by K. M. Scott
“Then I will never stop waiting for you to see that this baby and I need you. I don’t care how long I have to wait. When you finally see the truth, I’ll be there and we’ll finally be happy.”
He turned away and walked toward the front of the house as Abbi came out onto the porch strangely wearing a smile. How could she pretend to be truly happy like that after he’d basically told her he wasn’t coming back? I slipped out of Stefan’s hold and followed Kane, needing to find out how the man who’d been so kind to me could be such a heartless creature to her.
I caught up to him in the hallway and tugged on his arm to get his attention. He turned to see me, and for the first time I saw that familiar Kane smile.
“Hey, science girl. What are you doing here?” he asked in a somber tone that belied his happy words.
“I just got back. What’s going on with you, Kane?”
“Same old, same old. You know how it is.”
I looked at him and saw how much of what he said was a lie. “You don’t look the same. What’s happened to you? And what’s going on with Abbi?”
He shook his head and frowned deeply. “It’s too hard to get into. Long story.”
“Kane, she’s crazy about you and you blew her off, even though she’s pregnant with your child. That’s not the man I knew. What’s changed in you to make you so cold toward someone so kind?”
“I can’t stay here, but it was nice to see you again, Shay. I’m sure Stefan is thrilled to have you back.”
He began to walk away, but I grabbed his arm again. I wasn’t done yet. “Hey, it doesn’t have to be like this. I know you. You’re a good guy, Kane. Don’t leave without talking to her for real.”
Shaking his head, he said in a low, sad voice, “No, I’m not and I have to go. Goodbye.”
Before I could stop him, he yanked his arm away and stalked off out the front door to his car. As I stood watching, his Mustang sped down the road and he was gone.
*
Stefan and I didn’t speak all the way back to the condo, and as I watched him pour a drink and silently stare out the window, I knew I had to say something. I didn’t know what had angered him, but I could guess.
“So what do you want to do now? It’s still pretty early. We could go out.”
He remained silent for so long I wasn’t sure he’d heard me, but then he let out a huge sigh and turned around and I saw his anger hadn’t abated at all. “Why would you talk to him like that? You know how things are between us, and still you ran after him.”
“I didn’t run after him, Stefan. I just wanted to say hi and see if I could help Abbi any. I wanted to know why he’s acting like this toward her.”
“Why? What does it matter? He’s acting like an ass. Who cares what his reasons are? I know I don’t. Why do you?”
I walked over to where he stood and reached out to touch him, but he backed away. Confused, I asked, “What’s the problem with a friend asking a friend what’s wrong? I hadn’t seen him since I left, and the first time I do see him, he’s cold as ice to the woman who’s carrying his baby. I wanted to know why.”
“The problem is that he’s never thought you and I should be together. How do you think it makes me feel to see you run after him as soon as he came in the house? You barely held yourself back to let Abbi go talk to him first.”
“I don’t care what he thinks about us. I love you, Stefan. You know that. I’m not going to leave you and I don’t think I’m too good for you. That’s nonsense. As for me barely holding myself back from running after him, that’s not true either. I just didn’t like what he did to her and wanted to see if I could help.”
Stefan brushed past me as he mumbled, “It’s none of your business, Shay. Kane’s decided he doesn’t need to man up to his responsibilities. That’s it. And that’s coming from the brother who everyone thinks is a fuck up who never takes care of his responsibilities.”
I watched him walk into the bedroom and hated the distance between us. I couldn’t believe it was just because I’d tried to speak to Kane for Abbi, though. This ran much deeper, and I needed to get to the bottom of it.
By the time I reached him, he’d changed out of his clothes and stood in just his boxer briefs still drinking his whisky. Wrapping my arms around his waist, I kissed his muscular back and pressed my cheek to his soft skin to whisper, “Talk to me. What’s going on here between us?”
“Nothing. Let’s just drop it.”
“I don’t want to drop it. Tell me what’s going on. I’m back for less than a day and we’re already fighting again. Why?”
He turned in my hold and stared down at me with the purest look of hurt I’d ever seen from him. “Because I’m afraid what he said about you is true. That you’re going to figure out you’re too good for me and leave me. From the first day we all met, I saw how you two got along. You’re fast friends and I’m an outsider because I’m not serious enough for you or whatever he has that I don’t.”
I moved my hands up to cradle his face and shook my head, stunned by his admission. “Oh, Stefan, that’s not true at all. I don’t know why Kane said that, but I’ve never thought to leave you for anything. I admit he and I were able to talk to one another, but that seems to have disappeared since the last time I spoke to him, if tonight is any indication. I love you for you. I don’t want serious. I’m serious enough about most things in life for the two of us. I love how you approach life with such a carefree way. I wish I could do that. I bet he does too.”
“We fight all the time, Shay. Why? Maybe he’s right. Maybe we’re too different. Maybe we’re never going to be alike enough to make it last.”
“Do you believe that?” I asked, terrified of what his answer would be.
He closed his eyes and said quietly, “I don’t know. I don’t want to believe that. I’ve missed you so much, but you’re not even back a day and this is happening. I don’t know what to do.”
