by Holly Renee
It was the first place he took me. Brandon refused to allow me to pay for anything even though the fair was ridiculously expensive, and he bought me a second ticket at the water gun game when I lost the first round.
“That thing is rigged,” I huffed and swirled around to face him.
“Says the sore loser.” He was carrying a tiny teddy bear that he had won for me by beating some stupid high score.
“You say loser. I say that you must have known that guy.”
He laughed. “I cased this place out earlier to make sure they helped me look as good as possible.”
“I figured.” I tapped the side of my temple, and he rolled his eyes before he grabbed my hand and pressed a kiss to my knuckles.
“Ferris wheel time.” He pointed to the spinning circle of death that the workers probably put together in about three minutes flat.
“Are you sure?” I hesitated and tugged on his hand.
“Charlie Grace, you are getting your chicken shit ass on that Ferris wheel.”
“I’m not a chicken.” I pushed my elbow into his side.
“Prove it,” he dared me, and I knew that he wouldn’t drop it until I did.
“Fine.” I marched up to the man accepting tickets and handed him our tickets before I climbed into the un-sturdy seat. “Are you coming?” I looked at him expectantly.
He grinned and climbed in beside me before he pulled down the small gate that locked us in. “Ferris wheels are supposed to be romantic.” He put his arm over the back of the seat and turned into me.
“Tell that to the millions of people who have fallen to their deaths.”
“You are so full of shit.” He laughed and pulled my face close to his.
I grabbed the handle in a death grip as we started to move, but Brandon pressed his mouth against mine and ever so slowly bit down on my bottom lip.
I moaned, and he tilted my head back to get better access. His thumb traced over my jaw back and forth as he consumed my mouth and my every thought. I should have been at home freaking out over my bakery opening that was just two days away, but I was at the top of a dang Ferris wheel kissing Brandon as if I had no other worry in the world.
He made me feel like I didn’t either.
He continued to kiss me, his hands tangling in my hair, and my thighs hit the gate as I tried to get closer to him.
“That’s how people fall to their death,” he whispered against my lips before he ran his tongue over them.
“I don’t care,” I mumbled and kept kissing him. He chuckled, but I swallowed the sound. I pulled my mouth from his and kissed the stubble on his jaw before I made my way to his neck.
“Charlie,” he groaned, but I didn’t stop. I bit down on his skin that was hypnotizing me with whatever cologne he was wearing. It was addicting. The feel of him, his smell.
I tried to lift my leg again and the loud bang of the gate echoed somewhere in the back of my brain. I didn’t care. I just needed him. I ran my tongue along that small dip at the base of his neck, and he shifted in his seat.
“Charlie,” he said my name again, but I didn’t answer. “Charlie.”
“What?” I gripped my hand in his hair and brought his face back to mine. I sucked his bottom lip into my mouth.
“Ummm… Would you all like to go again?” That voice finally registered in my brain, and I finally looked up to see the attendant and another couple waiting to take our spot. I could feel the blush rising on my cheeks as I tried to straighten up, but Brandon pulled the gate to make sure it was still in place then held out two more tickets.
“Yeah.” He nuzzled his face in my neck. “We’re not done yet.”
Then the Ferris wheel took off again, and Brandon and I made out like a couple of horny teenagers who couldn’t get enough of each other.
CHAPTER 24
LOVESICK FOOL
Brandon
Charlie looked deliriously happy as we walked into my house. She had never been here before, and I was a bit nervous to have her in my place. It was a weird feeling that I wasn’t used to. I never cared before.
“So, this is the bachelor pad, huh?” She spun around my living room with a bag of cotton candy still clutched in her hand.
“I don’t know if that’s what I would call it.” I rubbed my hand down the back of my neck and threw my keys down on the kitchen table.
At that exact moment, Jughead, my golden retriever came barreling through the house from his spot in my bedroom, and he practically tackled Charlie.
“Damn it, Jughead.” I moved to pull him off of her, but Charlie fell to her knees beside him and laughed as he covered her in the most ferocious kisses.
A real guard dog.
“Hi, Jughead,” Charlie said in some sort of baby talk, and he ate that shit up like candy. He licked her face, her hands, anything he could get ahold of, and when she started to rub his belly, he fell to the ground like he hadn’t been petted in ten years. “Aren’t you the most precious thing ever?”
“He’s not precious. He’s vicious.”
“Oh yeah.” He leaped on Charlie and knocked her fully to the ground as he continued to kiss her. “He seems like a real terror.”
“Come on, Jughead.” As soon as I said his name, he sat on his hind legs but continued to stare at her as he wagged his tail.
Charlie sat up. “The dog is a nice touch. Is that how you get girls to ignore your clothes thrown around on the floor and still end up in your bed?”
She was full of shit. There may have been one pair of boxers on the floor. “I don’t know.” I leaned against the wall. “Is it working?”
She stood up off the floor and patted Jughead on the head one more time. “Yeah.” She grinned at me. “It’s a tactic that will work on me anytime.”
“Good to know.” I pushed off the wall and lifted her in my arms as she wrapped her legs around my waist.
