by Maggie Marr
Brinn’s heart careened through her chest. An oily bile flowed through her gut.
“You don’t think I’m pretty enough for Tyler Emerson.”
“I didn’t say that.”
“You don’t have to.” Brinn jumped to her feet. Her chest tightened. She couldn’t stay in this office. She couldn’t catch her breath. “Oh my God, my own mother doesn’t think I’m good enough for the Emersons. You think I should date someone like Herb Delwicky. That accountant that you wanted me to start seeing.”
“That isn’t what I meant.”
Brinn placed her hands on her hips. “Then what did you mean, Ma?”
Silence. All Ma returned to Brinn was silence and a flat look. A look that broadcast I can’t say it, I can’t tell you, that no, you are not pretty enough for Tyler Emerson.
“You need to put the cookies in the oven.” Brinn pulled off her apron and crumpled it into a ball. This was how her mother pictured her? As a poor old maid who was unattractive and could never be with a man like Tyler Emerson?
“Brinn—”
“Enough, Ma.” Brinn turned and grasped the doorknob. “You’ve said more than enough tonight. I have to go. I have a date to get ready for.”
*
Tyler held a potted chrysanthemum in one hand a bottle of Pinot Noir in the other and the handle of the bag of Chinese food hung from his wrist. He rang the doorbell and waited. On the other side of the front door came the pitter-patter of feet. The door opened.
His heart spun. Brinn. Brinn smiling and smelling fresh. A warmth, a calm, an evenness beat through his body when he was near her.
“I brought these.” He held both hands out toward her.
“A man with gifts. I like that.” She pulled the door wider and took the flower and wine from him.
He followed her into the house and pulled his boots off at the front door. Cinnamon. The scent of something warm and good baking. A fire crackled in the hearth and her Christmas tree was lit.
“I like your tree.” He slipped his jacket from his shoulders, and Brinn hung it in the closet. Every ornament was a cookie, each decorated with painstaking care and sparkly sugar and beads. “Did you make all these?”
“Most.” Brinn went to the kitchen and took a wine key from the drawer. “Deborah and I made some of them when we were kids. But most of them I’ve made since pastry school.” She pulled the cork from the bottle.
“I’d think the last thing you’d want to do during the holidays is bake.”
Brinn walked over and handed him a glass of wine. “Lucky for me, I love what I do.” Brinn placed her hand behind one spectacular-looking cookie in the shape of an angel. The ornament’s head was tilted down and she held a Christmas candle. “Decorating them relaxes me. Especially during the holidays. I don’t have to think. I kind of get lost in it, and then when I’m finished I have something lovely and lasting.” She looked up at Tyler. “As long as nobody gets hungry.”
“They’re too pretty to eat.” Tyler walked to the couch. Brinn had put the bags on the coffee table. She pulled out boxes.
“I wasn’t sure what you wanted, so I got a lot.”
“I see kung pao scallops.”
Tyler picked up a plate and a spoon. He scooped out a generous helping onto the plate and handed it to Brinn. She sat back against the cushions of the couch. They both ate and drank their wine.
“Last night, you asked me about coming back to Powder Springs, but you didn’t tell me about your transition from San Francisco to here.”
The corners of Brinn’s mouth pulled down. Usually she was so bright and full of smiles. “Most days I’m happy here, but occasionally I wonder if I made the right choice.”
“Why’s that?” He forced a smile into his words. Why should he worry? This was only their second date, and if she wanted to return to San Francisco, she should. So why stress? Because already he had feelings for her. His jaw tightened. Already, with her simply voicing some unhappiness, he was preparing for the loss of her.
“It’s Ma.” Brinn let out a big breath of air. “She doesn’t do well with change. She wants me here, I know she does, but she wants me here the way I was when I was a kid. When she could make all my decisions for me. Plus it’s hard for her to give up control of the bakery.”
“She’s run the bakery alone for years.”
“She’s had Dom to help after Dad died, but yeah, it’s been a long time. And there are other things. You know, family things.”
