16. Christian
CHRISTIAN
H er body was flushed the perfect shade of pink. Rounded breasts bounced as she lay back against the bed, gasping for breath as she came down from her high.
I knew she had been all worked up when we were out riding.
Honestly, if I went through all the shit she had in the last few weeks, I’d need more than an orgasm to deal with the stress. That was why I had left her alone.
I came back to the house to make sure she was alright. Walking in on her sprawled out across the bed while she played with herself was pure chance.
But damn, I wasn’t complaining.
“Well?” she snapped as she flopped her head back on the pillow. “Make yourself useful.”
Oh, so she wanted to be sassy with me.
Not fucking today.
I gripped the doorframe so hard I thought it would splinter in two. I gritted my teeth. “Cassandra?”
Her eyes went wide. “Yes?” It was barely a whisper.
I didn’t look at that hideous diamond ring. I looked at her. “Get that goddamn ring out of my house.”
And with that, I turned and stomped out the door.
I was a goddamn idiot.
Sweat beaded down my neck as I wedged the crowbar behind the cabinets and waited for the crack. Dust danced off every surface I touched. As the old, dry-rotted wood fell off the wall, I sneezed, stumbling back and nearly catching Mickey with the crowbar.
“Shit—”
I dropped the crowbar and grabbed onto the countertop, but it cracked and crumbled. I landed on my ass as a hailstorm of dust and debris rained down on me. I coughed, trying to get the asbestos out of my lungs.
I probably should have been wearing a respirator, but going without one was just another idiotic choice I had made today—right after walking away from Cassandra.
Make yourself useful.
She made it pretty damn clear I was welcome to join her. So why didn’t I?
Well, I was filthy for one.
I had shit to get done before the kids got home.
I had just stopped by to make sure she made it back alright, though I already knew she had after watching the fit she pitched in the barn from a distance.
The way I saw it, Cass was a lot.
I didn’t mind that. In fact, I liked it. But not everyone could tolerate it. CJ hadn’t been put off by her and responded to her just fine, so I didn’t step in.
So why did I step in when she was playing with her body?
The devil inside me won this afternoon.
I rested my elbows on my knees as I resigned to sitting on the floor.
If Cassandra was going to be here any longer, things were going to be weird if we were under the same roof.
I had only meant to walk through the cabin to make a list of what needed to be taken care of to make it habitable.
Honestly, I would have bulldozed it, but the bones were good. It just needed work.
A lot of work that I didn’t have the time or energy for.
The walk through turned into hauling all the old furniture out for the boys to pick up as I thought about the way her chin tipped up and the tendons of her neck stretched tight as she chased that orgasm.
That turned into me grabbing the crowbar to take a whack at the ramshackle cabinets while I pictured those long legs tipping open to give me a peek at her pretty pussy over and over again.
Blood trickled from the side of my thumb where I had hit the countertop. A shard of wood stuck out of my skin. I hissed as I pulled it out and used my shirt to wipe the blood off.
“Give up already?”
I looked over my shoulder and found Nate lingering in the doorway.
“Shouldn’t you be on baby watch?” I asked as I pushed off the floor and wiped my dust-covered palms on my jeans.
He lifted a radio. “She kicked me out of the house.”
I chuckled. “Yeah, Gretchen got like that when she was pregnant with Gracie.”
Nate leaned on the doorframe, then quickly stood straight when it cracked. “What’d you do?”
“Took Bree to work with me and made sure there were peanut butter cups in the freezer at all times.”
“You still miss her?”
I sighed and looked down at my hands. I had stopped wearing my ring somewhere around two years after Gretchen had passed. Bree told me it made her sad to see it, so I put it away in the box where I kept Gretchen’s wedding band and engagement ring. Someday I’d pass them on to the girls.
I nodded. “She was my best friend. I think it’d hurt more if I didn’t have the girls. I get to see all her goodness in them.”
He nodded, looking around as he rubbed the scar tissue on his arm. “How has it been with Cassandra under your roof?”
I pitched the crowbar onto what was left of the countertop. “Fine.”
Nathan scoffed. “Try again.”
“It’s fine,” I said defensively. “She mostly keeps to herself.”
“Right,” he said as he eyed me suspiciously. “Keeps to herself until midnight when you two go on a casual horseback ride?”
I pinched the bridge of my nose. “It wasn’t midnight.”
“For you it was.”
“Shouldn’t you be getting sleep now while you can?”
He laughed. “You think a woman that’s in her third trimester can sleep?”
He had a point.
