27. Brynlee
You deserve the kind of love that brings peace to your soul.
—Brynlee’s Secret Thoughts
“What are you doing down here, Brynn?”
I look up at Maddox and smile as I enjoy the Atlantic Ocean washing over my feet. “It’s beautiful out here, isn’t it?”
“Yeah.” He looks out at the dark waves. “I guess it is. You doing okay?”
“Why wouldn’t I be?” I hip-check him gently. “Because I’m standing in the ocean, alone, the night before my wedding?”
“Well yeah, I guess. The girls are all up at the inn. Pretty sure Deacon is sitting in the dining room, enjoying a bottle of very old, very expensive bourbon with our dads. I heard our sisters saying they were going into town to see if they could find a little trouble. Have I told you how damn glad I am that Livvy didn’t go to the same school as Caitlin? Jesus. Those two together scare the shit out of me,” he admits, and a laugh burst from my lips.
He’s not wrong.
Those two are dangerous together.
“What are you talking about? Nothing scares you, Madman.” I kick water at his ankles and soak his rolled-up pants.
“You scared the shit out of me, Brynnie. You’re the heart of us all. You know that, right? You’re the nucleus. The one who holds us all together. The one who brought the twins into our craziness as kids. Who then brought Callen with them. The girls played soccer because you did. I trained at Crucible because I couldn’t have my girl cousin be a better fighter than me. You lead. We follow. Nothing can happen to you.” He shoves his hands in his pockets, then looks away.
“Maddox . . . that’s not true,” I protest.
“It is. I’m a lot of things, but a liar isn’t one of them.” His hoarse voice almost scares me. I’ve never seen him like this.
“I’m okay. The test came back negative. You know this. Everyone knows.” I grab his arm and make him look at me. “I don’t lie either. I’m fine.”
“Yeah. I guess I just wanted to hear you say it.” He wraps an arm around my shoulders and tilts his head against mine. “Guess you can’t be mad at me about the condo switch anymore since you’ve already moved out of ours and into Deacon’s house.”
“You fucker,” I giggle. “I guess if I can forgive my mom for the job switch thing, I can forgive you for the condo swap too.”
“Oh yeah? You let Scarlet off the hook?” he teases.
“It seemed pretty insignificant in light of everything else. Besides, what does she always say?” I ask, without a doubt in my mind he knows the answer.
“Everything happens for a reason,” Maddox murmurs with a shake of his head.
“Yup. Me working for Crucible makes my new life work so much better. I can be there for Kennedy when Deacon has to travel. My schedule will be much more flexible than it would have been.” Mom likes to say we may never know the reason, but she fully believes there always is one. I think this is one of those rare times I have no doubt what the reason is. Because I had already made up my mind about leaving the Revolution, I didn’t have to decide between my job and my family.
My family.
I love the sound of that.
“Yeah, I guess life has a funny way of working out, doesn’t it?” Maddox’s voice changes, and I look at him. Really look.
“Are you okay, Madman?”
“Brynnie?” I turn toward the voice calling my name and scream when I see Kenzie running my way.
“Kenzie? Oh my God. How are you here?” I shriek as she jumps, nearly tackling me into the ocean.
“Seriously, I can’t even appreciate the two of you dry humping in front of me because we’re all related. I need to move to a city where we don’t have any fucking family,” he grumbles.
“We love you too, Madman,” Kenzie squeals, and he kicks water at us before he walks away.
“How are you here, Kenz?” I ask, once we both stop squeezing each other.
“I traded shifts with someone, and Becket sent a plane for me. I fly back tomorrow night. You didn’t think I was going to miss your wedding, did you?”
“Well yeah, Kenz. I kinda did. You work sixty-hour work weeks. You only get two days off a month.” I link my pinky with hers and turn when I hear voices behind me to find the girls are walking down the beach. “Did you all know?”
They nod and admit they were in on the surprise.
“My heart feels so full it could burst right now, guys.” The stupid tears I can’t seem to stop start building behind my eyes.
“Kenz, is that like a medical condition or something?” Everly asks, and Gracie laughs.
“A bursting heart? Could you imagine?” Gracie shoves her sister with a smile.
“I mean, I’d be a goner because, Kenz, the way my heart feels like it’s going to burst every time your brother gives me an orgasm... seriously, it would be bad.” Lindy moves next to Kenzie and squeezes the hell out of her. “Can’t you finish your residency in Philly? We miss you.”
“You know I can’t. Just don’t have all your babies right away so I can deliver a few.” Kenzie rubs the tiny little baby bump Everly has before she looks back at Lindy. “Everyone except you. No more sex with my brother. No more babies for you. If I have to hear you talk about death by dick one more time, I might never be able to look at you again.”
“No can do, Kenz. He already made me come twice today.”
