Chapter 39
THIRTY-NINE
AUSTIN
The point of consciousness between being asleep and waking up is one of my favorite parts of the day.
I try to draw it out as much as I possibly can, stretching under the blankets and burrowing myself closer to Maddox.
I always pretend I do it in my sleep, but I’m aware enough to know I’m being a clingy little bastard.
I’m just too happy to make myself stop. These few minutes in this limbo state are the only minutes I give myself to love him.
His shoulder shakes beneath my head as he chuckles quietly, his fingers massaging my hair as he kisses it. I hate when he kisses my hair because I can’t feel his mustache against my skin, but I’m not willing to tilt my chin up for a real kiss and show him just how awake I actually am.
Instead, I tilt my face down further until I can smell the faint traces of his deodorant and underneath that, his natural scent.
I would never, ever, in a million years admit it to him, or anyone else, but he smells so goddamn good to me.
Not his deodorant or his aftershave or the cologne he only pulls out when he takes me on a date.
Nope, his natural scent. The one I tuck my nose against his shoulder to get a whiff of.
I refuse to let myself even consider that it’s his armpit I’m smelling.
“How are you feeling?” he asks. His voice is gruff from sleep and I ignore him. Maybe he’ll think I’m still sleeping and let me huff away at his B.O. without forcing me to talk.
In truth, my shoulders are sore. Not bad, but enough that I know I’ll remember being cuffed to Maddox’s bed every time I move today. Enough that I know he’ll want to know.
Nothing else immediately jumps out at me, and after a quick mental inventory of my body, I realize I’m not even sticky between my thighs so he must’ve wiped me clean after I passed out last night. Slightly embarrassing, but sweet of him.
He sighs, tugging me on top of him completely. He’s in briefs, I realize distantly. He must’ve changed out of his sweats at some point last night. His morning wood pokes me and normally, I’d roll my hips to tease him and make him growl at me, but I’m not up for it today.
“Fine,” I answer him when he grips my chin and forces me to look at him.
His sleep-soft face is one of my favorite sights and it’s rare that I get to see it.
He’s usually awake hours before me, sliding back into bed after the sun comes up when I sleep over.
“My shoulders are a little bit sore, but not really bad.”
He hums, thumbing over my lip. “What about that pretty pussy of yours? I gave it a helluva workout last night. Does it need some extra TLC today to recover?”
I scoff at him, but he waits patiently. I thought it was a rhetorical question. “It isn’t sore.” I purposefully don’t answer the question about TLC. If he wants to ply my pussy with special attention, I sure as shit won’t stop him.
My phone, however, apparently will.
It vibrates on the nightstand and Maddox groans, releasing my chin to flop back against the pillow. “It’s my sister. She’s been blowing up your phone all morning.”
“All morning? What time is it?” On the very rare occasion Maddox and I wake up around about the same time, it’s just before dawn when he has to leave to handle chores. A quick glance at my phone tells me it’s way, way past dawn.
“Shit!” I scramble off his chest and he grunts when I accidentally knee him in the abs. He’s lucky it’s not his dick. “Why didn’t you wake me up? I’m so late.”
“You’re not late to anything important. It’s just breakfast with my sister,” he grumbles, clearly not appreciative of me leaving his bed.
“You went through my phone?”
He winces at the shrillness of my voice and I can’t blame him. It was downright banshee-sounding, but he deserves it.
“No, I saw my sister’s name light up your phone screen so I texted her from my phone that you were still sleeping. She told me you had brunch plans and I told her to leave you alone.”
Maddox says it like it’s no big deal. Like it’s just a bit of sibling banter.
But it’s not. It’s me putting him over Kenny, even if I hadn’t been awake for it.
I hadn’t set an alarm to make sure I woke up in time to have brunch with my best friend because I was too busy getting off over and over again at the hands of her brother.
She made a point last night when she asked me to brunch that it was important and I had completely disregarded it. What a shitty fucking friend.
And what an asshole he was to make that choice for me, to deem this temporary fling more important than my lifelong friendship with his little sister.
“Let me make something perfectly clear to you, Maddox Whittaker,” I seethe, jumping to get my jeans all the way up.
