“Well, during the cold winter months, I used to sneak into the library to stay warm. I read a lot and played on the computer systems in the public library. I guess you could say I’m self-taught.”
Abigail cringed just thinking about poor Lena cold and alone on the streets in the city. She was a survivor.
“It seems to me that you have a way of turning the bad into something positive,” Anna stated.
“Well, you should see how she has Bryant coming around,” Abigail added, filled with excitement. She knew that Quinn, Blake, and Kenny wanted to get to know Lena, and she hoped that Bryant would come out of his spell.
“No way! That’s great, Lena. I am curious as to how you did that?” Stacy asked.
“Oh, I didn’t do anything.”
“Sure you did. She doesn’t take any of his crap, and she dishes it right back to him,” Abigail added.
“How about the drinking?” Anna asked hesitantly.
“He stopped doing that, too,” Abigail began to say.
“Unfortunately, Abigail, he was totally drunk when I just saw him this morning. I don’t know why, but he was really nasty to me.”
“Oh no. Maybe he’s just having a bad day?” Abigail stated and hoped.
“This was really nice. Another new experience in Pearl,” Lena stated as baby Hope began to awake from her nap and fuss.
“I’d better go feed her. Will you be here when I get back, Lena?” Stacy asked.
Stacy looked at the clock on the wall. It was nearly three o’clock.
“Oh my, I need to get going. I was planning on making dinner for Bryant whether he wants it or not.”
“Well, it was nice meeting you. I hope that we can talk again and maybe brainstorm together on the shelter idea? I’d like to run it by Wyatt and the men. We would need everyone on board for this,” Anna stated.
“I would love that, Anna. It was nice meeting you both,” Lena stated. Then Abigail walked her out.
Abigail gave her hug, and she was thrilled that Lena didn’t pull away.
“Take care and see you soon.”
“Bye.” Lena waved then walked down the walkway and across the front path toward her cottage.
Chapter 11
Lena grabbed the food from her refrigerator and walked across the way to Bryant’s house. She was ready for the fight he would give her and prepared to give him a piece of her mind for his behavior and rude comments earlier. He was not going backward. He had been so different before last night and this morning.
As she entered the house, she noticed how quiet it was. There didn’t seem to be anyone home.
She placed the chop meat for the burgers in the refrigerator to stay cold, and she took out the bag of potatoes to peel and make homemade fries with. She pulled out four ears of corn and peeled then placed them on the counter.
As she opened up the windows to let the afternoon breeze inside, she could hear the horses from the distance and men giving commands. Peeking through the window, she saw that a few men on horseback were leading several horses across the grass and toward the training stables. It was beautiful and made her instantly think of Blake, Quinn, and Kenny.
She had enjoyed the lunch today at Abigail’s. Anna’s and Stacy’s pasts had surprised her. She knew that Abigail had planned the lunch, and she knew that the woman wanted her to feel safe and aware that she wasn’t the only person around with a past. Lena would struggle with trusting people for a while, but she could easily see herself trusting women like Stacy and Anna. They were survivors, too.
She washed the plates in the sink and noticed that Bryant had in fact eaten the food she prepared for him yesterday. She smiled.
A sudden banging sound caught her attention. She looked up toward the ceiling and wondered if it were coming from upstairs. She washed her hands, dried them on the dishtowel and walked out of the room.
“Bryant?” she called but got no response. She headed upstairs cautiously. She wasn’t sure if Bryant was even home or what type of mood he would be in.
Again she heard the thump.
Lena walked through the small hallway. Bryant’s bathroom was between the two bedrooms. The door was closed, and that was where the thumping came from.
She knocked on the door.
She waited for a response, but nothing happened.
“Bryant are you in there? Are you okay?” she asked, and she heard what sounded like moaning.
Her gut instantly clenched. Slowly she opened the door and the sight scared her. Bryant was lying on the floor naked and bleeding from his forehead.
