Chapter 21
brODY
“Third door on the right,” I tell the fabulous view as Erica goes up the stairs. That my mind is distracted is a testament to how important today has been because her ass is begging for my tongue and her thighs are pleading for my fingertips.
She whispers, “Why does it feel like I’m not supposed to be here? Like we’re doing something wrong?” She sounds more than a little intrigued at the idea, which doesn’t surprise me about her in the least.
“Because you’re going into my childhood bedroom to fuck. Luckily for you, I just took down my WWE posters last week.” She glances back, brows raised in question. I smack her ass in pseudo-punishment. “Kidding. I seem like a fake wrestling sort to you?”
She smirks. “Abso-fucking-lutely, you do, Cowboy.” She drawls out the ‘cowboy’ in a fake accent that’d make John Wayne cringe.
I asked for that one, so I go ahead and give her the grin she earned and the grunt she’s expecting.
She opens the door, and I watch her, knowing exactly what she’s seeing.
A full-sized bed in the corner, unmade, of course, because I don’t see the point when I’m getting back in it tonight, a nightstand with the latest John Grisham book laid open to save my place, a basket of clean clothes sitting right next to a pile of dirty ones, and a chest of drawers where all the clean clothes should be.
“Very bachelor pad-ish,” she says. I can tell the unmade bed is driving her nuts.
She basically makes hers the second she gets out of it, a military habit holdover, she’s told me.
Suddenly, she gasps. “You are a fucking monster!” She picks up the book from my nightstand, waving it around in offense. “Use a bookmark, for fuck’s sake!”
I shrug, not caring in the slightest. “It’s my book. I’ll crease the spine if I want to.”
She looks horrified, so I make a show of grabbing a condom packet out of the top drawer, placing it inside the book, and closing it with a sarcastically affectionate pat.
I set it back on the nightstand, hugely implying ‘you happy?’ She smirks and wanders over to the chest of drawers, looking at a picture of my family, all six of us.
“I think I was around fifteen then, in high school for sure. Brutal must’ve been around thirteen, because that was one of the last times I was taller than him. He shot up that summer, passed us all, even Dad.”
“You look happy. You all look happy.” She touches the easy smile on my teenage face in the picture. There are flashes of this boy inside me still, but the man is more hardened and cynical from what I’ve gone through between that camera flash and now.
“We were. We are. It was just the in-between that was hard, but we’re all good now.
Truly. And one day, we’ll be even better.
I didn’t show you today, but over the hill to the west, Brutal is building a house for him and Allyson and Cooper.
And Bobby lets us all come listen to him perform at Hank’s now, something he never did before.
He’s gonna be on the radio one day, I just know it.
And Shay is happy with someone who wants her to live the life that she wants and deserves. ”
“You said everyone but you. What about Brody Tannen? Is he happy?” she asks softly, setting the picture back down and turning to face me fully.
“Yeah, Erica. I am happy. And I’m gonna carpe the shit out of this diem like it’s all we get.” I pick her up, and her legs go around my waist naturally.
I mean that. I still think relationships are a ticking time bomb, waiting to destroy you when they inevitably end, but I get why everyone risks it now.
Why, even if you know it’ll gut you eventually, it’s worth it to be with the one person who can make every minute mean something.
Without them, there’s no risk, but it’s merely an existence, not life.
If I can have one happy day with Erica, I’ll handle any days of pain later. I put off any worries and just focus on the now, a gift I’ve rarely gotten to truly appreciate.
I sit down on my bed, her tiny ass in my lap and her sweet pussy against my thickening cock. “I’ve never had a woman in here before.”
She looks at me skeptically. “I don’t believe that for one second. Teenage Brody Tannen was a bad boy who snuck girls into his room every chance he got, I’d bet money on it.”
I laugh. “You’d lose then. I live in the middle of nowhere. Ain’t nobody coming out here.” The important jump that she came out here to track me down whispers in the air between us, and her smile falls as something deeper takes root.
She runs her fingers through my hair, which is getting a little long, but it feels good when she scratches my scalp and tugs on the strands to get my attention so I’ve let it go longer than usual.
“You’re worth chasing, Brody. Worth caring for.
Worth sharing with. Worth living every day to the fullest with. ”
I swear I hear more, hear things with my heart that her lips aren’t saying because I feel them too. We might both be hesitant to speak the words out loud, but today has changed everything.
