Beautifully Used (The Beaumont Brothers Book 2)

by Griscom, Susan

  “The pleasure’s mine, son. Please call me Kurt.” Kurt beamed that ‘everybody’s-best-friend’ smile, “Let’s sit. Drinks? Honey, would you like a refresher?”

  My mom glanced at her still full martini and nodded. “Since that one is probably warm by now, yes.”

  Brodie picked up the drink menu and quickly perused the beers. “I’ll have a Black Butte Porter,” he said to the waiter standing by and then looked at me. “Gabrielle, would you like some wine?”

  I nodded. “The house cabernet will be fine.” I didn’t know much about which wine would be better anyway, and Brodie had once told me that most nice restaurants usually served a pretty decent house cab, so when in doubt, go for that. Besides, my nerves rattled and jittered too much to think about wine or any other drink for that matter. I glanced at Brodie looking very much at ease and confident, already engaged in a conversation with Kurt.

  Chapter 49

  Brodie

  I picked up my beer and sipped, reveling in the rich body. I licked my lips, noting the hint of coffee and chocolate in the carbonated malt the menu promised. This was a beer I would be ordering for the bar when we got home.

  “So, Brodie, what is it you do?” Gabrielle’s mother said.

  “I manage our bar. Well, it’s my brother’s bar, but he’s hardly there. We inherited the bar along with the farmhouse from my uncle when he passed away. He left the bar to my brother and the house to me. My brother didn’t want to be at the bar all the time, so I run it.”

  “Strange,” Kurt said. “That your uncle would leave your brother the bar and you the house.”

  “I think he did it more as a lure to get my brother to move back to Turtle Lake. My uncle understood I’d be the one to run the place. But he also knew that if he hadn’t left the bar to my brother, he never would have moved back to Turtle Lake where my uncle believed he’d been happiest. He also knew that Jackson would do everything in his power to preserve the treasure of what was my uncle’s life. My uncle knew us fairly well. If he’d left the bar to me, Jackson would never have come back. I consider the house half my brother’s, and he considers the bar mostly mine,” I chuckled and managed to get a chuckle from the other three as well, including Gabrielle’s mother.

  “What are your plans for the future?” her mother asked with a surely-you-couldn’t-possibly-plan-on-managing-a-bar-for-the-rest-of-your-life look.

  “I plan on marrying your daughter for starters, then I plan on buying a bar in southern California. I want to be closer to the beach.” Gabrielle glanced at me, surprise exploding from her beautiful brown eyes, but she kept her cool and didn’t say anything, simply acted like she had known all along that I was going to say that.

  “Gabrielle, is that what you want for your life? To run a bar?” her mother asked, derision dripping from her tone.

  “You know perfectly well what I want, and what I want has nothing to do with what Brodie wants. I can write anywhere.”

  I grabbed Gabrielle’s hand under the table. I hadn’t planned on pulling out the marriage card. I hadn’t even asked Gabrielle yet, but I didn’t like the way her mother had asked the question about my plans, as though I would never be capable of making any plans let alone instituting them.

  “That’s quite an expensive area to try and start a business,” Kurt said.

  “I know, but I’ve saved over the years, and with my brother’s backing from the bar and my house, maybe a small business loan if needed. I’m confident we could pull it off and find an owner who might want to sell. It’s something I’ve been thinking about for some time. And I know Gabrielle loves the beach. My brother needs to keep the bar for another few years, but I can sell the house whenever I want.”

  “Yes, an already existing establishment would make it easier,” Kurt agreed.

  The rest of the evening went pretty much the same. Gabrielle’s mother made a couple more attempts to disparage me, but I didn’t let her. Finally, Kurt took his wife’s hand and told her to give me a break; that he admired my courageous spirit, and thought Gabrielle and I would make a great life together. By the end of the evening, I had them both eating out of my hand. To my surprise, Kurt gave me a hug when we were leaving, and though Gabrielle’s mom didn’t tell me to call her by her first name or anything, I think I made progress when her mom hugged me and whispered, “You better not hurt my daughter or ever leave her in a position of need.”

  “I don’t think you need to worry. Gabrielle will always be safe with me. I promise.”

  The limo ride home started out very quiet. Soft music piped in through Bose speakers and permeated the air with a calming, romantic sound. It just registered with me that the area of the limo we rode in was secluded from the driver’s section, affording us all the privacy we could possibly want or need. I pulled Gabrielle close to me and kissed her, snaking my hand up her dress to the treasure I knew was there at the top of her thighs. “Gabrielle.” I stopped kissing her, the shocked look on my face making her giggle. “Where are your panties?”

  “In my purse.”

  I grinned. “Nice touch.” I still hadn’t officially asked her to marry me yet, and she never mentioned the brief, yet shocking conversation about it at dinner. “God, you’re driving me crazy.” I glanced at the dark window separating us from the driver. “Do you know how sexy that is? How sexy you are?”

  “No. Maybe you should tell me.”

  “You are so very sexy. I don’t think I’m going to be able to wait until we get home.”

  “I don’t think you’ll need to,” she said as she unzipped the fly of my pants and wrapped her hands around me.

  “I think I love you,” I said.

  “Only think?” she giggled at my attempt to mimic her.

