CHAPTER 5
COWBOY
The last place I should be right now is standing in front of Brielle’s door while shifting from foot to foot. But I can’t stop thinking about her and like hell can I stay away. Fuck, I’ve been barely hanging on to my sanity for the last few days since she bumped into me.
When Rian was gushing yesterday, telling me all about how Brielle gave her a dance lesson, something clicked inside of me.
I was worried about Brielle finding out about my daughter the moment I ran into her. And didn’t that make me a shit dad? When I saw the pain on Brielle’s face, it was like a punch to the gut. Then she got out of the room as quickly as possible.
Then she danced with my girl. Since then, I’ve had this burning need to see her.
To find out if the whispers of what once was and what could be are real. To find out if she still tastes the way she did years ago. To find out if kissing her feels like coming home.
Before I can second guess it, I knock on Brielle’s door. Loudly and with too much force.
My breathing becomes shallow as my focus becomes the door in front of me and nothing else. There’s a buzzing in my ears, which competes only with the sound of blood pumping through my veins which might as well be a roar.
When the door swings open, I’m met with Brielle’s big brown eyes filled with concern and worry. The moment she sees me, really sees me, uncertainty flashes across her face.
“Cowboy?” Her eyebrows pull together and she clears her throat as she shifts between her feet. “What are you doing here?” Panic flashes in her eyes as she tries to look around me. “Is Rian okay? Did something happen?”
I thought I loved this woman years ago when we were too young to hold onto it. And I was. But this?
Her showing concern for my girl without even really knowing her? That does it for me.
I’m in. All the way in and there’s no way my woman will be able to get rid of me this time. No fucking way.
“Everton,” my voice is a rough demand.
She blinks up at me and one side of her mouth twitches, but the worry is still stronger. “Everton,” she breathes out while her eyes flutter closed for a moment.
“Rian is fine.” I clear my throat, my voice dropping into something softer, something that has only happened when talking about my daughter…or her.
Brielle’s shoulders slump and she huffs out a small laugh. “Good, good. I was worried for a moment. I don’t know why.”
The way her eyebrows furrow in sincere confusion, as if she hasn’t allowed herself to realize how deeply my little girl has already burrowed her way into her heart, has my hands itching to reach for her. It’s nearly impossible to hold myself back.
“Maybe because she’s your first student.”
My words land between us and I barely get them past my lips before she’s shaking her head. She can deny it all she wants, but I know the truth.
“Tiny Dancer,” my words are thick as so many emotions slam into me. I still can’t believe she’s standing in front of me.
In Las Vegas.
Working at Elysium.
There’s a tease in my voice, “Are you going to invite me in?”
Her cheeks turn a light shade of pink as she looks down and moves out of my way while waving me through the doorway. Even if I’m forcing the issue a little bit, I don’t bother to make sure she’s really okay with me being in her space.
Because there’s no fucking way I’m leaving now.
Brielle lets out a gasp that goes straight to my cock as I grip her hips and then spin her until I’m able to press her against the back of her door. I cage her in with my body and push away the memories of how it once was between us.
I once knew her body better than I knew my own. Because I studied it and committed everything I learned to memory.
It was a long time ago and I want to relearn everything about her. I want to find the secret places I can touch her to make her sigh, gasp, moan, or arch her body into mine. Mapping her body again makes me feel like I’m exploring her for the first time.
As my fingers tighten on her hips, part of me is afraid she’ll disappear like smoke picked up by the wind, the familiarity between us sparks and catches fire.
“Thank you for teaching her,” my voice is rough. Even though the last person I want to talk about right now is Rian, I need to get the words out. I want her to see my appreciation, my gratitude.
“It was fun,” Brielle’s breath hitches and I watch as her eyes darken with need.
Fuck. The look she’s giving me threatens to tug me into the past. It’s fucking familiar. It feels so fucking right.
“She really likes you,” I murmur.
“I like her too,” her words are a gentle whisper.
The love I can see in the eyes of my woman has the walls I’ve spent years building around my heart crumbling. I figured out years ago that she was the only one to hold my heart anyway.
Thoughts of Brielle being mine again, or still because she never stopped being mine, has me erasing the little bit of distance between us. My body is flush against hers and I can feel the way she shudders in my arms.
