Cherishing Brianna [Fate Harbor 5] (Siren Publishing Ménage Amour)

by Caitlyn O'Leary

  “He had an advantage, he didn’t have to leave early for work. Now bend down and kiss me, you’re too far up for me to reach.” He plundered and she melted. God this man could kiss. She was wearing high heels and the apartment had hardwood floors. The more he leaned in the more she felt like she was falling, and she clung harder, sure she would pull him over. She tugged away.

  “What, Brianna, why did you stop? I need more.” He grabbed her closer, and she gloried in the feel of his erection against her stomach.

  “We’ll fall.” He tipped his head back, let out a loud laugh, grabbed her ass, and plucked her up.

  “Wrap your legs around me,” he commanded, and she did. She was stunned when he walked over to the kitchen. “So what did she cook up for us, Zac?” Brianna giggled. She had seen teenagers do this, and here she was being carried around by the high school quarterback, just like she was some fourteen-year-old girl, and she was loving every minute of it.

  “Lasagna, and it looks like she made it from scratch.” She heard the oven being opened behind her.

  “Of course it’s from scratch. Mama Betty taught me how to cook.” She snuggled closer, resting her head into the crook of Charlie’s neck.

  “It smells wonderful. I didn’t eat. You had me too worked up.” Charlie adjusted their position just a little, and just like that Brianna found the panel of her pantyhose nestled against the ridge of his erect cock. She gushed cum, and panicked, she was going to leave a wet spot on his uniform. She tried to wiggle away.

  “No.” His tone brooked no argument.

  “You don’t understand,” she whispered, squirming to get down.

  “Oh yes I do. You stay right the fuck where you are. I feel your nipples like diamonds against my chest. I can smell your cunt, and feel you marking me. You’re not going anywhere. This is the sexiest thing I’ve ever experienced in my life.” She was mesmerized by the power and demand in his voice as he ground himself against her. Then Zac’s hand pushed her hair away from her neck, biting down on the tendon between her shoulder and neck, catapulting her into a powerful orgasm.

  She was trembling, and then she felt Charlie transfer her into Zac’s arms, and she was carried to the sofa. She looked up, and both men were standing over her, and she felt dizzy, fuzzy, warm, and almost protected. It was the oddest moment of her life. Light and dark angels. She felt her eyes closing and slid into that realm between sleep and awareness.

  “Why don’t you just rest for a few minutes, and we’ll get dinner onto the table, okay?”

  “S’okay.”

  * * * *

  “What does she want to talk about?”

  “What does it matter? She wants to talk.” Zac searched the fridge, unsurprised to find everything organized. She had prepped all of the Bruschetta. He also found a Caesar salad. He laughed when he realized that he had brought the exact same bottle of wine she had, Chateau St. Michelle Meritage.

  “How can you be so calm? You know she still plans to leave. We haven’t convinced her to stay.”

  “And we won’t at this point. Are you willing to make a commitment? If you’re not, how can you expect her to make one?” Zac went over to the oven and judged the lasagna to be done.

  “I’m not asking for a commitment, I’m asking for her to stay. I’m asking for her to stay with her family. They want her to stay. It’s the right thing for her.” Zac put the pan on the stove and looked at it for a moment, taking a couple of deep breaths. Charlie was absolutely unbelievable. He turned on him.

  “Are you out of your mind?” He said it mildly, quietly, not wanting to disturb Brianna. “She is a grown woman who gets to make her own decisions, and this is totally up to her. The more you push, the more likely she is to tell you to go to a long walk off a short pier.” How in the hell did he keep the peace in this town, and have no perception in dealing with women?

  “Charlie, have you ever been married?”

  “Nope.”

  “Lived with a woman?” Zac watched as the man rubbed the back of his neck.

  “It lasted for three years. We were engaged.”

  “What happened?”

  “We just drifted apart. Eventually she took a job in Portland.” Zac handed Charlie plates and silverware, and followed him to the small dining table.

