25. Chapter 25 – Lincoln
Chapter 25 – Lincoln
I was in the kitchen before Peyton was that next morning. She wasn’t late, I was just eager to see her again. I hated leaving her last night after the earth-shattering declarations she made to me in the blinding dark, but I had no choice.
Even with her baring her soul and begging me to keep her broken pieces safe for her, I couldn’t tell her who I really was. If I did, she’d run from me. Not because she wouldn’t still want all the things I could give her, but because she’d feel like she had to leave to make me pay for lying to her.
And I couldn’t risk her leaving me before I won her over as Dane and Lincoln both, but I knew I was running out of time to do that. I had to prove to her that the day-to-day man that I was, Lincoln Bryce, could worship her just like Dane could.
Letting another man in emotionally would test her boundaries and morals, especially when she was convinced that Dane was the perfect man for her. But I needed to show her both sides of me, because I wouldn’t be able to hide them when she was in my life full time.
And she would be in my life, full time. Sooner rather than later, I just had to convince her to stay.
I flipped the pancakes, making sure they did not burn, as I heard the patio door open and close in the other room.
Game time.
I listened to her modest little flats click across the marble floor and then falter when she saw me in the kitchen, at the stove no less. I didn’t look over my shoulder, but I knew she’d look at her watch next, to make sure she was in fact not late, and then smooth a hand over her hair and clothing, to make sure she looked perfect before she announced her presence.
As if I could not sense her, even if I didn’t hear her.
“Good morning, Peyton.” I called, forcing her to step into the space before she could bolt. The last time I saw her as Lincoln was when I left her in my bed after shooting my brother for breaking into her guest house. We both had kept our distance from each other yesterday. But while I was giving her space, she was apparently hatching out a plan to draw Dane out of hiding.
I smirked at her stupidity in the name of desire.
Peyton cleared her throat and started walking into the space. “Good morning, Mr. Bryce.” She walked into the kitchen and lurked when I continued on with my task. “Would you like me to take over for you?”
“No, but you can get two plates out of the cabinet behind you.” I nodded her way, finally looking at her and even though I had stalked her, watching through her phone as she got dressed for the day, just twenty minutes ago, my cock still throbbed in my sweats when I saw her first hand. She had propped her phone up and painstakingly dressed, piece by piece, sensually for Dane to watch before she came to spend her day with me, but for once, the digital view I’d had didn’t do justice.
She was fucking sexy as hell, turning to reach into the top of the cabinet for the plates I requested, while I stared at her thick legs, wrapped perfectly in a pair of white pants. God, her ass made my mouth water as I remembered how good it looked bent over the first night I took her in the woods, slamming into her deep and hard. The boating style blue and white striped shirt she wore had me imagining what she’d look like laid out on an over-water hammock of a large sailboat, naked and sunning herself with no one else around for miles. And when her hair brushed over her shoulder just right, I could make out the markings I left on her neck that she’d tried to cover with makeup. But they were there, and they were mine.
I barely looked away as she turned with two plates, offering them to me. “Is your brother staying for long?”
My cock softened instantly at the mention of Tamen’s presence in my home. “Not if I can help it.” I had not told her he was my brother, so they must have talked when I was still actively avoiding hacking into Peyton’s alluring camera. A mistake I would never make again after what trouble she tried to get herself into last night.
Her lips parted and her eyebrows rose briefly as she leaned her hip against the counter. “He apologized to me, if that makes it any better.” She held my stare briefly before looking away the way she normally did. “He explained how he normally stayed in the guest house when he visits. I’d hate if he was in the doghouse because of me.”
“You aren’t at fault for anything he did.” I waited for her to look back up at me. “We don’t like each other, and that’s been decades in the making. ”
She pursed her lips and swallowed, watching me as I flipped through the pancakes. “Then who’s the other plate for, if not for him?”
I set one plate in front of her and put three large cakes on it. “You.” I passed the butter dish to her and nodded to it as I plated my own heaping breakfast. “I figured I’d feed you this morning.”
She froze with her knife half swiped across the first pancake and I grinned to myself as I reached over her for another knife. “Scooch.” I pushed my hip into hers, scooting her down the counter so I could stand next to her and butter my pancakes. “I made bacon too.”
Moving to open the oven and pull out the pan I had warmed in there, she watched with an unreadable look on her face. “You didn’t have to—”
I waved her off, putting a couple of slices on her plate with my bare fingers and then licking the salt off them as I grabbed my own. I could feel her eyes burning a hole in the side of my face as I moved around the space like a domesticated house-husband instead of the closed off and grumpy asshole she thought I was. “Come on,” I shrugged toward the kitchen island where I ate breakfast every morning, “Let’s eat before all of my hard work gets cold.”