“What are you doing?”
I ignore her and run the tip of my nose along her jawline. Every shallow breath she takes feels like an invitation to kiss her. But I hold myself back.
“Cowboy,” she mewls my name, the sound breathless and needy.
My jaw clenches and I growl out my displeasure. My road name became part of me years ago, but hearing Brielle use it has my body going taut and not in a good way. I fucking hate it.
“Everton,” her voice wobbles, like she’s unsure if she’s allowed to take such liberties.
“Rian told me that she shared about her egg donor and how she tried to trap me with a baby,” my words are fierce, not because I have any feelings for Shania beyond hatred, but because it’s taking a lot of fucking effort not to throw Brielle over my shoulder and take her to bed.
“It was never going to happen. I love my daughter and I don’t regret her being in my life, but there has only been one woman I’ve ever loved and it sure as fuck wasn’t that waste of air. ”
“I don’t understand why you’re telling me any of this,” her voice cracks, like hope is trying to work its way to the surface.
“I might be a biker, Tiny Dancer,” my voice is husky, “but I’m not a stupid man.
After years of me keeping track of you from a distance while hoping you’re truly happy, you’ve shown up back in my life.
Not just in my life, but in my casino with my club at your back without you even realizing it.
I can see what fate is giving me,” my words are serious and spoken with pure conviction.
Brielle’s head jerks back like I’ve slapped her and she looks up at me with wide eyes filled with wary fear. Her words are slow and measured, “What is fate giving you?”
My smile is slow and I watch as her eyes study me and take me in. “A second chance.”
She sucks in a sharp breath, and her eyes get so big they’re almost bugging out of her face. Her lips part and time slows down.
I wait, my lungs burning because I can’t even breathe. She could push me away. She could tell me we don’t know each other anymore. She could rage because I’m taking liberties I haven’t earned.
My Tiny Dancer surprises the fuck out of me by wrapping her limbs around me.
I use my grip on her hips to lift her, her hips cradling me as I press even closer to her.
When her nails dig into the nape of my neck, as if she’s afraid that I’ll pull away even though I would fucking never, a hiss escapes my lips.
One side of my woman’s mouth tips up in a smirk. And, yes, she is my woman. Always has been. Always will be.
Her grip is firm as she pulls me closer and presses her lips against mine. While I’m not proud of it, I fucking freeze. For about half a second.
And then my tongue is plunging into her mouth and I’m taking everything that has been mine since long before I understood how to truly appreciate it. Brielle. My Tiny Dancer. My fucking everything.
Kissing her feels like coming home.
I spent years searching for a place that was mine, a place where I could be free. I found it with the Steels Sinners, something I’ll be forever grateful for. But there was also something missing, something I never put into words because then I would have to acknowledge it and I couldn’t.
Because it was always her.
When she moans, I swallow down the sound and grind the hard length of my dick against the apex of her thighs. She moves her hips against mine, seeking, needing, fucking feeling.
“Wait,” she gasps and breaks the kiss, “you kept track of me from a distance?”
The chuckle that comes out of me is sinister.
I’m sure as fuck not ashamed of doing what I needed to do.
Not when she was on the other side of the country and I had the resources to keep an eye on her.
I told myself it was just in case, but the reality was that there was never any hope of me letting go of her. Or moving on.
“Of course I did,” I grunt, not sounding even a little bit sorry because I’m not. Not even a little bit.
“That’s,” she breathes out, “kind of creepy.”
I bark out a laugh while watching my woman’s face closely. She might have said the words, but she’s not creeped out. Not even a little bit.
“I’m not going to apologize for it. I never got involved, I just made sure to get reports every now and again.
Sometimes I would get a video of your performances.
Once I had the ability to do it with the connections the club provided, I couldn’t not know.
” My scowl deepens as I add, “Clearly, I should have gotten them more regularly because I hadn’t heard anything about you moving out here. ”
Brielle swallows hard and nods slowly. “Okay.”
I arch an eyebrow, my voice all challenge, “Okay?”
The way she nibbles on her bottom lip is a fucking distraction. I pull her away from her door, loving the way she tightens her hold on me, and then I’m stalking through her small apartment.