“Oh God, Bryant, what happened?” she asked, hurrying to him.
His face was covered in blood but cleanly shaven. Had he taken her comment to heart and shaved for her? Oh God, did he try to kill himself? She grabbed a towel and slowly wiped away the blood to see where the wound was.
“Lena?” he called out her name as if he didn’t know if it were her. She saw the gash on his forehead and immediately applied pressure to the wound.
“It’s me, Bryant. Did you bang your head?” she asked, and he just moaned. She was worried that he had been unconscious and of course had been drunk. This wasn’t a good situation.
He grabbed her neck and hair, pulled her toward his face.
“I’m sorry. I’m such an asshole,” he told her then passed out.
“Oh shit. Wake up, Bryant! Damn it don’t fall asleep.” She slapped his cheeks and shook him.
“Let me sleep,” he moaned.
She leaned up to turn on the cold water. As soon as it was really cold, she soaked the towel and placed it over the wound. It was a nice gash, and he would need stitches. She’d better call Doc or his brothers.
She laid him back down and ran into his bedroom to grab the phone. She called Kenny’s cell phone and told him what happened and then she hurried back to Bryant.
She saw his boxers sitting on the rug and pulled them on him. She figured he would be pissed to be found naked and bleeding in his bathroom, the damn control freak.
She lifted his head and held him on her lap as she kept the pressure on his wound and tried to make him wake up. She was getting really worried.
The minutes seemed so long until she heard Blake yelling from downstairs and then Frank and Will.
“Up here!” she screamed, her voice shaking.
“What the hell happened?” Blake asked as he knelt down on the rug.
“I don’t know. I found him like this, Blake. I think he hit his head and has a concussion.”
“The ambulance is on its way. Thank God you were here, Lena. Thank God,” Frank stated, and Lena felt sick to her stomach.
She almost blew Bryant off because of his nasty, hurtful words to her earlier. What if she hadn’t come back here? He could have died.
The tears hit her eyes, but she took a deep breath to keep them at bay.
Bryant could have died.
* * * *
They woke Bryant every thirty minutes through the night. He was nasty and mean to everyone except for Lena. Lena had saved his life, and she was the reason why he wanted to live.
Bryant had thought about her instantly as he shaved his filthy beard. The nerve of her to say that he could have joined her and his brothers making love to her if he was clean-shaven. He was so pissed off at that comment and then of course her facial expression as he called her names. He was a cruel, ignorant asshole. When he slipped and fell getting out of the shower, he thought he was a goner. He knew she was having lunch up at the big house, and he knew he hurt her feelings with his callous, nasty words. He was jealous that his brothers were spending time with her and loving her. They had always spoken about doing that together with one woman, and he had always been close to Quinn, Kenny, and Blake.
Things had changed. His leg was fucked up, and Lena didn’t deserve to be stuck with a cripple when she had three other perfectly healthy men. His family didn’t deserve to have the burden of a weak son when their other sons were perfect.
He had thought that
he wanted to die and to end it all, but in a moment of life and death, he thought of Lena. He realized that he was more afraid of losing her and never getting to love her than he was of having to live life as a cripple. He didn’t want to die. He wanted Lena.
He was back in his house, in his bed, and still she kept waking him, concerned over his well-being. He needed forty stitches, and his head throbbed continuously. Lena talked softly to him and caressed his bad leg despite his attitude and plea for her to stop. He didn’t like being weak in front of her.
Now, here she was, lying beside him on his bed out cold. Her face was scrunched up, and she looked so serious even in her sleep. She was worried about him.
He gently reached down and caressed her hair. He saw that the bruising on her cheek and eye were still bad and now more discolored and ugly looking.
He wished he had been there to protect her or at least beat the crap out of the asshole that hit her. She was so strong and beautiful.
She began to move around and blink her eyes open.
Tilting her head up, she locked gazes with him.
