In Love

by Brook Greene

  She shrinks back. “Okay. You don’t have to be rude about it,” she huffs, acting like a child.

  “What the hell did we just walk in on?” Eno asks as he, Josie, Hollis, and Roman join us.

  “Good God, nothing,” I growl, the aggravation over the conversation coming through in my tone.

  “Why Matty isn’t the man for the girl he took to bed last night’s type,” Piper informs them.

  Leo sighs, looking at Avery. “See what the fuck you started?”

  Avery shrugs her shoulders. “Sorry.” Bullshit. With the little smirk on her lips, I know she’s not the least bit sorry.

  “No, you’re not,” I accuse, turning to Piper. “You wanna know why I’m not her type? She’s a lesbian. There, are you happy now?” I blurt out, watching as Piper’s eyes widen at my declaration, but thankfully, it shuts her up.

  Piper and Avery have tried for months to set me up with women they work with, but as usual, I have one good night with them and send them on their way, well fucked and well-satisfied.

  “I think Emily and Cowboy must still be getting their freak on,” Dalton implies, cutting through the stunned silence at the table. “Me and Piper fucked all over that suite last night, so thanks for the mini vacay, Matty.” Dalton jabs his fork at me from across the table.

  “For God’s sake, I’m fucking eating,” Leo roars. We all burst out laughing at him, and he unceremoniously gives us all his middle fingers.

  We finish breakfast with no more mention of me or Morah, and I’m thankful. I let them know the limo will be ready at eleven and head back up to my room to retrieve my things.

  I stand in the middle of the silent room, my eyes drifting around until they land on the messed bed. I smile at the small white piece of paper lying on it.

  I pick it up, wondering how she had gotten it there without me seeing. I turn it over in my hand before opening it and see her pretty handwriting.

  Matty,

  Thank you for the amazing night.

  I hope you find everything you are looking for,

  because you deserve to be happy.

  Morah

  I slump down onto the bed, rereading the note several times. What had she seen in me in the short time we’d shared? I guess on some level I’ve been searching for a connection, trying to fill that void left that is still a festering sore.

  I keep most people at arm’s length and use booze and casual sex as a balm for the hurt I’m trying to purge from my soul, but I fear there will always be a part of me that will always be burnt.

  I stand and cross over to the bathroom, stripping off my clothes as I enter the shower. Setting the water pressure, I let the warm water run over me, taking away the smell of sex and Morah, no longer wanting to hold on to whatever it was she saw. I no longer want it taking up space in my head or heart. Once I finish, I leave the bathroom buck ass naked and go to my bag to grab some clothes and get dressed.

  Everyone is waiting for me in the lobby and we all head out to the waiting limo. Nothing is said as we quietly file into the seats for the ride home.

  Roman tugs on his lapel. “It would have been nice to have a little warning that we would be spending the night.” I look around the car, and they all look a little worse for wear in their dresses and tuxes from last night. I look down at my jeans, T-shirt and flip flops, then look at them all and smile.

  “I wanted it to be a surprise,” I say, shrugging my shoulders.

  “Thank you so much, Matty.” Hollis smiles, leaning over to lay her hand on my leg.

  “Yes, thank you,” Emily reiterates and smiles, with a slight blush to her cheeks. They all nod their appreciation.

  I smile at them all. “You’re all very welcome.” I rub the back of my neck, a little uncomfortable with all their gratitude.

  “So, about last night—” Dalton starts, but I hold up my hand to stop him. “No, not that part. The part where you walked down the fucking catwalk with your sleeves torn off your damn shirt.”

  I throw my head back and laugh. “Oh, that part. Well Morah asked me what my selling point was, and I couldn’t just whip my dick out, so I went with my next best asset.” I flex my arms, kissing each bicep. “I brought out the big guns.”

  “Good God, man.” Cowboy shakes his head as he leans forward to take off his jacket. He raises his arms to flex them. They’re the size of fucking tree trunks. “Now these are guns.” He lowers his arms, pointing to mine. “Those are pea shooters,” he says with a laugh.

