26. Chapter Twenty-Six
Chapter Twenty-Six
B rooke was just finishing up the last of the three romance bookcases in the bookstore when a wave of excitement overtook her. The upcoming opening loomed, and she couldn’t wait. Butterflies swarmed her belly. She really wanted this to be successful. A new start for the new her. And she had Cody and her mom to thank for overseeing everything while she was away at school and when she returned home, broken and lost.
She wasn’t completely healed. Her body was mostly there, but her heart and mind still needed time. And that was okay. She’d get there. She wanted to make her dreams come true. And she had the support she needed from her doctors, friends, her mom, and especially Cody.
She shelved the last of the books, sat back, and grinned. Done. Ready.
The light, happy feeling disappeared when she heard someone at the door and froze.
Keys jangling, the lock turning. The door opening. The lock turned once again, sealing her inside with whoever had come in.
She held her breath, listening for another sound. Anything to tell her who it was. She wanted to call out, but couldn’t find the breath.
“Brooke, honey, where are you?” Cody called out to her.
She let out a relieved sigh and clasped her trembling hands together in front of her. She didn’t want Cody to see her like this. “I’m here.” She calmed herself with steadying breath, walked around the long double-sided bookcase, and found Cody standing just inside the door, dressed in a black suit with a dark gray shirt and turquoise tie that made his blue eyes stand out beneath his golden hair. The suit fit him to perfection. Though he was starting to look a bit uncomfortable with the bulge thickening along the front of his slacks.
“You’re so beautiful.”
She smiled. It came easier these days. Especially when she was with him. It had been a week since they made love again for the first time. It changed everything. They couldn’t keep their hands off each other now. The second they woke up, the day started with a kiss. Every night it ended with one. And if Cody needed a fix, because he’d become addicted to her taste, she found herself with his head between her legs at least once a day, sometimes as many as three or four. And that didn’t include how often they fucked because she got one look at his sexy smile and that strong body and she was after his belt and his hard cock.
It felt freeing to dive into those moments of bliss in his arms. And it drew them ever closer together, sharing that intimacy, letting her guard down, being in the moment, lost to the passion and belonging she only felt with him.
“I know that look, sweetheart. We have a reservation. Don’t tempt me.”
She flew into his arms, wrapped hers around the back of his neck, and kissed him, long and deep, like she hadn’t seen him in forever. His thick erection pressed to her belly. He groaned deep in his throat and sank his tongue into her mouth, mimicking what they both wanted him to do with his cock.
She pulled back and looked him in the eye. “How was your day, dear?” She’d never get tired of seeing his smile.
Today was his last day at his old firm. They’d spend the next week together without all the distractions from his job. The board at the children’s hospital didn’t meet for another two weeks, too, so she had him all to herself for the next seven days. She had a few minor things to finish at the bookstore, but otherwise she was ready to open.
Cody wanted to celebrate a new beginning for both of them. He wanted to go out. He wanted her to stop hiding at home. “They threw me a small going-away party at lunch.”
“Nice. And is your assistant ready to move over to Wagner, Mitchell, and Jansen?”
His cheeks went a bit ruddy at the new name of the firm he was a partner at now. “She’s going to start next Thursday, organizing my office and her cubicle before I hit the ground running the following Monday.”
“Should I be worried that you can’t leave your assistant behind?” She quirked an eyebrow at him.
“What? No. Besides, her girlfriend is a spitfire who would probably come after me for any kind of untoward move on her girlfriend.”
Brooke chuckled. “Well, then I won’t have to drop by the office to stake my claim.”
“Baby, that isn’t even necessary. I’m not stupid enough to make the same mistake twice and lose you.” He held her tighter and ground his dick against her belly. “You know I’m completely, irrevocably in love with you. But please, come to my office any time you need a reminder. I’ll be happy to lay you out on my desk and prove it to you again.” He kissed her softly. “And again.” He took the kiss a bit deeper this time. “And again.” He practically devoured her with his kiss as he walked her backward toward the little sofa in the romance section and laid her down on it. As he pressed her down into the cushions, his hand gathered her long skirt up to her knee, then he pulled it up to her hips.
She broke the kiss and raised a brow. “I thought we had a reservation?”
“We have time for this…” He slid down her body until he was on his knees next to the couch. He kissed her thigh as he pulled down her panties. “These are really wet, Brooke.”
“Have you seen you in a suit?” The kiss he pressed to her clit made her moan.
“Glad you like it.” His cocky smirk turned devilish as he teased her with the tip of his finger, stroking her seam.
“I know what you look like under that suit.” She groaned as his tongue swept up along her slit and flicked her clit again. “Stop teasing. I need you.”
“I need you, too.” He sank his tongue into her core and strummed her clit with his thumb, back and forth as she writhed on the couch, her fingers buried in his thick golden hair.
One finger, then two filled her wet channel, and he stroked her as he sucked on her clit.
She rocked against his fingers, finding that perfect rhythm between them as he licked and circled her clit with his tongue, taking her up and holding her at the precipice of release. “Cody, please.”
“Please, what?”
“Make me come.”
He thrust three fingers deep, hitting that spot that sent her over the edge as his tongue swept over her clit. He slowly thrust his fingers in and out as she rode out the orgasm, then he pulled free, stuffed them in his mouth, and sucked her off his fingers. “Mmm. So good.”
So fucking sexy.
“How did I get this lucky?”
Cody stilled and stared down at her. “Not you, Brooke. I’m the lucky one to have this second chance with you.”
“We’re both lucky.” She sat up and reached for his belt buckle. “Now give me what I want.”
“We don’t have time.”