“Hey, are you okay? Do you need anything?” she asked, jumping up, concerned.
He pulled her to him and pressed her head and cheek down onto his bare chest. He caressed her back and she snuggled against him.
“I’m feeling a lot better. Maybe you don’t have to wake me so often anymore?” he asked her.
She tilted her head up toward him.
“I will until Doc tells me not to.”
She began to move away when he placed his hand against her cheek and chin, making her look up toward his face. She adjusted her position so that she leaned on one elbow and was face-to-face with him.
“Thank you, Lena,” he whispered, and he saw her aqua-blue eyes sparkle.
* * * *
Lena swallowed hard. She had no idea what had come over Bryant. He seemed so different. His mood swings were making her head spin.
“What’s wrong with you?” she asked, and he caressed her back, sending tiny vibrations of awareness through her body. She shifted and sat up.
“Where are you going?” he asked then squinted his eyes as if the movement caused him pain.
“Are you okay?” She laid her palm against his bare chest and he covered her hand with his own.
“Very okay, Lena. Stay with me. Don’t go home?” he asked, and she looked at him strangely and in disbelief.
“Where’s the real Bryant, and what have you done with him?” she asked very seriously.
He brought her hand up to his mouth and kissed her knuckles.
“He was lost, Lena, but you found him and brought him back home.”
Lena gulped.
“Come here,” he whispered as he stared deeply into her eyes. She lowered her face toward his until she felt his hand creep gently up her side and to the base of her neck. He guided her head closer toward him and kissed her on the mouth.
His kiss was warm and tender. He tasted like sweet tea and chicken, which was what she had made him for dinner this evening. His tongue explored her mouth, and they each kissed with passion and in an exploratory fashion. She felt his arm wrap around her waist, and a moment later hoisted her body easily on top of his own. She pulled from his mouth.
“I don’t want to hurt you, Bryant.”
“A light little thing like you? No worries, darling. I’ve been waiting over a month to kiss these lips and feel this body in my arms. I’ve got a lot of wasted time to make up,” he told her then kissed her again. This time he had total control over her lips and her body as he explored with his hands and then with his mouth.
* * * *
Despite the pounding headache he had felt minutes ago, he was now aroused and in awe of the beautiful, young woman clinging to his body. His long thigh lay between her thighs, and he could have sworn he felt her hot, wet pussy against it. The thought made him hard as a steel rod, and he couldn’t fight the urge to explore.
With soft, gentle caresses to her backside, he maneuvered his hands under the waistband of her shorts. He was pleasantly surprised to find her wearing thong panties. He panted for a breath, releasing her mouth as his arousal threw him for a loop.
Lena grabbed on to his shoulders and held his gaze as he kept his palm plastered to her ass cheek.
“What’s going on, Bryant? You have me so confused right now.”
He reached up to caress her chin and avoid hitting her bruised cheekbone.
“I’m trying to thank you for saving my life, Detroit.”
She exhaled then attempted to sit up.
He held her tighter to him.
“You’re not leaving me, darling. Not tonight, not ever,” he swore to her in such a demanding and serious tone he thought he might have scared her into running from the room. Instead, her big aqua-blue eyes held his gaze.
“This isn’t like you, Bryant. You’ve been nothing but a nasty, mean son of a bitch, and you said some cruel, hurtful things to me today.”
“I was an asshole then, but I want to change, Lena. I want to change for you.”
She was silent a moment, and then she caressed her fingertips across one of his nipples.
“I don’t want you to change for me, Bryant. I want you to change for you and for the better. You scare me,” she admitted, and he grabbed ahold of her then rolled her to her back in one quick motion, wedging his thigh between her legs and holding her upper body and most of his weight on his forearms.
He looked into her eyes.
“Why do I scare you?”
“Because you can change in a matter of seconds. One minute you can be compassionate like with the snake in the kitchen and sneaking into my house when I was hit at the bar, and the next you’re calling me a whore, accusing me of having sex with your brothers, and saying that my food is shit.”