  I look to Leo who’s laughing his ass off. “I’m not getting in on this, man. Mine are just as big as his,” he says, pointing to Cowboy.

  “Only because you two are the size of the Jolly Green Giant,” I huff, slumping back into the seat, but smiling and laughing along with everyone else.

  Leo lowers his brows at me. “I don’t think I’ve ever been called jolly.”

  “There’s no fucking doubt about that, you big ogre,” Piper blurts out, snapping her fingers. “What was it that Josie said about you at your birthday party? Oh…what was it?”

  “I said he looked constipated.” Josie stifles her laugh behind her hand.

  The ride home is filled with light conversation and insulting jabs that my brothers and I sling back and forth at each other. When I’m finally home, I fall onto my bed. It’s early afternoon, but I’m ready for sleep. Morah and I hadn’t gotten much last night with all the fucking and orgasms going on. I smile at the thought of her beautiful face as she came undone around me more than once.

  I will never get tangled up with another woman. I write the monthly check, send it to a post office box and check to make sure she cashes it, praying it’s going to what I send it for. I pull some strings and get a few surprise home visits a year. Right after that, the amount of the check goes up, ordered by the court, but I would do it anyway.

  I hate her, but in the same breath I love her, and that’s how it will always be. It wasn’t like that then. She was the one who didn’t love me enough. By the end, she fucking hated me.

  I close my eyes and push that shit out of my head and fall asleep.

  Chapter Five

  Matty Boy

  I raise my fist to knock on the door, giving it three quick raps before taking a step back. Nothing. I step up and knock three more times, but nothing. I raise my fist to knock again, right as the door is jerked open.

  “What? I mean, how can I help you?” A petite, flustered little blonde practically growls at me.

  “Hey, I’m here to pick you up,” I tell her, a little bit confused with her reaction, and even more so when I take in her attire of black yoga pants and loose hanging T-shirt.

  Her face blanches as her head darts out of the door, looking quickly to the left, and then to the right. She draws back inside the door, wrapping her arms around herself. “I think you have the wrong address.” She slams the door in my face, then I hear the locks clicking into place.

  I hold up my phone, pulling up Avery’s text message from earlier, then lean back, looking at the numbers on the side of the house. I type out a quick text to Avery, confirming the location then wait, standing on the porch with a bouquet of wildflowers dangling from my hand.

  My phone chimes with Avery’s response. I’m right, I’m where I’m supposed to be. I knock again and wait. After knocking three more times, the door is finally jerked open again.

  She has a deadly glare in her eyes aimed right at me. “Listen, I don’t know who the hell you are or why you’re here, but you’re obviously at the wrong house.” She goes to slam the door again, but this time I shove my foot between it and the frame, stopping her. I wince at the pain. She might be little, but she has force behind her slam.

  She slams my foot a few more times before I hold the door with my hand, my foot throbbing from all the abuse. “Awe, shit. My name is Matthew Keagan. You won me in a bachelor auction last weekend at the Regional Hospital’s annual charity event. Any of this sounding vaguely familiar to you?” I look at her, hoping to see
some recognition in her eyes, but I find nothing.

  She looks just as confused as I am. “What fucking auction? I don’t know anything about a damn auction. So please, just leave.”

  I hold up the flowers to her with a smile on my face. She looks at them with a hint of humor in her eyes. “Wildflowers?”

  I wink at her. “I picked them from the field behind my house, just for you.”

  She rolls her eyes at me, then realization comes over her face. She digs her phone from the waistband of her pants and begins to furiously type on the screen. “What the hell, Mom?” she says into the phone, not giving (who I’m guessing is her mother) a chance to respond. “I told you I didn’t want to date or go out or anything!”

  I take the chance to push the door off my foot and stomp it a few times, making sure she didn’t break anything. I still stand on the porch, watching her pace back and forth in the foyer as she talks on the phone. Feeling like a dumbass just standing here, I step into the house and close the door behind me. When she turns and sees me, she stops with her phone still to her ear. I hold up the flowers again, then lay them down on the table by the door. I watch as she starts pacing rapidly again, back and forth, taking in her tiny, tight body. Her tight ass is displayed perfectly in the yoga pants, and the peepshow her T-shirt is giving of her pert, hard nipples is just cruel.

