Thirty-Two
Linc
“Your daughter-in-law thinks you’re a dick,” Levi said as he closed the door to Garrett’s office and glanced over at me.
“Because he is,” Garrett drawled, then put the cigar back in his mouth.
Shaking his head in disgust, Levi walked over to the bar. “I get you hate Branwen. Damn, we all got that message. You made your disdain for her clear today. If you said another word to or about her at dinner, I thought Aspen was going to throw her drink in your face.”
If they had all stopped acting as if she were important, then I’d not have kept on. But the more the other women drew her into their inner circle, like she was one of them when she sure as hell was not, the worse my annoyance with her grew.
Instead of responding, I shrugged and pulled in the smoke from the cigar to linger in my mouth for a moment before releasing it.
Levi brought his glass of whiskey over to the caramel-colored leather sofa and sat down. “Stevie might be young, but the way you treat her mother isn’t going to be missed by her. Sure, this is all new, and you’re new. She seems happy with this situation, but the more you humiliate and talk down to her mom, she’s going to turn against you.”
He took a drink, looking at me the entire time. “I was a boy. It was different. Even when I hated you for the shit you did to Mom, you were my dad. I wanted this life. We had more than just a father-son relationship. We had the family. It gave us a different bond.
“Stevie is a little girl, and that’s her momma. You don’t get a stronger bond. Hell, look at Fawn and Gypsy. That’s what they will grow up to be like. You think she will love you and want you in her life if you hurt her momma?”
Why the fuck was I getting a lecture from my son on relationships and parenting? Did him being married now make him a goddamn expert? Not all women were like Aspen.
“Just so you are clear on something,” I began, holding the cigar between my fingers, “the shit with your mom wasn’t all me. You’re a grown-ass man now, so understand that, although I’m glad you were born, Maggie trapped me with the pregnancy. She found out I had fucked around, and I wouldn’t do the exclusive shit with her, so she stopped taking her birth control, knowing if she was knocked up, she’d be able to keep me. Our marriage was doomed from day one.
“As for Branwen, after this year is up, I am moving her into a place in town, and Stevie is going to come stay with me on alternating weeks. She won’t see her mother and me together.”
There was a smirk on Garrett’s face as he listened to me. Why was that fucking funny?
“What?” I asked him.
“You really think that’s what’s gonna happen? You are going to live with her for a year and then move her out. To live her life. Date men. Fuck other men. Belong to another man.”
My nostrils flared as I inhaled sharply. No, she wasn’t going to fuck other men. I’d take care of that for her. She’d be addicted to my cock in a year’s time. But I wasn’t explaining that plan to them. I had a feeling Levi would give me another lecture and Garrett would laugh.
After today, there was going to be some convincing on my part to let me touch her again. There was an uncomfortable tightness in my chest and gut from the pained, dejected look in her eyes when she’d walked upstairs with Stevie tonight. Fuck. Maybe I had taken shit too far. But she hadn’t told me about the dentist coming to the house. I was still pissed about it, but not as much as I had been earlier.
“I think we will work it out,” I replied.
“You need to give up and admit you just want to fuck her and you don’t hate her. You might hate that you want to fuck her,” Garrett said. “And don’t lie to me about it. I’ve known you my whole life.”
“If he wants to fuck her, then he’s shit out of luck. He’ll be lucky if she ever speaks to him again,” Levi added.
I smirked. He was obviously unaware of my charm.
“Don’t underestimate your father,” Garrett said. “When he wants something, he usually gets it.”
Levi cocked an eyebrow like he wasn’t so sure he believed that.
“Just watch,” Garrett told him. “When he gets his head out of his ass, it’ll look different.”
I didn’t say anything. Because my head wasn’t in my ass. Fawn just had Garrett seeing things in a light that wasn’t realistic. His obsession with his wife was unhealthy and had softened him. Thankfully, Blaise hadn’t been softened by marriage and kids. The only soft in him was with Madeline and the boys. No one else got that. He was ruthless and ran the family the way the Hughes boss always had. The way Garrett once had. Now, he was making out with his wife on the patio in the middle of the fucking day.
Rolling my eyes, I put the cigar back between my teeth. It was up to me to at least keep my generation of the Shephard name from becoming weak because of a woman. My brother, Stellan, had been married for years, and he’d not been the leader he once had been. Luckily, his oldest son was a crazy fucker, even if he was married. He’d make a good head of the Georgia branch when the time came.
Standing over the bed where Branwen slept with Stevie, I stared down at them. A mess of blonde curls spread out over both pillows. Stevie’s arms were wrapped around one of her mother’s, and she pressed her face to her mother’s shoulder. They were stunning. Both of them.
But then I’d watched Branwen that night at the club, unable to look away. She’d held me transfixed for an hour at least.
Had my subconscious recognized her? I’d been drawn to her, and I couldn’t resist walking myself out of the private viewing area to go down to meet her. Hear her talk. She’d not disappointed. Sure, I was high, but she still pulled me in. I hadn’t seen the little girl I had once known when I looked at her, but that didn’t mean that something deeper inside me hadn’t. Now that I knew, I could see it and wondered how I had missed it.
“How did my little Ringlets hurt me the way you did?” I whispered. “What made you hate me so much that you chose to do something I can’t ever forgive?” I reached down and flipped one of her curls between my fingers.
But that didn’t mean I couldn’t fuck her. Own her. Sharing her body with anyone else was out of the question. Her needs would be taken care of, financially and sexually. Levi and Garrett were both wrong. I knew what I was doing, and without relationship shit to get in the way, we’d be better parents.
Stevie would be our only focus.
Love and commitment fucked things up. She didn’t need that. She sure as hell didn’t need the dentist. The man couldn’t take care of her cunt the way I could. I wasn’t sure he even had a dick after feeling how tight her pussy was. Tomorrow, I would ease up on her. But I’d get her to tell me about the dentist and make sure she understood keeping things from me was lying. And I fucking hated being lied to.