Men In Control (Smith Brothers Complete Series)

by Brenda Ford

  “I… I… oh my God, Oliver, I need you right now. I can’t stand this. It’s too much for me…”

  “What is it?” I rake my fingers anxiously through my hair. “Rosie, tell me?”

  “It’s T… Tristan.” Oh, fucking hell. I’m kinda glad that it’s going to be more boyfriend drama. It’s preferable to anything worse, although I don’t like my best friend being upset. “He’s a dick. I hate him so much.”

  “Tristan? What did he do to you?” I turn to see Ellie who looks more worried than she should do.

  “I want to talk to you face to face. I need my best friend right now. I need to talk to you. I can’t stand it.”

  “Face to face?” Normally I would jump at the chance, but I don’t want to leave Ellie. “Right now?”

  “Go,” Ellie whispers, showing me the way. “She needs you. You go.”

  “Are you sure?” I mouth, hating myself for the pickle that I’m in right now.

  “Yes, go on. I will watch the movie.” She smiles reassuringly. “Rosie needs you.”

  My heart swells, she is such a good person. Honestly, so mature and great. I haven’t had a relationship that feels this way before, like such a partnership, like we are in it together all the way.

  “Okay, Rosie, you wait for me here. I won’t be long.”

  “Thank you, Oliver, that means a lot to me. I will see you soon.”

  I hang up the phone and kiss Ellie quickly before I pull some sweat pants on. I will go and see how Rosie is, hopefully pull her out of her funk and send her on her way then I’ll be back with Ellie soon. We have been through this a number of times, I’m sure it will be fine soon enough.

  “See you in a while,” I call out to Ellie as I go. “I won’t be long, I promise.”

  I bolt out the door and across the yard to Rosie’s house. She’s at the door waiting for me and as soon as she spots me, she flings her arms around my neck and sobs in to my shoulders. Instantly my top is wet, which shows me just how upset she is. This might be worse than I thought it was.

  “What happened?” I ask as she pulls me inside. “What has he done to you?”

  “I… I wanted to make it work with him, I really did. I thought that we could just get things back to where they were. I tried and we had a conversation so I thought that we were on the same page… but then I went to his for our date, which by the way we’d arranged mutually, it wasn’t like I turned up without him knowing, and he had another girl there. The same one as before. The one that he left me for. Or didn’t leave me for. I don’t know. Now it seems like he’s been with her the whole time. He’s been playing us off one another.”

  “Oh my God, are you sure?” I demand. “I will kick his ass if he’s done that to you.”

  “Oh, believe me, I kicked his ass. After everything I’ve been through… after swallowing my pride and trying to make it work, he still did this to me. He still cheated on me. I don’t understand why. Am I not good enough?”

  “Rosie, no.” I pull her to me and hug her. “Of course you’re good enough. He’s the one who isn’t.”

  “But if he wasn’t good enough for me then why was he the one who cheated? Why wasn’t it me?”

  I don’t have an answer for that because I don’t know what the hell has been going through Tristan’s head. I haven’t ever had any kind of conversation with him so I can’t judge… but I can guess.

  “Because he’s an asshole. Because he doesn’t know how good he has it. I can’t believe someone who treat you that way because you are amazing, Rosie. You deserve the world.”

  She looks up at me through watery eyes, her heart breaking clearly. I hate that I can’t take this pain away from my best friend, it isn’t right. She shouldn’t be made to feel this way because of someone else. I know that Ellie is waiting for me, but I’m also sure that she will understand and wait for me if I need to stay here for a while.

  “Tell me all about it,” I say while settling next to her. “Start from the beginning and let me know.”

  As Rosie launches in to a story, her brain clearly everywhere as she tries her hardest to get it in chronological order. I try my hardest to follow what’s she’s talking about, but I’m getting a full blown look at their relationship and it’s all complicated and convoluted. I don’t know how she manages to keep on top of it.

