by Carrie Elks
“Are you okay?” He tore the foil, hesitating to hear her reaction.
“More than okay.” Her voice was low. Full of need.
“You want me to stop?”
She shook her head. “I never want you to stop.” Her eyes were heavy, her muscles relaxed. “I need you inside me.”
Damn, he needed that too. Like she wouldn’t ever believe. He rolled the condom on and leaned over her, his elbows resting on each side of her, caging her in. She reached for him again, her fingers circling him in tight heat, moving slowly up and down in a way that made him ache with desire. She rubbed his tip against the heat of her core, and his whole body jumped at the sensation. He slid against her, her legs widening to welcome him, her muscles relaxing to engulf his tip.
He closed his eyes, savouring the moment, before slowly pushing the rest of his way inside. She was warm and tight, squeezing at him as he entered. Her breath as short as his with the pleasure of it all. Her thighs pressed into his hips, encouraging in a rhythm they both needed to find, as her palms pressed against his ass cheeks to increase the friction. Her lips sought out his, kissing him fast and hard, her mouth vibrating with tiny moans he swallowed down. Every time he withdrew, the root of him ground against her, coaxing out her pleasure, making her tighter still. She stopped kissing him, her head falling back, her eyes squeezed shut, her nipples hard against his chest as he continued to move. Then she was coming again, pulsing around him, dragging him in until he couldn’t tell where her pleasure ended and his was beginning. He stilled, closing his own eyes, letting his orgasm crash out of him. His sighs were deep and low as he spilled his release.
When he opened his eyes, still resting on his elbows, she was staring straight at him, her green eyes wide. He inclined his head, brushing his lips across hers, unwilling to move because he didn’t want to pull himself out of her.
“That was…” She smiled, the corners of her eyes crinkling.
“It was...”
“So good.”
“Yeah.” He hadn’t quite caught his breath. Hadn’t caught ahold of his thoughts either. They were swirling around his brain, not quite making sense. And yet one thing made perfect sense – her laying beneath him, her muscles still holding him in. Brooke and Aiden, and nothing else. “It was a long time coming.” Ten years. Jesus.
“Not for me. I think you’ll find I came quickly. Twice.” She grinned. There she was again, the Brooke he remembered so well. Funny, mischievous, never afraid to tell him what she thought. “Still, we’ve got a lot of time to make up for.”
It was his turn to smile. “Give me five minutes and I’ll take you up on that.”
22
“Well you look like a woman who’s freshly…” Ember trailed off as Nick appeared next to her in the doorway, his face splitting into a smile as he spotted Brooke standing on the front step. “Fresh. I mean you look fresh.”
Brooke bit down a laugh. “Hey, Ember.” She crouched and mussed her son’s hair with her palm. “Hey bud, did you have a good time?”
“Yep. We made pizza and watched a movie. Lucas let me play on his Xbox. It was cool.”
“I made sure it was ‘R’ rated.” Ember winked, and lowered her voice. “Unlike your night.”
“Did you play Xbox, too?” Nick asked. “With Uncle Aiden?”
Brooke shook her head, sending Ember a dirty look. “No, honey. Aiden doesn’t have an Xbox, remember?”
“He likes playing though, right?” Ember was still grinning.
“Aaaand, that’s my cue to leave. Have you got your stuff ready?”
“Hey, not so fast. We made you breakfast, didn’t we, Nick? Plus Lucas needs Nick’s help in the backyard.” She winked at him.
“They’ve got table tennis out there.” Nick’s eyes were wide. “It’s so cool.”
“Toys for boys.” Ember rolled her eyes. “He’s out there waiting for you.”
As soon as Nick ran up the hallway, she turned back to look at Brooke. “Well?”
“Well what?” Why did she feel like she was walking into an ambush.
“How was your night? I noticed you only messaged me once to check on Nick, about two thousand less times than you normally do. Which makes me think you were busy. Very busy.” The two of them were walking up the hallway, toward Ember’s kitchen. “How many times were you busy?”