He felt even worse than before. “It’s my fault. You pinned me from the start, Lena. I’m hung up on my own problems, my damn crippled leg, and the fear I’m hiding inside.”
“You’re not a cripple, so stop calling yourself that. A real man is afraid sometimes, Bryant. Men that can’t admit that aren’t real men at all.”
He lowered his head and kissed her neck and under her chin and then across her lips. He couldn’t look her in the eyes when he told her how he felt.
“Can I tell you something, baby?”
She made a noise with her lips.
“After I said those nasty things to you today, I took your words to heart. Plus I looked around my house and thought that you would never come back in there again. It scared me and made me angry. Then I looked into the mirror, and I saw what I looked like. So I went upstairs to shave and shower. I was still drunk, Lena. It’s amazing that I didn’t slit my own throat. When I slipped and fell and then blacked out, I was scared, Lena. More scared than anything I felt in the fucking war, Lena. I was scared of never kissing you, seeing you, holding you, or making love to you. It was crazy that you showed up despite my fucked-up behavior after hurting you and you found me. As I saw you and knew that I wasn’t hallucinating, I thought it would be the last time I ever saw you and it killed me inside.”
“Are you asking me for a chance to prove what you’re telling me isn’t a lie?” she asked him.
“Damn, Lena, please don’t put me through this. I’m not the sappy, talking, groveling type, darling.”
Lena laughed, and he smiled down at her.
He lifted up slightly as she touched her fingertips to his forehead next to the bandage.
“You scared me, Bryant.”
“I’m fine now, baby. I swear, I feel good, especially with my little porn star lying underneath me,” he teased, and she swatted his shoulder.
“Quit saying that.”
“I can’t help it, Lena, your fucking body is perfect, and I can’t wait to explore it.” He lifted up and began to lick along her neck to the short V in the center of her shirt.
“Bryant,” she whispered as he continued lower down her body before li
fting up her shirt to cup her breasts between his hands.
“Yeah, darling?”
“We need to talk about something,” she told him. He pushed the material of her bra up and over her breasts, releasing them.
He couldn’t wait to suckle her breasts and lick across her taut nipples.
“Bryant,” she demanded sternly, and he looked up but kept teasing her nipple with his tongue.
She held her hands against both sides of his head.
“I didn’t have sex with Quinn, Blake, or Kenny.”
“I know, Lena. Blake told me yesterday.”
“Bryant.”
He looked up again, wondering where she was going with this.
“I’m hungry, Lena, and you’re on the menu for dessert tonight.”
“But, Bryant, you need to know something.”
“What do I need to know? You told me you didn’t have sex with them, and Blake told me what they did with you.”
“He did?” she asked, gripping his head tighter.
“Lena? What is it?”
“You should know that I want to have sex with them. I want Blake, Kenny, and Quinn, and I want you, too. If you’re not willing to make amends with your brothers, then we have ourselves a seriously complex situation.”
Bryant smiled then crawled back up closer to her mouth.
“Lena, honey, it’s going to take some time, but I want you and they want you, and we had always talked about continuing our family tradition. We’ll work it out so you’ll know that we each want you as our woman. I don’t know if I’ll be able to share you in the same bed with them for a bit. My brothers and I have some hard feelings to work out and I have some things to attend to around the ranch and with my parents as well. Now can I please have my dessert, darling?”
Lena nodded her head and smiled as Bryant abruptly sat up, pushed her shirt up to her neck and licked his lips.
“Did I ever tell you that I’m a breast man?”
* * * *
Lena closed her eyes and absorbed everything that Bryant shared with her and the way his mouth felt against her skin. She was on fire and she wanted to enjoy caressing his bare chest and shoulders.
Lena's Happily Ever After [The Town of Pearl 3] (Siren Publishing Ménage Everlasting) Page 15