by Jennifer Ann
“True love is a rare, precious thing, my friends. Those like Sharlo and James who are fortunate enough to find it can bring strangers together, and change the lives of everyone around them. I’d like to think everyone gathered in this room will somehow experience a positive change in their lives simply for having witnessed something so pure. No if you would please do the honor of lifting your glasses along with me, let us toast to the power of true love.”
Lifting my glass of bubbly, my eyes automatically draw across the way to where Braden watches me intently. Beneath his gaze my entire body combusts. My God, I missed that man more than I realized.
Struck with a bout of déjà vu, I’m hurtled back to the moment we were sitting in the old pickup outside the airport and he was about to confess that he’s falling for me. Was he going to add “in love?” I nearly become violently ill with the thought.
What the hell could he possibly know about loving a woman? The only time a man said those words to me, I found myself knocked up at fifteen and ultimately betrayed mere minutes after Allen came into the world. Jason wasn’t all that much younger than Braden, and he sure as hell didn’t grasp the true meaning behind those words.
Connor gently nudges my side with his elbow. “Mom, you okay?”
Although the toast is over and people are standing to mingle, I’m still holding my glass in the air. Fucking great. It won’t be long until my boys threaten to put me in an old folks’ home.
“Just trying to remember if I left the stove on,” I mumble before taking a long drink of the light, bubbly liquid. When I spot Braden heading our way, I swig down the rest of the glass, nearly choking. What the shit does he think he's doing? Does he not get that we’re surrounded by friends and family?
Allen slaps Braden’s hand as he comes around to our side. He’s handsome as ever in a gray cashmere sweater pulled taut over his defined chest, hair buzzed down on the sides, dark tan highlighting his masculine features. All the memories of touching his beautiful body and watching him pleasure himself while we were together flood back with a blinding whoosh. I nearly moan aloud.
Since Evelyn has her back turned to me and she can’t drink anyway, I swipe her untouched glass of champagne and down it in a few gulps, hoping it’ll cool my flaming face. But the glow only grows in Braden’s presence.
Connor holds out his fist when Braden settles behind us. “Hey, brother! How’s the bike treating you?”
“It’s a great chick magnet,” Braden answers, throwing a wink my way. “You look exceptionally hot tonight, Katie. Did you bring a date?”
Touching my throat, I bite down on a yelp. Has he lost his damn mind? It’s not the first time he’s flirted with me in front of my boys, but considering what we’ve been through—
“See, Mom?” Connor lightly taps my shoulder. “I told you that you should’ve brought someone. Wedding weekends are like an aphrodisiac for women. Guys like to go because they know they’re going to get laid.”
“Hell yeah,” Braden agrees with a deliciously dark chuckle.
Mercury has nothing on the heat of my face when I meet his gaze. Trapped between my son and my hot lover, I suddenly can’t breathe. Especially after Connor once heard me make a crude comment to Sharlo about Braden, and he’s been harassing me about him ever since.
“How long are you staying in New York?” Connor asks Braden. “We’re having a party in the Hamptons on Sunday night. You should totally come.”
“Not sure how long I’ll be around,” Braden answers, squatting down between us. He balances himself on the back of my chair, casually brushing his fingers over a patch of bare skin on my back. Between his touch and the enticing smell of his sharp cologne, my panties become flooded. “I’m waiting to hear back from a few colleges I applied to out here. Figured I’d take advantage of the GI bill.”
“You what?” I snap, turning to face him.
His lips spread, locking those adorable dimples into place. “Don’t feel like doing construction for the rest of my life. Turns out I’m good with disabled veterans, so I figured I’d look into becoming a physical therapist.”
I suck in a stuttering breath. I’m ecstatic that he’s taking my advice, but why in New York? “Don’t they have PT programs in California?”
“Shit, Mom,” Connor snickers, rolling his eyes. “You have a problem with the poor guy moving here?”
