Chapter Twenty-Two
CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO
A few months later.
I strode out of my office with a smile on my face, ready to get home and see Robert after a long day of work. As I expected, he crushed his interview with the big construction company, and they hired him immediately after that, paying him far more than his old job.
It was exactly what he needed for a confidence boost, and it also helped that Emily and Noel were smart enough to settle outside of court. In the end, we hired Lynn to represent Robert, since she was an expert in that area of law.
Showing up at Emily and Noel’s house, in retrospect, wasn’t my most thought-out move, but I didn’t regret it. It was important for me to defend Robert in front of his family.
Emily and Noel had settled a month ago. They kept the house and the company, which Robert didn’t mind—he didn’t want them anymore since they were associated with bad memories. However, they did have to pay Robert back everything that was unfairly taken from him. It was an eye-watering lump sum of money, and when Robert found out how much it was, he’d hadn’t been able to speak for several minutes.
As great as all that money was, the best thing that came out of that situation was Robert repairing his relationship with Mike. During the legal battle, Mike had realized his mother wasn’t a complete victim, and had some manipulative tendencies. He’d decided to take a step back, and finally moved out, so he had more independence and wasn’t constantly subjected to Emily’s influence.
Now, Mike was slowly growing closer with Robert. Things weren’t perfect, but they usually hung out once a week, and Mike was gradually seeing that Robert wasn’t the deadbeat dad he always thought he was, but rather someone who’d tried his best in a shitty situation.
To my surprise, Mike had learned to accept my relationship with Robert. I’d expected him to still find it weird, but he must’ve seen how much we cared for each other. In fact, he’d once thanked me for helping his dad out and apologized for everything he’d said in my office.
I forgave him. I’d understood where he was coming from. He just wanted to protect me.
I’d also told my friends everything. When I revealed that Robert and I were back together, and that I loved him, they were incandescently happy for me. I’d invited them over for dinner, so Alison could meet Robert for the first time. Emilia had praised his cooking like she’d done the first time she’d met him. It was a lovely evening, and I was glad that they liked each other. Afterwards, Alison and Emilia told me they could tell how much he made me happy, and that it was so obvious he was desperately in love with me.
“He didn’t take his eyes off you all night!” Emilia had said.
Alison had mentioned hosting another party, and that she would invite Robert too. I was excited to show him off. Sure, we might get some weird looks because people thought the age gap was strange, but I didn’t care. I had the handsomest, sweetest man in the world.
Now, I opened up my messages with Robert, smiling at his last text message that told me how beautiful I looked this morning. He still made me blush to this day, and I didn’t see that stopping any time soon, especially since he finally moved in for good.
There was no longer any uncertainty about living arrangements. We were staying together, and I couldn’t be happier. My apartment felt more like home than ever before.
When I arrived home, my heart was racing with excitement. I was still excited to see him every day, and that was just another reason I knew I loved him.
“I’m home!” I called out once I stepped into the foyer, already smelling what I believed to be spaghetti.
“In the kitchen,” Robert called. “We have a guest.”
My brow furrowed. A guest? I wandered into the kitchen and froze at the sight of my mother sitting at the dining table. “What are you doing here?”
Mom tried to smile, but she looked embarrassed. “Hi, Brooke. I just wanted to talk. I promise I’m not here for anything else.”
Translation: she wasn’t here for money. I wasn’t sure whether to believe her.
“Talk about what?” I asked cautiously.
“You. Us,” Mom replied before sighing. “Everything.”
I glanced over at Robert as he stood by the stove. When he gave me an encouraging smile, I nodded at Mom. We hadn’t spoken since the time I showed up at the family’s house and told them to fuck off. But if she was going to put in the effort to come here, the least I could do was give her a chance.
“Dinner is ready. I’m going to eat in my room and finish looking at some blueprints,” Robert said as he placed two bowls full of spaghetti and a plate of garlic bread on the dining table between my mother and me. He kissed me on the forehead before leaving the room, allowing my mother and me to have the dining area to ourselves.
I gave him a grateful smile as he left, then sat down across from Mom. I picked up the fork, but I didn’t eat yet.
“You said you wanted to talk.”
She nodded as she placed her hands in her lap. “I came to apologize to you.”
My eyes widened. “Apologize?”
“These last few months without any contact with you have been … sobering. I’ve done a lot of thinking, and I’m disappointed with myself,” she admitted, glancing down at the table. “To be honest, Brooke, we’re jealous of you.”
Jealous? No way.
“You chased your dreams, and you achieved them. You’ve always been the smartest and the most hardworking out of all of us. I don’t know where you got it from. You see how me and your dad are.” She sucked in a deep breath. “I’m sorry about the way we’ve treated you. Every time we saw you doing well, we felt bad about ourselves. But that’s not your fault. It’s something we need to deal with.”
I’d never heard a genuine apology come out of Mom’s mouth before. “Do the others know you’re here?”
