by C. A. Harms
Even though I wasn’t sure if that would always be the case, in that particular moment, I felt the same exact way.
I took the initiative to reach over on the nightstand and grab a condom from the box that was tipped on its side, spilling over what was left from last night.
Even though last night I did get a chance to take the reins for a while, it wasn’t enough. Brock liked control, I knew. He liked to feel dominant in the bedroom, so I quickly gave in and let him do all types of memorable things to me.
I was so glad I did, because not once did I feel as if I wasn’t floating on cloud nine.
Did I mention that man was a god?
But today, right now, I wanted control.
Once the condom was rolled over him and I straddled his hips, I took what I wanted.
The moment he was fully seated inside of me, I winced. I was still tender from the night before, but it almost made me crave the ache.
Brock gripped my hips in his big strong hands, and even though I wanted control, in a way he still had it.
He used his hands to control my movements as he lifted me up and down, his own hips pumping upward to meet me.
Nothing had ever felt so blissful.
***
I had left Brock in bed, once again passed out after our morning encounter.
Both Romeo and Roxy were whining at the door of the guest room, and I felt horrible that they had to be cornered in there. But until they got used to Brock, it was the best solution.
Romeo could be a little territorial when it came to me, and Roxy thought my bed was hers. So the fact that Brock was now occupying both of those things you can imagine how unhappy they were.
The moment I opened the bedroom door, they both trampled me, and I stepped back to brace myself against the wall behind me.
“Hey, guys.” I patted their heads before rubbing along their backs. “You’re both okay,” I insisted, even though I felt guilt rising in my chest.
“Wanna go outside?” Their ears perked up; they took a second to look at one another before they bolted toward the back door that led out to the fenced yard they both loved.
Once they were outside, I hurried to start my Keurig before moving back out onto the deck to watch them play for a bit.
I wasn’t sure how much time had passed when I heard a soft tap on the door to my left. Within seconds of seeing Brock with his face plastered to the back window, I broke out in laughter.
He had a pouting look on his face as he looked back and forth between me and my babies.
He was obviously torn with wanting to come outside to join us but fearful for his life.
At least at this point I had finally found something he feared to tease him about. Granted, mine was a lot more ridiculous than his, and I didn’t necessarily fear babies. It was more of being lost when it came to taking care of them.
When most young teenage girls were babysitting for neighbors and friends, I was fighting each day against the depression that had taken over after the loss of Corrine and Mom.
At one point, my father even had me admitted after I attempted to end it all by taking the full bottle of my mother’s muscle relaxers she used for her back prior to her death.
No mother in her right mind would entrust a loose cannon like I was to care for her children.
I just lacked that motherly instinct, I guess.
Okay, so fine, babies terrified me in a sense.
“Can I come out, or do you think I’ll lose a limb?” I giggled when Brock spoke through a slightly ajar door.
“Not sure,” I said with a shrug, loving that he was horrified. “We can test it out.” I waved my hand. “Join me and let’s see what happens.”
“Charlie,” he said in warning, only making me laugh harder.
“Brock,” I said, in return mocking his tone.
“I thought you liked me?” he questioned with a smirk, still speaking through the small opening of the door.
“I’m still undecided.” I turned back to face the dogs, ignoring him and knowing he wouldn’t like that answer.
Isn’t it funny how you learn other people so quickly? Their triggers and the things that make them tick.
Within seconds, Brock was outside and placing his body behind mine as he straddled the bench I was sitting on.
He moved my hair to the side and began kissing along the side of my neck. ”What can I do to help you make up your mind?” he asked, speaking in a hushed whisper. “Because last night and again this morning, you acted like you liked me a lot.”
“That was lust.” Okay, so it wasn’t all lust.
“And?” he asked, still kissing along my shoulder as he held me close.
I tilted my head to the side, allowing him full access.
“And?” he asked again, still waiting for his answer.
“I may like you a little,” I said with a smile.
All at once, he stopped kissing me, reached around to take my coffee out of my hands, and brought it to his lips.
He took the biggest drink in the history of drinks before giving me back an almost empty mug.
“Hey,” I complained, and he chuckled.
I looked back over my shoulder to glare at him, but that faded fast when I saw a look of panic take over his features.
“Oh shit,” he said as he scrambled out from behind me and hurried to the door.
Both Roxy and Romeo were moving fast toward the deck, and the horrified squeal that ripped from Brock had me doubled over in laughter.
I knew I shouldn’t laugh, but honestly how could I not?
I wasn’t aware any man could actually accomplish a shriek at that decibel.
I would be laughing about this for days, and you better bet that I’d be passing along this story to the guys.
Where was a camera or cell phone when you needed one? To get that entire scene on video would have made it all the better.
Chapter Sixteen
Brock
“Woof, grrr,” were the sounds I heard every time I turned a corner at the gym for the last two days.
