when can we go and see the high school?” she asks.
“Tomorrow,” I tell her. “I already left a message.”
“But …?” Aurora says.
“I was hopeful.” I kiss her lips gently.
That night, I make love to her in our bed, over and over again. The next day, we get up and make breakfast and take Cassie to school.
“November is going to be over at ten,” I tell her when I pull into the driveway.
“Okay,” she says, getting out.
“You know what that means, right?” I ask her, and she cocks her head to the side. “It means we get to have loud sex.” I smack her ass, and she rolls her eyes, but when I take her in our bed on her hands and knees, she moans louder than I’ve ever heard her moan before.
Two hours later, we are both standing in the kitchen with wet hair. “Do I look like I just had sex?” she asks me, and I lie and tell her no, but you see the glow in her cheeks and the light in her eyes. I lean down and kiss her lips when the doorbell rings, and she knocks on the door, walking in.
“Hey!” November yells, coming into the kitchen.
“There you are.” She comes to us. “Dad told me about Cassie. Is she okay?” She gives me a hug and then hugs Aurora.
“Yeah, she is fine at school,” I tell her and fill her in on everything that happened.
“Holy shit, I don’t think I would be able to walk, let alone go to school two days later.”
“She’s strong,” I say out loud, proud of her.
“Okay, so let’s go over everything,” she says, and Aurora goes to the office and brings everything in the kitchen to show us what she found.
“So you see the card that was charged the deposit is refunded, but there is another one at the same time. So it’s almost like a double refund but with a different card, and it’s the same card number actually.” She points at a Post-it. “It’s the same two cards that keep coming up over and over.”
“And the deposits that night balanced?” she asks, and I nod at her.
“We need to call the bank and see if we can get any information on the card,” I tell her, “and from now on, I’ll require that all refunds be authorized by either me or Francis.” I say of the head bartender.
“You think it’s an inside person?” November asks me, and I don’t want to think about someone I trust doing this to me.
“Well, I guess me and you are doing night shifts at work,” Aurora says to me. “Now that the case has been thrown out, Cassie can stay here by herself.”
“You aren’t coming into work at night,” I tell her, crossing my arms over my chest.
“It’s my job.”
“Nope, your job is eight to five,” I tell her.
“Well, according to you, my boss is Mike, so …”
I hear November snicker beside her. “I like her,” she says, grabbing her bag, and I turn back to Aurora, but I hear November laugh louder. “Um, someone went online shopping,” she says, and we walk to the door where the postman is walking with a box in his hand.
“We have seven more boxes,” he says, handing me the one box he has.
“What is all this?’ she asks, looking at me.
“No idea. Go open it.” I pretend not to know what is going on when she goes to get a knife and opens the first box.
“It’s women’s clothing.” She looks at me. “And”—she closes the box to check the name—“it has my name on it.” Then she looks back into the box and then up at me again. “What did you do?”
“Nothing.” I shrug. “It was Cassie; she did it all.”
“And how did she pay for all this?” she asks.
“She may have gotten it from me when I gave her my credit card and told her to buy you stuff.”
“Are you insane? You gave your credit card to a sixteen-year-old and told her to go buy clothes online?”
“It seemed like a good idea at the time,” I tell her, “and this is technically your fault.”
The mailman leaves the last box and walks out. “How is any of this my fault?” she asks me, and I look at her.
“If I told you I wanted to buy you clothes, would you have said yes?” I ask her, and now she stands and glares. Shit, maybe it wasn’t the right thing to say. “Let me spoil you.”
“I don’t want people to think I’m with you because of all this.”
“You think I give a shit what people think about why you’re with me?” I ask her. “I could give a fuck what everyone thinks. Because I know the truth, you know the truth, and that is all that matters.”
“But it’s too much,” she says, and I go to her.
“It’s never too much,” I tell her and drag her back to the bedroom to make her scream my name over and over again.
Aurora
I have never had so many clothes in my whole life. I stand in the walk-in closet, and I’m in shock that my little sister did this much shopping in one hour before she snuck out that fateful day.
“What are you doing in here?” Brandon asks me when he walks into the closet.
“Picking out my outfit for work tonight.”