  She catches me eye fucking her as she ends the call. Laying the phone beside the flowers, she sighs heavily. “Look, uh…” She looks up at me.

  I offer my hand to her. “Matthew.”

  She takes it, and I watch as my large fingers fold around her small hand. “Matthew, I think there’s been a huge misunderstanding here.”

  I can’t seem to let her hand go. “It seems that way,” I tell her, bending to the side, trying to capture her eyes with mine. “But what could it hurt?”

  Her green eyes jerk up to mine, finally. “What could what hurt?” she asks, tugging her hand free from mine and taking a step away from me.

  I shrug my shoulders. “Us, going out. It’s already paid for, might as well take advantage of it.” I see the doubt in her beautiful eyes. How in all the time I’ve lived in this town have I never come across her? I would’ve remembered if I had. In the five minutes I’ve been around her, she’s made quite the impression, and has stirred something in me that hasn’t been around for a week.

  “Like, on a date? With you?” she asks, confused, with a little hint of disgust.

  I shrug. “Yeah, with me.” I’m desperate for her to say yes. I don’t know what it is. The challenge I guess?

  “But I don’t know who the hell you are.” Oh, but baby, I have every intention of finding out who you are and what makes you scream in pleasure.

  ~~~~~~~

  Tessa

  This whole situation is madness, and I can’t even get my mind to wrap around what this God of a man standing in front of me is asking me to do.

  “But if we go out,” he talks with his hands, “we can get to know each other.” His smile is devastating, and don’t even get me started on his looks, or the fucking body he’s rocking.

  I cock my hip to the side, propping my hand on it. “And what makes you think I want to get to know you?” I have to fight against every urge I have for this man. He’s pure sin, clad in the best pair of fitted blue jeans I’m sure has ever been made. I have to chalk it up to my neglected libido. I haven’t seen any good action in years, and he looks like a pro.

  I struggle to keep my eyes on his, but they want to travel down and drink in his long, lean frame. He’s at least a foot taller than me, and I can see me wrapping my legs around his waist as he fucks me up against a wall somewhere.

  I mentally shake the thoughts from my head. I don’t need this right now, if ever. He smiles again, and for the love of God, he has dimples. “Everybody wants to get to know me.” He says it with such confidence that I’m sure it’s true. A man like Matthew Keagan could ruin a woman like me, and I’m sure he has ruined many women. But he has me intrigued, and my mother insisted I go.

  “You do realize my fifty-year-old mother bought you at a bachelor auction for me, right?” I ask, trying to make him see the strange reason that has brought him to my house this afternoon.

  He raises his hand to rub the back of his neck, and the sleeve of the dress shirt he’s wearing tightens, showing off his very toned arm. I wrap my arms around myself, fighting the feeling of being very self-conscious around this man.

  I’ve never been accused of being a knockout, but I hold my own in the looks department, meaning I clean up nice. Well, not in this oversized T-shirt and yoga pants I’m wearing now.

  “Yeah, that thought has crossed my mind, but it would be a shame to let the charity money go to waste, per say.” He looks at me and smiles again. “I have a great evening planned.”

  I have to give it to him, he’s almost irresistible, but I have to remind myself of the shit storm my life is and the situation I just left. They’re the reasons I’m living in my grandparents’ home, and why I had to completely overhaul my life. But what could just having dinner hurt? It has been a long time since anyone’s shown an interest in me, and getting attention from Matthew is a huge boost to my ego.

  Against my better judgment, I open my mouth. “Sure. Give me twenty minutes to change.” I hold my hands out to my sides and look down at my lounging attire. “There’s beer in the fridge, or wine if you prefer. Make yourself at home in the living room and I’ll be right back down.” I must be losing my damn mind. He’s a stranger for crying out loud, and I just offered him free reign to roam around my house while I take my clothes off upstairs. Yup, I’m certifiable.

  He clears his throat, stopping me on the first step, making me turn to him. “Your name, babe. I didn’t get it.” He takes a step to me, offering me his big hand again.