If I wasn’t so fucking angry at him, I’d commend him for not letting his eyes wander down to my tits when they bounced.
“My friendship with Kenny is much, much bigger than whatever this is.”
He sighs, rolling his eyes as he pulls himself out of bed. I think I should also be commended for not letting my eyes wander down to his hard cock. “We were up late last night. You were exhausted. You’re not even that late.”
“Considering you don’t eat breakfast until you’ve already been up for a few hours, you should understand the concept of brunch better than anyone, but I’ll spell it out for you.
It’s a meal that takes place in the late morning.
Do I need to define the word morning for you or are you capable of realizing that it ended at noon? ”
I’d tugged the rest of my clothes on while lashing out at him, so it’s with great pleasure that I get to sit on the edge of the bed, with my back to him, as I pull on my socks and boots. Might as well forgo brushing my teeth… and showering, apparently. Kenny’s going to be irritated enough as it is.
I’ve only got so much time left with her and it hits me all of a sudden that I’ve been spending way too much of it in the wrong Whittaker’s bed. This has to end. I don’t even give him the kindness of a goodbye as I stomp towards the bedroom door, tapping out a quick text back to Kenny.
“When you’re done with my sister, make sure you come back for the spanking you’re fucking begging for.”
“Oh, shut the fuck up.”
The front door slams behind me.
The diner is less busy than usual, but they’re no longer serving breakfast and it changes the entire atmosphere of the meal.
Kenny swears up and down that she’s not angry with me, but she’s a shitty liar and has a tell.
My eyes drop pointedly to her fingers fiddling with the ends of her hair.
She stops immediately and shoves her hands under her thighs.
“I really am sorry,” I tell her again. “I ripped your brother a new one for not waking me up.” She grimaces and I do, too.
A reminder that I sleep in her brother’s bed most weekends was probably the last thing she wanted to hear.
“I know you said you had something important to talk to me about and I fucked up by sleeping in, but I swear I won’t let something like this happen again.
Maddox and I are done with each other, Kenny. I promise.”
I can’t lose Kenny. I can’t lose her before I leave her, at least.
“No!” she’s quick to say, a little too loudly.
The tables near us hush and look our way before going back to their own conversations.
My eyes flit around for someone who may be listening a bit too intently.
Brittany is watching, glaring, but she always is, and she’s far enough away I don’t think she can hear us.
“You can’t do that to him, Aus. You do realize he’s a human being with actual feelings, right?”
I rear back in surprise and my mouth opens a bit, but nothing comes out of it. “Excuse me?” I finally settle on.
“You have an issue with men, I get that. I know something happened to you that you’ve never felt comfortable enough to tell me and that really sucks, but that doesn’t mean you can go around treating every man you come in contact with like shit.”
My mouth is fully open now, jaw dropped. Kenny has never, ever yelled at me. Never given me any indication that she didn’t approve of the way I acted or what I did with my body. I’ve never felt judged. Until now.
“Uh, you guys need a minute or…?” Brittany’s voice interrupts us and Kenny pastes on a quick smile as she places her order.
When the waitress turns my way, her lip curls.
She’s always hated me—mostly because I don’t let her in my bar like she thinks I should—but the past few months, it’s been disgust on her face, not hatred.
I ignore it. “Hamburger and fries, please,” I tell her quickly, not trying to be rude, but needing her at least three hundred feet away from me before I can figure out what’s crawled up Kenny’s ass.
She wastes no time. As soon as Brittany’s back is turned, before she’s even walked far enough away for me to be comfortable with continuing this conversation, Kenny’s at it again. “My brother is head over heels in love with you and you’re dragging him around behind you on a leash.”
“He is not,” I argue immediately, though the part of her statement I should be arguing doesn’t register until a few seconds later. “And I do not. We’re just casual. What the fuck is this even about?”
“Casual enough you’re cussing out my other brother at a family bonfire? Casual enough he was watching you all night like you were the reason the moon was shining over us all?”
“I sucked his brain out through his dick the day before, if you must know, Kendall,” I snap back, tired of sitting here and letting her berate me.
“Any look you think he was giving me was because he’s pussy-drunk, not because he’s fallen in fucking love with me.
And as far as the thing with Colt goes, I only said what he’s been needing to hear for years now. ”