“Can you pour me a cup of coffee before we get into specifics?” Brooke asked her. “I seriously need a caffeine fix.”
“Yeah, you do look tired. Glowing, though. Like a woman who spent the night doing anything but sleeping.” Ember grabbed a mug from the cupboard, pouring in the dark coffee from the pot. “Seriously, you look happy. That makes me happy, too.”
“We had a nice evening.” Brooke smiled, remembering the rest of their night. Lots of cuddling and talking, not to mention great loving. She couldn’t have asked for more than that.
“So are you seeing him again?”
“Every other Saturday, when he picks up Nick.”
Ember sighed. “I mean are you seeing him again. As in a date?”
“I think so.” Brooke leaned on the countertop, her hands cupped around her coffee mug. “He got a business call first thing, and then had to rush off to work after that. He said he’d call me.”
“Oh.” Ember grimaced. “That’s, um…”
“Don’t worry. I don’t think he meant it like that.” And if he did? She was a big girl, wasn’t she? She’d coped with worse and survived.
“Come on, I need more details. How does he feel about you? How do you feel? Should we be preparing Nick to become a big brother some time soon?”
“Ember!” Brooke shook her head. “I’d expect these questions from Ally but not from you.”
Biting down a grin, Ember pulled her phone from her pocket and unlocked it with her thumb. Slowly she turned the screen around to show a message from their friend.
Remember to ask her everything. Okay?
“Well at least we can count on her,” Brooke said, raising her eyes to meet Ember’s. “Predictability is good, right?”
“And she’ll kill me if I don’t get some details. So give me something to work with. How many times?” Ember batted her eyelids and made Brooke laugh again. In the distance she could hear the rumbling of Lucas’s voice as he spoke with Nick. Way too far away to hear this conversation.
“Okay. Four. Is that enough for you?”
“The point is, was it enough for you?”
Brooke couldn’t help but laugh at Ember’s question. “Yeah. It was enough. For now.”
Aiden looked up from the report he was holding. Two thin pieces of paper – the typing double spaced. Not a whole lot of information for the amount he was paying the PI up in Northern California.
“Sorry for springing this on you over the weekend,” Mark said. He was wearing a polo shirt and chinos – the perfect lawyer-at-leisure attire. He looked as though he’d run out in the middle of a round of golf.
“I appreciate you coming to meet me,” Aiden replied, still holding the report. “Especially on the weekend. I hope I didn’t drag you away from your family.”
The lawyer shrugged. “It’s fine. I knew this couldn’t wait until Monday.”
He looked down again, his eyes scanning the typed words. “I can’t believe they gave him parole so soon. Do we know why?”
“They don’t have to give a reason. They can just grant it.” Mark shrugged. “There are no limits on his release either. Your brother’s free to come and go as he pleases.”
Aiden felt his stomach drop. Mark had called him as Brooke was leaving his place. They’d been talking about their next date when Aiden’s phone started to ring. If it had been anybody else he would have ignored it, but Mark never called unless it was important.
And yeah, this was definitely important.
“So he can come here without us knowing?”
“He can go anywhere. He’ll have a Parole Officer he’ll need to check in with regularly, but
apart from that, his time is done.”
“Shit.” Aiden shook his head. “If he comes near Brooke or Nick I’ll…” he trailed off. He’d what? He had no goddamned right to stop his brother from seeing his son. Damn, this was so messed up.
“Is there any reason he might come here?” Mark asked. “You know him better than anybody. What’s the first thing he’ll do when he gets out?”
Aiden swallowed, though his mouth was as dry as the desert. “He’ll want money. I guess he’ll look for me first. Now that Mom’s gone, I’ll be the obvious person to tap.”
“And if he doesn’t find you?”
“I’m not exactly hiding.” Aiden felt his body slump. “Fuck, I’m going to lead him straight to her, aren’t I?”
“Not if we get to him first. How do you feel about being pre-emptive? Maybe offer him a payment to leave you alone?”
Aiden leaned his chin on his hand, thinking. “Would that work?”
