I lean up, wiping my nose with the back of my sweater. “EJ and I didn’t date,” I remind her. “So I don’t know what his normal is for reacting to bad news like this.”
“Rhett’s the same way,” Montgomery says as she comes in, bringing a bottle of wine and a few glasses with her.
I wasn’t even thinking when I texted her, I just knew I liked her from the little amount of time I spent with her on the boat in Italy, and I knew she’d understand a Thompson.
Montgomery looks at Hannah. “I know you’ve wondered why we broke up, or you at least have some idea, but when I confronted him about the stuff he was doing, he did the same thing. He ran away. We’re just now starting to talk again, and honestly I don’t want to let him go.” She runs a hand through her hair. “I love him more than I ever thought I could love someone, but he’s stubborn.”
“Trust me, they get it honestly.” Hannah hands me a glass of wine. “But there’s one thing I do know. He loves you, and if he’s anything like Garrett, he’ll be here soon, and he’ll be apologizing with everything he has in him.”
“I don’t want his apology; I want him to tell me nothing is going to break us. It’s important to me, because of the way I grew up, to know I have someone on my side when things go to shit.”
“What happened with your parents, Bri?” Montgomery asks.
It’s normal for others to be curious, but I hardly ever talk about this to anyone, choosing instead to keep it to myself. A part of me knows it’s time though, to open up to these people I’m going to be around. It’s time for me to trust this family I’m going to be a part of, because I know they’ll be in my life. I won’t stand for anything less. It’s time to stop being afraid others are going to out my story to some tabloid for the money.
“My parents.” I stop almost as soon as I start, licking my lips. “They just don’t love each other, or their kids. What they do love is money. They’ve always expected me to provide for our family, and I did for a long time, but not anymore.”
“Seriously?” Montgomery takes a drink from her glass. “Are you worried they’ll rat you out?”
“Madison and I are working on it, and I hope they have at least enough love for me not to embarrass me anymore.”
Hannah smiles sadly. “Do they tell you they love you?”
The tears come out of nowhere as my bottom lip juts out, trying to hold in the emotions threatening to rise to the surface. Unexpectedly they fall as I shake my head. “Not in a long time. When I was giving them money, yeah. Because they were getting what they wanted from me. But since I started playing hardball? No, I’ve barely even spoken with them. Getting my possessions here was hard enough – not because they fought me on it – but because they didn’t care. I don’t know what I would do if I had to move back there.”
“Why do you think you have to move back there?” Montgomery refills my glass.
“I mean, I don’t have anywhere else to go,” I shrug. “It’s what I know.”
Montgomery’s voice is louder than I’ve ever heard it. “This is your home, Bri. You don’t have to go anywhere you don’t want to go. Nashville suits you. I may not know you well, but I’ve watched your career. In all the time I’ve watched, I’ve never seen you smile as much as you smile right now. The tired look is going from your face, the anxiousness is gone from your eyes. You love it here, and there’s no reason for you to pack up and leave. Nashville is big enough for the both of you, if this doesn’t work out.” She takes a long drink. “If it’s been big enough for me and RJ, it’s definitely big enough for the two of you.”
Hannah snorts, causing us both to laugh.
“I’m not even sure what I want to do anymore.” I shove my hair back from my face. “This business has given me everything, but now I almost feel like it’s taking it all away.”
Hannah puts her arms back around me. “This business is hard, Bri, especially being the type of artist you are. People will pull at you to be here and there, push for you to say yes all the time. You have to decide what’s important to you.” She squeezes me tightly.
So many memories float through my head as I think about what’s important to me. It used to be me getting my first gold record, then my first platinum one. The time I heard my single on the radio, I’d cried and rushed to record it with my cell phone so I’d always remember the moment. When I’d performed on one of the network channels, on their morning show. That had been the highlight of the year for me. I’d talked about it on Instagram, sharing all kinds of pictures and tagging all my friends in them. It had been the pinnacle of everything I’d worked for.
Finally something tangible to show for all the work I’d put into this career. A prize for the sleepless nights and early mornings, a benefit to counting my calories and working out every single day for months at a time.
Proving to myself it was all worth it.