  Every so often, I make agreeable noises, so she knows that I’m listening, but this roller coaster is far too intense for me. Personally, I don’t think a relationship should be that way. What me and Ellie have is so simple and straight forward, so easy, we both know exactly where we stand with one another, I wouldn’t want it to be complicated and hard. That’s what Rosie should want for herself as well. Something drama free. I wish I could find a way to express that to her, but I don’t think she will hear it right now. She’s too hurt to think of new love.

  “What do I do now?” she eventually begs me for my advice. “I don’t want to lose him.”

  “You still want him? Even after all of this?” I’m shocked, shaken to the core. “Are you serious?”

  “I want him, I can’t just turn my feelings off like that. I don’t want her to have him either. I don’t want her to win. You should have seen her smug face, Oliver. She wants to keep him, she doesn’t want me anywhere near him. She knows about me. She knows that I’m with him and she’s taking him anyway.”

  “Then maybe she and Tristan deserve one another, Rosie. If they are both happy.”

  “No!” she wails. “No, that isn’t fair. They shouldn’t get to be happy and me miserable. They are the bad guys.”

  “I know that it doesn’t seem fair right now, Rosie, but you will end up happy as well, trust me.”

  She pauses, her tears slowing down a little, and she stares at me inquisitively. I can feel a million and one questions in her brain, but she doesn’t let any of them out. I probably should push for her to speak out, but I don’t. I’m a little nervous as to what she might say. With her head all over the place like this, she could say anything.

  “Let’s get you a drink,” I say instead. “Have a laugh. Forget about this. I don’t want to see any more tears.”

  “A drink, right.” She nods slowly. “Yes, I do need to forget about this, don’t I. Forget about him.”

  “Exactly, he isn’t even worth one tear, one moment of sadness. He isn’t worth any of it.”

  It will be hard for her, much more harder because he’s with someone else and not suffering for his actions, but if she just forgets about him and focuses on herself in making her own life happy, then she will be okay in the end. I have absolutely no doubt. Rosie is strong. She’s a survivor. She will be okay. We will all be around her anyway to support her. Me and my family, Ellie and her family. Rosie won’t be alone through her heartache.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Ellie

  She should have called me. The thought keeps popping into my mind over and over again. It’s hard for me to get lost in the movie when I can’t stop thinking about my poor heartbroken cousin. I know that she’s known Oliver a lot longer and they are best friends, but we’re cousins. Family. I thought we were on a better page now. I don’t know why Rosie didn’t even try to reach out to me. I have no missed calls from her at all.

  But maybe she wants to speak to Oliver because she doesn’t think that I have any experience with relationships. I do, I could offer her all kinds of advice, but she just doesn’t want to know. I just have to try my best not to be offended. I don’t want to get in to any kind of battle with her. Our weapons have been laid down, we aren’t fighting any longer, and I don’t see any reason to start that up another time around.

  “Where are you?” I mutter while hauling my ass off of Oliver’s bed to peer through the window. My home can’t be seen from here, but I’m still searching for any sign of life. Any clue that Oliver is coming back, but he isn’t. Rosie must be seriously upset if their conversation is taking this long.

  I suppose if I really wanted to, I could go home a
nd act all innocent, pretend I haven’t been at Oliver’s place and I don’t know what’s happening. That way, I could get some real insight into what I’m missing out on… but of course, I don’t do that because if Rosie wanted me there, she would have contacted me.

  With a deep sigh, I flop back on the bed and I try to focus on the movie some more. But it isn’t the same without Oliver here. I don’t really want him to miss it, so I flick it off to wait in silence. He will be back soon, I’m sure of it, and I can have my man back in my arms again. Because he is mine, I’m sure of it. We might not have had a conversation about being boyfriend and girlfriend, but this isn’t high school. We don’t need to have that chat to know we’re together. Not when we spend every moment we can with each other. I’m sure as hell not dating anyone else and I’m sure he isn’t either. We’re a couple whether we have put an official label on it or not, which is just perfect because with Oliver I am the happiest that I’ve ever been.