He rolls his eyes. “You aren’t going.”
“Oh, but I am,” I say, grabbing my new beige slacks and a lace button-down crop top, which shows a bit of my stomach, then grabbing a pair of black booties.
“You aren’t wearing that,” he says, pointing at my outfit.
“Why not?” I ask him, looking down at myself.
“Your stomach is out and so are your arms. And tie the top button,” he says, glaring when Cassie knocks on the door, and I yell for her to enter.
“Oh, I love that outfit.”
“You can have it,” Brandon says. “Give it to your sister.” I roll my eyes at him.
I go to the bathroom and put on a touch of mascara and walk back out, going to the kitchen where Cassie sits doing her homework. “You can’t leave the house,” I tell her.
“I know,” she says, “and besides, Brandon said he is turning the alarm on, and if I so much as open a window, he will rain down on me.” I look over at my man—that’s right, my man—and smile at him.
We walk out together, holding hands; my smile actually hurts my cheeks, but I can’t seem to stop. Even when we walk into the club, he holds my hand, and I finally see it alive. The bars have blue lighting, and the stage is a light purple. Girls wearing the most beautiful bra and panties walk around the room swinging their hips. We walk over to the bar and see Francis. “Hey,” he says to him, “this is my woman, Aurora. Aurora, this is Francis.” I reach out to shake his hand.
“You want something to drink?” he asks me, and I nod my head.
He takes my hand and then motions for Francis to follow him. We walk into the office, and Brandon pushes me toward the desk. “From now on, all refunds or cards are checked by you,” he tells him.
“Sure thing. We already had two today,” he says, and I look at Brandon.
“Can you get me those?” Brandon asks him, and he walks out, coming back in with two slips and handing them to him. I walk over and see that one slip is with the number we were looking at.
“Who did this one?” I ask him, and he grabs it.
“It was Rebecca,” he says. “She is the one with one table.”
Brandon nods his head and thanks him.
“I can’t believe it,” he says. “She’s been here three years.”
“What are you going to do?” I look at him and ask him the loaded question. He’s about to answer when there is a knock on the door.
Rebecca walks in, her eyes going big when
she sees me. “Oh, I didn’t know you had company. I was just coming in to say hi.” She looks at Brandon as I study Rebecca, who stands about six-foot-one with perfect C cups. Long blond hair to her waist and not an ounce of fat on her.
“Rebecca, you did two refunds tonight,” Brandon starts, and she looks at him. “How many tables clocked in?”
“Um,” she starts stuttering, “I’m not sure. I think I have three tables going.”
“You can stop right there,” he says. “Get your stuff and tomorrow I’m going through everything.”
“I can explain.” She comes forward, but Brandon puts up his hand.
“I don’t want to hear it. You came in here, I gave you a job, and you stole from me.”
“Brandon,” she says, and he shakes his head. “I’m bringing everything to the cops tomorrow. You can deal with them.” He goes to the phone on his desk and presses a number. He doesn’t hang up before the door opens, and the security guy comes in. “Escort Rebecca to her locker and then out.”
“This is all her fault.” Rebecca yells pointing to Aurora, “if it wasn’t for her, you would be mine.” She says yelling.
“It would have never ever happened.” I point at her. “Francis get her out of here.”
“Yes, sir,” he says, waiting for Rebecca to turn and walk away.
“We have a lot of work tomorrow.” Brandon looks at me, and I walk to him, putting my hands around his neck and kissing his jaw.
“We do.” I look at him. “I sometimes look at you and wonder how I got so lucky,” I tell him, touching his face. “Not sometimes, all the time.” He leans down and kisses me. I put my hand on his hard chest. A chest that I now know with my eyes closed. “I’m so lucky.”
“No, baby.” He brings me closer to him. “I’m the lucky one.”
“I was so scared to face the future,” I tell him. “So scared of how tomorrow would be.” I smile at him. “The unknown and facing it alone.” I squeeze my arms tighter around his neck. “Until you, that is. Until Brandon.” He smiles at me and kisses me. He later holds my hand and takes me home and shows me that there is only him.
Happily Ever Alpha: Untitled Until Brandon (Kindle Worlds Novella) Page 7