But at some point those memories changed. Instead of just featuring me and a few friends, but mostly me and Madison, they started featuring a guy with amazing green eyes and the hottest tattoos I’ve ever seen. Instead of wanting to be seen at the hottest club, I’d rather be at home with him, making more memories.
And now I’m not even sure he’ll want that with me any longer. Because we had a miscommunication. Because people want to tear us apart. The division is always more popular than the happiness.
My stomach drops as I think about my life without him. I know, I finally know what’s important to me, and it has nothing to do with my song on the charts, a clothing line, or how many followers I have on social media.
“What’s important to me is the smile on EJ’s face when he sees me in a crowd. It’s feeling safe when I’ve never felt safe at all. It’s the way he wraps his arms around me, and I know he won’t let go until I ask him to. What’s important to me is my marriage,” I cry into Hannah’s shoulder, wishing things could be different.
I don’t hear him come in, but my body responds automatically. I get chill bumps and a sliver of awareness surrounds me. He’s the only person who’s ever made me feel this way.
When he speaks, I’m surprised. Not by him being here, but by what he says.
“It’s important to me, too.”
He must have heard me talking to Hannah. I let go of her, turn around, and face my husband. Hoping with everything I have I’ll see love in his eyes, and not the fiery anger I saw earlier. When I see only love and compassion, I run to him, throwing myself into his arms.
Right where I always want to be.
Chapter Thirty-Four
Bri
Holding onto him tightly, I refuse to let go. I do what I should’ve done earlier, and hold on tight. My arms should’ve tightened around him and held him to me, not allowing him to leave. Had I done that, there wouldn’t have been any of us having to go through this shit together with our friends.
It’s only then I realize something that changes everything.
He’s come back.
He left, but he came back. First time in my life someone has done that. Emotions flow through my body like a river. I don’t know how to handle someone coming back, and wanting to stay. Since this hasn’t ever happened before, I’m doing my best to hold my shit together. He speaks to his mom and Montgomery, but I can’t make out what he’s saying. All I can understand is that the words aren’t for me.
For a few minutes, I do keep it together, but then the enormity of what this means hits me again.
He loves me.
He wants to be with me.
We’re in each other’s lives forever.
Unchecked, another round of tears stream down my face, and this time I can’t stop them. The couch dips with our weight, his strong arms going around me, holding on so tight, I’m not sure anyone can pry us apart. I close into myself, holding his arms tightly, dipping my head down to let the tears flow. Eventually they subside, and I lift my head.
Hannah and Montgomery are gone, EJ has situated himself in front of me, and we’re alone. His h
and comes up, wiping the moisture of my tears away. “I’m sorry I left,” he whispers, drying off my skin.
“I’m sorry I made you feel like you had to,” I whisper back.
We’re quiet for a long time, holding one another in the darkness of our living room. There’s still stuff between us, questions we don’t know the answers to, a future we aren’t one hundred percent positive about.
But I do know one thing. As long as I’m with him, nothing else matters. I hope like hell he feels the same way for me.
“What are we going to do?” I finally put the question out there.
He shifts so that he’s holding me tighter. “No bullshit, Bri. Do you want to stay married? Is this what you want?”
I’ve thought about it a lot since we got married. Thought about it even more from the moment he left me here. “I do, I want to be with you, still be your wife. They’re going to do their best to break this up.”
“They can try.” He tightens his grip on me. “They can try all they want, but no one will take you away from me.”
“Do you want to stay married?” It’ll kill me if he says no, but we have to go into this with open eyes and hearts. Things we didn’t go into this with before.
We kiss, softly at first, but then as he deepens our contact, it becomes more aggressive, more like a possession, a brand on my skin. Like he’s telling me with the strength of his kiss how he feels about me. Then, I do the same, wanting anyone who sees him after this, to know he’s mine.
All fucking mine.
His fingers scratch against my skin, mine scratch against his. My fingers tighten in his hair, holding him close, so close to me. Somehow, we undress without breaking apart, and I know I want this more than I’ve ever wanted anything.
He leans back against the arm of the couch, bringing me to straddle his waist. Grinding down against him, I kiss him with everything I have. He kisses me back with just as much passion. When he enters me, we both gasp, and as I rock against him, our eyes open and meet.
This isn’t just sex, it’s a coming together of two souls who know they’re meant to be one. “Nothing will break this,” he whispers as he grips my fingers tighter.
