Her Brother's Keeper: The Sacred Brotherhood Book II

by A. J. Downey

  God, I would be a ruined man if she ever chose otherwise.

  “Nox, what’s wrong?” she asked, voice soft, her fingertips lightly touching the side of my face. I gathered them in mine and turned her hand, laying a kiss in the center of her palm.

  “You just amaze me, is all,” I murmured; and with a smile confessed, “I just can’t wait to be back inside of you.”

  She smiled, and said, “Let me finish up here, and you can take me home. I have to fix dinner for Sage and make sure he’s done his homework, then maybe we can quietly fool around a little?”

  I laughed under my breath and nodded, “Sounds great, Angel,” I said, when actually, it sounded like torture. It’d been almost a week since her birthday which had been on a Sunday. When we’d gotten up that Monday morning, it’d been to rush to get her to work, she needed the hours to make up for having to buy Sage some new shoes and jeans. As soon as she was off work, she hit school, only to put in some more hours after that. The kid had hit another growth spurt and it was everything in her to keep him in clothes that fit, even bargain shopping at discount places and thrift stores.

  Tuesday, I’d picked her up in the morning outside her place to take her to school. You should have seen the look on that fucking little cock bite, Lucas’ face when we’d pulled up on the bike. I’d watched his face go a whiter shade of pale when she’d kissed me goodbye. In fact, a lot of comments flew behind hands when she’d done it and I loved that she didn’t care.

  I’d tried to pick her up as often as I could in the mornings and drop her off when I knew I’d be off in time to pick her up. Sage and Connor had thankfully bonded pretty hard, and with the help of the child psych he was seeing, he was back to being a normal kid for the most part. I think our regular workouts and establishing some solid routines had helped out by like a lot with that. So much so, Sage had been allowed to catch the bus home on his own starting two days ago, and so far so good.

  “I’ll follow you,” I told Maren after she’d finished cleaning up.

  We headed out of the kitchen and Everett looked up from where she was counting the till, asking: “My office the way you found it?”

  “We didn’t actually do anything!” Maren cried, laughing.

  “Oh,” Everett shrugged, “why not?”

  “Uh, because I have some class?” I hazarded and was met by peals of laughter from the both of them.

  “Ha, ha, ha! Laugh it up!” I mock-griped.

  “Take me home and you can be as classless as you’d like after my brother has been fed and watered.”

  I pulled her into my arms and kissed her carefully. We hadn’t really let on to her brother that we were sleeping together and it’d pretty much been pure hell sleeping alone in my bed since. Especially considering the sheets had still smelled like my angel for a good night or two after she’d been and gone.

  It was Friday, and while I still had to work tomorrow, I had every intention of sleeping well tonight in my girlfriend’s bed. Maren smiled back at me after our kiss and let me lead her out the front door to Soul Fuel with some lingering goodbyes to Evy. While we got astride my bike, Dray pulled up on his to pick up his woman.

  “Keep the shiny side up, brother!” he called over the mutual chugging of our motors and with a quick fist bump, I turned Maren and I out into the lot and went for the road. She held onto me tight, but not out of fear. My Angel was fearless on the back of the bike, and I do mean fearless.

  The other day on the way to her school, she’d wrapped her legs around me and when I’d glanced in the side view mirror it was to see her leaned comfortably back against the sissy bar, texting a message to someone on her phone. When we’d stopped, I’d asked what the hell that had been about and she’d given me a cheesy grin and had told me it was her research partner for a science project, asking a question.

  I’d shook my head, and had to laugh at it. I think she’d scared the hell out of me with that, but she seemed completely unfazed. The whole thing had made me not only admire her but love her even more. The fact that she loved to ride, a thing that was just so basically and fundamentally a part of me… I loved her for that so hard.

  The windows of the house were all aglow when we pulled up to the curb. The light had failed a while ago out here, even though the days were getting longer; it being a Friday, Maren had worked late which is why it was fully dark when we pulled in. She got off the bike and took off her helmet, holding out her hand to me and it made my heart swell. I took it and stood, following her into the house, fingers loosely clasped together through the thick layer of our mutual gloves.