“I do know. Mom and Dad think Charlotte and I should live with them while we’re in Powder Springs, no matter how long. While I know that’d be easy, I’m not sure living with my parents is the best thing for any of us.”
“Ma wanted me to live at home too. I couldn’t do it. I love Ma, and I love that house—it’s where I grew up—but being together at the bakery all day and then living in the same place? One of us might not make it out alive. “ Brinn looked around her house. “Plus I just love my space. This place is perfect.”
“Speaking of family.” Tyler set his plate on the table next to the couch and grabbed a napkin. “If you don’t want to come to dinner next Thursday, you don’t have to.”
Brinn looked up from her kung pao scallops. Her eyes widened. “Would that be better? If I didn’t come?”
“No, no.” Tyler pressed the napkin to his lips and shook his head. “Of course I want you to come.” He reached toward Brinn and pushed an errant curl behind her ear. “It’s just, well, my brothers can be… overwhelming. I’ll get teased, you might get teased. It’s kind of the Emerson way.”
“I can take teasing. What I don’t like are commands mixed with passive-aggressive innuendo.”
“Hey.” Tyler leaned closer to Brinn. “Are you okay? Did something happen today? Between you and your mom?”
Brinn collected his plate and hers. She stood and walked toward the kitchen. Tyler closed the take-out boxes and carried them into the kitchen where Brinn stood beside the sink, scraping food into the trash. She placed all the plates into the dishwasher and washed her hands.
“Brinn? What is it?”
“Kiss me.”
She didn’t need to ask twice. His lips were on hers. Gone was her shyness and hesitation from last night. Her mouth opened to his and their tongues explored each other.
He pulled away. His breath caught in his chest. “Kiss me like that and we won’t see a movie again tonight.”
Brinn pressed her lips to his again, taking him up on the dare.
*
It was in his kiss. Desire. Heat. Want. Forget what Ma had said. Tyler couldn’t fake those feelings. No man could. Their passion was an electrical pulse that coursed between them. No, she wasn’t model perfect. No she wasn’t blond, tall, and leggy, but she seemed to be just exactly what Tyler wanted. Wasn’t she?
A voice of doubt held fast in Brinn’s brain. Doubt that a man who looked like Tyler and had had a wife who looked like Charlize could ever be satisfied with a woman who looked like Brinn.
She pressed her hips forward. He was hard. She would satisfy him. She would also satisfy herself. Wasn’t this what she’d always wanted since she was a teenaged girl? She’d wanted to be in the arms of Tyler Emerson. To make him pant and want and need. To feel his body pressed against hers with a hard desire between them. Yes. This was exactly what her adolescent self had dreamed of and what she wanted now. Her fears and her insecurities wouldn’t steal these moments. Even if Ma didn’t thinks Brinn was pretty enough or good enough for Tyler, he thought so, and that was all that mattered.
She pulled her lips from Tyler’s. His eyes were rich with desire. His hands held her shoulders and his breath came in controlled bursts. What she wanted was Tyler. She clasped his hand in hers and walked away from the kitchen, away from the living room, away from the couch and the TV. She walked ahead of him with his hand in hers, down the hall past the bathroom. Brinn opened her bedroom door.
His eyes widened. A smile curved over her lips, and for the brief
est moment, a tight anxiousness coursed through her chest. But he pressed his lips to hers and there was the hunger again, the want and desire.
His hands cupped her chin and his kiss deepened. Her fingers played along the bottom edge of his sweater and pressed against the skin of his belly. He lifted his arms and pulled it over his head. She swallowed. Holy hell. He was beautiful. Tyler’s hands went to the top button of her silk shirt.
Her stomach flipped in her belly. She was doing this. She was really doing this. Now, on their second date. He slipped her silk shirt over her shoulders and his lips pressed to her neck. She wove her fingers through his hair and tilted her head back. His arms wrapped around her, and his fingertips unclasped her bra. He pulled it from her shoulders and it fell to the floor.
His hand grasped her breast.