  “Did she accuse you of being controlling?” Zac watched as Charlie snagged two pieces of the bruschetta he put onto the table.

  “Nah, Yvette said that if anything I worked too much and didn’t pay enough attention.” Zac laughed as he grabbed the lasagna and put it on the table.

  “What the hell are you laughing at?” Zac veered over to the sofa and saw that Brianna was asleep, but he still kept his voice down. He grabbed some of the bruschetta. God, it was to die for, their woman really could cook. “Put down the food and tell me what the hell you’re laughing at.”

  “Keep your voice down.” Zac pulled the salad out of the fridge, put it on the table, and opened one of the bottles of wine. He poured out three glasses, sat down at the table, and motioned Charlie to sit across from him.

  “Spill it, Carmichael.”

  “You just pulled the chicken shit way of breaking up with a woman. You neglected her to the point that she broke up with you. Now if you had said you had been a controlling asshole like you’re being with Brianna, then I would have said you actually cared about this Yvette, but obviously that wasn’t the case.” Zac watched as Charlie snatched another piece of bruschetta, but instead of wolfing it down, he ate it slowly, considering what he said.

  “Keep talking.”

  “In the beginning, what was it like with Yvette?”

  “We were set up on a blind date. She was great. We had mutual friends, liked the same music, hiking. Hell, she could even beat me at pool. She was a photographer. She had to be out of town so it shouldn’t have mattered that I had to work long hours sometimes, but she seemed to think that when she was in town I should make an effort to modify my schedule to be home with her.”

  “Why didn’t you?”

  “I’m not sure. It’s like I said, we drifted apart. She said she wanted me to take more of an interest in her life.” Zac couldn’t help but grin. In just five weeks, he saw Charlie acting like a steamroll his way into Brianna’s life, insisting she spend time with her family. The difference was night and day.

  “In the end, Yvette just broke the engagement.”

  “I’d say you had broken the engagement far earlier. You had actually done everything in your power to drive her away.”

  * * * *

  “How old are you?” Charlie was getting damn sick of Zac crawling around his head, when he knew he had to be at least ten years older than the limey bastard.

  “Twenty-eight, and you’re forty. You’re a lot wiser than I am on a lot of things, Charlie. I’m just better at some of the emotional things. For instance I can tell you that you care ten times more for Brianna then you ever did for this Yvette woman.”

  His neck hurt. He wanted something stronger than wine. He got up and went to the cupboards and finally hit pay dirt in the cabinet over the fridge. Tequila Añejo. He saw dust on the bottle, probably left over from two or three tenants ago. He highly doubted that Josie had stocked up, but he didn’t care. He looked around, and couldn’t find a shot glass, and finally settled for a water glass. He poured himself two fingers. It went down smooth.

  He peeked in on Brianna and saw that she was still asleep. She was curled up against the back of the couch, so he went into the bedroom and grabbed a blanket, and put it over her.

  “Do you think she’s okay? Why did she fall asleep like that?” Zac seemed more in tune to Brianna. Hell he had even figured out that she hadn’t meant anything bad by her text. Of course the bastard had extra time with her this morning. He scowled at the other man, but he just gave him a bland look.

  “I think all of this has been a lot for her. She was really worked up when we picked her up at her folks last night. Why don’t we go take a walk.” Charlie wa
tched as Zac put everything back in the fridge, and the lasagna in the oven on low. Then he went over to Brianna and gave her a kiss and whispered into her ear. She murmured something in return and then rolled over. It rubbed him the wrong way. They seemed closer somehow. They were a lot closer in age. He let himself out the door, walked down the steps, and started walking down the street, sure that Zac could catch up. He took a deep breath and was soothed by the sea air. That was just one more great benefit from having quit smoking all those years ago, that he got to enjoy the smell of the ocean. Of course, one of the downers was he couldn’t have a fucking cigarette now when he desperately needed one. Fucking Zac.

  “So the friendship is shot already, huh?”