I made my way to the bedroom, almost tripping on that damn pair of boxers, but the way Charlie was kissing me was fucking with my head.
I kicked the door closed behind me before falling onto the bed with Charlie in my arms. She sat up straddling my lap, and she pulled her shirt over her head. The bra she was wearing barely covered anything, but when I reached up to touch her, she pushed me back against the bad.
My cock went rock hard.
Watching Charlie take control like that was the sexiest thing I had ever seen in my life.
She unfastened her bra and let it fall down her arms. My gaze bounced from freckle to freckle that covered her skin. Her hips pushed down against me and she rolled them three times before she pushed her hand on my stomach and quickly stood.
Her jeans were gone just as quickly as her shirt. She kneeled in front of me at the foot of the bed, and I was barely able to prop up on my elbows to watch her. The view was enough to drop me on my ass.
She made quick work of my belt then yanked my jeans and boxers down my legs. She looked up at my cock and her tongue peeked out of her mouth to wet her lips. I groaned and leaned my head back against the bed.
Her fingernails gently ran up my thighs, and I instantly brought my gaze right back to her.
“I want to taste you first.”
She wasn’t asking permission, but either way, she would get no objections from me.
Her small hand wrapped around me, and I watched as she took her time lowering her mouth down around me. I moaned and buried my hand in her hair. Her touch was teasing, her tongue seductive, and I knew that if I didn’t get inside her soon that I was going to die.
I grasped her arms and pulled her up over my body before I rolled her onto her back. I reached over my back and pulled my t-shirt off before throwing it on the floor.
I ran my hand along the inside of her thigh, and she opened them under my touch just as I felt the wetness hit my fingers. She was so wet. So fucking wet.
I pressed my lips to her hipbone, and she lifted her hips to meet my mouth. I forced them back against the bed with my hands and contin
ued to kiss up her body.
By the time I made it to her mouth, she was a writhing mess below me. I lined myself up with her, and I ran my cock up and down her wetness as she tightened below me.
“Please, Brandon.” Her voice was a plea.
I lifted her thigh in my hand and pushed into her. Her chest raised off the bed, and she pressed it against me as I began to slowly move inside her. She was so tight around me, and I was worried that I was going to hurt her. But Charlie wasn’t having any of that. She moved against me, grinding her hips harder and harder to move me deeper inside her.
I lost control then.
Her body bucked beneath me, and I dove into her like a man starved. She kept saying my name over and over, and it fueled something inside of me that I didn’t realize I was craving.
I lifted her as I sat up on my knees and her body fit perfectly against me as she wrapped her arms around my shoulders and began to ride me.
I couldn’t get enough of her.
Her lips against mine, her hair in my hand, her breasts rubbing against my chest. She threw her head back and the sound of my name like desperation on her lips pushed me over the edge. She tightened around me, her body falling apart, and I thrust in her over and over as we both rode out our orgasms.
I didn’t want to move. I didn’t want to lose even an inch of her contact.
I had never felt like this before. I was never an asshole, but I typically wanted a woman out of my house as quickly as possible. I had never nuzzled her neck and prayed that she stayed because I wasn’t ready to let her go.
If someone had told me this would have been happening even a month ago, I would have laughed in their face. But I was here. I was clinging to her like some lovesick fool, and I didn’t see myself letting go anytime soon.
CHAPTER 25
HE NEVER IS
Charlie
The grand opening of my bakery was tomorrow, and we were out celebrating. I felt a bit lame that I was celebrating with people I had just met when I started renting the place, but I didn’t have anyone else to invite outside my parents.
They were going to be with me all day tomorrow for the opening.
Brandon raised his beer and everyone at our table joined in. “To Freckles and the grand opening of Cherry on Top.” He winked at me, and I laughed at him and the name of my bakery.
“To Freckles.”
“Cherry on Top.” The voices were already starting to slur. I looked around at our group of friends, and I couldn’t help but feel emotional. These people hadn’t even known me a little over a month ago, but here they were, celebrating me and something I had worked at for so long. I wouldn’t have wanted to be here with anyone else. Even if Staci was a bit scary and Livy was more than a bit nosy, they were becoming my best friends.
Livy hooked her arm in mine, and she smiled at me with a smile that said she maybe had already had one too many to drink. “Come to the bathroom with me.”
I nodded my head and stood with her.
Brandon squeezed my fingers as I pulled my hand out of his even though he was already mid-conversation with Parker and Mason.
We pushed our way through the crowd to get to the bathroom, and I was surprised by how many people were out at a bar on a Wednesday night. I didn’t get out enough apparently.
“Oh my gosh, I have to pee so bad.” Livy rushed into a bathroom stall, and I laughed as I fixed my hair in the mirror.
There was something about me that looked so different. I wasn’t sure if anyone else noticed, but it was perfectly clear to me. It was as if something that had been clouding my eyes before had disappeared. I looked happy. I looked…
“Do you love Brandon?” Livy hiccupped as she came out of the stall buttoning her jeans.
“What?” I tucked my hair behind my ear.
“Oh, you heard me.” She started washing her hands. “Do you love Brandon?”