“No one,” I vow as I ride him with abandonment, throwing my head back against my shoulders.
When we come it’s in a quiet explosion, more a spiritual awakening than anything I’ve ever felt before. We lay against each other, both trying to get our breath.
In the quietness of the aftermath, our doorbell rings. We both groan.
EJ
That’s the last fucking noise I want to hear right now, but I’m aware we do have family and friends worried about us. I hope it’s easy to convince them to leave. All I want is more alone time with my wife. More time to prove to her I won’t leave again, to show her how sorry I am for doing so in the first place.
Neither one of us are prepared to greet guests, but it’s easier for me to get presentable than it is for her.
“I’ll get it,” I kiss her bare shoulder.
“Are you sure?” She stretches.
“Damn sure. I don’t want anyone else to see how you look after you come.” I lean in stealing her mouth with mine. When we pull apart, I whisper. “This look is mine alone. I’ll guard it with my life, babe.”
She grins, one of those stupidly in love grins. I’m sure I have a matching one spreading across my face.
The bell rings again, but I refuse to be hurried.
Separating us, I grab my boxer briefs, wiping off the evidence of our good time, throwing them to the side. “Don’t touch ‘em, I’ll clean them up in a few minutes.”
Her eyes are closed, she salutes me with her hand. “Got it, no cleaning up your undies.”
The bell rings again and now I’m getting pissed. “I’m fucking coming,” I yell as I tuck myself in, zipping up right as I get to the door. Irritated I jerk it open, not sure who I expect to see on the other side.
In hindsight, I probably should have checked the security camera, and normally I would have, but after everything we’d been through, I wasn’t thinking straight. Muscle memory is a real thing, and it was proven to me this evening.
When I open the door, there’s a man I’ve never seen before. He looks like he could have been anyone. Nothing about him struck me as official or even odd. Not until he asked my name.
“Are you Everett James Thompson?”
“Who wants to know?”
“I just need to verify who you are, sir.”
It’s not like I can lie, most people know who I am, I’d say a good eighty percent of the world knows what I look like. “I’m EJ, what can I do for you?”
He hands me an envelope. “You’ve been served.”
“What the fuck?”
I rip open the piece of manilla, wondering if this is a joke. If someone has decided to play a sick prank. Taking the paper out, I scan it over, trying to make heads or tails of what it says.
It doesn’t take long for me to see a couple of highlighted sentences.
Grey Skies will follow the recommendations of the record label set before them. If they choose not to do so, the contract will be null and void, and they will have to repay the amount set forth.
Everett James Thompson and Brianna Jenkins are hereby asked to divorce for the continuation of this contract. Failure to do so will be met with legal ramifications, not only for you, but for Grey Skies as well.
Now I’m fucking pissed. Come at me all you want, but leave my band out of it. And to threaten Bri too? I’m beyond furious. I’m still reading the papers as I shuffle into the living room.
“So I can make us breakfast for dinner tonight, if you want me to. I know I worked up an appetite.”
I don’t answer her, still trying to take in everything that’s happened in the few minutes since I last left her.
It’s almost as if she can feel the coldness I bring into the room with me, the force of my anger and irritation is heavy between us.
She lifts up on her elbow, pulling the blanket we keep on the back of the couch over her nakedness.
“EJ?”
My gaze is laser-focused as I hold up a piece of paper in front of her. “We’ve been served.”
And that’s when both of us realize we’re in for the fight of our lives.
EJ & Bri’s story continues in Breach of Contract
About the Author
Laramie Briscoe is the USA Today and Wall Street Journal Bestselling Author of over 30 books.
Since self-publishing her first book in May of 2013, Laramie has appeared on the Top 100 Bestselling E-books Lists on Amazon Kindle, Apple Books, Barnes & Noble, and Kobo. Her books have been known to make readers laugh and cry. They are guaranteed to be emotional, steamy reads.
When she's not writing alpha males who seriously love their women, she loves spending time with friends, reading, and marathoning shows on Netflix. Married to her high school sweetheart, Laramie lives in Bowling Green, KY with her husband (the Travel Coordinator) and a sometimes crazy cat named Beau.
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Power Couple: A Marriage of Convenience Romance (The Nashvegas Series Book 1) Page 18