“It’s worth a try. If all he’s after is easy money, we can do that. I’ll ask my guy on the ground to approach him once he’s out of jail. I can even get some papers drawn up.”
“What kind of papers?”
“The kind of papers that buy his silence. We could pay him to rescind any claim on his son, if you think it might work.”
“No.” Aiden shook his head, his voice short. “He doesn’t know much about Nick, and I’d like to keep it that way. This thing should stay between him and me. I don’t want Brooke knowing anything about this.”
“So we’ll make it a geographical thing. Money in exchange for him staying away from Angel Sands. You think he’ll take it?”
“I don’t know. It’s been a long time since I was around him outside of our mom’s funeral.” Aiden sighed. “I want the whole damn thing to go away, you know?”
“I know.” Mark’s voice was sympathetic. “And if it makes you feel any better, the likelihood is he’ll be back in jail before the year’s out. In my experience, guys like him don’t stay clean for long. But in the meantime, we’ll approach him and make the offer.”
“When does he get out?” Aiden’s hands tightened around the report, his knuckles bleaching.
“In a few days. Our man will follow him from the gate. Offer to buy him lunch, show him a friendly face. And if he has the cash on him, I can’t see Jamie turning that down, can you?”
“How much are we talking about?” He knew a couple of hundred wasn’t going to cut it.
“I’ll ask him for an opinion, but I was guessing around thirty thousand. Enough to set him up for a few months. It should buy you some time if nothing else.”
Still holding the report, Aiden leaned back, a sigh escaping his lips. It wasn’t as if he was short of money. Nowadays he could lay his hands on a sum like that immediately. It didn’t make it seem any less dirty though. Like he was bribing a competitor or something.
But what choice did he have? There was no way he wanted Jamie coming anywhere near Angel Sands. The thought of him getting within breathing distance of Brooke and Nick made his blood turn cold.
Only a few hours ago she was laying in his arms, her body curled against his. He’d stared at her as the early morning light started to haze through the windows, watching her face as she slept. Her skin was soft, unlined, still so young in spite of the years they’d been apart. Maybe that’s what he liked the most – she was still the same person he’d known, yet somehow so much more.
“Okay, I’ll get the money wired over today. I want our guy all over this.” Aiden waved the report in his hand. “I need to know if my brother so much as takes a piss in a toilet that isn’t his. Every move he makes I want to know about. Doesn’t matter how much it costs.”
He was still holding the report as he walked out of the office building, heading over to his car parked alone in the lot. Like the inside of the building, the outside was deserted.
Throwing the file onto the passenger seat, he climbed into the car, pulling his phone out of his pocket to check for messages. There were the usual – overtime reports from the site foreman, a quick update from Robert about his plans to visit next week – but nothing from her. He quickly pulled up her number and pressed ‘call’.
“Hey.” Brooke answered before it had even started ringing. It made him smile.
“Hey yourself. What are you doing?”
“We’re walking into the apartment. I’m going to make Nick lunch and get some work done. How about you?”
He looked up at the tall glass office building. “I’ve been in a meeting. Going to head over to the site to check things out.”
Her voice was teasing. “You really are a workaholic, aren’t you?”
Yeah, he was. Or he used to be. But now he was less sure. Glancing in the rear view mirror, he saw the corner of his reflection. He looked like the same man, he sounded like the same man, but inside he wasn’t so sure any more.
A taste of her and he was changing. His body reacted to the memory of her, of her soft skin and warm breath, of the way she felt when he slid inside her.
“You’re working too, remember?” he replied, a smile playing at his lips. “Sounds like the pot calling the kettle black.”
“We’re two peas in a pod. Made for each other.”
He liked that. A lot. Liked hearing her saying it even more. There was something growing between them, something new and precious, and it felt like it was his job to protect it.
“So we never talked about our next date. What are you doing tomorrow?”
“I’m working at the shelter.”
“If it’s me against the animals, I know I’ll lose. How about Monday?”