Braden chuckles with Connor’s comment. “I don’t have the discipline to study knowing I could be surfing instead. Besides, most of my family is out here.” My heart twists when his beautiful brown eyes pointedly lock with mine. “Figured it’d be nice to be closer to the people I love.”
Oh Lord, not this again! Will he ever give up?
As Connor’s asking him if he plans to stay in the dorms or find a place off campus, I push myself back from the table and dart to my feet. I can’t decide if the room is swaying before my eyes because I’m freaking out, or because I’m swooning.
“I have to use the restroom,” I announce without looking at either of the boys. Stumbling from the dining hall, the champagne threatens to come back up as Braden’s words continue to run through my mind. I can’t let him leave California for me!
I’m a couple of yards from the powder room when I hear, “Katie, wait up!”
Breaking into a full run, I almost twist my ankle on an ill-stepped heel, but a strong set of arms catch me.
“Don’t need you limping down the aisle tomorrow, beautiful,” Braden whispers in my ear. Lord have mercy, I missed his strong arms and the comfort of his warm chest. The temptation to sink against him and beg him to touch me is blinding, but I wiggle away instead.
“Not here.” I grab his hand and lead him past the restrooms.
Having been at this country club a few times before, I know there’s a small party room with a half bar they close off when the dining hall’s rented out. I march into the dark room, jumping with the sound of the door slamming shut behind us.
I spin around, ready to rip into him, but I’m painfully aware of his heavy breaths and hot body that’s mine for the taking, only feet away. The feeling I get whenever I’m with Braden—the aching need to be consumed, and needed, and wanted—slams into me with the force of driving a car into a brick wall.
No, Katie. You can’t want this. You can’t want him.
The only light comes from a glowing microwave clock behind the bar, but it’s enough to see the uninhibited look of hunger in his eyes. We lunge at each other in a wild blur of tangled limbs, eager mouths, and thrashing tongues. He yanks on my ponytail the way he always would in California, titling my head so his tongue can go hard and deep while slamming my back up against a wall. Completely lost in him, in the moment, I don’t protest when he unbuckles his pants before grabbing my wrist and setting my hand over the hard shaft pushing against his boxer briefs.
“This is all for you, baby,” he whispers. “That dress…you’re un-fucking-real.”
Then his mouth is back on mine and his fingers are between my legs, slipping underneath the panties I may have purchased with him in mind even though I swore this wouldn’t happen after promising myself we were done. I reach for his erection beneath the cotton, slowly spreading a dot of pre-cum over his head with my thumb while giving him slow, gentle tugs the way he likes. With a long moan, he seeks my heat out in eager strokes until the still room fills with the scent of my arousal and I’m bucking into him.
I know I should tell him to stop for all the reasons I had when I left California, but I’m unable to think straight. I can’t move, can’t seem to breathe with his caresses, especially after he removes my panties with one firm tug. My hand seems to have forgotten its only job as it falls limp, trapped in what’s probably one of his ridiculous pairs of cartoon underwear.
After his clever fingers pop a breast from my bra, his lips travel downward and he takes one in his hot mouth. I fist what I can of his short hair, trying to keep myself upright as he licks and sucks my hardened nipple, adding to the inte
nsity of his thumb working my clit.
“Brae…” I mewl, thrusting into his hand. “Oh God…don’t you dare stop.”
My body rejoices in our reunion, writhing and singing with his skilled touch until it feels as if I’ll implode. Sparks burst behind my eyes when I come with a moan louder than I’d prefer. But I’m spent, drunk on the intoxicating allure of everything that makes Braden Kendall so amazing.
His lips trail a hot path up my body before kissing me back to my senses. Then he stops, waiting until I meet his gaze. “I don’t have a condom,” he whispers.
“You don’t need one. I’m on birth control. In California I just wasn’t sure…I mean I didn’t know—”
Braden runs the pad of his thumb over my bottom lip. In the dim light I catch his lips bending with a smirk. “Shhhh, it’s okay. I know what you mean.” His pants hit the floor in a quiet sound before he maneuvers out of his underwear. Then his warm head’s pushing against my wet opening. “Do you want this, beautiful?”