  My eyes flicker closed as I day dream about our future together, imagining what it will be like to have a happy ever after with this man, and it isn’t long before I feel a weariness over coming me. Maybe I should just take a nap while I wait for him to come back to me. There isn’t exactly anything else I can do to pass the time…

  “Hey, Ellie.” A soft whispering drags me from my dream, shaking me awake. “Are you okay?”

  “Oh, Oliver.” His face is angelic, like a shining light above me. “You’re back.”

  “Yes, Rosie finally went to sleep.” He collapses on the bed next to me. “She’s really shaken up.”

  “What happened?” I prop up on to my elbows to look at him intensely. “Did Tristan fuck up again?”

  “Yeah, it seems like Rosie wanted to make things up with him after another rough bout…”

  “She does?” Urgh, why? “I don’t get it. Why would she want to be with such a prick?”

  “I guess we can’t help who we fall for, can we? She must like him a lot. But as she went to meet him for a date, she found him with the woman that he left her for before… so that’s a mess.”

  Oh no, that’s just awful. For her to swallow her pride and to basically beg him to take her back, just for him to do that to her is gut wrenching. It feels really unbearable in the pit of my stomach.

  “She’s really hurt by him, obviously.” Oliver snorts angrily. “But I still don’t think she can see that she’s able to do better than him. I tried to tell her as much. There are plenty of guys out there who would want her…”

  I don’t know why, but the way that he says this brings out a spike of jealousy within me. Does he mean himself by this comment? Does he want Rosie? Is this ‘best friend’ thing all faked up and they are secretly in love with one another, leaving me as just a pawn in their stupid games? Am I about to be made a fool of?

  No, I shut that thought down as quickly as it comes. Don’t be stupid. Don’t be immature and jealous.

  Of course that isn’t the case. If they wanted one another then they would be together. That would have happened long before I came along. I’m just feeling possessive because I’m so in to Oliver and this relationship. I don’t want to lose him. But that also means that I can’t push him away with any silliness.

  “So, how did you leave it?” I ask him, needing to find out more. “Is she okay? What happened with Tristan?”

  “She fell asleep, finally. I don’t know what she thinks about Tristan, she went very up and down throughout the evening, but she’s sleeping now anyway. She can’t do anything silly while she’s asleep.”

  I’m not too sure about that. People can do all kinds of things in the middle of the night, especially if she’s been drinking. But there isn’t anything that me and Oliver can do about that, so we might as well lose ourselves in each other. Maybe we can even pick up where we left off. We were having fun before, weren’t we?

  I grab his cheeks and pull him in for a kiss, hoping that he can forget all about Rosie for a moment now, to just be with me. Thankfully, he molds in to me right away, more than happy to be back in my arms. I don’t need any reassurance or anything, that thought was just a moment of madness, but it’s nice to have it confirmed that he only wants to be with me. It’s good to feel like I won’t ever lose him.

  As we kiss, I move my hand slowly up high thigh, heading for his most sensitive area. My heart races, I can practically feel him in my hand already, and I can’t wait for that sensation again. Cleary, Oliver feels the same way because he tangles his fingers up in my hair and yanks me closer, until I’m sitting across his lap, straddling him. His bulge presses hard against my core, showing me what I’m in for soon enough. Him filling me up again.

  “Mmm, that feels nice,” Oliver groans as I massage him through his trousers. “Your hands are amazing.”

  I rub faster, loving the little sounds that vibrate in his throat. I absolutely love it when he loses himself and he becomes his most vulnerable, leaving all the power at my fingertips. That really turns me on. It’s a different side to him, one that most people really don’t get to see, and I’m so grateful to have that reserved for me. It makes me feel like I am the luckiest woman alive. This is just another reason why I don’t want to let him go ever.

  I might also be falling for him, hard and fast, but I don’t want to focus too much on that because it’s scary. Falling in love with someone so fast is terrifying. But at the same time, I kinda like it.