She gasped. His lips broke away from the sensitive skin of her neck, and he bent forward and clasped his lips around the tight bud of her nipple. He pulled the nub deep into his mouth.
Heat thrust through Brinn. A tingle shot through her body and her sex clenched. A fierce, hot feeling radiated through her body, through every sinew and fiber. His hands grasped the button of her jeans and he unbuttoned, unzipped, and pulled them down over her knees. Brinn stepped from the denim. She now stood before him nearly naked.
Oh God. She was naked in front of him. Her stomach clenched. Gone was the bravado, replaced with her fleshy hips and full stomach and his nearly perfectly sculpted body. She was short and stocky and not pretty enough for Tyler.
She held her breath. Jumping under the covers so that he wouldn’t see her wasn’t an option. He pulled away from her and his eyes traveled over her body.
Heat flew up her neck and blossomed in her face. She tilted her head down, unable to meet his gaze. She didn’t want to see disappointment in his eyes. His fingertips brushed under her chin and his gentle touch tilted her face back up toward his.
“You’re beautiful.” His lips were on hers and his kiss was deep and demanding.
She unbuttoned his jeans and he shucked them off his body. His cock was hard and thick and ready for her. They moved to the bed and lay down beside each other. She grasped him with both hands and stroked up the long silken shaft. His stomach muscles clenched.
Air hissed over his lips. “Brinn.” His voice was whiskey rough and filled with need.
“Does that feel good?”
“God yes.” He held her shoulders in his hands. The stroking of his shaft had paralyzed him. His eyebrows tightened and he bit his bottom lip.
She pressed her lips to his chest, taking in the warm, rich male scent of him. She cupped his balls with one hand. His body tightened and his breathing grew short. She stroked up and down and up and down with her other hand. A low growl came from his mouth as her lips trailed across his body.
She pressed her lips down his belly until she was just above the head of his cock, then moved so her body was now between his legs and her face toward him. That entire lush body was laid out in front of her. With his hard cock before her, she kissed up his shaft and ran her tongue around the bottom edge of the head of his cock.
His body tensed and his hands grasped the bedsheets. She licked over the top of his cock and tasted the salty pre-come on her tongue. She lifted his shaft and slowly pressed her mouth down one side and then back up the other. Her hand followed her lips with a strong squeeze.
Tyler wove his fingers through Brinn’s curls. Her sex clenched. His eyes were wide, his bottom lip under his teeth as he watched her. She opened her mouth and wrapped her lips around his cock. His head thrust back against the pillow. Slowly she slid down his shaft. Her tongue curled around him, and her hands grasped the base of him. She opened her mouth and took him all the way in. Deep into her throat. She tightened her lips and slowly dragged her lips up over his shaft.
“Fuck, Brinn.” Tyler’s body was hard like stone. He fought to control his hips. Brinn opened her mouth and slid down his cock. She sucked harder and moved faster. A rhythmic pulsing up and down and up and down. His hands fisted in the blankets.
He thrust upward. “Brinn, I’m going to come.”
She pushed her mouth down again, faster and wider, taking all of him as deep as she could. His cock filled her mouth and she sucked hard. He grew harder and pulsed between her lips, then his entire body was rigid. He thrust up and the pulsing along his cock turned to come, hot and salty in her mouth. She swallowed. Brinn’s mouth pulled up over his cock. With a final lick across the head of his cock, she released him.
His arms were around her. He pulled her up to him, and his lips were upon her lips, his arms grasping her.
“Brinn, you didn’t have to do that.”
She’d wanted to place his long lovely cock in her mouth, wanted to return the pleasure he’d given her. To feel him flinch with the pleasure given by her mouth, her tongue, her lips. Witnessing his release had caused her own sex to heat and quiver.
His lips pressed to hers and then his mouth was on her nipple, pulling it into his mouth, a heat, a frenzy, as though he couldn’t get enough of her, of her body, of her skin. Brinn lay on her back and his fingers slipped down over her belly and then were in the folds of her sex. She was wet and completely turned on. His fingertips pressed against her clit and his mouth sucked her nipple.