“Yes please…hard and fast.” Wrapping my arms around his neck and looking into his beautiful eyes, my lungs seize, refusing to cooperate under their ferocity. “Holy shit, I can’t believe how much I’ve missed this.”
“I’ve missed you,” he says between clenched teeth.
“Brae…” I pant, grabbing his shaft. “Please.”
“Please what? I want to hear you say it.”
“Fill me with your monster cock. Stretch me out so I can’t walk straight. Fuck me senseless. Jesus, you’re so goddamned cocky. Just do it already.”
Chuckling, he nudges me up into his arms. I wrap my legs around his waist and he thrusts me against the wall with mind-numbing speed. Since my opening has apparently shrunk in the time we’ve been apart, I cry with the agonizing burn. The pain only lasts a handful of moments before my walls have stretched and I’m boarding the pleasure train, reaching behind his sweater to scratch my nails along his back.
He continues to drive into me like a man possessed, over and over, his eyes never straying from mine. The sound of our skin slapping is almost more deafening than the wild beats of my heart. So many emotions are conveyed in his gaze that I’m all at once dizzy. If I didn’t know better, I’d think he’s angry with me for leaving him in California. But I also sense the one thing I’ve been trying like hell to deny, the one thing I refuse to allow him to feel. Even if I’m starting to think I may feel it myself.
Unable to confess my feelings, or even admit they’re real, I gently hold his jaw in my hands. He finishes with a final thrust and a delicious groan, turning his head to take my fingers in his mouth. As if trained by the action, my walls clench around his jerking cock and I come right behind him, releasing my own throaty groan.
A set of sharp knocks on the door have us wordlessly jumping apart and scrambling to make ourselves decent. Oh my god, what was I thinking? What if one of his siblings finds us like this? Worse yet, Charlie?
“Is someone in here?” a woman’s voice calls through the dark. “This part of the clubhouse is closed for the evening.”
“Just needed a quiet place to nurse my baby!” I call back over my shoulder.
Braden releases a rather loud, abrupt laugh into my shoulder, but the woman seems satisfied with my answer. “Oh, sorry to interrupt,” she says, closing the door gently behind her.
“We have to get out of here before someone we know finds us,” I tell Braden as I’m gathering my torn panties.
Grinning, he snatches the lacy material from my hand and stuffs it into his pocket. “We have to talk.”
“You’re right, but not here. Too many people can walk in on us. I’ll meet you at Leona’s after the party. You can walk there from your sister’s place.”
“Damn, woman. I’ll go wherever you want so long as I get to see you again.”
Smoothing my ponytail down, I sneak back into the hallway with Braden a step behind. As we’re rounding the corner, his hands slip around my waist and he catches my earlobe with his teeth. “Did I mention how fucking hot you look tonight? I can’t wait to taste you later, beautiful.”
Body flushed, I prepare to turn and tell him to knock it off, but I’m paralyzed by the sight of my youngest son staring at us.
Chapter 11
BRADEN
Allen’s face pales with the flip of a switch. It’s so damn white that I worry the kid’s gonna pass out. Nostrils flared, his eyes dart between me and his mom. “What the fuck?”
“It’s not what it looks like,” Katie blurts with heavy despair.
My fingers dig into her waist as I’m trying to calm myself. “Don’t talk to your mother that way.”
“Are you kidding me?” he snarls. “After what you just said to her? Get your fuckin’ hands off her!”
Then he’s coming at us like a wild man. I spin Katie out of the way in time to grab Allen and pin an arm behind his back. He pants heavily, expression savage and adrenaline in high gear. He’s not too big of a kid, built more like a science geek than his stout brother, but if he had a fork in his hand, I’m sure he would gladly stab me. When I press his face against the wall, Katie pleads for me to stop, her voice choked with tears.
I take a deep breath as I lean in close to him, reminding myself this is her baby. “Calm down, Allen. I don’t want to hurt you.”