  “No.” I nuzzled the spot on her neck just under her ear. “I know I do. I love you so much.” I straightened a bit, pulled her hand out from inside my pants, and zippered my fly back up.

  “Why are you stopping me?”

  “Because I don’t want you to be doing that while I ask you to marry me.”

  She gaped at me like it was some big surprise. God, I loved this woman. “Marry you?”

  “Gabrielle, what I said at dinner. I meant it, all of it. I love you. I want to marry you. Will you marry me?”

  “Yes.” She threw her arms around me and my lips took hers, kissing her hard, demanding, possessive, and I wanted her to know she was mine.

  I didn’t stop her from resuming what she’d been doing earlier, as she unzipped my pants again and slipped her hand back inside my pants. I growled with lust, love, and excitement. I pushed her dress up and took in the sweetness of her ambrosia. Tantalizing her with my tongue, pleasuring her until she couldn’t stand it anymore and moaned with ecstasy. I loved the way she looked when she came, and her relief exploded with a loud cry. I thought the limo driver might pull over to make us stop, but he didn’t. I shimmied down my pants and entered her, slowly until I was all the way inside. Lovely, beautiful Gabrielle. The soft sensation of sliding into her had almost made me come undone. I pulled out slowly, needing to slow it down. I entered again and kept it easy for as long as I could. Doing it in the back of a limo was a first for me. That erotic thought alone made me almost climax. Gabrielle pulled me tight and grasped my behind in her hands, yanking me to her, rocking her hips hard, groaning, and shivering beneath me. I groaned as my orgasm exploded into her.

  We lay satiated in the back of the limo. My pants down around my ankles, her dress up around her waist. It was a beautiful sight. One we would remember for a very long time.

  “Gabrielle, I want to look back and remember this moment with you as we sit on a porch overlooking the ocean, rocking in old wooden chairs, our hair grey with many years behind us.”

  She grinned and snuggled against my chest. “We will.”

  Gabrielle would be my wife, but in my eyes, this beautifully used creature already owned my heart and soul, and would forever be the love of my life.

  Other works by
Susan Griscom

  The Whisper Cape Series

  Whisper Cape, Book 1

  Reflections, Book 2

  A Secret Fate, Book 3

  Also by Susan Griscom

  Beautifully Wounded, The Beaumont Brothers, A Stand-alone - Book 1

  Allusive Aftershock (A young adult novel, 2013)

  Brief Interludes (A collection of short stories with a twist)

  Acknowledgments

  Acknowledgments are always difficult to write, making sure everyone I love is included and not forgotten.

  My first thanks always goes to my husband, Harry. Thank you, honey, for giving me the support and opportunity to do what I love and for reading everything I write. I’d be lost without your helpful suggestions. I also appreciate your mentioning my book to every complete stranger you meet, which embarrasses the heck out of me, but I love it and love you. You are my rock and my knight in shining armor. To my kids, for all your love and support and my Mom, for your encouragement and support and not making too many comments about my absentmindedness because my mind is usually on a character or a scene and for telling everyone you know I wrote a book.

  Thank you, Michelle Olson, my outstanding editor, you are the best. You’ve been a huge help in bringing this book to life with all your encouraging words and praises. I love the way you allow me to pick your brain even when you’re probably too exhausted to think. Thank you, Pam Ripling aka Anne Carter, for answering all my stupid questions that I constantly bug you with. Love and hugs to my beta readers and awesome writer friends, Kelly Erickson, Kerry Erickson, Amber Garza, Celsey Seivert, Tina Donnelly, Pam Ripling, thank you for your insightful suggestions, you helped pull this book together.

  To you, the reader, you own my heart, because without you, this story would be sitting on my hard drive collecting cyber dust. Thank you for reading and if you’ve enjoyed Beautifully Used, please take a moment to write a review on sites such as Amazon, Barnes and Noble, iTunes, or Goodreads.

  About Susan Griscom

  I grew up in a small town in Pennsylvania, spending most of my time daydreaming or playing around in the mud. I grew out of the mud play, well, most of the time, a good soak in the mud is always fun. I still daydream often and sometimes my daydreams interrupt my daydreams. So I write to remember them. If I didn't write, I think my mind would explode from an overload of fantasy and weirdness. To the annoyance of my friends and family, my characters sometimes become a part of my world. During my childhood, I would frequently get in trouble in school for daydreaming. Eventually, my vivid imagination paid off and I had the privilege of writing and co-directing my sixth-grade class play--a dreadful disaster, though not from my writing, of course. I'm pretty sure it was the acting.

  I enjoy writing about characters living in small quaint towns and tend to lean toward the unusual and edgy.

  My paranormal playing field delves into a different milieu, abandoning vampires and werewolves, but not discounting them. Someday I might like to write a novel about vamps and those furry creatures. But for now I like the bizarre mixed with romance. A strong hero or heroine confronted with extraordinary forces of nature, powers and capabilities gets my blood running hot, as does a steamy contemporary romantic suspense.

  Find out more about Susan Griscom by visiting her website.

  http://susangriscom.com

  Facebook: http://www.facebook.com/SMGriscom

  Follow Susan on Twitter:

  https://twitter.com/SusanGriscom