  “Sage! We’re home!” she called up the stairs, pulling off her gloves. When no answer immediately came, she let go of my hand and pulled the face mask off, her lithe fingers going for the buckle on her chin strap.

  “Sage!” I called out, and Maren and I hit the stairs almost in unison. I stepped back and let her lead, but stayed right on her heels.

  We found her little brother sitting in the middle of the floor of her dad’s room; boxes scattered around him, bits and bobs taking up room in some of them, a photo album sitting open in his lap. His face was stained with tears and he looked up at his sister.

  “I thought I could do it, so you didn’t have to but there’s so much stuff here.”

  “Sage, what are you doing?” she asked, aghast.

  “You should take Dad’s room. We can’t leave it like this, you know? He’s gone and he’s not coming back… You’re dad now, and mom, and my sister and you should have his room. It’s the biggest.” Sage broke down, started crying, and like the lost little boy he still was, he reached for the only comfort available to him, his big sister.

  Another reason I loved Maren, she went to him without the slightest hesitation. She went down on one knee and pulled him into a tight hug and let him break down. No matter all the shit he put her through, no matter how rough he treated her, she was always there for him and every time I saw it, I melted just a little bit more inside.

  It was everything Rush and I had ever dreamed of having in a mother, growing up. Everything we wanted, and couldn’t have, and I was man enough to admit, if I couldn’t have it there, I would rather have it here, in the woman who shared my life and my bed. I just never expected that generosity and healing to come in such a young package.

  Maybe I was a selfish son of a bitch being thirty-six and taking everything freely that Maren had to give at eighteen, but she was the first person I’d found this kind of selflessness and love with and I didn’t want to give it up. I wanted it, and I wanted to give her everything for it.

  I leaned a shoulder against the doorjamb, blown away by some of these silent revelations inside my head. Working my own issues I’d carried surrounding our age difference that’d been silently gnawing at my underbelly. I put ‘em to rest right there. Let ‘em go, and cemented my place in Maren and Sage’s lives. I went a step further by murmuring, “You guys take your time, I’ll go down and get dinner started,” before I stepped back and did what I knew I could to make this difficult time easier on the both of them.

  I went downstairs and checked out what Maren had thawed and started making something out of it. She came down after a bit and wrapped her arms around me, snuggling up to my back. I put my hands over hers at my waist while the meat crackled in the pan on the stove and asked low and quiet, “You okay?”

  “Yeah,” she said, “We will be, I just had no idea he felt that way about Dad’s stuff.”

  “I think that’s what his shrink would call a breakthrough, wouldn’t you?”

  “Mm, he’s washing his face and putting on sweats, he’ll be down in a little while.”

  “When do you want to finish what he started up there?” I asked, and took back my hands to stir the chicken in the skillet.

  “I don’t know, maybe some here and there until it’s done?”

  “Sounds fair.”

  “I don’t know how I feel about taking Dad’s room,” she said.

  I t
urned around, twisting in her arms to pull her close, tucking her head under my chin and pressing a kiss to the top of her hair.

  “Let me ask you something, knowing you as I do… Does it matter? Angel, we both know you’re gonna do whatever it takes to make your brother happy. It’s who you are. It’s what you do… my question is; what can I do to make this transition easier on you?”

  She leaned back and looked up at me, searching my face, “What do you mean?”

  “Well, would it help if we painted or something? Moved your dad’s furniture out, changed up the room, before moving yours in? Make it your space?” she stared, her gaze a fragile one on the verge of tears of her own. Tears that I could tell she just refused to let fall. She nodded once, carefully and I smiled gently down at her.

  “Okay, then. We’ve got this,” I murmured and she smiled, charmed.

  “Yes, we do…”

  I kissed her then, carefully, and we broke apart when Sage came into the kitchen, clearing his throat. Maren blushed with something akin to guilt and Sage stared at her blankly.

