Men In Control (Smith Brothers Complete Series)

by Brenda Ford

  “Oh, thank you,” I shoot back with a coy smile. He leans down and kisses me softly on the lips as if it’s the most natural thing in the world. The funny thing is it actually feels that way. “So do you.”

  He comes inside and waits in the kitchen patiently while I get all the food plated up for the pair of us. He’s leaning against the counter looking sexy as hell, causing bolts of anxiety all the way through me. I want to be cool and calm, so he doesn’t see me freaking out, but I don’t know if I’m pulling it off.

  “I love Chinese food.” He inhales deeply. “Thank you for sorting this for us.”

  “I know. You always order the same thing when we stay late and Andy orders for us.” I laugh and send a wink a wink his way. “So, I knew that I would at least be on the safe side to order all of this.”

  “You noticed?” He smiles at me. “I never knew that you were looking at me.”

  “Don’t flatter yourself. I notice everyone.” I roll my eyes. “I don’t know why, I just do.”

  Actually, I do know why. I’m an observer because I haven’t ever felt like I am on the inside, so it’s become a part of my nature. But I don’t exactly need to get in to that with Wesley. He doesn’t need to see the sadder parts of me that I prefer to keep hidden away from the rest of the world.

  “I like your place,” he comments as we take a seat. “It’s nice. I didn’t say that to you before but it’s very you.”

  “Thank you,” I giggle. “Most people don’t like it because it’s too cluttered, but I like all my stuff.” I give him a look. “But I bet your place isn’t like this at all. I bet it’s all clean and minimalistic.”

  “Actually, it isn’t,” he admits. “If I lived on my own then it would be, but I live with my brothers.”

  “Brothers multiple? I didn’t know that you had brothers. I didn’t know you had one.”

  “I have five.” he shocks me by replying. “I’m the second youngest of us all.”

  “Wow… that must have been a nightmare for your parents as you grew up. Five boys all fighting!”

  As soon as I say that I realize that it’s a mistake. His face falls which fills me with guilt. I should know not to speak about families because it can be a very complicated topic. What a fool I am.

  “Actually, my parents were killed in a car crash when I was young, which is why me and my brothers are so close. We grew up just us, with my oldest brother, Brad, taking all the responsibility.”

  “Wow… that’s…” I’m shocked to learn this about Wesley. It just proves that you don’t ever know what is going on in someone else’s life. Not that I have ever thought much about it, but now I can’t stop. I wonder how this must have affected Wesley, and the rest of his brothers too. “It’s just me and my grandma these days. Not that it’s the same thing, but I guess I kind of understand in a way.”

  He smiles at me in a really sweet way. “I bet your grandmother is an absolutely amazing woman.”

  “She is.” I nod emphatically. “She’s a tough cookie and I don’t think she likes me taking care of her, but she needs me. I need her as well though, so we help one another out.”

  “That sounds like such a sweet relationship. I can’t imagine you being sweet.”

  “Shut up.” I push him playfully. “I am sweet. You’re the one who isn’t.”

  “Well, that’s because you haven’t heard about all the sweet things that I have done for my family yet. Just you wait until I tell you about my super nice side…”

  “Oh, I can’t believe that you have a nice side, Wesley Smith. That just isn’t you.”

  Just talking about our families brings us that much closer together in a way that I wasn’t expecting. I guess that will keep on happening the more that we learn about one another. God, this could actually turn out to be something really good for the pair of us. Maybe in a strange way, we are meant to be, and we just never knew it. Wouldn’t that be odd? For all that arguing to be a sign of good things to come…

  Chapter Nine

  Wesley

  I can’t stop smiling. I feel like I have a coat hanger between my lips because I can’t stop grinning. Every time I look at Zoe, that sensation deepens. I don’t know why I have spent so longer fighting my feelings for this woman when I should have been embracing them instead. Tonight, has been incredible, I feel like I know her so much better now, and everything that I learn only brings us closer together.

  We might be very different, there is no denying that, but there are things that we share as well. Family struggles that we have been through, challenges that we have faced, the way that we view life… it bodes well for our future as parents. I really think that we might actually be able to make this work.

  “You want to go to the bedroom?” she asks while wiggling her eyebrows suggestively. “Or is one sleep over too much for you? Just know that I won’t be offended no matter what decision you make.”

  I think about Court suggesting that people saw us arrive at work together and I have to admit that the idea of making that happen again is a little overwhelming. The other staff will be looking at us more now, wanting to know how everything is going to affect us, so any little differences will be examined… but at the same time am I really going to give up a night with this amazing woman because of other people? No way.

  “Of course I’m staying.” She offers me her hand and I take it willingly. “I would love to, if you’d have me.”

  She doesn’t answer that with words. Instead, she grabs me and kisses me hard, letting me know just how much she wants me around. A groan of pleasure vibrates in her throat and shoots all the way down to my cock. I knot my fingers up in her hair and keep her right by me as the kiss deepens and our tongues massage one another.

  “You are so sexy,” I murmur as I spin her around, taking her a little closer to the bedroom. “So stunning.”