I had a picture of a bulldog taped to my locker yesterday; today it was a German shepherd.
The guys were eating this up.
And Charlotte was sitting back enjoying the way she finally reversed the teasing back on me.
Everyone had long forgotten about the baby jokes and moved on to barking at me each time I got within a few feet of any of them.
In my defense, though, her dogs hated me. I wasn’t sure how I would ever be able to be inside her place without them guarding me.
I liked dogs; hell, I loved dogs, as long as they weren’t any bigger than an average sized cat. Charlie lived with two very large, very dominating dogs.
I was a damn chew toy to them. When they looked at me, they saw sirloin. Juicy, dripping sirloin, or maybe a rawhide. Hell, I don’t know, I just knew they both wanted to grab a leg and start gnawing.
I was just about to leave for the day when Hanna, Kole and Lexi’s little girl, came running across the front entryway of the gym hollering out my name.
She was a sweet little girl, all dark hair and smiles.
I dropped my bag to the floor and knelt down, getting as close to her height as I could, just as she skidded to a stop less than a foot away. “What’s up, princess?”
She smiled even wider, because her daddy called her princess, and I was convinced she actually believed she was a true ruler of some far off castle.
“I have something for you,” she said in her sweet little girl voice.
I looked up to see both Kole and Adam standing only a few feet away. They were smiling with their arms crossed over their chest. Something about the gleam in their eye should have been assurance enough that they put Hanna up to something. But instead I continued to play it out.
“Really?” I asked, giving all my attention back to her.
She nodded her head as she pulled a hairy thing out from behind her back. “Daddy said you would love Marvin.”
I arched a brow at the guys, and they both smirked.
And then I jumped in reaction to the sound of a bark. I had not expected it, which only added to the entire scenario the two knuckleheads wanted to play out.
“You too, huh?” I asked Hanna as she began laughing before she spun around and rushed back to her dad’s side.
“Real funny, guys,” I said, pushing back up from the floor and once again grabbing my bag. “Real funny.”
I didn’t wait for them to say anymore but walked out to the sound of their laughter.
I had intended to call Charlie and ask if she wanted to make plans to meet for dinner, but that had changed.
I had a new plan. One that consisted of me and the nearest pet store. I was about to make friends with two of the scariest damn dogs I had ever come into contact with.
I’d spend my entire paycheck if it meant I would be able to hold Charlie in my arms without fear of death from her two canines.
***
Maybe I looked a little ridiculous.
Okay so yes, I looked completely ridiculous, but I didn’t give a shit.
I walked up to Charlie’s front door carrying not two but three bags of toys and treats for her furry friends. I may have gone way overboard.
When she opened her door and gave me the look, ya know the one, the what the fuck look, it confirmed I did in fact go way overboard.
“So is this your way of bribing my dogs?” she asked with a smirk.
I held out the bags and shrugged. “Yeah, why not? If you give them all the treats at once then they’ll stay busy for a while.” I looked over her shoulder in search of Beast One and Beast Two. “And hopefully they’ll be so happy and so full that they won’t even notice there is a guy mauling their owner.”
“Mauling, huh?” she asked with a laugh.
“Yep,” I said, leaning in until my lips were only inches from hers. “And making her scream my name.”
I then kissed her before she could throw any sass back in my direction.
It still floored me that just one kiss from her could make me feel so relaxed and carefree. It was like everything just fell into place when it came to me and Charlie. The pressure felt in a relationship, the what to dos and what not to dos, I didn’t feel them with Charlie. We were just so laid back with one another that neither of us took the time to analyze things. We acted on impulse and knew that the other would just go with the flow of it.
That feeling was amazing.
I hadn’t felt this way in, hell, I couldn’t even remember.
Charlie brought things out in me that I didn’t even know existed.
It was refreshing.
“By the way,” she whispered against my lips, “Romeo and Roxy are outside in the back yard playing.”
I swear my heart rate spiked.
“Is that your way of telling me that I can back you up to the couch and have my way with you?” I was already growing hard at the thought.
“That is my way of saying if you hurry, we could have a quickie anywhere you want, before you face the two that will decide your fate.” She hooked her fingers into the waistband of my shorts and began backing up to the couch.
Once we were within just a few feet, she released her hold on me and began undoing the buckle of her jean shorts.
“What are you waiting for?” she asked. “I told you we only had time for a quickie.”
That was all the woman had to say. I undressed at lightning speed, causing her to giggle at the urgency in my movements.
“Come on, woman,” I said as I lowered my boxers and stepped out of my last article of clothing. “Catch up.”
I was eager to get started, and she couldn’t control her laughter.
“Well, if I ever need you to move fast, I know I can use a quickie as a reward.” She lifted her tank top over her head and tossed it to the floor.
I didn’t give her a second of time before I moved toward her, and she collapsed back on to the couch.