When I sat down, she slowly finished buttering her pancakes and then took a seat two spaces down from me, even though I had put her coffee cup down in front of the one next to me. I’d let her have that one, but she’d pay twice for the next defiance.
I hid my sinister grin behind my coffee as she took hers and added a splash of cream to it.
She broke the silence, “I think you have the best coffee in the world.” She took a sip and sighed into it. “I’ve never been big on coffee, but since starting here, I’m addicted to this fancy stuff. ”
I took a sip of my black cup of Joe and bit back the comment I wanted to make about her never having to stop drinking it now that she was mine, and instead went the safer route. “I’m glad you like it. Help yourself to it whenever you want.”
She smiled softly and then cut a piece of pancake, dipping it into her syrup and taking a bite.
I knew it’d happen. It wasn’t like I hadn’t seen her eat before, but the result was still the same. Absolute enthusiasm exuded from her entire being as she savored the taste of Mrs. Straight’s famous recipe that I stayed up most of the night looking for.
Two hours of sleep was worth it to see Peyton savor the food in her over-the-top way. It was the same way she ate dinner with me at the restaurant last week. It was the same way she took a cock, moaning and savoring each and every delicious inch she took.
Last night, I ate her out and made her come two more times, before I finally walked her back to the clearing from the first night, blindfolded. The urge to rip the damned thing off had nearly overcome me so many times while I was with her, but I resisted. I had to be sure she was ready for me first. All of me.
But as we shared a mundane experience like breakfast at my kitchen bar, I knew she was the only woman who would ever truly accept me for the good and bad inside of me. Just as she had last night when she rode me to orgasm after learning I’d killed people in the wake of our fall out. And then sucked my cock like a goddess and took my come in her favorite place.
Fuck, I was hard again.
I turned back to the bar, trying to hide my erection as Peyton took a sip of her coffee and moaned with a happy little smile on her face. She would not make it easy on me with those noises, either. “Tell me something about yourself.” I broke through the tension .
She covered her mouth with her napkin and finished chewing. “What do you mean?”
“I mean, you’ve lived here for two weeks and I know little about you.” I held her stare and went on, “Tell me something.”
“I- uh,” She stammered and adjusted herself on the stool, “I grew up a few hours from here. My parents have lived in Massachusetts their entire lives.”
I held my hand up and shook my head, “Not your LinkedIn bio, Peyton. I asked about you.” Leaning forward and staring at her, I pushed on, “Tell me something important about you.”
“You go first.” She challenged bravely as she took another bite, “Show me what you mean.”
Oh, the things I’d gladly show her, but she’d have to settle for words for now.
“I’m allergic to raspberries.” I said and her eyebrows rose slightly as I kept going, “I’ve never been to a professional ball game before, but I’ve watched every game the Patriots have played since I was born. My guilty midnight pleasure is ice cream, and I have an incredibly irrational fear of heights.”
Her lips parted as she listened to me ramble on, divulging useless information, and then she snapped them shut when she realized I was done and waiting for her to go.
I wasn’t sure what I expected her to say, but it sure wasn’t “The Patriots don’t stand a chance without Brady leading them.” She ginned finally and added, “Go Bills.”
I rolled my eyes, scoffing at her. “I thought you said you were a lifelong Masshole.”
She shrugged, taking another bite, “I went to college at UB. And besides, Josh Allen is a total hottie. ”
I audibly gagged, and she giggled, tipping her head back and letting the seductive sound surround us both. And I fucking smiled.
I only ever smiled for Peyton.
She adjusted herself on her stool and contemplated her response dramatically before giving it.
“I’m obsessed with everything Fall themed, from pumpkin patches and apple picking, to jumping into leaf piles and sitting by a warm fire with a cup of hot cocoa.” She pursed her lips as she thought about what else to share, but I was stuck in a memory of chasing her sexy ass through a corn maze and then ravaging her like a wild animal tied to the bench in the middle of it.
Fuck it, my cock was harder, and I was done trying to convince it to soften.
Luckily she didn’t notice as she went on, “I hate the smell of vanilla but I’m addicted to vanilla cupcakes and I once thought I wanted to be a doctor, until I had my tonsils out in high school and passed out when they put my IV in.” She giggled, “Apparently I have a fear of needles.” She shrugged and widened her eyes comically, “Who knew?”
“Not you, apparently,” I joked, and she giggled.
