Chapter Twenty-Four
Baggage
Brody
“I’m not engaged.” She glanced at her lap. “I was once. A long time ago. I broke it off.”
“What happened?”
“I walked in on my fiancé fucking one of my would-be bridesmaids. We hadn’t announced anything, so there wasn’t a lot of fallout, not publicly anyway. Privately, was another thing.”
Ohhh. “Is this the ugly breakup you mentioned at the park?”
She nodded. “His father is a Texas bigwig, and my ex didn’t take the rejection well. The more adamant I got about him leaving me alone, the more assertive he got about me being ‘the one.’” She made the air quotes. “He harassed me for a long time. Kept saying we were meant to be together. That was never going to happen, but he just wouldn’t hear the word no. He texted and called constantly, sent me outlandish gifts. He even confronted me while I was on a date. At one point, I considered leaving Dallas, but I couldn’t let him win, ya know?”
“Wait. So, he cheated on you, then harassed you.” I could feel the vein in my forehead start to rise. “Is this the one who convinced you not to go to law school?”
“Yeah.”
“Who is he? I feel the need to pay him a visit.”
She shook her head. “No, no. He’s... I have an order of protection now. He doesn’t bother me anymore, but in the beginning, my mom pushed me to forgive him. She doesn’t now, but Dick still tries to get me to patch things up. Lord knows he’d love to have a senator in his back pocket.” Her eyes met mine. “I’d never do that. Even when he tried to use money to force me. He cut me off financially after that. The only reason he left me in his will was because he has no heirs.”
Damn. That couldn’t have been fun. Her reaction to Erica and Staci made more sense now. “And you get here, and it looks a lot like I’m screwing two women not long after I slept with you.” Her fiancé, her dad. Men in Lil’s world weren’t faithful.
But I couldn’t go around paying for their mistakes. “I get it, Lily. I really do. Between your dad and your ex...but I’m not him, and I’m sure as hell not your dad. I’m not a cheater, but you treated me like one. I kinda feel like no matter what I do here, I can’t win with you. I know I have a reputation for sleeping around, but you are the only person I’ve been with or want to be with. Yet, I can’t do that if you’re always going to believe the worst of me. I am not that guy anymore, not your dad and not your ex, and it hurt me when you treated me like I was. I won’t pay for their failings, Lil.”
A little irritation bled into her voice. “I’m not an idiot, I know you’re not them. But you can’t ask me to trust blindly yet either, Shaw. My responses are conditioned a certain way and it takes time to break a pattern. I won’t lie, when they opened that door, I absolutely thought the worst, but I broke that pattern and gave you a chance to explain, and you didn’t take it. You didn’t even try.”
It was more than valid. “I should have. Some part of me knew I was screwing up, but I couldn’t see past my own hurt feelings. I didn’t want to give you any more of my heart if you weren’t going to be able to trust me. I’m sorry, darlin’.”
She sighed. “Oh my god, we’re both so screwed up. You don’t owe me an apology.”
I couldn’t help the little laugh. “True enough. Staci and Erica didn’t know I was seeing someone. When I talked to Erica this morning, she asked if I’d cleaned up my mess yet. I told her you’d been sending me straight to voicemail.”
Her focus shifted to the sofa back.
“I didn’t ask them to come see you, Lily. But I know I shouldn’t have let you leave without an explanation. Part of me wanted you to give me the benefit of the doubt and when you didn’t, I pouted. I knew it was a mistake before the elevator closed behind you.”
I wanted to reach for her, pull her to me, and without prompting, she slid under my outstretched arm.
She belongs here.
“I know I push people away, Shaw. I know it’s stupid, even dangerous sometimes, but I promise I’m trying... I’m willing to try with you, if you are, too.”
When she blinked up at me, tears rolled down her cheeks. “There’s only you.”
Sliding my hand over hers, I marveled at how tiny it felt. This brave, smart, strong woman.
She had me right then and there. Lily Costello owned my heart.
“I’m scared of all of this, Brody. I’m falling for you, and I’m afraid you’ll let me down, too, and I know I’m going to screw up at some point.” She rolled her lip between her teeth and searched my face as I wiped her tears with my thumb.
“I promise I won’t.”