  “If Nox is moving in, you need Dad’s room,” he said flatly.

  “Woah, hey,” I said letting his sister go, even though it pained me. “We’re nowhere near anything like that, buddy.”

  “I think it’s cool, you know,” he said matter-of-factly, and Maren and I exchanged a look like we had both just entered the Twilight Zone.

  “Sage, let’s not try to take on the world,” Maren said tiredly, rubbing her temples.

  “Sorry,” he said. “It’s true, though. I like Nox, he takes care of you. You need someone to take care of you, too.” Sage dropped into one of the seats at the kitchen table and I chuckled, sparing a glance at the chair with my jacket and cut hanging on it.

  “It’s sort of what we do when we consider someone family,” I said jutting my chin toward my colors.

  Maren brought down plates and listened to Sage and I talk about club life in the most PG to the PG-13 way I could muster. It was a good way to get us out of the heavier topics, and, as far as I could tell, one of the safer options we all had in common at this point that we had to choose from.

  We strayed back into dangerous waters a few more times but managed to navigate our way back out again. It was a pretty surreal evening as far as evenings went, and overall, one of the better ones we’d had in a minute.

  Eventually, Sage went up to bed after helping clear the plates and load them into the dishwasher. He’d made pretty fast friends with Connor and I guess they’d traded some Xbox shit so they could play together. It was one of the reasons Maren had relented on giving his game system back earlier than she’d planned, but it wasn’t out of pocket; both Reave and Doll had nothing but good things to say about Sage and his recent overnight.

  His good behavior had earned him back quite a few privileges at once. Not just his freedom but his game system, too. Like I said before, so far, so good and I think that Reave had a lot to do with that. Sage had come from his overnight at my club brother’s place with almost a brand new attitude. Come to think of it though, it could have had more to do with Doll. In fact, the more I thought about it, the more the changes out of Sage seemed to have the woman’s gentle touch to it than my brother’s. The women of the club were typically something else. Like Maren was to me…

  I went up behind her in the bathroom upstairs and pulled her back into me while her hands were occupied in the sink, rinsing them. She laughed and it quickly turned to a gasp when I locked my fist in her dark hair, drawing her throat taut beneath my lips as I kissed the side of it, attacking it with lips and teeth, watching her reaction in the mirror.

  She swooned and I held her up, pinning her between myself and the bathroom counter, my other arm locking her tight against my body.

  “Oh, Nox…” she moaned and I chuckled darkly beside her ear.

  “Finish up, Angel,” I ordered softly, “I want to take you to bed.”

  “I’ll be right there,” she said, a sly smile in her voice. “Hope you brought enough condoms.”

  “Oh, I brought enough,” I said, giving her a sharp slap on her shapely ass, leaving the restroom to cross the hall into her bedroom.

  I stripped down, quietly but efficiently, leaving a small dragon’s hoard of gold-wrapped condoms within easy reach on her bedside table. We would have to be quiet, with Sage just across and down the hall, but it was doable. Besides, I didn’t think Maren and I could hold off another minute.

  I lay in her bed, hands behind my head, blankets pooled at my waist and waited. The little minx one-upped me by sliding into her room in that black satin number of hers, clinging to every plane, curve, and angle of her figure. I had already been halfway hard just thinking about her skin under my lips, now, at the sight of her, I was all the way there.

  “I have something to ask you,” she murmured, shutting her door silently but tightly.

  “Take that off, climb on my dick, and you can ask me anything you want.”

  “You have to promise not to laugh,” she said, “and you have to promise you will really think about it. Not just say yes or no, but really consider it before you pick either way.”

  “Maren,” I chuckled, “What do you want to ask me?” Her seriousness had caught me off guard.

  She came over to the bed, gathering the long skirt of her nightgown in her hands. She planted a knee on the edge of the bed and awkwardly walked on them until she could straddle my hips. I made sure to shove the blankets down before she settled and had to smile appreciatively at the lack of panties she had going on. She settled her silken flesh against the heat of mine. I wasn’t going to slip inside her, not without a condom on, but this felt too good. Good enough, I might be willing to agree to anything that came from her parted lips.