“Is this why you were talking about leaving here?”
Nodding, he said, “Yeah. Maybe if we weren’t here things could be better.”
“Oh honey, things have to better with us, not our location. But I don’t think things are bad between us, are they? I thought we were fighting all the time because of the pressure you and your brothers were under and because I was so far away. But that’s not a problem anymore.”
For the first time, I saw his face brighten up. “What do you mean?”
“I’m not going back, Stefan. I left that position, so I’m back here for good.”
“Are you? So we could just go anywhere we want and not worry?”
I shrugged. “Except for that not wanting to be a freeloading girlfriend stuff, you know, the serious part of me, I guess yeah we could.”
He wrapped his arms around me and lifted me up to kiss me full on the lips. “You’ve made me so happy, Shay. I don’t want us to be apart anymore.”
“We don’t have to be. My department chair from school has some work for me for a while, so until we figure out what we want to do and where we want to go, I’ll still have a job, so to speak. It’s going to be okay.”
He kissed me again, softer and sweeter, and pressed his forehead to mine as he said quietly, “I love you so much. I want things to be like they used to be.”
“They can be. We’re the same people. Nothing’s changed between us, Stefan.”
His hand tightened in my hair and he pushed his hips forward to press his cock against my stomach. “God, I’ve missed you. I was thinking about how much I wanted you back in my bed the other night, and here you are. I don’t want us to fuck this up, Shay.”
I looked up into those sweet eyes of his so filled with worry. “We won’t. I’m here to stay, baby.”
“Good. I can’t wait to be inside you. I’m fucking tired of my hand, to be honest.”
Chuckling, I took his hand and led him over to the bed. “Sit. I want to do something.”
“Do I need clothes for this something?”
I s
hook my head. “No. In fact, you need to be buck naked and rock hard for it to really work.”
Stefan quickly slid his boxer briefs off and leaned back on his elbows, his already erect cock thick against his abs. “Whatever this is, I’m already loving it.”
As he watched me, I stripped out of my clothes and stood there in front of him naked. “Now close your eyes.”
“I’d rather keep them open and watch you do whatever you’re going to do,” he said playfully as he closed just one eye.
“All in good time. Just close them for a little bit, okay?”
He closed the other eye and then opened it, teasing me. “You might have to get me a blindfold. I can’t seem to keep them shut.”
I knitted my eyebrows and tried to be serious, even as I wanted to smile at how cute he was acting. “Don’t be difficult or I won’t do what I planned.”
Finally, he squeezed his eyes shut. “Okay, do your worst. I’m totally vulnerable here.”
Leaning forward, I ran my palms up his muscular thighs. “Yeah, vulnerable. Right.”
A moan escaped his mouth and he reached out to touch me. I stopped my movement and stood up away from him. “Oh, I forgot to mention you have to keep your hands behind your head.”
Stefan opened his eyes again and smiled. “Eyes closed and hands behind my head? I don’t know how I feel about that.”
“Don’t you trust me?”
He nodded and did as I wanted, clasping his hands behind his head. “Of course. Use me like the sex slave I am. I do want to watch at some point, though.”
“Eyes closed.”
With his hands immobilized behind his head and his eyes closed, he lifted his hips off the bed and groaned. “I think I still like this, but my cock is starting to feel a little ignored. Any chance he can get in on the action?”
I planted a single kiss on his inner thigh just above his left knee and flicked my tongue against his skin. “I can see that happening. Patience, grasshopper.”
As I made my way kissing up his leg, he asked, “Did you just call my cock grasshopper? It’s kinky, but I guess I could go with it.”
I sucked the head into my mouth and flicked my tongue against the tip. Stefan moaned and lifted his hips off the bed to thrust his cock deep into my mouth. Wrapping my hand around the base, I gripped him tightly as I began to go down on him.
Just as I sensed his release, I let his cock pop out of my mouth playfully and lifted my head. “Remember? Patience.”
He grimaced like he was in pain and lifted his body off the bed in a crunch. “You’re killing me, baby.”
I looked down at his gorgeous body and didn’t want to play anymore. I’d been without him too long. I wanted to feel his strong arms around me as his cock filled my body like no man’s had ever done before.
Straddling his hips, I eased down onto him until we joined completely. Stefan opened his eyes and reached his hands out to grip my hips as I lifted off him until just the head of his cock stayed inside me.
“No more fucking teasing, Shay. Ride my cock like you know you want to.”
He pulled me down onto him, and I leaned forward, loving the feeling of him inside me once again. “I don’t have to be told twice. Fuck me like I need, Stefan.”
His hands slid down to my ass and squeezed hard as he began pumping into me. He was more raw than ever, and I loved it. Over and over, he made me his again as I rode his cock like never before. I held nothing back, and neither did he. Everything we felt roared to the surface without restraint, and I never felt freer and more loved than I did then.
As we came, he wrapped his arms around me tightly and in my ear said the words that made me happier than I thought I could be.
“I love you, Shay. I can’t imagine my life without you. I’m so glad you’ve come back to me.”
I smoothed his hair from his forehead and kissed him. “I can’t imagine anywhere else in the world I’d want to be. I missed you so much, Stefan.”
