Dirty: Loving Him Against All Odds

by Christine Gray

  “I won’t say I will be gentle with you every time, but until I break you in, I’ll do my best to go slow,” he promised.

  Trish had now become his heart, and he would never do anything to hurt her. He was willing to risk not telling her the truth if it meant him keeping the woman he loved.

  Chapter Seven

  Two days later, Brayden happily introduced Trish to the many people that had traveled to crowd into his parent’s house for an early Christmas party. He did his best to keep her close to his side to make sure she felt comfortable; or at least, that was what he told himself. He knew that the gossip tree had done its job to make sure everyone there knew who she was. He had to make sure that no one wanted to commit a self-righteous act and told her what he was determined to keep hidden. There was no need to bring up the past. They all needed to mind their own business, including his mother.

  He had taken to just glaring at her from across the room after what she had done when he and Trish had arrived. She had made a point of ignoring them, even though they had been standing right next to her. When she did decide to bless them with a greeting, she made sure to not acknowledge Trish until he forced her to. A damn child could sense her cold reception of Trish. She had tossed Trish a quick hello, then dismissed her immediately. He had tried to cover it up by telling her that his mother had been off due to his cousins’ visit. His plan worked. She had completely forgotten his jackass of a mother upon seeing the two black women in the room.

  “Trish, this is Calico, and her husband, Andreas,” he pointed to very large, very round, obviously uncomfortable pregnant woman and the handsome man next to her. He glanced through the crowd.

  “Where’s Beau?” he questioned.

  Andreas shook his head. “You don’t want to be near him right now.”

  “Why?”

  “Because today is the day,” responded Andreas.

  The two ladies saw Brayden’s eyes widen in shock.

  “You’re fucking with me. He’s here…where?”

  Andreas gestured with his head for him to come close. Being nosy, Trish leaned in to hear whatever the stylish man was going to say. He directed them to a tall, fit older man that was standing in a group of people. The man’s eyes were concentrated on another group of people that were just a few feet next to him.

  “Who’s Beau?” questioned Trish.

  She locked on to the tall man with a messy hair bun. The pressed tailored pants and sports coat fit his body to perfection.

  “Damn, he’s fine.”

  She hadn’t realized she had spoken those words out loud until the black girl thanked her for her appraisal of her man. Embarrassed, her eyes want to Brayden. He pinned her with an icy stare. He pulled her hard to his side. He touched his lips to hers.

  “You going to pay for that comment later,” he mumbled.

  He sucked on her bottom lip and grabbed her ass as a reminder that she belonged to him.

  **

  The man had been watching Beau from the second he had entered the room with the stunning African-American woman on his arm. He had taken his time while he followed him, working his way into whatever conversation was going on near the handsome man. His eyes roamed over the boy’s form, committing his every feature to memory. He tilted his head to catch the deep-toned words that he spoke. He had to keep telling himself that this wasn’t a dream. He was actually there, just feet away from Beau, his only son. Of course, there was another son he had been raising, but he knew that he wasn’t his. Gloria had gotten knocked up by the man she had been fuckin’ to pay for her drugs.

  He danced on his feet. He rubbed his wet palms in his pants. He glanced at Toni, who was among the group of people that was standing with Beau. He started to make his move when someone shouted something at him from across the room. Without thinking, he yelled his annoyed response back. Beau’s head instantly swung around.

  His narrowed eyes bore into the unaware man’s back. He chomped down on his jaw. Toni took hold of his arm, only for Beau to glare at Toni’s hand as if he had lost his damn mind. With a nod, Toni removed his hand. The man turned around to come face to face with his son.

  Beau’s eyes roamed over the unfamiliar face before him. He had been able to change his face, and clearly his body too. The last memory he had of his father, he was chubby due to the beer gut he carried had been replaced with a thin, fit one. However, there was no disguising his voice. It was the same voice that he heard every so many months through the recorded messages Toni delivered to him. He could see the man visibly shaking and he wondered if it was out of fear of Beau’s response, or if it was out of joy. That question was answered when he took note of the tears that were forming in the man’s emotional eyes.

  The silence in the room was deafening. His father gulped hard. He held out a shaking hand toward Beau. He opened his mouth, but the violent force of Beau slapping his hand away cause him to close it in defeat.

  “I’ll beat your fuckin’ ass if you give me your hand when I’ve missed so many years of hugs,” mumbled Beau in a thick tone.