“How?” I ask.
“Well, let’s see, Brynn... when a man loves a woman,” Everly starts, and I splash her.
“I know that, Evie. I meant, how, as in, we’ve been together all day.”
“Morning sex is a lot of fun,” Gracie announces with such a dreamy look on her face, I have to stop and stare. “How much sex were you and the god of war having in the room next to mine? I just have to ask.”
“So much sex.” She puts her finger up to her lips, like it’s a secret, and Lindy pushes her out of the way and moves in front of me.
“Oh, young padawan. Welcome to motherhood, where you get it in whenever you can, wherever you can. You’re going to learn to get creative really quickly now. My advice for a good marriage is that communication is key. If you think you guys are talking enough, talk some more. There can never be too much communication or too much sex. Plenty of sex is the other part of the advice. Get it in as much as possible. It doesn’t always have to take hours either.” I can’t stop laughing as Kenzie turns a little green. “Oh, and drop to your knees every now and then. They fucking love that.”
“Too far, Lindy. Too damn far.” Kenzie shakes with laughter. “I missed you guys so much. I’m so jealous that you’re all so in love and having great sex.”
Lindy hugs her. “One day, you’ll have great sex too, Kenz.”
“Will it happen before I’m thirty?” she moans, and Lindy shrugs.
“Find a hot doctor and jump his bones in the on-call room like they do in Grey’s Anatomy,” Everly adds.
“It’s not like that,” Kenzie tells us and wraps her arm around my waist. “Let’s have a slumber party like we used too.”
“I call dibs on the bed.” Lindy links her arm around Kenzie’s waist, and the twins do the same thing on the other side of me.
“I love you ladies,” I tell them all. “Thank you for being my family.”
“Soulmates,” Gracie says.
“Soulmates,” I agree.
And at three a.m., when I can’t sleep because five grown women in one bed is four too many, I find myself knocking on my husband’s door.
It takes him a hot minute to get the door open. And when he does, he’s shirtless with just a pair of black boxer briefs covering his very impressive body, and I’m reminded of one of the many reasons I love this man. “God, you’re gorgeous,” I tell him as I wrap my arms around his neck and my legs around his waist.
He shuts the door behind us and presses me up against it. “I thought we weren’t supposed to see each other before the wedding. Isn’t it bad luck?” he growls as he licks inside my mouth, setting every inch of my body on fire.
“Yeah well, I’m supposed to be a virgin too. Let’s not get caught up in what we’re supposed to do, husband.” I grind down against his beautifully hard cock and moan. “Lock the door in case Kennedy comes looking for you,” I murmur against his lips and shove his boxers down with my feet as he locks the door and crosses the room.
Deacon sits down on the bed and runs his hands up my legs, dragging up the long white cotton nightgown I just bought with his hands. “I like this, baby. It’s all sweet and innocent.”
He doesn’t take it off me, just finds the strings of my lace panties and rips them from my body.
So fucking hot.
Deacon’s mouth is hot and firm, and it’s everywhere.
My neck. My shoulders. My ears.
“What do you want, wife?” he growls before biting down on my earlobe.
I reach between us and wrap my hand around his dick and pump him. “I want to come on your cock, husband.”
“You want it slow and sweet, baby?” He runs a finger through my sex and around my clit before he plunges it inside me.
“No,” I cry out at the invasion. “I want you to fuck me. Hard and fast. Make me come, then hold me while I sleep.”
He pulls out and plunges two fingers deep inside me, curling them and scraping that rough patch only he’s ever found, and I throw my head back and moan. “Fuck, that feels so good.”
“Give me one now, Brynn.” He takes my breast in his mouth and bites down on my nipple as he repeats that incredible thing he does with his fingers, and that’s all it takes. I come fast and hard and so damn much, I’m surprised his hand doesn’t cramp while he works me through my first orgasm.
“That’s one, baby.” He lifts me from his lap, then lays me down on the bed and tugs my nightgown off me, then kicks his boxer briefs off and drags me to the edge of the bed. “This is going to be two, Mrs. Kane.”
He drops to his fucking knees for me and spreads my pussy. One finger runs through my drenched sex, and I squirm and bend my knees and plant my feet flat against the bed. “Deacon...”
“Patience, Brynn. I’m going to give you what you need. But I’m taking what I want first.” He kisses his way up the inside of my thigh, leaving goosebumps all over my flesh. He throws my legs over his shoulder, leaving me at his mercy, and pulls my ass right up to the edge of the bed before he finally... finally, drags his tongue up the length of my pussy, then sucks my clit between his lips.
“Ohmygod,” I scream, already overstimulated from my first orgasm.
He tongues me over and over, adding one thick finger, then another until I’m a quivering, needy mess, and thank God, I don’t know whose rooms are on either side of this one because there’s no way the walls can hide my screams.