Her eyes softened, but I could see the hesitance. “There’s your career to think about, too. I don’t want to put your job in jeopardy.”
Leaning in, I cupped her jaw. “Then we’ll do our best to keep it quiet until either the game, or the team, is done with me, whichever comes first.” It might be sooner than I’d like to admit. “I want to retire here.” If they didn’t push me out first. “Now more than anything because I don’t want to move away from you. So, we’ll keep this our secret. And if we’re found out, I’ll deal with it.”
When she nibbled the inside of her cheek, I brushed her forehead with a kiss. “Liliana, I’m so fucking gone for you. I knew it the moment you walked down that hall and got in the elevator. I don’t give my heart away easily—if you want it, though, it’s all yours if you’ll be careful with it.”
She met my gaze and let me see her sincerity. “Always.”
With that, I let my lips slide over hers in the softest, sweetest brush, so wrought with emotion I felt it in my soul. I had niggling questions. But I locked those away for later in favor of the warmth I felt in my chest.
Now wasn’t the time to think about Dick.
Well, actually, it was, but I had an entirely different dick in mind. One I couldn’t wait to sink into my girl.
My. Girl.
Wiggling out from under my arm, Lily’s smile turned naughty. She scooped up my brace and started putting it back on. “Just in case. I wouldn’t want to put you in the hospital or anything.”
A small groan rumbled in my chest. “Confident little thing, aren’t you?”
Pulling me up off the couch by my good arm, she led me down the hall. “No more so than you, Shaw.”
I raised an eyebrow, making her giggle. “True.”
Turning me until my knees hit the bed, she gave my sweats a tug and I kicked them off.
Lily gave me a little shove in the chest that sent my ass to the mattress.
I grinned. “Somebody likes control.”
“Have you met me?” she asked, giving me a flirty wink. Standing just out of my reach, she started working her clothes off. In a painfully slow move, Lily bent at the waist to push her shorts and panties down her legs. It was a perfect fucking view. That ass I’d fantasized about, but hadn’t seen shake as it slapped my thighs. The plump lips that peeked out from between her legs, and the curve of her inner thigh into her cheek.
Goddamn . “That is the most spectacular thing I’ve ever seen.” Little vixen.
“You can touch it, you know. I’d rather enjoy it.”
“Just waiting for permission, darlin’.”
“Oh, your mama taught you well.” Normally Lily didn’t have much accent—that was fairly common now—but she slid right into it like a pair of old boots.
“Please don’t bring up mamas.” I gripped her hip before I sank my teeth into the meaty globe. I’d wanted to do that for so long. Her high-pitched squeak was so worth the wait.
Soothing the bite with my tongue, I brought my hand around to her other cheek and swatted it with a thwack. Lily’s moan made me do it again before I dipped a finger into the lips between to circle her clit before I rimmed her entrance.
Goddamn it, I didn’t have enough hands. I wanted to lean her forward and taste her while I stroked my cock and circled her hard bud. But I only had the one hand to work with.
“Dear God, that’s nice.” Standing, she lifted her shirt over her head and popped the hooks on her bra, letting it drop. “Condoms?”
“Nightstand.”
She bit the inside of her cheek. “It’s time to have the talk, Shaw. I’ve always been safe, and I have an IUD. Do we need these?” She held up the foil packet.
She was trusting me at my word. Like the fucking Grinch, my heart swelled in my chest. “No, I don’t believe we do. Clean as a whistle here. I can count the number of times I haven’t suited up on one hand, and those were a long time ago. I’ve been tested since.”
Her dimples made an appearance. “Wanna go bare, big guy?”
“Fuck, yes. Come here.”
She stalked around the bed with the kind of confidence that suggested I was only along for the ride.
Palming my shaft, Lily’s hand made a long slow slide up and over the head while she slithered her tongue between my parted lips.
“I want you so bad, Liliana. You can’t...” My breath hitched as she cupped my balls, rolled them in her palm.
“Can’t what?” She chuckled against my mouth.
“...keep doing that.”
She was a goddess. A lovely blush crawled along her neck and cheeks. Her generous hips flared out, begging to be squeezed, her sweet tummy calling to my mouth. Lily was strength and seduction wrapped in an air of the ethereal.
