by Fields, MJ
He nods to the chair and says, “Sit, please.”
I look at his screen and focus on it as my body begins to tingle and heat spreads to parts only he has touched. But that doesn’t matter. We will never be.
I walk around the island and sit down.
He lets out a slow breath as he runs his hand through his hair. “This whole fiasco would go away really quick with one conversation with your sister, but you made me promise and I will never break a promise to you. And you doing that may cause harm in your relationship, and I don’t want that for you either.”
Brand talking about Bella is like cold water thrown on a hot flame.
“Only reason I said her name was because she and Carter walked by, not ten feet in front of us, while I was inside you, trying to hold back, not wanting to hurt you, and not wanting to be a fucking chump. Swear to God above that’s the only reason—a warning, not any fucking other reason. You gotta believe me when I say I never wanted her, Katy. It’s been you since first chub.”
“Is that supposed to woo me?” I stab into the food in front of me and take a bite.
“No, it’s supposed to get me out of the emotional guillotine. The insane highs and lows of falling for you, eyes wide open, Katy, is fucking exhausting. It’s supposed to make you realize—”
“This is really good.” I shovel another forkful in my mouth.
“Verify if you need to—hell, I want you, too—but after that, let me in, Katy. I’ve been waiting for you for longer than I even realized—”
“Stop talking,” I demand when I feel tears burn my eyes.
“Katy, I have twenty seconds and—”
“Just shut up.”
He walks over, pulls out the chair next to mine, and sits down. “I wanna be with you.”
“And I wanna forget that the child I’m going to love more than anything in this world wasn’t conceived while its father said his first crush’s name.”
He shakes his head. “Wasn’t like that. I was caught up in someone else’s fairy tale.”
“You were, like, five.”
“And I was just learning Gage wasn’t my father, that he was my uncle, and that my father wasn’t my uncle. I was watching—”
“Wait—what?” This bit of information catches me off guard.
“You didn’t know?” he asks.
I shake my head.
“My mom tricked my uncle into thinking he was my father, when she was already pregnant by his brother. Jesus, Katy, how did you not know that?”
I shrug.
“Your father and uncles know.”
“Well, they didn’t say anything.”
“Doesn’t matter anymore, but Gage and Mom divorced, he found out I wasn’t his, still raised me as if I was. When he found out I was his brother’s, he dragged him out of some five-year binge and made him man up. My grandmother set it all up so that I’d be in their lives still. It’s way more fucked up than that, and the only part that really matters is that little boy singing to your sister was mimicking the way his dad was acting with his mom. I hadn’t seen love like that before, and it obviously had an effect on me.”
“Brand, I’m sorry—”
“Don’t be sorry, but fucking listen to me when I say it was never her.”
“You expect truth from me, don’t tell me lies. Admit it; you wanted her. Until she was married, you used to tell her she was hot all the damn time.”
“She is.”
Fucker.
“But your reaction to me saying that was what made me hot. Your possessive—”
“I wasn’t possessive at three years old!” I drop my fork and cross my arms.
“Call it what you want, but listen closely to me when I tell you that she may be hot, but you’re the most beautiful woman I’ve ever seen in my fucking life.”
“I’ll always hear you saying her name.”
“Then let me shout yours to everyone who will listen to me. Let me tell the world about the girl who I knew would one day own me. Hell, the girl who wasn’t afraid to tell everyone she wanted me. Let me whisper it in your ear so often that you can’t hear anything but your name in the voice of the man you’ve wanted just as long. Let me do that, Katherine Anne Steel. Let me show you what it’s like to be everything to a little boy, who was raised in a fucked-up situation, who found someone who looked at him like he wasn’t gonna shatter if she was too real to him. Let that boy, who stood in waist-deep water, hiding a hard-on, look at you every day. Let me off the hook, Katy Steel. Let me love you.”
Looking into his eyes, I could easily get sucked in. Hell, I’d dive headfirst if it was four years from now.
“I’m an eighteen-year-old girl who—”
“Legal, and yeah, I waited,” he interrupts me.
“I’m a pregnant girl starting a new school.”
“I know you’re not all that big into country music, but I’m guessing dating Brandon Falcon might give you some street cred with the richies at Seashore.”
I shake my head. “I’m not about to walk into that place for the next six months with an inflated ego, and then the rest of them have to deal with that when I’m gone.”
“So, let me be your dirty little secret.”
I consider it briefly then shake my head.
“Katy—”
“It’s not a good idea.”
“It’s actually the best idea.”
“Why? So you can go whore around the world while I’m getting fatter and fatter by the day?”
“First, that awkward stage I was talking about was when you were a bit chubby, so you packing on pounds won’t be an issue at all. Don’t think I didn’t notice your tits have gotten bigger.”
I try to smack him, but he catches my hand, laces his fingers between mine, and kisses the back of it.
“Second”—he holds our hands over his heart, and I feel how hard it’s beating; its pace mimicking mine—“I don’t whore. I waited for you, just like you waited for me.”
“To be honest, I didn’t wait for you; just never found anything that measured—” I snap my mouth shut to stop the word vomit from escaping.