I grind shamelessly against his face, my heels digging into his back, and my husband growls his approval against my pussy until I’m quivering and shattering again. Only this time, he doesn’t wait for my orgasm to stop before he puts a knee on the bed and notches his cock against my core. My mouth waters and opens, but no sound comes out as he fills me in one fast, deliciously hard thrust, stealing my breath from my body.
“That’s my greedy girl. You gonna show me how bad you want my cock?” He drops his body down over mine, giving me his weight the way I love, and presses his lips to mine, pushing his tongue into my mouth and forcing me to taste myself on him. It’s so damn hot.
His strong hands grip my hips and rolls us over so I’m on top. But in no way am I in control. Deacon sits up, bringing us chest to chest and wraps an arm around me, holding my head in his hand. He pulls my hair back and pushes his hips up, nice and slow. “Is this what you want, wife?” he taunts me, and fuck, it’s so hot.
He moves me like a rag doll. Dragging every inch of his decadent cock inside me.
Filling me until I feel like I can’t possibly take anymore.
I circle my arms around his neck and lift my hips, then slam them back down on him. Taking him even deeper. Pushing us both higher.” Deacon...” I gasp in warning. “I’m so close.”
“I’ve got you, baby,” he growls against my mouth, and my God, the way my body knows this man. His words are just as hot as his body.
He shifts and changes the angle just enough that I see stars.
“Deacon—” I call out as I shake.
He keeps up his slow pace. Brutally slow.
Dragging out every single second.
Wringing every ounce of pleasure from my body before he empties himself inside me in one final thrust. “My fucking wife.”
When I swing my legs off the bed a few hours later, Deacon’s arm wraps around my waist like a vice and drags me back to him, spooning me. “Where are you going?” he rasps in a sexy, sleepy voice.
“I have to get back to my room before anyone comes looking for me,” I whimper as his hand moves to my breast. “No more, Deacon. I can’t. You have to wait until tonight or I won’t be able to walk down the aisle.” I’m only half kidding. He made me come two more times in as many hours, and five is a new record for us.
He pulls the blanket up over us and buries his face in my hair. “I married you so I could wake up with you every day.”
“You married me because you needed a wife,” I tease and roll over in his arms and press my lips to his chin. “Now you have to marry me again in front of both our families in a few hours, and it takes this girl a lot of time to get ready, so you’re going to have to let go.”
He drags his eyes over my face. “Marrying you was the best thing I ever did, Brynn.”
“Well, if you want to do it again in a few hours, you’ve got to let me go.” This man is everything I never knew I needed. “Don’t forget this whole thing was your idea.”
“Yeah well, your parents like me now, and don’t think for one minute your dad getting to walk you down the aisle didn’t help get us out of the doghouse.” He takes my mouth in the most sinful kiss, and for one single hot second, I consider staying right here in this bed.
“I’ll see you in a few hours, Mr. Kane. I’ll be the one in white.” I pull away and commit this moment to my memory.
“Wait.” He sits up and pulls something out of the drawer in the nightstand. “Here. It’s just a little wedding present.”
It’s wrapped in white paper with a golden ribbon tied around it, and I’m pretty sure he wrapped it himself, judging by the looks of it.
“I didn’t get you anything.” I turn it over in my hands, guilt building that it didn’t even cross my mind.
“You already gave me my gift, Brynn. You’re here, standing in front of me.” He shrugs almost shyly. “Open it.”
“Okay,” I agree, kind of enjoying this less confident version of Deacon. I carefully untie the ribbon, making sure I don’t rip the paper yet. I want to take my time. This is the first gift Deacon’s ever given me. I slide my finger under the tape and pull away the paper, then look at the plain brown leather notebook in my hand and flip it over.
On the front is a monogram.
DKB.
Our monogram.
And the month and year we came to Block Island all those years ago is engraved in the leather beneath it.
“Deacon...” My words die in my mouth, and I drop down on the bed next to him.
“It’s when our story started,” he tells me with his chin resting on my shoulder. “I thought maybe you’d want to fill it with all our adventures.”
“It’s the most perfect thing anyone has ever given me.” I bite down on my lip, completely overwhelmed.
“You’re the most perfect thing I’ve ever been given, Brynn,” he tells me, and I very carefully place the book on the nightstand. “What are you doing?”
I pull my nightgown back over my head. “It’s not like they can start the wedding without us.”
His smile is so damn sexy. “No, baby, it’s not. But it’ll be a funny chapter.”
“Maybe we don’t let anyone else ever read this book, okay?” I push back on his shoulders and run my fingers over his lips. “I love you.”
“Until the very end, Brynn.”
“Until the very end, Deacon.”