Letting go of my hard-on, she slid over my outstretched legs. Mouthed my neck, my jaw, my collarbone as her soft heat slid against my hard length.
“I love the way you fit here,” she told me. “The way you nestle in against me?”
Jesus. So did I. Mouthing the base of her throat, I felt her pulse surge against my tongue. “Pieces of the same puzzle.”
Rising up, she dragged her nails through the trail of hair under my navel, making my stomach clench.
“Lily, I’m struggling here.” The look I gave her could have melted metal.
The look she returned was pure sin.
She crawled over the bed in front of me, pulling her knees under her torso and twisting her head to the side.
“Oh, damn. look at that.” I tore at the brace’s Velcro, wanting both of my hands. Her pussy was spread, and she was so fucking wet. Breathtakingly beautiful. She was fantasy come to life.
“Please be caref—” She didn’t get to finish the sentence. Instead, she gasped as I sank my tongue between her folds. The scents of jasmine and vanilla permeated the air mixed with a heady dose of her arousal. I circled my tongue lazily, exploring before I slipped a finger inside and made her moan.
I wanted to give her an orgasm before I slid my girth into her, but that’s not what she wanted. “Ohmygod, that feels good. I’m close, baby. I need you inside me when I come.”
“Say the magic word,” I teased.
“Please.”
With a final circle of my tongue, I sat up and lined myself up with her entrance. The head of my shaft sinking through all her wetness to work the tip inside as I kneaded her ass was pure bliss.
Spreading her cheeks wide, I watched as my body disappeared inside hers so damn slow.
“Christ, Lil. So pretty.” It had been a long time since I’d gone raw. Every sensation was multiplied. The heat and squeeze of her, the feel of her channel and the dampness easing my way.
Warm. Slick. So. Damn. Snug.
I pushed forward until she writhed against me, trying to get me to thrust, and a low moan erupted from her throat. When I didn’t accommodate, she took matters into her own hands and rocked back, taking me in until my thighs touched hers.
She’d moved in a steady rhythm, chasing her orgasm as the head of me dragged across that sensitive spot inside her, but the angle wasn’t right. And I needed time to play. To enjoy my view. A warning tingled at the base of my spine, reminding me I was close.
“Brody, God. I love the way you stretch me, sugar.”
“Your body grips mine. I can see your body tugging against my skin. So good.”
Her sheath flexed around me. She liked the dirty talk. So did I.
My hips began to swing in time with hers, my fingers digging into the flesh of her cheeks in a way I knew would leave bruises, but I couldn’t stop.
I started with slow thrusts in time with hers but the faster I went the less her hips moved and the louder her moans got. “Broooodeeee.”
I couldn’t help but chuckle when she drew out my name. “Like that, Liliana? Want me to make you come?”
Twisting herself, she held me suspended with her plum-colored eyes. “Jesus. That’s the sexiest thing I’ve ever seen.”
This was nothing like what I’d felt for Andra. Andra was a poor substitution, a muted shade of blue when real love was a vibrant violet hue.
I was irrevocably, undeniably in love with Lily Costello.
I swung my hips faster, the slap of my thighs against hers rocking her forward. Her ass shook with every thrust, a jiggle of skin and muscle as she stared through my soul.
“Lily, I’m close.”
“Me, too. I need...”
I knew what she needed. Angling my hips up, I hit that spot. Dragged the head of my dick across it over and over again.
“Oh, God, Shaw. Like that.” Her moans got wild and deep.
Guiding a hand around her leg, I circled my finger around her clit and her muscles went tight all over. Lily’s legs began to shake, her muscles clamping down on me with ever-increasing force.
“Fuck, Lily. Give it to me.” Pressing down on her clit, I nudged that spot inside her in unison.
She came unglued. Shattered. Her canal pulsed and shoved me over the edge in the hardest fucking orgasm of my life. Lightning rode down my spine. My cock visibly jerked alongside my heartbeat with each throb inside my girl. My. Girl.
Her mouth popped open in a little O when she felt it, too, as the last of her spasms waned. “Holy shit.”
Yeah, holy shit.
I was hers so completely, I’d never again be the same.