Something breaks inside me, something I didn’t even know existed. Or maybe it’s not breaking—it’s healing? Scabbing and scarring over, stronger and better than before. I rise up, throwing her on the bed. “I need you.”
It’s not so much that I need to fuck her but that I need to be inside her the way she’s inside me. She’s in my skin, in my blood, in my . . . heart. And I don’t know what to do with that other than fuck my way into hers too and hope she understands me.
She’s already scrambling, pulling her shirt over her head as I undo her shorts and pull them down her legs.
Her hands yank at my shirt, and I duck out of it, then both of us are shoving my jeans down.
I reach for the book, grabbing the condom out of its pages, not caring at all that I lost my place because I’ve found one . . . with Erica.
Sheathed, I lean over her, one hand on either side of her head, and slam into her. She instantly spasms below me. “Too much?” I growl, praying she says no.
Her short nails claw at my arms. “More. More. Fuck.” Her eyes pop open, and I can see the pleasure there, the hungry need, and also the absolute pure connection we’ve forged, no matter how hard both of us were fighting it.
It’s there. It’s deep, wide, and powerful. It’s everything I never knew existed. Other people aren’t crazy for feeling like this. I’m just a dumbass who thought they were exaggerating. Now I know they weren’t.
Whatever rollercoaster this woman has me on has already taken me to the highest highs and the lowest lows, but right here, this moment feels like pulling into the safety of home.
Her calves lock around my hips, and she pulls my chest to hers. I don’t want to suffocate her and hold some of my weight back, but she twines in and over me like a vine, taking it all. Her hands lock onto my back, and I freeze to make sure she’s okay. But she’s got other plans.
She uses the bounce of the bed to fuck me from below with shallow thrusts, keeping me inside her slick cunt as she works me. “Fuck, Erica. Keep doing that. You’re gonna make me come. That what you want?”
My face is buried in her hair, surrounded by the scent of her, a combination of oil, hand cleaner, and her shampoo.
I rumble words of encouragement in her ear.
“You are amazing . . . feels so good . . .” I don’t even know what I say after that because I’m one big ball of sensation and pleasure and my brain can’t form words, only grunting sounds.
I hover right on the edge as long as I can, and then when I can’t take it anymore, I jerk back from her.
She cries out at the loss of my cock, but I grab her legs and fold her in half, putting her pretty pussy on display for me.
I turn slightly so that I can support her legs with one hand and use the other to finger fuck her.
At the same time, I tease her clit with my tongue, and she thrashes, both trying to get more and trying to get away from the onslaught.
“Oh, my God, yes,” she hisses. She flies apart beneath me. I feel her pussy start to clamp down as she gushes for me, and I rise up, quickly thrusting back inside her with her calves resting on my shoulders.
I find a punishing rhythm, fast and hard, giving zero fucks to the racket we’re making with the headboard banging against the wall and both of us damn near grunting like animals. Through it all, we never lose eye contact.
We’re fucking, make no mistake that this is a rough, aggressive, nearly violent taking of each other’s body, but there’s more beneath the surface of the pleasure. Her eyes are deep and full of a future I let myself dream of, and I tell her with my own that I accept her, just as she is.
We find our climax together, her second pulling mine from my body as my spine jolts, my balls tense up, and my cock swells. The condom is between us physically, but there’s nothing between us emotionally as I hold her tight, coming down from the haze with panting breaths.
I lower her legs, turning us slightly so that my weight is on the bed, but stay inside her a little longer.
Pushing her hair back from her face, I trace over the freckles on her cheek with a fingertip.
“You are so fucking gorgeous, Erica. Outside” —I sweep the swoop of her nose— “and inside.” I press my lips to hers, willing her to taste the depth of what I’m feeling but unable to say it.
Her mouth opens to speak back, but a door closing downstairs makes both of us freeze in place.
“Who was that?” she whispers.
I look at her, telling her silently that’s a dumbass question because how would I know? I’ve been in here with her.
A moment later, my phone buzzes in my pants on the floor. I hate to do it, but I pull out of Erica, tossing the condom in the trash. I dig my phone out and see that I’ve got a text.
Mark: Sorry. Mama says she’ll set Erica a place for dinner.