  Goddamnit, he’d said that out loud. “Look, it wasn’t personal.” Charlie took one of the side streets toward the water.

  “I can’t imagine why I would take that personally.” Fucker sounded like he was laughing. “Charlie, do you want to know how I see things?”

  “Sure, Zac, I would love to see how you see things.” Charlie was gratified that his voice dripped as much sarcasm as it did.

  “If this triad thing works for the long run, and I’m really hoping it does. Brianna is ultimately going to take her lead from you, and to tell you the truth, so will I.” Charlie found himself stopping so suddenly he almost tripped.

  “What?” He looked at the younger man and saw nothing but sincerity. “You’re for real, aren’t you? You’d cede control? Are you out of your ever-loving mind?”

  “Answer one question for me. What do you think about your culpability in Yvette leaving? Do you think you pushed her away?” Charlie looked around. They were on a quiet sidewalk, in front of Dorothy Manalang’s house. He saw her orange tabby on the front porch. It was the only audience they had.

  “Yeah, you were exactly right. I’d never considered it before, but I had totally been looking for a way out of that engagement, and I just pushed her out the door by ignoring her. I should have recognized it and been up front. I didn’t realize what I was doing.” He intended to call her and apologize.

  “Charlie, I admire that about you. I’ve watched you protect this community for the last two years that I’ve been here. I know more than I should about how invested you were in taking care of that situation with those children who were separated from their families. And this cinches it. I bring something up, and within twenty minutes you evaluate it, and take responsibility for your actions.”

  “Zac, we can’t go into this without being equals.”

  “Oh, Brianna and I aren’t going to be subordinate, don’t think that at all. But I don’t think you could handle being in this relationship without feeling like the head of the household, and I’m just saying that Brianna and I would be okay with that.” The cat shot off the porch, scaring the shit out of him. But he wasn’t so sure it was the sudden movement of the cat, or the fact that Zac had just managed to read him better than he was able to read himself. God, the fucker was scary.

  “Now, the reason I wanted to talk to you was Brianna. She shared some stuff with me today, and I am getting a much better picture about why she is scared to commit. God, between the two of you, I’m going to grow old and alone.” Charlie noticed that the cat was now stropping herself against Zac’s legs.

  “So you do think she might end up staying here.” Would this man please make up his mind?

  “I think there are a lot of variables. But yeah, I think there are some possibilities. I still think there is something holding her back that I just can’t figure out. She just isn’t ready to share. We need to give her a safe place, and we need to be that safe place. We can’t push.” Charlie bent down to pet the cat, but it hissed at him.

  “So what did you want to tell me?”

  “Brianna opened up this morning about just how appalling her childhood had been with her parents.” Charlie braced himself. He knew that Brianna had been placed with the Hutchins, but had been reunified with her parents on multiple occasions. It had definitely pinged, but he knew Butch and Betty, and if they could have gotten a little girl out of a bad situation they would have moved heaven and earth. Nope, this was something that was all kinds of wrong, but okay according to the law of the land.

  “What happened?”

  “Her dad was a schizophrenic who often went off his meds.” There was the ping. When he was on his meds, the state would move to reunify the family, even though it was likely he would go off again.

  “How bad was it, Zac? Did she say?” Charlie watched him carefully and liked his direct gaze.

  “You know about the dog she rescued, right? How she passed out and spent the night?” Charlie nodded. “God, the night terrors she had, they were horrific. I just tried to give her comfort. Betty had warned me what to expect, thank God.” Zac turned abruptly and started heading back down the hill. Charlie stayed silent, easily matching Zac’s stride. It was clear he was agitated, and Charlie just waited.

  “This morning I finally got her to talk, and I understand her dreams.” Zac walked even faster, and they rounded a corner and crossed a street and finally they could see the Puget Sound with the moon reflecting over it.

  Zac kept walking down the hill even faster. He shoved his hands into his suit coat pocket, and hunched his shoulders. It was going to be bad.

