4. Braylon
FOUR
brAYLON
“How many wrongs make a right?”
Adan shrugged. “You misread thirteen and thirty in your haste. Not a big deal.”
I pointed out that he was supposed to get on a plane and I mistook two digits. That was a lot of wrongs that led to us meeting. And was it right? Were we destined to be friends or would we say goodbye after he delivered me to Uncle Saul and Aunt Ellie?
Adan had leaped to my defense when that guy snarked at us which could be interpreted either as kind, protective, or creepy. I had a good feeling about him, though I hadn’t initially.
Hmmm, how many hitchhikers had said that before they ended up dead and buried in a shallow grave? I couldn’t let my mind go there.
But there was something that was skewing my opinion of Adan. An animal magnetism was the best way to describe it, and it was drawing me in, making it difficult to breathe. I wanted to toss off my clothes and trail my fingers over his bare skin.
Taking a deep breath, I pondered my options.
If I didn’t trust Adan, I would have called Uncle Saul to come get me, except he didn’t have a car. So I’d put all the guardrails in place, and I’d have the location on my phone turned on. No way would my body lay undiscovered. I almost burst out laughing thinking the best option was that someone would find my remains.
“Perhaps it was meant to be.” His words interrupted my bleak thoughts, but I couldn’t match them to what we’d been talking about. What had we been discussing before I went on my thought tangent?
“Sorry? What?”
“Maybe the universe put us on a collision course for a reason.”
I didn’t like the word collision unless the universe had an F-ed sense of humor.
“The purpose may have been to tell the snarky guy to take a leap.”
Something fluttered over Adan’s face, just for a second before it was gone. Disappointment? Annoyance? I couldn’t decide, but he’d definitely reacted when I mentioned the guy.
“Shame we didn’t find out his name. Snarky guy sounds too nice.”
“Nah, I’m glad we didn’t. Labeling him with a name would humanize him.”
He was right. He’d be snarky guy forever more. Not that I wanted to think about him again.
Aunt Ellie texted me, her smiling face in a corner of the screen.
Uncle Saul can borrow a car and collect you. I don’t like the idea of someone you just met driving you home .
Home. Yeah, I’d never visited the new house but wherever they were was my home.
It’s fine . I sent them Adan’s photo, a pic of his license, and said I’d take a photo of the car once we picked it up. I already had the license plate, as Adan had the booking confirmation.
He must be something special. Love you xxx
What? No, she had it upside down. There was nothing special about Adan. Nope, I’d thought that wrong. Everyone was special in their own way. And Adan was a standout human because he stood up for me and offered to go out of his way to get me to my destination. Not many strangers would do that.
But Aunt Ellie had been hoping I’d find “the one” for a while. She and Uncle Saul had a long and happy marriage, and she wanted the same for me. Besides, she worried that when they were gone, I’d have no one. I’d poo-pooed that, saying they were going to be on this earth for decades to come.
We were five minutes away from Springfield. I didn’t want to race out at the last minute, hoping I didn’t get left on the train as it got shunted off to wherever empty trains ended up. I stood and almost fell as the carriage swung around a sharp curve.
“Keep an eye on this, please.” I put the house-warming gift on my seat and struggled along the aisle, banging the seats left and right. The ride had been pretty smooth so far, but as soon as I got up, it was bumpy-bump-bump-bump.
A little voice in my ear said maybe bumpy-bump was what I wanted to do with Adan.
No. Shit, I almost blurted that out loud. I most certainly did not want Adan to pull over on the drive and get naked with me. Hmmm, but I wouldn’t mind a peek at his cock ‘cause I was convinced it was thick, hard, and oh so pink.
My cheeks burned and thank gods I had my back to him. But now I had to return to the seat and grab the present. I hadn’t thought this through.
The train slowed, the brakes squealing, and I almost felt sorry for them. Ouch! That sounded painful.
Adan took his suitcase and briefcase, whisking the case off the luggage rack as if it weighed nothing. He picked up my gift and sashayed along the aisle toward me.