She nodded. “They’ll come and talk to you in their own time, but I couldn’t wait any longer. I just want you to know that we may be jealous and bitter, but we also admire you. You’re smart and successful. You’re everything everyone else strives to be.”
I shook my head. “I’m not that great. I just do what I need to do.”
“And that’s still admirable. We take shortcuts. We’re lazy. We make the wrong decisions,” Mom admitted with a soft sigh. “When I see you, I see everything I wished I had become. I know that’s wrong and that’s made me harsh toward you. For that, I’m sorry.”
A lump formed in my throat. Did our distance really affect her this much? I thought she didn’t care.
“I don’t see you as bad, undeserving people. I want better for all of you,” I told her. “I just couldn’t help but feel used.”
“And we’re going to stop that. We’re not going to ask you for any more money,” Mom promised me. “We’ve been reflecting on it, and we realized it made us lazy. We didn’t bother to make something of our lives or try hard to make money because we told ourselves we could rely on you. But we won’t do that anymore.” She took a deep breath. “Your dad is going to work at the store with me. I’ll keep him accountable. Your brother is going to learn how to work for someone before he works for himself. Even Gemma has decided that she wants her own place with Brandon, and saving for that is more important than buying clothes.” She shook her head at herself. “It’s pathetic that we were begging our own daughter for money.”
“It’s not pathetic,” I said. “I want to support my family. If any of you got sick, I wouldn’t hesitate to help. I just…” I sighed. “I just felt like you didn’t respect me.”
“I’m sorry,” Mom said, swallowing hard. “I’m going to try to do better. I want to do better. You’re my only daughter. I don’t want to lose you.”
Tears glistened in my eyes. I’d been dying to hear these words for years, and finally, she was saying it.
All I wanted was to be cherished by my own family. This wasn’t a cure for all the damage that had been done. This didn’t solve everything, but it was a step in the right direction. That made me hopeful.
I thought of Mike and Robert. Slowly, they were making progress. I could do the same.
I stood up and walked over to her side of the table, tightening my jaw to keep my tears from falling as she wrapped her arms around me. I rested my chin on her shoulder, my bottom lip threatening to tremble. I felt like a little girl again.
When I was little, I thought she was the best mom in the whole wide world. I remembered her braiding my hair for school and all the times she put band-aids on my scratches. Once, in elementary school, I’d won an English competition, and when I brought the certificate home, she’d picked me up and hugged me so tight.
Maybe we could heal the relationship.
Afterwards, I returned to my seat and we finished dinner.
“Robert’s a good cook,” Mom said, swirling the spaghetti around her fork.
“He is,” I agreed.
“I apologized to him earlier, before you got home. I’d been so rude to him the last time I was here. But now, I can see he makes you happy, and that’s all that matters to me.”
I smiled, feeling emotion flood me again. “Thanks, Mom.”
She had to catch the next train home, so she didn’t stay for long after dinner. I offered to let her stay the night, but she didn’t want to intrude. I suppose she was adamant about showing she wasn’t using me.
Robert fixed her a to-go container with more pasta for the others at home. After she left, I felt a little shocked.
She hadn’t been here for long, but our small conversation had had a huge impact.
She wanted to fix things. I wanted to fix things.
Maybe what seemed impossible was actually possible.
Robert wrapped his arms around my waist from behind as we stood in the foyer a few minutes after my mother left. “Are you okay?”
I placed my hands over his and nodded. “I’m just … surprised.”
Robert kissed my temple. “She was waiting outside when I got home. She was willing to wait for you to get home. She really wanted to talk.”
“I wonder what made her want to change,” I murmured as I sank back against his strong build, letting him support me.
“You don’t know what you have until it’s gone,” he pointed out. “You appreciate things when you don’t have them anymore.”
I turned around in his hold and looped my arms around his neck, my eyes meeting his. “I love you,” I said. “I want you forever.”
His face softened, and he kissed me slowly, his hands caressing the small of my back. As seconds passed, our kiss deepened and intensified, heat sparking from the movement of our lips.
“Baby,” he murmured, breath hot against my mouth. “I’ve missed you all day.”
“Take me to bed,” I said. I needed to feel him. I needed to feel everything .
He picked me up by the back of my thighs and carried me into our bedroom, his breathing quickening as I kissed his neck and below his ear. “You’re playing a dangerous game.”
“A game I’ll win,” I whispered, before teasingly brushing the tip of my tongue along the outer edge of his ear.
He cursed under his breath before dropping me down onto the bed, and I landed with a small bounce. He unbuttoned his shirt and let it drop to the floor.
My eyes roamed over his broad body. His wide shoulders, the defined muscles of his arms, the light dusting of brown hair across his chest. Just looking at him made me feel like there was a fire between my thighs.
“You’re so handsome.”
His smile looked dangerous. “Take your clothes off now,” he said. “I need to see you.”
I didn’t waste any time stripping off my blouse and pencil skirt. The clothes fell to the floor, leaving me in nothing but a black bra and matching panties. Robert cupped my pussy, playing with it through the fabric of my underwear. “Fuck,” he murmured. “I can feel you getting wet.”