“Your prom date came pretty close. Same build, same hair … Well, sort of. Mine’s better, but it was a valiant effort.”
I try to pull my hand away, but he keeps it steady, bends down, and brushes his full lips over my knuckles.
He smirks. “Don’t deny it. Brad was it?”
Oh. My. God.
Is he for real?
“I have more skeletons when it comes to you than I ever want to admit. But if you need me to, if it makes you as confident in the two of us as you’ve appeared to be in yourself all your life, I’ll give you one a day until we’re old and gray.”
Everything that he’s just said outdoes even my wildest fantasies, and yes, there’s been some pretty wild ones. But the truth is … I’m terrified.
“Talk to me, Katy Steel. Give me all your reals.”
Blue Balls
Brandon
She scowls. “I’m hungry.”
“Then let me feed you.” I pick up the fork.
“I have two hands,” she argues.
“One unless I let go of this.” I squeeze her hand and don’t let go.
“Where’s my family?”
“It’s Black Friday; they all went shopping.”
“We don’t do Black Friday shopping,” she huffs.
“Apparently, they do, but good to know. Tell me everything you don’t do.”
“What?” Her voice squeaks when she asks.
“No blowjobs, and no black Friday. What else?”
She narrows her eyes at me, and her face begins to pinken, but the glint in her eyes that always comes before the sass appears, and then she gives it to me. “Apparently, I should have finished.”
“I may lose my man card by admitting this, but I’m real glad you didn’t.”
“So, you’re happy you got an eighteen-year-old senior in high school knocked up?”
“I’m glad we were each other’s firsts, even if I clearly disappointed you so much you’re trying to act like you don’t want this. But you’re carrying a constant reminder of me with you, hell yes,” I admit. “I’m glad I’m having a kid with you. Would have been cool to wait, too, but we’ll figure it out.”
“Figure out what?” Her mouth is open in shock, so I scoop up some of the egg dish that her grandmother told me she loved and helped me make and shove it in her mouth.
Her face gets even more red. It’s hot as hell.
“I wasn’t reading us wrong; we’re meant to be. So, like I said, tell me everything you don’t do so I can prove to you what you will when it comes to me.”
She swallows her food and shakes her head. “You’re being ridiculous. I’m a senior in high school, and you’re country’s golden boy.”
“So?” I shrug.
“So, we aren’t gonna just go buy a house with a white picket fence, get a dog, have two kids, and live happily ever after, Brandon. That’s just stupid.”
“Any possibility that you’re having twins?”
“No!” she gasps.
I nod. “Any objections to forgoing the white picket fence for a view of the Atlantic?”
“Don’t be stupid.” She shakes her head and looks down, hiding what I know would be a smile if she’d let it be one.
“Not stupid. I just know what I want and what I have to give. Which is why I bought this house and have just a couple days to unload the woo wagon before my girl heads to a new school and I have to travel the world, wishing I was here with her instead.”
She peeks up at me. “Are you serious about this house?”
“So serious I bought the one next to it for visitors.”
“You do know this place has, like, nine bedrooms, right?”
“We’ll fill them.”
“Hell no.” She jacks her hand from me. “I’m not having a bunch of kids. And besides, this isn’t happening.” She starts to slide off the stool, but I grab her up, lift her to eye level, and she grips my shoulders to steady herself.
“I’m telling you it is. I’m telling you it’s always been you. You know damn well it’s always been me. And, Katy girl, you’re carrying my baby. We’re starting early, and we’re ending half past never, so let it happen and enjoy the ride.”
She licks her lips, but that sassy glint in her eyes appears, and I know what’s coming, so I beat her to the punch. “And it may take a bit more practice, but I can assure you that, next time, we’ll beat thirty seconds, at least by double.”
“You’re so stupid.” She tries again to hide a smile.
“Yeah, maybe, but I got a house, a girl, and a kid on the way.”
“Well, damn, you’re just one three-legged dog named Trip and a broken-down F-150 away from your next hit.”
I can’t help laughing, and I also can’t help doing it against those perfect lips.
When I feel her lips tremble, the urge that’s pooled itself in my sac moves much farther north … to my heart.
I walk us over to the couch and sit, her on my lap now, and she buries her face in my neck, tears spilling on my skin. “I got you, Katy girl. Just tell me you got me, too, and the only tears you’ll spill from here on out are those of happiness.”
She sniffs and whispers, “So stupid.”
Takes a good … thirty seconds before she looks up. Her light brown eyes rimmed red, pink cheeks tear-stained and beautiful as fuck, she looks down at my chest and fists my shirt then looks into my eyes. “How are you even alive?”
I laugh, knowing she is wondering how I stopped Jase from killing me. “Not for you to worry about.”
She looks at what I’m assuming are the bruises caused by the jabs that Patrick landed, raises her trembling hand, and lightly traces the bruises.
I close my eyes and take a fuck of a lot of appreciation and a twisted kind of pleasure in her touching me like this. Girl’s had my dick in her mouth and part of my dick in her and didn’t touch me with this much tenderness.
“He shouldn’t have hit you.”