I’d never seen him so happy, and as we lay there together in one another’s arms, I loved that I was the reason for that happiness.
Chapter Ten
Stefan
The hot Tampa summer slowly moved out of the way for autumn to settle in, and while I loved the heat, Shay loved the idea of being back at the university for the fall semester to work for her old mentor. We’d enjoyed a week or so of pure uninhibited pleasure when she returned, and now it was time for her to get back to the old routine she loved so much.
I didn’t understand the interest in doing the same thing over and over every day, but I understood she loved that kind of regularity and security, and since I loved her, I didn’t question her returning to work so quickly.
It would have been nice to spend more days in bed with her, though.
For my part, I had no idea what I wanted to do with my days while she worked, and I wouldn’t have had it any other way. I’d worked nearly all of my twenties as the manager of Club X and had squirreled away some good money in case of a rainy day. Nobody had expected that from me, but I did it just in case one day Cash or Kane flaked out and we couldn’t continue with the club.
So now that rainy day had come and I planned to enjoy it. What I would do I had no idea, though. Most days, I drove out to the Anna Maria Island house to check on Abbi, who never failed to be as sweet as she’d always been, even though I was pretty sure she felt like shit with the way Kane was treating her. Every time I saw her I had to pretend I didn’t hate what he was doing to her with every fiber of my being, but she never complained once about him.
By late September, Shay had delved into her work with her typical gusto and any worries she had about being a freeloading girlfriend had disappeared. I’d never given the idea a second thought, but it had weighed on her mind so I was glad when her mentor asked her to work even more hours on his project.
It meant more time alone, though, and since Cash and Olivia were still basking in the honeymoon phase and Kane had crawled into some kind of emotional shithole of his own making, I had the time to reconnect with old friends and even get out more.
But I didn’t want to be that guy anymore. That guy who had loved partying and picking up women had vanished once Shay entered my life, so nights out getting hammered at clubs wasn’t really what I enjoyed now.
That left me with puttering around the condo or figuring out something to fill my time, so I found myself out at the island house more, especially since my mother seemed to be a near constant fixture there now that Abbi was close to moving into the final trimester of her pregnancy.
I sat down for dinner with the two of them one night near the beginning of October, and my mother looked at me and asked, “Why aren’t you home anymore, honey?”
Two sets of eyes stared at me as I scooped mashed potatoes onto my plate. “Because Shay is working a lot at school and I get bored sitting at the condo. Can you please pass the gravy?”
“Is she enjoying being back at work so soon?” my mother asked as Abbi handed me the gravy boat.
“I think so.”
The truth was Shay and I didn’t talk about her work much. I didn’t pretend to know what she really studied, and she didn’t pretend that I should care. It sounded like I was disinterested, but the fact was since I had never gone any further into science than high school biology, I likely wouldn’t have understood what she talked about anyway.
“She must be really smart, Stefan,” Abbi said with a smile I thought hid some of her usual sadness.
“She is,” I bragged, proud of the woman I loved, unlike Abbi’s asshole boyfriend. “She’s my own version of Bill Nye the Science Guy. I guess she’s my Shay the Science Babe.”
My mother and Abbi chuckled at my joke, but something behind Abbi’s expression told me she wasn’t as happy as she pretended to be.
“So how’s the baby doing?” I asked as I took a forkful of my mother’s meatloaf I loved. “Not too long now, right?”
“Still a few more months, but I feel goo
d. Your mother has done so much to make me at home here.”
My mother reached across the table and patted Abbi’s hand. “This is your home for as long as you want it to be. You know that. Now that Cash and Olivia are married, they won’t want it when I go. So it’s up to you or Stefan, and I don’t think my son here wants to hang out on this quiet island for the rest of his life.”
“Actually, Shay and I are looking to leave Tampa, Mom.”
Both Abbi and my mother stopped eating and turned to look at me, each one with a look of surprise on their face like I’d just announced I’d be taking off on a trip to Mars soon. Didn’t anyone leave or did my family expect me to spend the rest of my life so close to my mother?
“Where are you going to go? And why is it your mother is the last one to know about this?”
I looked at my mother and smiled. “You two are the first to know, actually. Shay and I have only talked about it a few times, but we think it might be time to leave the area. I have the money, so why not go when we can?”
“I don’t know. I just thought I’d always have you nearby, I guess.”
Turning to look at Abbi, I smiled. “I’m her baby. She never thought she’d keep Cash around forever.”
“That’s not true. I’d be sad if I heard he and Olivia were leaving the area too. But he’s different than you, Stefan. I worry more about you.”
I looked at her in shock. “Me? I’m not the one who’s been married twice, Mom.”
“I know, but you’re wilder than your brother. I like the idea of you with Shay for a lot of reasons, but especially because she’s stable and not wild like those other women you dated for years.”
“Were you a player, Stefan?” Abbi asked innocently.
Rolling my eyes, I let my mother answer her question.
“He was more than a player, honey. There was a constant stream of women coming and going from that condo all the time. He thought I didn’t know, but I knew. Mothers always know.”
“Jeez, Mom. You make me sound like some pig.”