“Becks just so happened to look out the kitchen window and saw you two out there. She wanted to cash in on the little bet we made, but I said you hadn’t slept with her yet.”
I swore under my breath. “I’m not hooking up with her.”
Not that I didn’t want to.
He held his hands up in surrender. “I’m not making accusations or saying you didn’t love Gretch?—”
“It’s been a decade. I’ve… been with other women. It’s fine.”
“I know.” He rubbed at the scar tissue again. “How do the girls like her?”
I chuckled. “The other night Gracie told me that Cass looks like a real-life Barbie doll. Bree looks at her like she’s an angel. Pretty sure if you ask them what they want to be when they grow up, they’ll say they wanted to be publicists.”
“You trust her around them?”
“I don’t think Becks would have recommended her if she wasn’t someone I could trust.”
Nate nodded.
I crossed my arms. “What are you trying to get at?”
“Just asking questions.” His voice was as innocent as a baby lamb, but it was bullshit.
I laughed as I turned and left the mess of dilapidated wood for another day. “Just asking questions my ass.”
“I’m just trying to catch up with my brother.”
“Sorry. No time for a tea party. Not all of us can retire at forty.”
Nate followed me out. “Retired from the Army, dipshit. Not life. Once Becks’s maternity leave is over, we’ll be traveling again.”
“Good,” I clipped with a smirk. “So when your baby is born I can start counting down the days until I can leave my house without you nosey Nellies watching my every move.”
“Be straight with me,” he said as he leaned against his truck. “Is something going on with Cassandra?”
I evaded the question. “Why would you ask that?”
“You keep her close. She hides out at your house. You’re the only person she talks to.”
I sighed as I stared out at the horizon. “She’s having a time of it.”
“What do you mean?”
“Her fiancé was cheating on her.”
Nate swore under his breath. “Becks hates that guy. Always has.”
“With the client that got her fired from her job,” I added.
Nate laughed at the sky. “Where does Cass want him buried? In the east pasture or the west?”
For some reason, I liked that he was willing to commit a casual felony for Cassandra. I liked her being seen as one of ours.
As mine.
But I didn’t say that out loud. “I think whatever she’s got up her sleeve for the ranch will be good. She’s just using the isolation as an excuse to lick her wounds.”
He lifted an eyebrow. “That’s very magnanimous of you. You hate change.”
I shrugged. “Change is like the sunrise. It happens whether you want it to or not.”
Nate combed his fingers through his growing beard. “Then maybe you should change your ‘ no bringing women home while your girls are there’ rule.”
I laughed. “It will take an act of God for me to change my mind about that.”
“Yes, my queen!”
I yanked open the screen door to the sound of giggling girls. Dirt coated my palms, leaving a smear on the edge of the door handle.
Gracie was running back up the stairs while Bree was darting down to the living room.
My eyes widened as I looked around the wreckage that was pre-teen clothes, shoes, and accessories. “What in the?—”
“Hi, Daddy!” Bree beamed as she did a twirl at the bottom of the steps.
I found Cassandra sitting prim and proper in my armchair, looking rather regal with a plastic tiara on top of pearl-blonde hair.
“I’m in hell,” she said with a morose deadpan before picking up the matching plastic wand and pointing it at Bree. “No.”
Bree huffed. “You said that about the last outfit too.”
Cassandra tapped her on the head with the wand. “Because you’re wearing five of the loudest things in your closet.”
“But Braxton likes girls who wear loud clothes.”
Cassandra rolled her eyes. “First, any kid with an X in their name is a walking red flag. Just spell it the normal way.” In a mutter she added, “Same goes for men named after accidents. Like Tripp.” Refocusing, Cassandra waved the wand in the general direction of the bright pink shirt Bree had layered with a lime-green tank top.
“And second, boys don’t notice clothes. You dress up for yourself first and your girls second.
Boys notice how you feel in your clothes.
It probably seems like he likes girls who wear loud clothes when he really just likes girls who are confident in who they are.
” She flicked the wand, dismissing Bree. “Go do better.”
“Yes, my queen,” Bree blurted out, then dashed past me to go back up the stairs.
Part of me wanted to walk into the kitchen and start dinner like this Twilight Zone nightmare wasn’t happening. The other part of me was curious.
Instead of pulling out the ingredients for barbecue chicken, I sauntered over and fixed the tiara that was sliding off her head. “Wanna explain to me why my children are calling you ‘my queen’?”
Cassandra smirked. “I’m not big on the ‘ma’am’ thing. It makes me sound old. So I told them to rebrand. “My queen” was their idea, and I don’t hate it.”