“I think it’s a little early for that. Don’t you?” It was far too early. It was too early to think of such things let alone say them out loud.
“Nope,” she said dramatically and started pulling paper towels out of the dispenser. “I think that it would be easy for you to fall in love with him.” She turned and looked me over from head to toe. “You have this look about you.”
“I don’t have a look.” I crossed my arms.
“Yes. You do.” She moved so close to me that I could smell the alcohol on her breath. “It looks good on you.” She pressed her finger against my nose like I was her little sister. “Come on.”
She linked her arm back with mine, and we made our way back toward our table.
I spotted a super pretty brunette talking to Brandon as soon as he came in view. The jealousy was instant and brutal, but it was irrational. I told myself to calm down. He wasn’t doing anything wrong, and I didn’t even know who the girl was. But then Livy tensed beside me when she saw her, and she planted a fake smile on her face as she looked over at me. Whoever the girl was, I wasn’t going to like the fact that she was sitting in my spot next to him.
As soon as we made it back to the table, she stood from my chair and said something to Brandon that I couldn’t hear over the noise of the bar. She passed by me and Livy with a smile on her face, and I realized that it was the first time in my life that I had truly wanted to punch another human in the face.
She hadn’t even done anything wrong, not that I knew of at least, but the feeling happened just the same.
Brandon pulled out the seat next to him with a smile on his face. He clearly wasn’t picking up on my irrational thoughts, and I prayed it stayed that way. I didn’t need him thinking that I was some psycho jealous girlfriend who he hadn’t even officially said he was dating.
But the thoughts were overwhelming me. I had no reason to doubt him. So, I let it go. Instead, I laced my fingers in his, and I smiled as he brought my hand to his mouth and kissed it.
Then I enjoyed my friends and celebrated the fact that everything I had been working for was finally happening. It all felt too good to be true, and it shocked me that none of that seemed to matter as much as the man sitting beside me.
Everything came crashing down the moment we got up to leave. Brandon went out to pull up the car since Livy and Staci were both a bit sauced, and I couldn’t stop laughing as the two of them kept telling me stories about the guys and all the stupid decisions they had made over the years.
I made my way up to the bar to grab them both a glass of water. We were having the best time, but the two of them were going to regret their decisions in the morning when they had to be at work.
The bartender all but rolled his eyes at me when I ordered the waters, but I didn’t care. It was all I had drunk all night, and I still left a tip on the table.
“Hey.” Someone saddled up beside me at the bar, and I instantly recognized the girl as the one who had been sitting next to Brandon earlier.
“Hi,” I said hesitantly.
“Are you here with Brandon?” She didn’t sugarcoat what she was after.
“Umm.” I looked back toward the table, but neither Livy nor Staci were looking in my direction.
“Sorry.” She waved off her question. “I was just curious. He hasn’t called me in a few days so I was worried. I shouldn’t have assumed though.”
“And you are?” I turned my attention fully toward her. She was pretty. Like seriously pretty and that little seed of jealousy that I had managed to squash earlier bloomed full force.
“I’m Alicia.” She smiled at me like that was somehow supposed to make me feel better. When I didn’t say anything, she continued. “Brandon and I have been off and on for a few years now.”
He failed to mention that to me.
“Gotcha,” I answered curtly before I turned back to the bartender and grabbed the two glasses of water he set in front of me.
“So, are the two of you?” She pushed her hair behind her ear. “Are the two of you dating?”
I felt bad for her. I didn’t know if s
he was talking to me to be malicious or because she actually cared about Brandon, but either way, it made me sad.
“Not officially. No.” I was honest with her.
“He never is.” She tapped her fingers against the bar and gave me a sad smile. “I’m sorry to bother you.”
She pushed off the bar like she couldn’t believe that she had actually come over and actually said all those words to me, but I wouldn’t forget it. They were branded in my brain.
He never is.
Her words played over and over in my head until I could think of nothing else.
I set the glasses of water down in front of the girls, and I stared down at the table in front of me. I had just told myself only an hour before how irrational I was being, but Alicia came up and pushed it in my face. All my fears.
Brandon never said what he wanted out of this. Is this what he did? I couldn’t believe that Livy and Staci wouldn’t have told me if that was the case, but they were loyal to him.
“You ready?” Parker asked as he looked back through the bar where Alicia and I had just stood.
“Yeah.” I stood and grabbed my clutch.
I couldn’t do this. I couldn’t let myself go here. Not tonight. Tomorrow was the biggest day of my career, and I had already been far too distracted. I didn’t need anything else. I couldn’t take it.
I climbed into the backseat of Brandon’s car without much thought. Brandon smiled at me through the rearview mirror, and even though I knew it was strained, I returned it. He cocked his head to the side, but I avoided his gaze and looked over at Livy as she got into the seat right beside me. Staci was getting in Mason’s truck so it was unnecessary, but there was something about her being so close to me that calmed me. It was like she somehow knew that I needed her right when I did.
She leaned her head on my shoulder, and I pressed my own head against hers as I let every horrible thought I had been trying to push down raced through my mind.