Chapter Five #2
I set her on the edge of the bed and she beams, her smile vibrating straight through my chest. She looks so soft in my space. Fucking perfect. When she sprawls back and pulls me down, I realize she’s just as hungry for this as I am. Which makes it matter that much more that we let this happen.
"None of them count." My whisper brushes the freckles on her shoulder as I peel off our clothes. I brought her here to lose myself in her, but they will be back before I can even get started. I won’t rush this thing between us so it will have to wait for now.
"They count to you," she whispers, stunning me with her softness. Her fingers trace down my face, down my chest, stopping over my thudding heart. "Which means they count, Morgan."
Yeah, I am without question fucked. This woman has been in my head for just a few days, but it took just a few words, just a few minutes, for her to get even further inside of me.
I think back to those passing glimpses the past few months—it was all leading us to here, to this moment, to finding this.
"They do count to me. This entire thing.
..the business. I want to work with them.
I do not love it the way they do, but...
I am good at it. It puts me at peace. Working with them is what I love.
I will do whatever it takes to build this thing with them.
That is the kind of man I am, Maren. I follow through. "
Biting her lip as she sits up, she nods. "I believe you. I saw it the moment you sat down at my office. Nothing will stop you," she wavers, her eyes darting away before they come back to me. "Kind of...I either need to go, or you need to put clothes on me, Mr. Brant."
"Honey that is the last thing I planned to do tonight," I grumble, head falling against her shoulder. I kiss those freckles again before I take action.
Digging out two pairs of sweats, my favorite Howlers shirt, and a Henley, I set them on the bed.
I strip down to nothing, watching her eyes flare.
Jesus, this woman. For good measure, I stroke myself a few times, watching the way her breathing picks up, the way her nipples pop.
Smirking, I pull the sweats on, struggling to tuck my hard-on away.
Dropping to kneel in front of her, I spread her thighs, getting one last, long, lustful look at the pretty treasure I am going to spend the rest of my life worshipping.
Watching her, I dip my head, kissing the swollen little pearl just once.
Then I pull the other sweats on, up over her thighs which I also pepper with kisses.
I make a scene of pouting as I cover her up with the cotton.
Maren laughs, tugging me up to draw me between her thighs.
Sliding my hands up her sides, I cup each full, beautiful breast, pressing a soft, lingering kiss to each nipple before I pull the Howlers shirt on over, hiding her from me.
"Now behave once they get here. Would hate to have to tell our mother I kicked my brothers out so I could rail my new girl," I tease with a dark chuckle.
"Never been some handyman brute’s girl before," she states with a wicked grin, shaking her dark hair out over her shoulders as I bend to scoop her up. "Does this position come with benefits?"
"It does. I can fix anything you break, I might even do it naked if you ask nicely. I will make you come for days if you ask nice for that too. I am good at protecting what’s mine, good with money if my clients were to have a vote, and I can cook.
Oh, also, I was one of True Ridge’s most eligible bachelors, according to the spring newsletter.
No one knows who writes it or who makes the lists up, but I was honored to be on it. "
Settling down on the couch, I draw her down on my lap as she laughs.
We both admitted there has been someone else before, but as she snuggles down on my chest, I know we were wrong.
There has never been someone like this for me before.
No one I laughed with this way. No one who held my attention the way she has for days now.
Not another woman I have ever felt I fit with.
This has been so simple since I showed up at her place earlier
"My brother told me to come back to see you with a gesture," I admit as I recall the forgotten coffee and pastries. "I needed to see you again, Maren. I needed to...know if what was going on in my head was real. When I walked in that office to find you so upset earlier...I was clear to me it was."
Maren smiles at me, nodding her head as she moves to brush her nose over mine. "I was hoping you would come back. Not to talk business. To let me start over. I was awful," she whispers, brushing her fingertips over my face. "I am so used to protecting myself...once I saw you, my armor went up."
"Can’t keep me out, honey," I tell her, bending to kiss her softly just as I hear the back door open. "I am used to tearing things down, it’s what I do."
"Well hello, kids," Ethan calls, amusement flooding his words. "Big brother has some explaining to do, me-thinks," he chortles as he falls into a chair across from us with a thud.
They circle us as if we’re prey for them to pick apart.
I get it. Besides never having brought a woman back to my place, I’ve never had a serious relationship before.
Not one where I brought her home to meet anyone.
I dated a little in college, had one woman I tried to make a go of things with, but nothing even close to this.
It is important to me that they all approve of her.
No sooner do I think this, I wonder how true it is.
Would I stop pursuing her, chasing what she has brought to life inside of me if no one approved?
I can’t be sure. I dove in headfirst the moment I saw her sitting at her desk so soft, so vulnerable.
There is no going back for me, so they better all adore her the way I do.
"Is it the ‘in-and-out’ part that’s tripping you up, doll?" Maren teases him with a wicked smile. "I’d have thought you got ‘The Talk’ years ago. If you need a live tutorial, we were halfway there, we can get there again."
Well, hell, I am absolutely screwed. I am madly in love with this woman. My brothers all send stares my way to tell me if I am not, they will be in line next. I laugh, hiding my face in her shoulder as my brother sputters to come back with something just as clever. He can’t, of course.
"Turn the game on," Dexter suggests, laughing along with Maren as he offers her a beer.
Tanner does turn the game on. I sit there with my brothers, my best friends, and watch our Howlers give it their all.
By the second period, Maren is shouting at the screen as if she can convince Bastian to get the goal he has been trying for all night.
Ethan gets us all beers, orders a pizza that he agrees with Maren on—extra sausage and black olives—and we have a good time.
They stay for hours, and we talk about building plans, our current sites, even about dream sites we’d love to work on here in True Ridge. I admit how much I hate what I do during the day, while Maren regales us with stories of secret crimes going on in Silver Shores where she grew up.
Before they go, she passes out snuggled up on my chest as we watch last year's Howler playoff game.
I am thrilled when she sleepily refuses my offer to take her home.
Tanner grabs a blanket, covering us up as they all head out.
Watching them go, I see it before I figure out what it means.
They seem reluctant to go, to let the night end—but it is more than that.
It is not just me she has caught in her orbit. It looks as if I better be careful—I will have my little brothers to answer to if I don’t measure up.