  She runs her tongue along my bottom lip and nibbles a couple of times, setting me alight all over again. Immediately, I know that I want to taste her, really taste her this time around, so I start by pulling my mouth away from hers and running it down the exposed skin of her throat. Beads of perspiration stick to my tongue, making my pulse pound. My rock hard cock strains against the material of my jeans, begging to be let free. But I can’t. Not yet. First, I want to run my lips over every single part of her body. I need to, I can’t resist.

  Her top flies off. I don’t know if it’s me shedding it or she’s peeling it off herself, but it allows me to take more of her skin between my lips. I lick and suck her collar bone, her shoulder, her chest… eventually stripping her bra off and popping her nipple in my mouth. I gasp in pleasure, my hands massage where my lips can’t reach, every part of Zoe’s body is just incredible. It’s no wonder I feel like I’m falling when I’m around her. Tumbling in to an abyss that I haven’t been in before, that I don’t know where it will lead.

  Her fingers catch up in my hair as I move my lips down over her belly and towards her trousers. Those sexy harem trousers that have always irritated me before but now have my head spinning like crazy. Every time I kiss in an erogenous zone, she tugs at my locks, which urges me lower and lower down.

  My fingers curl around her thighs as my knees hit the floor and I glance up at her. I want to make sure that this is exactly what Zoe wants before I move forwards with her. She is in absolute heaven, I can see it in her face, and of course I want to make this even better for her. So, without another moment of hesitation, I yank those trousers down with ease and admire her smooth soft skin. I inhale deeply and the smell of her sets me wild. I can’t resist for another second longer, so I peel her lace panties off as well, so I can see all of her.

  “Oh, you are beautiful,” I groan against her core, blowing my ho breath in to her. “Every part of you.”

  She shudders, trembling with need, luring me in closer to her. She’s wet, needy for me, I can see that from here, and it has me throbbing desperately. Fuck, I don’t know if I can hold back for even another second. My pul
se races as my nose presses against her soaking wet slit, nudging her thighs apart for me. Then I grab one of her legs and I toss it over my shoulder so that I can really see every inch of her.

  “Oh fuck.” My tongue flickers out of my mouth, brushing over her clit. “You are so addictive.”

  I circle it around her again and again, loving the way that her back arches and she rolls herself over me, claiming more. I want her to fuck my mouth, to get what she needs from me, I need her to crumble with bliss. So, as she soaks my lips and she glides back and forth over my tongue, I try to match her pace. I do what I can to make sure that I give her everything that she needs and more.

  “Shit, that feels so good,” she rasps, her voice gravelly with need. “It’s too much, I…”

  Just as she is about to tell me to stop because it’s getting too much for her, I yank my tongue away from her clit and plunge it in to her. I massage her insides with my rough tongue, keeping her teetering on the knife edge of desire. I know how good the moment of anticipation feels before falling over the edge, and I want to keep her there for as long as I can. When the pleasure crashes through her, I want it to be the most intense thing possible.

  “I want you,” Zoe cries out as her head tosses back. “I want you to fuck me already. Come here.”

  Taking far more of a command than I would ever expect her too, she tucks her hands under my arm pits and lifts me to my feet. My mouth connects with hers, and we kiss wildly and passionately. She tastes herself on my lips and she seems to love it. Just as much as I really like her taking control of me.

  “Lie down,” she commands. “I want you to lie down.”

  I’m not going to argue with that, so I do exactly as she commands, and I wait impatiently while she takes her sweet ass time undressing me. The sensation of her fingers all over my skin makes my cock harder and more desperate to be inside of her already. If she isn’t careful, then I’m going to explode right here. I’m already a raw fucking mess, losing my head over this woman. I don’t know how much longer I can hold it in.

  “You’re so big,” she gasps as she touches me, making me jerky violently. “God, Wesley, it’s too much.”

  “Well, you sure as hell seem to like it,” I reply cheekily with a wink. “So, will you stop teasing me already?”

  “Fine.” She swings her leg across me and straddles me. I’m not quite inside of her yet, I can just about feel her soaking wet entrance begging me to bury myself in, but we aren’t there just yet. “This okay?”

  I grab her hips hungrily. “Not enough. Not yet. I want you so badly, Zoe.”

  “Sit up,” she demands. “Sit up and then I will give you what you want.”

  I pull myself up and admire her perky round breasts right in my face. I kiss her all over, pressing my mouth wherever I can, while she finally slips herself all the way over me, her folds consuming me whole. My heart thunders so hard I fear that it might explode or break through from my chest. The tighter that her walls clamp around me, the less control I have of myself. Zoe clings to my shoulders and she thrusts, slowly at first, carefully, as if she is trying to work out how much she can handle and what she likes, but she soon picks up the pace as her body reacts in the right way. She eagerly angles herself to claim her own pleasure, and that’s the hottest thing ever. Seeing her do what she needs to, makes it impossible for me to not lose my mind. The pressure is building, the pleasure is coming for me, and the moment that the orgasm crashes through her body and her walls clamp tightly around me, I erupt like a fucking volcano, losing myself in her hot flushed body…

  Eventually, once we are both drained, we collapse next to one another panting desperately. The post orgasmic bliss swims around us, leaving in complete pleasure for just a few more moments. Sharing this moment with Zoe is lovely, as is the feeling that I want to stay. I have run away from every other woman that I’ve shared a bed with before, but Zoe is completely different. I love sticking by her side, it’s crazy.