  “Come here,” I gasped and slid my hands over the satin enclosing her warm skin. She leaned down and we kissed, my arms wrapping around her, holding her tightly against my body as I thrust, sliding my cock against the lips of her pussy, teasing us both.

  She tore her mouth from mine with an impassioned gasp and pushed against my chest, straining against my arms to sit up; reluctantly, I let her.

  “I’m being serious,” she murmured.

  “I can see that, Angel, and like I said, you can ask me anything… just do me a favor and reach for one of those condoms while you do it.” I bounced my eyebrows and she laughed at me, but obliged, leaning over and capturing one of the small packets off the pile. She shifted back and moved her nightgown so she could stroke me, and get me ready. I left my hands on her hips, and watched her, dark eyes alight with love and lust, a mirror for my own.

  “I was wondering…” she said and smiled mischievously.

  “Yeah?” I asked, drawing out the word.

  She tore open the condom and picked up my cock, rolling it on with her deft fingers and I smiled, saying, “You really don’t want me to say ‘no’ to whatever it is you’re gonna ask me, do you?”

  “I really want you to say yes,” she murmured, making sure the rubber was secure at my base. I squeezed her hips gently with my hands.

  “You’re doing a great job of convincing me, Baby.”

  She knelt up, holding her nightgown out of the way enough to put myself at her entrance, she slid down me, throwing her head back with a passionate gasp, her long hair tickling the tops of my thighs before the cool satin of her nightgown fell back into place.

  I gasped right along with her, massaging her hips through the satin as she placed her hands on my chest to give herself enough leverage to fuck me.

  She fucked me, and I loved that about her. The fact that she was so bold, and took the reins, especially with the gap in experience. She let go when she was with me and it was beautiful.

  “God, Maren!” I closed my eyes for a second, and the image of her riding me wantonly was seared into my vision so hard, I could still see her there in the dark behind my closed lids. She felt amazing; warm and wet, silken soft around me, gliding up and down my cock w
ith what felt like a minimal effort. She was so beautiful, so fierce, I couldn’t stand it any longer.

  I rolled toward the empty half of the bed, taking her with me, staying with her, staying inside her, as I put her on her back and loomed over the top of her. She gasped, hips rising off the bed to meet my slow, hard, deliberate thrust into her.

  I made love to her slow, raining butterfly kisses all over her face and neck, gathering her tightly under my body, caging her with my arms and pressing into her as deeply as I could go. She panted softly, keeping her moans to quiet whimpers that made the lust already rushing through my body nearly double. I covered her mouth with mine and drank those small sounds down, amazed at how much they satiated me.

  She was so wet, so aroused, and I couldn’t torture her forever because while my being inside her was clearly doing something for her, it wasn’t quite enough. I reared up, and put some space between our bodies, changing angles, driving into her with short little thrusts as I dipped the pad of my thumb between our bodies; seeking out that small nub to push her over the edge.

  She was laid out flat beneath me, her legs spread to accommodate me between them. The straps of her nightgown had fallen gracefully off her shoulders, her chest rising and falling, the tops of her breasts neatly displayed by the lace and black satin of the gown. Her long hair fanned out behind her head, and her dark eyes aglow, I took my time committing all of it to memory; knowing that no matter what life dealt us, no matter how things wrinkled or eventually started to sag, that this right here would be how I would always see my beautiful angel.

  Her eyes closed, and her back arched. She clasped one of her hands over her mouth to stifle any sounds that escape and shuddered as if electrified, her pussy clamping around my dick in rhythmic pulses that touched off a fire in my soul.

  I threw back my head and let go, the tight, tingling at the base of my spine causing my cock to jerk inside her as bursts and waves of pleasure swept out through my skin. I emptied myself into the condom inside her and rode the high she gave me, pressing into her tight and tighter, gasping for breath.