  “We’re going to have to turn around. I don’t want her to wake up alone, Charlie.”

  “Then finish it, Zac.” Charlie used the same tone of voice he would with one of his deputies.

  And he did. He told Charlie about a little girl who was subjected to exorcisms by her father because he thought she was a demon who had been spawned by the devil. How her mother had worked hard to ensure that there was never a mark left on the girl, and developed ever more intricate types of methods to exorcise the devil, that wouldn’t put them under scrutiny when Brianna went to school. They made her drink hot sauce. Starving was okay. “Charlie, they had a freezer in the garage and they would put her in that. Apparently, they had drilled small holes, but still.” He turned and looked at Charlie, his eyes as flat and old as dirt.

  “I drove her back to Butch and Betty’s to pick up her car, and then went back to the clinic. I had to pull over two different times to throw up on the way to my house.”

  “What got her pulled from the house for the last time?”

  “It was absenteeism, and the occasional bruise from her father. She had never told how bad everything really was. That makes no sense to me, why didn’t she tell?” Charlie heard the pain in Zac’s voice, and realized that despite the empathy he so often displayed, Zac was ten years his junior, and he had never worked in public service.

  “Zac, it is rare that we can convince a child to testify against a parent who is abusing them. It is a little easier if the child is seeing someone else in the household like their mother or sibling being abused, then there is more of a chance that they will speak up. But to stand up for themselves? Against their parents? That rarely happens.” Charlie worked hard to keep his voice calm and informative, just like he was explaining something to one of his deputies. He really wanted Zac to give him more information. Had Brianna’s mom been just as culpable as her crazy-assed dad? Motherfucker! He watched as Zac assimilated what he had said.

  “Charlie, Brianna is so much more mad at her mom than her dad. Her dad was ill, but her mom not only did nothing to protect her, she participated in his psychosis.” They were at the bottom of the stairs leading to Brianna’s apartment above the bakery.

  “Still doesn’t explain why she’s not willing to stay here with the people that love her. And damn it, I know Sam knows something!” Zac gave him a wan smile.

  “Charlie, I think you’re wrong, I think this explains a great deal about why she isn’t willing to stay around the people who love her. She has a belief system that she can’t trust the people who are supposed to love her. She believes that not only will they not love her, they will betray and hurt her in unimaginable ways.”

  W
hen Charlie thought about it, as confident as Brianna was—and she was a kick-ass, confident lady—there were times she just seemed floored by small acts of kindness that any man would be thrilled to provide to such a wonderful woman. He closed his eyes. Zac was right…again. This was not just a matter of making Brianna seeing the error of her ways. There were some real, live, psychological issues that needed to be addressed before she felt safe to stay with the people here. Charlie had a deep-seated feeling that there was more to it, and he planned to hold down Sam and squeeze him for information.

  * * * *

  As soon as they walked into the apartment, it was clear that Zac had talked to Charlie. It’d had seemed like such a good idea this morning when he had asked to, but now when she saw Charlie’s expression, she wished she had told Zac no.

  “Brianna—” he started.

  “Nope. Not going to do this now.” She turned back to the oven, took out the lasagna, and put it onto the heating pad on the counter. Everything else was all set out.

  “I just want to say—”

  “Charlie! We’re having a date. We’re going to discuss this so-called relationship, but we are not going to dredge up my past. Now put this on the table.” She watched the big man as he just stood there trying to decide if now was the time to push. Meanwhile, Zac was already taking dishes to the table, grinning at her. It was obvious which man had the most sense.

  “We’re not done with this.”

  “Of course we’re not, but first we are going to have this date. You’ve already delayed my plans once tonight. I’m not allowing it twice.” She gave him her best smile, but he gave her a long hard look, and she knew that he must have seen her vulnerability, because he finally nodded in agreement. However, he didn’t start taking things over to the table, instead he came into the tiny kitchen and wrapped his arms around her, tucking her head against his chest.