  “Zoe, I…” I turn on my side to talk to her, to check that she is feeling the same way too, but I’m confronted by the sight of her sleeping. Not just sleeping but resting like an absolute angel. She looks even more beautiful like this, all peaceful and with no worries what so ever. I can’t stop myself from staring at her.

  Don’t move too fast, I warn myself. Don’t fall too hard too soon.

  Just because we are having a baby, doesn’t mean we can move too quickly. I can’t forget that it isn’t really that long ago that she was going to marry someone else. If that man had turned up at the altar then she would be with him, maybe carrying his baby. So, I need to really keep my feelings a little bit in check. Even if they are there, I need to do what I can to keep them to myself so that I don’t pile the pressure on.

  Zoe Portwood has been through enough. I need to make her life easier and nicer, not harder.

  But that doesn’t mean that I can’t picture a little bundle of joy in Zoe’s arms, that I can’t think about what our future might be like if we let it. It doesn’t terrify me quite so much so consider an actual future with her where we really do fall in love and we do things properly. Hey, maybe the next time she is at the other end of an altar, I will be the one waiting for her. And I will sure as hell turn up. I wouldn’t be a coward like him.

  “Me and you can do this,” I whisper as I stroke her hair too lightly to actually wake her up. “It might be the craziest thing ever for me and you to be in this place, but it’s good as well.”

  She’s a living proof that I shouldn’t judge a book by its cover, that opposites can attract, and that we can make anything work if we want to enough. Lying here with her is the happiest that I have been in a very long time. I feel at peace, like I am finally making the right decisions for my future. I don’t know if it has ever been that way before for me. It’s really good, I’m enjoying it a lot. I don’t think anything can wreck this now.

  Chapter Ten

  Zoe

  Hannah is talking about me; I can feel it. Actually, I can see it since she isn’t exactly being discrete about shooting her eyes my way. I can guess what she is saying as well. She will be over there gossiping about me and Wesley, trying to work out what is going on. Everyone has noticed the change between us now, and for it to come at a time when we are both up for the same promotion… well, it’s scandalous, I’m sure.

  Thankfully, whatever they may or may not know, whatever they might be speculating, they don’t know the truth. That me and him are having a surprise baby and that over the last week or so, we have been growing closer every single day. He really isn’t the person that he first made himself out to be, he isn’t the man who h’s as competed with me and treated me like shit for all this time, he’s a really nice good person who manages to make me feel good about myself as well. Even Grandma has noticed a difference in me. She doesn’t know what has caused it, but she is happy that I seem to be in a much better place.

  And who knows… maybe I will even take Wesley to meet her eventually if things keep on going the way that they are. I wouldn’t do that for just anyone, but it seems like he might become truly special to me. After the initial shock, he has really stepped up to become the father to be that I need. A supportive man on my arm.

  If people have figured out that we’re together, then so be it. I really don’t mind. I’m not going to go out here and tell anyone unless they ask, but I don’t mind them knowing either. This is shockingly the best thing to ever happen to me and I don’t mind who knows about it at all. Even Little Miss Gossip, Hannah.

  “Okay, everyone.” Andy’s voice grabs the attention of everyone. He isn’t a loud man, but he has this way of capturing the focus of everyone without even trying. “It’s time for the announcement. I’m sure you have all been waiting for it. Old Bill left us at the beginning of this week, so it’s time to find his replacement.”

  I knew that Andy had been interviewing external candidates all week long, but I wasn’t expecting the news to come this soon. It will be good t
hough because although me and Wesley haven’t talked about the promotion ever since that conversation we had at my desk, I can still feel the presence of it. I want it to be over and for him to get the job so that the slight tension hanging over us can go and we can get back to us.

  “Well, don’t all just sit there staring at me,” Andy laughs. “Come in to the conference room so that we can do this properly. Aren’t you all excited to find out who will be joining the board of directors?”

  Chatter bursts around the room, as we all head towards the conference room. I block out any words because I don’t want to hear any of them, especially the ones directed at me or about me. Instead I search for Wesley because I want to shoot him a congratulations smile before we even get in there. The choice is obvious to me, there aren’t any other candidates as good as he is, but as I finally find him all I see is nerves.

  I clutch on to my chest as that expression gets to me. All I want to do is throw my arms around him to tell him that everything is going to be okay, but I couldn’t even if I wanted to. I can’t get close enough to him. Everyone else seems desperate to surround him first. Me too, almost as if they want to be the first person to congratulate us and begin treating us differently because we are now in charge and in the position to do something about their behavior. Urgh, this is why being the boss wouldn’t ever suit me. I am definitely not down for that.

  Andy stands at the head of the table as the rest of us crowd around it expectantly. This feels a bit much to me, I kinda think that Andy could just tell the person that they have the job without it being a big charade, but I suppose I have to appreciate that at least he always wants to make people feel good about the job that they have done. You can’t not feel appreciated in this role, at least not by Andy.