  Eventually, his throbbing cock becomes too much for me. The material is in the way, so I hook my fingers around the waist band of his trousers, and I slip them down, taking his boxers down too.

  It’s my turn to moan with sheer ecstasy as I hold him in my hand, stroking his thick length up and down, causing him to tense up and tremble. I push up in to a sitting position so I can watch what I’m doing to him and I can see the contortion of his face as well. He really is close to losing it, and I love that.

  “Fuck, Ellie, fuck you are…” he starts, but he quickly loses his words. “You are…”

  The needier and more vigorous his moans become, the more I can feel a deep pulsing at my core. It actually turns me on when I give him pleasure as much as when he works his magic on me. I so enjoy seeing his eyes loll back, his head fall to the side, his expression cave to the sensation. I love everything about him.

  He fixes his eyes on me as I slide down his body a little, my mouth edging towards him. I haven’t tasted him yet, I’ve been a little nervous to do so, but the time feels right. I’m so safe with Oliver, I trust him so much. I know that he will feel this way for me even if I struggle like crazy with it.

  At first, I lean my head down and I simply kiss his tip, trying to see how much he likes it. His hips buck off the bed, eager for more, which is a very good sign. So, with that encouragement, I part my mouth a little wider and I slip all of him between my lips, sliding him as far towards the back of my throat as I can.

  He’s so huge, it’s almost painful to take him in as much as I can, but I stretch my mouth wide and trace my tongue over him. I move my mouth and tongue in a way that feels the most natural, and he loves it.

  “Fuck!” he cries out, his fingers curling tightly around my shoulders. “That feels so good.”

  Under the power of his words, I work his cock enthusiastically, quickly figuring out what he likes. And he likes it a lot. Wow, he really loves it. His whole body vibrates with the need.

  “I’m going to come, Ellie,” he warns. “You’re making me lose my mind.”

  I don’t stop. If anything, I move faster, I flicker my tongue more vigorously, I want him to come in my mouth. I want to taste him, all of him, I want to feel what it’s like to experience all of him.

  “Shit.” He buckles hard, his body screaming out almost louder than the sounds coming from his chest. “Shit, Ellie. Oh my God, you are perfect. You are fucking everything to me…”

  All of a sudden, my mouth fills with his sweet salty desire. There’s so much of it that it explodes and bursts down my throat
, making sure I get a real taste… and I like it a lot. It isn’t what I expected, but because it’s a part of Oliver, it’s the most incredible taste in the world. I pull myself upwards, making sure to swallow everything else down before giving him a giant grin. He looks defeated, deflated, all because of me. I have done this to him because he is so turned on me, because he likes me as much as I like him.

  “My God, Ellie, you have no idea how good you are. At everything,” he gasps out through ragged panting breaths. “I’m so glad that you are my woman. I don’t know what I’d do without you now.”

  His woman. That’s all I have ever wanted to be. I lean into him, snuggling against him, pouring all of my feelings in to him. This is honestly the happiest that I have ever been, and I never want this to end.

  Chapter Seventeen

  Oliver

  I hold the box in my hand, checking the gift wrapping one last time, admiring the work that the lady in the jeweler’s shop did. I want tonight to be perfect and that needs to start now. I need Ellie to have the best night of her life, the best birthday ever because it’s her first one with me. If this thing between us does last forever, then having an amazing memory like this one will be awesome for both of us.

  “Right.” I then glance at my reflection in the mirror, hoping that my shirt and trousers combo works. I want to be dressed up, but I don’t want to go too far and look like I’m trying too hard. “Let’s go.”

  I feel different as I walk over to Ellie’s home to pick her up, all buzzing, full of thrill. So far, we’ve only really spent time together hanging out at my place, this will be the first time we go out together as a couple, our first real date. First dates usually make me all anxious and worked up, even when they have been with people I’ve known before the date, but with Ellie I feel comfortable and relaxed. Like I have nothing to worry about in the world. I know that she just likes me for who I am and that makes me comfortable with myself.