Words deserted me, my thoughts were discombobulated, and I stood, opened-mouthed, gripping the top of a seat as the carriage rocked. Adan looked good enough to eat. Yum!
Slick streamed from my hole, and I thanked the universe for guiding me to wear my black jeans this morning. If I’d chosen a lighter color, there'd be a huge tell-tale stain on my ass. It'd be like having a sign on my butt that read, “You turn me on!” Or worse, “I’m horny.”
The train eased to a halt and the doors opened. We got out and strode toward the station entrance. Adan was supposed to collect the car at the airport, but after messaging them, they brought the vehicle to the station.
It was early afternoon and we had an hour’s drive ahead of us. I wondered if I should invite him to stay for a meal at the house or whether he’d want to get back on the road.
We piled into the car and he punched our destination into the gps. Once out of the city, we chatted about everything and nothing. But I was intrigued about what he told the salty guy. I preferred salty to snarky because I was tired of the word snarky.
“What did you mean when you said to you-know-who that I’d understand once you showed me something?”
“Oh, that.” He kept his eyes straight ahead even though we were the only ones on the road and he wasn’t going very fast. He was avoiding me and my question.
“Stop!” I yelled.
The car screeched to a halt, and Adan glanced at me as he white-knuckled the steering wheel.
“Are you car sick?”
“No!” I jumped out, phone in hand, and snapped a pic of the car. “I forgot to send this to Aunt Ellie.” Not that it mattered, as she had the license plate.
“Oh.” The tension in his fingers vanished, and he removed his hands from the wheel. “Good thinking.”
It occurred to me he maybe thought I was going to take off, but we were on a deserted road, so where would I go? Hightail it into the forest? I wasn’t a woodsy person.
“Tell me. Please.”
Now he drummed his fingers on the wheel. “It’s a little difficult to explain. It’s best if I show you once I know you better.”
He was going to show me his cock. I was partly pissed that he assumed I wanted to see it and have sex, partly annoyed that he’d brought it up in front of the train passengers, and partly excited that he was interested in me.
“But I might need permission first.”
What? Did he need to ask his mommy or daddy whether he could be intimate with an omega? What had I stumbled into? Perhaps it was just as well we’d be in Rosedale soon. It might be for the best if we never met again.
“That’s a little weird.” I folded my arms, trying to keep my distance.
“I’m not like you, Braylon.”
“You think?” I was a grown-up and didn’t need permission to have sex. So much for my vision of getting naked with this guy.
“It’s not what you think.”
He was making it worse. Why did people always say that? He wasn’t a mind reader. And he had no clue what I was thinking except that it didn’t put him in a good light.
I couldn’t look at him, wanting to blame him for… for what? For thinking there might be a something something between us? That wasn’t his fault. It was all me.
There was a part of me like Aunt Ellie who wanted to be one half of a couple. We didn’t have to get married, I didn’t care about a piece of paper. But a partner to grow old with, to have kids with. And whenever I met an alpha I liked, I thought ahead to how our life would be.
I might need therapy, but I’d think about that once I’d started the new job and could afford it.
“Look, I like you.”
And those four words tossed the idea of therapy out the window. I hadn’t been imagining things. Once again, I pulled myself back. He said he liked me, not that he wanted to give me babies.
“You’re a little odd, but I like you too.”
“Good. Glad we’ve got that sorted.”
Now what? We lived in the same town, so once we both returned, we could have dinner.
“Do you like to eat?” Wait, that came out wrong. I was thinking food. Damn!
He sniggered. “I’ve been known to eat on occasion.”
“Are you thinking of eating something other than a meal? Because that’s not what I was referring to.”
He looked at me, the glare from the sun making him squint, an oh so innocent expression on his face. “What other sort of eating is there?”
My cheeks burned, and I squirmed. Thank gods he couldn’t smell my slick because I was so turned on.
But he sniffed and smirked. No, his sense of smell couldn’t be that good.