His lips left hers and trailed along her belly. He parted her thighs with his hands, and then his mouth was on her with a desperate need. His tongue was on her clit and moved in tight circles. Her hips arched upward. His fingers entered her and her sex tightened around him. He pressed in and out and his tongue—oh God, his tongue—circled her clit, and then his mouth clamped onto her and he sucked.
She tore apart, the seams of the world fraying with the pleasure and the heat. Her hips pushed up, and she clutched his shoulders. Her fingertips dug into the hard muscles of his shoulders. The release, the edge, and the falling.
Her body twitched and pulsed and he pulled his mouth from her. His lips were on her lips and again he was hard, his cock now nudging the entrance of her sex. She wanted him; she wanted all of him deep inside her. Her orgasm had ignited her lust for Tyler. She wrapped her arms around the muscles of his back. The head of his cock pushed close to her sex. His eyes searched her face—there was a pain and a want and a question.
“Please Tyler, please. I want you inside me.”
His lips found her breast as he held himself above her. The tip of his erection nudged her entrance. Her hips thrust upward, wanting to take him, all of him, needing him inside her. The sweet, full feeling took hold of Brinn. Her hips pushed up and her back bowed as Tyler pushed into her with a swift stroke.
Her body tightened around him. Their gazes locked. He pulled back slowly from her and then thrust again, sweet heavenly bliss with each stroke.
“Yes, oh my God, yes.” Her fingers pressed hard into the muscles of Tyler’s ass. Deeper. She wanted him deeper, as deep as he could get. His body stilled. He pulled back and thrust again. Then a pure and easy rhythm took over. Her legs grasped him and together they shattered into bliss.
Chapter Eleven
“What’s this?” Brinn scratched her messy curls and wandered into her kitchen.
“This is me cooking for you.”
A sleepy smile formed on Brinn’s lips.
“I have a couple of standbys in my repertoire and one of them is cinnamon pancakes.”
The rich scents of coffee and pancakes greeted her.
“Can I please have coffee?”
“Your wish is my command.” Tyler poured a large cup for her.
Her toes curled. This was a slice of heaven. She walked to the dining room table and settled into a chair. Too good to be true? According to Ma, yes. But there would be no second-guessing. She was going to enjoy these moments for as long as they lasted.
“You’re off today?” Tyler set a plate of fluffy pancakes dripping with butter and syrup in front of her.
“Technically I’m never off at the bakery during the
holidays, but we managed to schedule a couple of days off for each of us this season. One of mine is today.”
Tyler slid into the seat beside her and passed her a plate filled with bacon.
Brinn took a bite of pancake. Fluffy magical goodness. “This is so good,” she said, looking at Ryan. The morning sun came through the windows and lit his hair and his eyes. How could he roll out of bed and look this gorgeous? Her hand went to her hair and slid across her messy curls. No rolling out and looking perfect for her.
A ball of worry formed in her belly. She should have showered and brushed her teeth and at least combed her hair before coming out this morning. She crossed an arm over her chest.
“What are you doing with your one day off?”
“I have to go pick up Ma’s Christmas gift and I still need to find Nonna something. Although she’s pretty easy, she usually just wants lingerie or booze.”
Tyler coughed. He took a long drink of coffee. “Nonna? Wants lingerie and booze?”
“She says why waste time.”
“Go, Nonna.”
“What about you?”
“Well, I talked to Mom and the cousins are over, so Charlotte hasn’t noticed my absence.”
Brinn winced. Oh my goodness, Tyler’s mom knew he’d spent the night at her house. Tyler clasped his hand over hers. “She’s happy about this. Both my parents are. About us. My staying here won’t change how my mom feels about you.”
She pressed her knees together under the table. Relief washed through her, and yet hesitancy persisted. Being so open, so public about this relationship, people actually knowing about Tyler staying with her, was different than people seeing them walking down Main Street together. Here, now, with his truck parked in her drive at nine a.m. on a Sunday, this relationship became public. A simple fact of small-town life. She chewed her pancake and replayed in her mind what he’d said.