I knelt before her and began kissing along her neck and chest, sucking her left nipple in to my mouth.
“Yes,” she whimpered, grinding her wet center against me. “Please,” she begged.
Quickie, that’s right.
I wanted to take my time, touching and tasting her, but we were pressed for time here.
I leaned back and began searching for my pants that I tossed somewhere far off in the heat of the moment.
Just as I located them and pulled the condom I was searching for from my wallet, the doorbell rang.
I looked to my right as if glaring at the door would make whomever was on the other side disappear.
We both remained perfectly still, staring at the door, wondering what would happen next.
“Charlotte,” a man’s voice called out, and I instantly looked at her with a questioning stare.
“Oh shit,” she said.
It was now her time to move at rapid speed.
“What?” I asked, still wondering who the fuck the guy was on the other side.
“My dad,” she whispered with wide eyes.
There I was, as naked as I was the day I was born, and just on the other side of that door stood her father.
He was gonna know.
The man would be able to take one look at me and know that I was about to do dirty things to his daughter.
I couldn’t hide that.
When Charlie was dressed, she smacked my shoulder. “What the hell are you doing?” she whisper-yelled. “Get dressed, goof, unless you want my dad to get the same first impression you gave me.”
Chapter Seventeen
Charlotte
My father was one of the kindest, sweetest men.
Even if he had any inclination what Brock and I were about to do just as he arrived, he wouldn’t have said a word about it.
In fact, he was ecstatic that he was finally being given the chance to meet the guy I had told him about over our last few visits.
He’d been itching to meet Brock.
My father was soft spoken.
He would give a homeless person the shirt off his back to ensure that he was warm. And I had no worry at all that he wouldn’t just love Brock.
Of course Brock still remained on edge, fearful of making a bad impression.
I shouldn’t have found it funny, but it was impossible not to. I had let Roxy and Romeo in a few minutes after my dad arrived, and Brock’s eyes about bugged out of his head.
They truly paid him no attention as they both rushed toward my dad for lovin’s. They adored my dad.
Brock looked devastated.
Again, I wanted to laugh.
When I tossed all the toys Brock had brought over for them, they instantly become curious, and within minutes both were laying in the center of a heaping amount of chew toys as they each chewed away on a rawhide.
“Charlie tells me you’re attending UNC.” My father sat down in the chair across from Brock. “What are you studying?”
I realized that was also a bit of information I didn’t know myself.
“Right now I’m leaning more toward Business,” Brock stated proudly. “I’ve always wanted to start my own restoration store.”
I was confused, because restoration could mean a variety of things.
“Restoration?” I asked, my curiosity getting the best of me.
“Have you ever seen an old neglected piece of furniture? A table for instance.” Brock leaned forward and placed his elbows on his knees. There was excitement in his eyes as my father and I both hung on his every word.
“The leg’s broken; the top is chipped up and misused.” He smiled as if the description he just gave was one of the most beautiful things he had ever seen. “I’d love to take that piece and bring it back to life. Bring back its beauty and restore it to its original form. It’s something my father has always enjoyed, and when Adam and I were younger he’d let us help.”
He smiled wide.
“My brother went more toward the art and design side of things, but me—I always wanted to get my hands right in where the action was.” He sat there silent for a moment but still wore that same bright smile.
“I figured if I want it to go anywhere besides just tinkering around inside of an old garage, I needed to learn the business side of things.” He shrugged as if the joy he just expressed was no big deal. “We’ll see how I use it after.”
“You need to use it for the exact purpose you originally set out to,” I said as a matter fact and gained attention from both Brock and my father.
“If you have a passion, something that you feel so drawn to, you need to live that. Don’t let anyone around you make you feel as if you can’t, and if they do, you prove them wrong.” My father said nothing, only sat back and observed the exchange between Brock and me.
“The way your face lit up just a few minutes ago, the excitement in your voice and in your eyes, you need to live that.” Life was too short to do something you hated every day.
“She’s right, you know,” my father added.
I turned to look at him and could tell by the look in his eyes he was feeling the same things I was. We lost two very important people in our lives when they were both so young and vibrant. They had so much love to give and so much life to live, and that was all stolen from them.
It made us think.
It made us value the little things and strive for goals we may have once allowed ourselves to believe were unattainable.
My father ended up staying for dinner, and by the end of the night, not only had he fallen for Brock, but so had Roxy and Romeo. I honestly believed Roxy thought he was hers. She wouldn’t even let me near him.
Brock looked pleased.
Cocky bastard.
But he was so adorable.
Chapter Eighteen
Brock
“What do you think she’d do if I causally handed her Luke without warning and then just walked away?” Adam whispered as he leaned in close.
We had all been invited over to Kole and Lexi’s place for Hanna’s birthday. At the mention of a kid’s party, Charlie did attempt to find a way out of it, but I refused.