He heard her sigh. “I’ll be free after ten. I’m helping Clara get everything ready for the gala next Saturday. Everything’s getting crazy at work.”
“Maybe I can help. Come in and lick envelopes or whatever the hell it is you’re doing,” Aiden suggested.
“You’d do that?” Her voice was soft.
“Of course. I want to see you.”
He heard her breathe – long and deep. “In that case, I have something else to ask you.”
This was intriguing. A smile played at his lips. “Shoot.”
“Did you want to be my plus one for the gala?”
He felt his throat go dry. “On Saturday?”
She hesitated for a second before answering him. “Yeah. It’s at the Beach Club. You don’t have to come if you don’t want to. In fact, maybe we shouldn’t. My parents are going to be there.”
“I want to come.”
“You do?” Her voice softened. “Are you sure? People will talk.”
“People always have.” Maybe this time they wouldn’t talk about him being trash like his brother. In fact, it would be his chance to show this whole town who he’d become, no thanks to them. And if he got the chance to rub his relationship with Brooke in Martin and Lillian Newton’s faces? Well that would do him fine.
“I’ll be there, Brooke. In fact, I’ll pick you up. And in the meantime, I’ll see you at the shelter Monday.”
He glanced over at the file folder in the seat next to him. The report with details of Jamie’s parole. For a moment he felt his chest tighten at the thought of Jamie, at the thought of how the Newton’s thought he was the same as his brother.
Yeah, well he wasn’t. And maybe he finally had a chance to prove it.
23
The animal shelter had descended into chaos. A cat they’d rescued the previous day was giving birth to a litter of mewling kittens, whose unexpected arrival had caused all the other animals in the shelter to be on edge. They’d spent the best part of the afternoon in surgery, helping the cat as each tiny kitten emerged. Each one had been born alive and healthy, thank God.
“Well, I need to get back to work,” Max said, when the final kitten had arrived. All five of them were now nestled against their mother, taking in her milk. He pulled his scrubs off and stuffed them into the laundry chute, before washing his hands and grabbing his batter
ed leather bag. “You did good here,” he told Brooke, looking over his shoulder at her. “I’m looking forward to you joining my team.”
“Me too.” Brooke gave him a tired smile. “If I graduate that is.”
“Of course you’re going to graduate. I gave you a good write up on your practicals, and I know your written work is good. I checked it over, remember?”
She did, and she was forever grateful. It was only a couple of months until she finished college – and until she would get an honest-to-god paycheck every few weeks. The limbo she and Nick were living in would disappear. She couldn’t wait.
The shelter director walked into the operating room, the open door letting in the wails and barks of all the animals in their pens. Clara glanced at Brooke. “You look about as beat as I feel. Let’s get on with the gala preparations and maybe we’ll be out of here before midnight.”
“That sounds like my cue to leave.” Max grimaced.
“But you’ll be there on the night, right?” Brooke asked him.
“Of course. I’ll see you there.” He pulled his jacket on and turned to Clara. “From the looks of the kittens they’re settling in nicely. They’ve all fed and their mother is keeping them warm. There’s a small one I’d like to keep my eye on, but I’ll check in with you tomorrow.”
“Of course.”
“Brooke did great. She didn’t even need me here today.” He winked at her. “You’ll be doing me out of a job soon.”
A loud rapping on the door cut through the sound of the animals and Max’s conversation. Clara frowned and glanced at the clock. “Please God don’t let it be another animal. We’ve no space left.”
“It’s okay. It’s a friend of mine. He’s offered to help with the gala preparations,” Brooke said quickly. Did she sound breathless? She felt it. The thought of seeing him again made her stomach erupt with butterflies.
She walked over to the front door and slid open the locks, turning the key to unlock the handle. “Hey,” she said, smiling as she saw him. Aiden was still in his suit – no doubt he’d come straight from the resort – and the contrast between his elegant perfection and her just-helped-a-cat-give-birth disarray couldn’t have been starker. But it was hard to be embarrassed when he was staring at her with those warm, brown eyes in a way that made her heart stutter.