“What the hell were you doing with my mom back there?” Spittle flies out with his words. “Why’s her face all red? Why’s her hair a mess?”
Katie steps in beside me. “Settle down, Allen, and we’ll talk about this. Just you and me.”
Hand on my arm, her eyes search mine, filled with an entirely different plea than the usual fuck me, Brae. She’s sexy as hell tonight. Whenever she wears that ponytail it’s like I’m getting a preview of her youthful side. And her eyes were so wild as she fucked me in that room that I could sense how much she had missed me, how badly she wanted me to fill her.
A few minutes ago, when my mouth was on her tits, and my dick was buried inside her sweet pussy, I was ready to finally tell her that I love her. Not just her body, but the whole package. I finally understand those dopey looks Nolan gives my middle sister, the way Charlie is always in a hurry to defend my youngest sister. I’d move the earth for this woman if it were humanly possible.
I decided that if I came to New York, we’d have had a chance at a happy future. Leaving Cali wasn’t my favorite plan, but I wanted to prove to Katie that this could work between us with a few sacrifices.
Now it seems like a long shot, like there are still too many obstacles holding us back. She’ll always pick her kids over me, as she should. But what if they don’t approve of me dating their mom? Worse yet, what if Charlie or Evelyn hate the idea even more?
I loosen my grip on Allen. “Are we good?”
“Yeah,” he growls out from clenched teeth. “We’re good.”
I release him and he spins around, still ready to throw punches.
“Don’t do it, man,” I warn.
Connor comes tearing around the corner with a deeply set frown. Now that fucker scares me. I even feel my balls receding a little. It’s like seeing Charlie in one of his foul moods, usually because someone upset my sister. Intensity rolls off his tensed muscles in waves.
He glances back and forth between me and his brother. “Thought I heard Allen’s voice. What’s goin’ on back here?”
“Ask your mother,” Allen spits out. Then he glances at me over his shoulder. “Or better yet, ask that dickwad.”
“Just a little misunderstanding.” Katie says, looping her arm around Allen’s waist and smiling brightly at her oldest. “Everything’s okay.”
Choosing to ignore his mom’s reassurance, Connor turns to me, eyebrows raised like he’s ready to rumble. “Braden?”
Jesus. Does he think I hit her? Roughed her up?
The guy’s a pretty good shit. We’ve gotten to know each other pretty well since I first told him I was interested in buying his motorcycle last spring. I hate the idea of l
ying to him, especially when he once did his best to wreck his uncle’s relationship with my sister. And I don't want to upset Katie either. It’s her decision whether or not she wants to tell her kids the whole story.
I glance to Katie for guidance, but she has this artificial smile plastered on her lips that doesn’t reflect in her eyes. It really pisses me off. Maybe the time we spent together in California doesn’t mean enough to her that she’ll fight for it. Maybe she really didn’t see it as anything more than a casual fling, and tonight with just about making her feel good again. Either way I don’t give a shit, because it sure as shit meant something to me.
“What your mother does is her business,” I answer cryptically, holding my chin out and meeting Connor’s hard stare. “You’ll have to ask her.”
The situation seems to click in Connor’s head, because his scowl loosens and the corner of his mouth lifts in a knowing smirk. If we weren’t talking about his mom, I’m pretty sure he’d give me a high-five.
I let out a slow grateful sigh. Katie, on the other hand, looks ready to throttle me.
“Allen, let’s go back to the party,” Connor tells his little brother.
Still glaring my way, Allen’s upper lip curls. “And leave her alone with this perv?”
“Braden’s right. What mom does is her business. Let’s go.”
Katie pats Allen’s back and kisses his cheek. “Go ahead, bud. I’ll join you in a minute.”
Connor steps aside to let his brother storm past. He pauses a minute, meeting my gaze. “I hope you know what you’re doing, man.”
“I won’t hurt her,” I promise.
With an exasperated sigh, Katie waves him away. “I’ve got this, Connor. Keep an eye on your brother, make sure he isn’t saying anything that would ruin James and Shar’s wedding.”