“You know you want my mouth devouring—”
A knock on the door stopped them both.
Cody stood and put the end of his belt back through the loop to secure it. “Are you expecting someone?”
She shook her head and pushed her skirt down over her legs. “No.” She snatched her panties off the floor and wadded them in her hand.
“Stay here. I’ll get it.”
She let him go so she could slip back into her panties.
Cody unlocked the door and opened it again. Almost immediately, he closed it without saying anything.
She walked around the bookshelves and spotted him holding a box of her favorite chocolates and a note on a piece of paper. “Who is it from?”
“They didn’t sign it.” Something in his voice told her she didn’t want to see it.
We aren’t over.
“Was it her? Or him?” she asked, though neither answer would sit well with her.
“I don’t know. I didn’t see anyone. But my car is parked right out front again, just like last time.”
“Has Kristi tried to contact you at all?”
Guilt clouded Cody’s eyes.
“What? Seriously? You’ve been talking to her.”
“No.” He dumped the box and note on the checkout counter and took her by the shoulders before she could back away from him. “I didn’t want to say anything because it’s just her venting. I don’t respond to any of her texts.”
“Then why keep it from me?”
“Because I didn’t want to put that on you. She’s angry with me. I can take it.”
“It’s not like she’s blameless in your relationship. She manipulated you. She purposely stopped taking the pill to get pregnant and a marriage proposal. If not for the broken condom, it wouldn’t have happened. Still…what is she saying to you?”
Cody pulled out his phone, tapped to get to the text string, then handed his phone to her without hesitation.
KRISTI: All of my friends are whispering behind my back about you and Brooke
KRISTI: I can’t believe you chose fucking your sister over me!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
KRISTI: My boss made a comment in a meeting today about how I can help with a project since I won’t be taking my honeymoon and everyone went quiet and looked at me with pity.
KRISTI: I bet no one is saying shit to you, because you’re the golden boy lawyer with poor broken Brooke to take care of.
That one ended with a vomiting puke face.
There were more. All of them the same vitriol, about someone commenting about the breakup or canceled wedding and her taking it not just badly, but in a way that read into others’ comments in a way that maybe they didn’t mean.
Brooke handed the phone back to him. She didn’t want to read any more of that venom. “Why the fuck don’t you block her?”
“If she needs to vent, then let her do it that way, instead of some other destructive way. She blames me. Fine. I choose to take the high road and focus on what’s important to me. And that’s you. I hope she moves on the way we’re doing.”
“Maybe you should set her up with a friend?” She considered her words, then shook her head. “Forget what I said. You don’t want to lose a friend, too.”
Cody hooked his arm around her shoulders. “You’re bad. And I like it, because it means you’re back to your teasing, and that’s a good sign.”
She met his gaze and her smile fell with her next words. “What you’re not saying is that this could be him again.”
“We don’t know that.”
“Maybe I should talk to him. Or at least his parents.”
“I don’t want you anywhere near him.” Cody’s hand fisted at his side.
She put her hand over his and brushed her fingers back and forth over the back of his hand. “I just want it to go away.”
“Are you ready to talk to them? Because more than likely, the only thing you’re going to hear is about them.”
She shook her head. “My mind is finally starting to clear of all those dark thoughts and nightmares. I don’t want to bring it all back. I can’t. Not yet. Not now. In therapy it’s easier. I can take it one piece at a time and as slow as I want.”
“You don’t owe them anything.”
“Don’t I owe it to myself to find a way to put it to rest?”
“Isn’t that what you’re doing by going to therapy, opening up your businesses, being with me, planning the future you want, learning to be happy again? That’s what you owe yourself. You did nothing wrong. He killed your joy, your desire to really live. It’s coming back. Don’t let anyone ever take that from you again, because they’re selfish and only concerned about themselves.”
“You’re right. But you know I can’t put them off forever.”
“If you want to, that’s exactly what we’ll do.”
She glanced at the box of chocolates and the note. “After reading her texts…I think this was him.”
Cody sighed and confessed, “I do, too.”
“How?”
“Someone had to help him.”
“Will it ever end?”
“Yes. I’ll make sure it does. But there’s one way to ensure he never contacts you again.”
“If I go to the police, my whole life will blow up. Everyone will know what happened. I don’t want that for us, Cody. I don’t want a public spectacle made out of our tragedy. I’ve come to terms that he’ll have a decent life locked up in that fancy hospital. I’ve come to terms with the fact he’ll have a cushier life than if he were in prison. Some days, I still wish him dead. Others, I find enough compassion to hope he gets the help he needs. But my true feelings lie somewhere in the middle where I want him to just be miserable the rest of his life, knowing he can’t have me. Ever. And the best revenge I have is being happy with the man I truly love.”
Cody pulled her into his arms and held her close. “I don’t know how you do it. I’m still stuck on killing the bastard.”
She was so glad he shared his feelings. “That’s okay. My best friend’s dad is a really great defense attorney who can probably get you off.”
Cody chuckled. “Yeah. My partner already said he’d defend me.”
“Doug is a good guy.” She frowned. “And I miss Mindy Sue.”
“She offered to come out last week but you said no.”
“Because her boyfriend invited her on a family trip with his parents. That’s a big deal. I couldn’t ask her to miss meeting the parents for the first time.”
“You’ll see her next week at the picnic. If you’re up for attending.”
“I will be. It’s going to be our closest friends.”
Cody checked his watch. “We need to go. We’re going to be late for our reservation.”
“Well, that was your fault.”
“No. It was my pleasure. And I’m coming back for seconds the moment I get you home.”
She put her hands on his chest, went up on tiptoe, and kissed him softly. “I like the sound of that.”