I open my eyes as she looks over my bruises.
“To be fair to him, when I asked for your number, I promised I’d treat you the way you deserved to be treated. Guessing he felt a bit betrayed by my manipulation, because I got you knocked up beforehand.”
“Still …” She shrugs but doesn’t say anything as she slides off my lap. “You need ice.”
When she starts to walk away, I grab her hand and stop her.
She looks over her shoulder.
“Get back here and just chill with me.”
“Tell me what happened with my dad and I’ll consider.”
“If I tell you what happened with your dad, will you stop fighting the inevitable and let us get to the good?”
She turns around and crosses her arms over her chest. “I’m not gonna get hurt.”
“No, you’re going to be cherished.”
“I already don’t trust this tour thing.”
“You can trust me.”
“I’m going to be jealous of every chick who takes a picture with you and posts hashtag I’ve been branded.”
“Understood, but not warranted.”
“I’m going to have to keep you a secret, for them, at school.”
“Just as long as one of those rich fucks doesn’t try to go after what’s mine already, I’m cool with that.”
“Says the guy who just bought a million-dollar beach house.”
“Five, but whatever.”
She rolls her eyes. “I can’t be bought or kept.”
“I sure as fuck can try.”
“You’re so stupid,” she says, failing at hiding the smile now, but seemingly okay with it.
“Stupid in love with a girl who feels the same.”
“And conceited,” she sighs out and dramatically rolls her eyes. “At best, it was a slight obsession.”
“Is there something like an opposite restraining order? Could I call and ask that you be arrested if you don’t stay within one hundred feet of me at all times?”
She scrunches up her face and shakes her head.
I stand up and walk toward her, right up to her, and I press against her. She doesn’t even step back. Then I wind my hand around her still wet hair and pull it back so she’s looking up at me. “Could ya, would ya be mine?”
She shrugs. “Do I even have a choice?”
“No.”
I lean in to kiss her, but she places her fingers against my lips. “Tell me how you got them to leave you here with me.”
“Kiss me, and I will.”
She grabs the sides of my face then releases a slight gasp, clearly shocking herself as well as me at the possessiveness in her touch. When she starts to pull them away, I cover hers with mine.
“Don’t you hold back on me, because I’m not planning on showing you that courtesy.”
She slightly narrows her eyes as she looks at my lips and brushes her thumb over them lightly. My heart beats faster and faster by the second as I watch her eyes take me in with less lust, more care, as if she wants to memorize them. Then she looks up at me and says softly, “I hope our baby has your lips.”
“I hope our baby has your perfect face. Its shape, its structure. You truly are the most beautiful woman.”
She pulls my head down and lifts onto her toes. Her lips touch mine softly, and I wait for the hunger to kick in, but it doesn’t. She’s feeling them out, getting more relaxed with each brush of her own. She starts to play her tongue against them and steps in closer, pushing me back. My calves hit the back of the couch as she pushes against my chest.
I grab the back of her head, keeping her lips on mine as I sit. She climbs right on, straddling me, and deepens the kiss. My hands are on her hips, her hands are in my hair, and I’m fucking stone. Then she releases my hair as she kisses me harder, and I feel her hands skate up my shirt.
“Katy babe,” I groan, pulling back.
“Wh
at?”
“I made a promise to your dad that I wouldn’t.”
She sits back on my knees. “You told my dad you wouldn’t make out with his teenage daughter that you already knocked up?”
I shrug. “I promised him I wouldn’t have sex with you if he left us alone.”
“First, we were kissing. Second, all my dad asked was that you wouldn’t have sex with his teenage daughter that you already knocked up?”
Smiling, I push her hair back away from her face and shrug.
“What else?” She crosses her arms over her slightly bigger Cs.
“Can you go back to kissing me?” I ask, pulling her toward me.
She puts her hands on my shoulders. “What else, Brandon Falcon?”
“He told me you weren’t like …” I hesitate.
“Like what?”
“Your sister.” I roll my eyes, and she arches a brow. “He said, you’re stronger. Said he didn’t need to give me shit. And, since Patrick had already given me two black eyes, his would be a waste. He told me that if you felt the same way I did, there was no stopping us, and that, since you were already pregnant, he wasn’t going to try to fuck things up.”
“Was it slightly robotic?”
“What?” I chuckle.
“The delivery. Did he sound almost like a robot? Like maybe he was saying something possibly scripted?”
“You know him much better than I do. What are you getting at?”
“Mom. He’s saying what she’d want him to.”
“That such a bad thing? I mean, when our kids are growing up, I hope we discuss what we think is best and are strong enough to admit if the other person is right, then go with it.”
“First thing you need to know, I’m always right.”
“I’m gonna let that slide until I have a promise this is going where it’s supposed to.”
She looks at me, eyes hardening a bit, like she’s trying to figure me out, like I have some sort of angle. I don’t, so I give it right back to her.
“You think I don’t know how hardcore you are. You think I don’t see the fierceness in your loyalty to all those you love, and that I don’t see it in return?”
She lifts a shoulder. “Just need to know you can hang.”