“I do now.” She sighed, “I quickly changed my degree aspirations to something more realistic.”
“Hospitality?” I questioned, remembering her impressive resume filled with years of hotel chain climbing up to management.
“Yep,” She nodded, with a little less enthusiasm than before, “It was practical, and the job availability was plentiful. I could go anywhere to work with a degree like that.”
“And it brought you here, to me.” I replied, feeling the thickness in the air between us growing as her eyes flicked up to mine .
“It did.” She replied, holding my stare before blinking it off like she was breaking a trance. She took another bite of her pancake, “To be honest, it’s a nice break from reality.”
“The job or the location?” I questioned.
“Both, I guess.” She shrugged, “Managing a hotel is no simple thing to do, but in the same sense it gets boring day in and day out. And the city,” She rolled her eyes, “That gets old even faster.”
“You don’t enjoy living in the city?”
“I hate it.” She replied openly, “It’s suffocating. But there aren’t many opportunities for a young hotel manager in a beautiful location like this,” She nudged her nose toward the enormous windows overlooking the vast forest around us. “So I’ll have to soak in as much of the scenery as I can while I’m here.” Her smile widened, “Especially because Fall is here and I can’t resist indulging.”
“Hmm.” I hummed watching her. “You’re welcome to go hiking out in the woods anytime you want. There are multiple trails that are marked and easy to traverse.”
Her cheeks reddened almost instantly, and I fought back the grin that wanted to show, remembering the way her tits reddened when she came on my cock and face last night. “Okay.” She hid her face as she took a bite of her bacon.
Since I had already finished mine, I stood up and walked away from her. “Just don’t go out too far to the east, there’s a biker bar on the edge of the property and they’re a rougher kind of crowd.” I heard her audibly swallow and looked over my shoulder at her even redder face. “But don’t worry, my entire property is lined with motion sensors and cameras. I see everything.”
“Everything?” She whispered, and I put my dish into the dishwasher and turned to face her. Putting my hands on the island between us, I leaned forward, so we were staring at each other over the space.
“How do you think I knew Tamen had entered your space the other night?” I cocked my head to the side, “I always see everything.”
“Lincoln,” She breathed, and I silently begged her to admit what she’d been up to in my woods like I didn’t already know.
But my brother’s annoying pompous accent broke up our moment as he entered the kitchen, “It smells delightful in here.” He walked in shirtless, again, and sauntered over to Peyton’s side, glancing over her shoulder to her empty plate. My fists clenched tight on the island as he invaded her space and Peyton’s eyes flicked down to them before snapping back up to my face. I held her stare silently as my brother chatted on. “Are those Mrs. Straight’s famous pancakes?” He took her fork and stabbed a piece before eating it and groaning, “I’d let that woman do dirty things to me if she promised to feed me afterwards.”
“Tamen.” I growled, finally looking away from Peyton’s bright green eyes wide with shock and focused on the man I wanted to choke to death while she watched. Would she get as turned on as she did last night as she rode my cock and talked about who I killed in her absence? “Enough.”
“What?” He grinned with his stupid charismatic bullshit persona on and looked between the two of us. “Like you wouldn’t fuck your employees if they gave you something you were missing out on like I am.” He scoffed, taking the last piece of bacon off her plate and eating it. “I’m missing out on good home cooking from a beautiful woman. Speaking of which, want to come work for me instead of my boring brother?” He winked when Peyton looked up at him and I couldn’t help the monster inside as I grabbed my empty coffee cup, ready to throw it at his face.
“No! Don’t.” Peyton put her hand on mine, stilling me and silencing the rage in my head as she stood up, keeping her hand on mine. “Please don’t, Lincoln. ”
Tamen’s face lit up as he watched over her back and I almost shook her off to chuck it at him, anyway. “Yeah, Lincoln . Wouldn’t want you to get hurt poking the bear or something.”
“There are extra pancakes over there,” Peyton interrupted, squeezing my hand once before letting go and facing Tamen head on. “And I’m more than satisfied with my current arrangement here with Lincoln, thank you. Find someone else to cook for you.”
My heart did a weird skipping in my chest as I starred at the majestic woman who not only told my brother off, but also defended me in the process.
Not once in my entire life, had someone chosen me in a fight against Tamen. Not even our father.
Tamen grinned, knowing exactly what she just did, and then busied himself getting his own breakfast while all I could do was stare at Peyton.
She ran her hands down the front of her shirt and stiffened her spine. “I have laundry to fold.” And she walked out of the room without a backward glance, completely unaware that she had just rocked my entire world.
Fucking hell, Puppet, that deserves a present.