I undid my bra, and started to unbuckle his jeans, mouth growing dry at the sight of his growing erection that strained against his pants. He quickly shoved his jeans and boxers off, then crawled onto the bed. As he tugged my underwear down, his lips fluttered all over my body, leaving teasing kisses.
I ran my hands over his strong shoulders and arms, reveling in every touch he placed on my warm, sensitive skin. “Kiss me.”
He lowered his head, capturing my lips in a deep kiss as his hand slipped between my thighs. His fingers became quickly lubricated with my wetness, and he pushed two fingers inside of me, making me gasp. He thrusted them in slowly, the heel of his hand grinding against my clit.
My teeth grazed his bottom lip in a desperate bite, our moans mingling. I reached down and wrapped my fingers around his thick length, stroking him as he continued fingering me.
“You’re driving me crazy,” Robert whispered to me as he bucked into my hand, his cock pulsing with need.
“I can’t wait any longer,” I voice, voice high with need.
Robert kissed along my jaw. “On your hands and knees,” he murmured.
I quickly obeyed, and felt him move behind me, one hand on my thigh, the other on my buttock, pulling to to the side to expose my pussy.
“You look so fucking hot like this.”
There was the tear of a condom wrapper, and a second later, I felt his cockhead bump against my entrance, and sparks of pleasure lit me up. He slid the tip up and down my folds, getting it all wet, and when he grazed my clit, I clamped my mouth shut, muffling a moan.
Slowly, he pushed inside, filling me whole, and not only did it feel so good, it felt right . He lowered himself, so his chest was flat against my back, but he was still careful not to crush me. He kissed my shoulders, then the back of my neck, which was so sensitive. I had to squeeze my eyes shut to keep control of myself.
“You feel so amazing,” he murmured, voice vibrating against my skin.
I reached behind me, found his hand, and guided it to the front of my body. When I brought it to my breasts, he understood what I wanted, and started to squeeze and play with my nipples.
I gasped and moaned and writhed. “Don’t stop,” I said. “Please, don’t — ”
“You like that?” he said in a low, gravelly voice, while his hips continued to buck, thrusting into me at a punishing speed.
“I do,” I said. “It feels so good.” My forehead was sticky with sweat, and the smell of sex filled the air. “Tell me how good I feel,” I said.
He lowered his hand, finding my clit, and played with it. He tapped it, he drew circles, he rubbed it. Heat and sensation exploded within me.
“You feel so fucking good,” he murmured, his mouth right near my ear, his hot breath tickling me. “Your cunt feels like it was made for me, Brooke. Sometimes I think I might come the moment I slide inside, but I’m holding myself back for you. Giving you the fucking you deserve. You like that, don’t you?”
“Yes,” I said. “No one’s ever fucked me like you.”
He grunted, his cock still slamming into me as he continued to fondle my sensitive little clit. “Never let anyone else inside your pretty little pussy okay? Only me.”
“Only you,” I replied, my voice a breathy mess. “It’s yours. You can use it whenever you want.”
“Baby, you don’t mean that. Otherwise I’d use it morning to night.”
“I don’t care,” I said. I was babbling now, but I was lost in the pleasure. “You feel so good, Robert. You’re so thick and hard and…I love it. I love your cock.”
“Keep talking like that, and you’re going to make me come,” he said, slamming into me so hard, I momentarily saw stars. “Even your voice turns me on. Your moans, your breathy little gasps. Fuck, angel. You’re gorgeous.”
He thrusted inside, hitting my g-spot, and that was the trigger. Heat gathered deep within me, then exploded, making my thighs shake and my back arch. Bliss surged through every muscle in my body, and my head fell back against his shoulders as I cried out his name, quivering violently through the euphoria.
Robert grunted and buried his cock deep inside of me, wrapping his arm tight around me as he came.
Our bodies were joined together, and I felt so connected to him. It wasn’t just physical pleasure. We were bonded.
Afterwards, I lay down on the bedsheets, the sweat on my skin starting to cool. Robert disposed of the condom before pulling me close to his chest, and I snuggled into him, enjoying the heat radiating off his body. When we were connected like this, basked in pleasure, it felt like we were the only people left in the world. Our problems meant nothing. Our fears and doubts had no weight.
It was just us.
“I’m so glad you came into my office that day,” I murmured as I placed my hand over his, twining our fingers together.
Robert kissed the back of my shoulder. “Me too. I’m so lucky to have met you. I think we’re exactly what each other needs.”
I hadn’t heard a truer statement than that. When we’d met, we’d both been missing something. Together, we became each other’s support. We were each other’s family. Each other’s lost half. Each other’s missing piece.
Now, no matter what, we would always have each other.
I reached back and stroked his hair, my lips finding his over my shoulder as we shared a sweet kiss. “I love you,” I said.
He smiled, his lips lingering over mine.
“I love you, angel.”
THE END