  I inhale deeply as the sparks shoot through my body that the simple act of shaking his hand ignites. “Oh, um…sorry. It’s Tessa.”

  He brings the back of my hand up to his lips and kisses it, then lingers a tad bit too long, turning the sparks into full-blown hormonal explosions. He gently lowers my hand and I can feel as the heat burns my cheeks. He totally caught me eye fucking him.

  His hazel eyes hold nothing but pure evil—the wicked kind. The kind that makes you scream to the heavens in pleasure. “It helps you like what you see, because I know I do, Tessa.”

  I roll my eyes at him, more frustrated with myself and the way I’m acting like a school girl whose crush just noticed her. “I better go get ready.” I climb the steps to the faint sounds of his laughter.

  I stand and look at myself in the mirror, considering if he would let me back out. I’ve made some terrible decisions in my life, but I have a feeling this is up there with some of the worst, and believe me, those are some pretty shitty ones.

  But when was the last time I actually did something for myself, something that was fun? Although my head is shifting through all the things that are wrong with this, the serious flutters in my belly tells me my body only wants the man.

  I take a deep breath and push through all the doubts. Matthew is a good looking guy. Not someone I could see wanting me, but like he said, dinner is paid for, so why the hell not? I finish off my classic little black dress look with my grandmother’s pearls. Running my fingers over the beads at my neck thinking of the eloquent lady who’d passed them down to me.

  I stand at the top of the stairs and take one more deep breath, calming my nerves. It’s been a very long time since I’ve felt the way I’m feeling right now. The jittery goodness flows through my body, making a smile spread across my lips at the thought of the man who is waiting for me in my living room.

  I peek around the bannister at the foot of the stairs to see Matthew sitting on my couch, beer in hand, waiting patiently for me to get ready for a date financed by my mother.

  I come to a stop at the entry into the living room. “Hey,” I say, getting his attention as I fidget with my hair. I had straightene
d it as best I could in the time I had. He jerks his head around to me, scooting his big body up the cushion and setting his beer on the coffee table before standing. “I’m ready,” I announce nervously, holding my hands out to my sides. He closes the distance between us, stopping just short of being in my personal space.

  “Yes, you are.” He lifts his index finger, letting it drift slowly down my cheek, stopping to gently pull my bottom lip down. He continues to glide his hand over my exposed skin, across my collarbone, then down my bare arm until he stops to take my hand in his. “Let’s get this night started.” I’m lost in his hazel eyes as I let him lead me from the house to his car.

  He moves with a predator’s ease and has the grace a man of his size shouldn’t possess. For this man to be a stranger, I feel completely at ease around him, like there’s no threat. To say I’m enamored and want to get to know Matthew Keagan better is an understatement. He places his hand on my lower back, leading me down the short walk to the driveway, where I stop in shock.

  I point to the sleek, black Mercedes sitting behind my beat-up Nissan. “Is that your car?” I ask. My eyes are wide as I take in the beautiful machine. He steps around me, reaching for the handle of the passenger door, opening for me. I run my hand along the shiny doorframe, then duck my head inside the cabin, taking a look around. Popping back up, I turn to him. “You rented this, didn’t you?”

  He rests his hand on the door and shoves his other hand down into his pocket. He lowers his head and gives me a panty melting smile. “No, doll, it’s mine.”

  “Wow.” I let him help me into the soft supple leather of the passenger side seat. “Really?”

  He sighs. “Yes, Tessa, it is,” he states, right before closing the door. What the hell could he possibly do to be able to afford a car like this? I let my hand caress the leather of the seat I’m sitting in, and my eyes take in the technology filling the dashboard. The new car smell still hangs heavy in the air, making me think he isn’t telling the truth. I smirk at him as he lowers himself into the driver’s seat.