  Capri covered her mouth to keep from crying out at the sight of Beau and his father engaging in one major bear hug. She knew that his father being missing from his life had created a gaping hole in his heart that even her love wouldn’t be able to fill. Now that they were twenty-three weeks along with their own child, he had been thinking more and more about his own father.

  **

  Unfortunately, the good spirit of hope, joy, and love did nothing to sooth the bitch called Mama. Brayden was thankful that Trish was too preoccupied throughout the dinner talking to Calico to notice the nasty stares his mother kept shooting her way. He had been listening to the girl explain the feelings of heartburn, lightening, and pain in her lower back that had started late afternoon. He could tell that Trish was really concerned and thought that Calico was in the early stages of labor, but she wasn’t willing to believe that to be true with her still being in her eighth month. It also helped that Trish didn’t understand Italian, but he did. He heard every goddamn comment his mother said about Trish under her breath.

  “I’m getting tired of your bullshit. Correct yourself before I cause a scene,” he growled in the foreign language.

  Not everyone knew what he said, but those that did sat stunned. No one other than a handful of people had the balls to speak to her that way. She turned her head slowly to glare at him. The loud clinking of her fork hitting her glass commanded all the chatter that was still going on in the large dinner to stop. Trish did a double-take at the murderous expression on Brayden’s face. Her eyes darted between him and his mother. It was obvious that something had jumped off between the two. She was sure from the way she had treated her, that she was the cause of the drama.

  “I should come over there and crack your skull,” his mother barked.

  “You do and I’ll knock you on your ass. I’m not a fuckin’ boy, and I don’t give a damn who you are. You will not disrespect her,” he thundered.

  “You would challenge me over that fuckin’ bitch?” she tossed back.

  The old lady actually felt herself flinch at the sudden movement of Brayden raising to his feet; he was forced back down by Beau and Andreas, who had gotten up to keep him from reacting.

  She smirked, feeling confident with the two men keeping him in his chair. She switched to English to ensure Trish understood her.

  “She isn’t the one for you, son. She’s nothing like your ex. You should have married her, seeing how she was pregnant with your baby.”

  He went deathly still. He willed himself not to look at Trish. He felt his cousin’s hands on his loosen up.

  “I wasn’t going to marry someone I didn’t love, just because you and her had schemed together to get me to. I think I’ve sacrificed myself enough for your selfish ass. It was a get out of jail card the day she lost the baby,” he replied in a cold voice. He tilted his head, “Oh, you thought I didn’t know. I knew I shouldn’t have trusted a woman that was frien
ds with a big mouth, disloyal bitch like you.

  His mother shifted in her chair. She had to change her tactic. She didn’t want the others to find out about what his comment about sacrifice meant. She knew that she would never recover from the knowledge of the others at the table finding out that she wanted nothing to do with her daughter after she got on drugs. Or the fact that she had refused to take in her own grandchildren when they were born. There had been times that she had even seen her little girl. She looked dirty, aged beyond her young years, shuffling down the streets of Atlanta. There were a few times that their eyes had connected. There was no denying the fact that her daughter had recognized who she was. Even still, she drove on or walked quickly away as if she didn’t know her. To her, her little girl was gone. The little girl wasn’t the only one that had to deal with a tragedy being done to her. The fact that she chose to allow one event in her life to break her only proved that the girl was weak, and her mother didn’t do weak.

  “And have you told her? Have you told her the truth about us?” she asked instead, hoping that it would be enough to send the girl running.

  “I will not stand for this bullshit. I told you that she was welcomed in this home. If you can’t deal with that then—” his father snapped from the other end of the table only to be cut off by Trish.

  Finding her voice, Trish straightened herself. The rage she felt at that second of his mother’s embarrassment of Brayden made her absolutely light headed. She could give two shits about the crazy bitch not liking her. She had to deal with George’s mother hating her, pointing out her every mistake, talking shit behind her back, trying to undermine her concerning her kids, and starting drama at every turn, so Brayden’s mom was nothing new.

  “If you’re talking about you all being the Mob, yeah…I know. Now, what I can’t process is that you’re lacking so much class that you would call your son out like this. Who the fuck do you think you are?” she roared as she got to her feet, her voice getting loud. “You are one ghetto motherfucker,” she continued, pulling off her earrings. “If you have an issue with me, and if you want to be retched about it, I have no problem fucking your ass up.”

  She moved so fast that Brayden couldn’t do a thing to stop it. Trish grabbed up her full glass of wine and flung it across the table, drenching his shocked mother in the face. He moved quickly to stop Trish from crawling across the table to have at his mother. A thunderous round of applause went up in the dining room as everyone cheered her actions of standing up for her man. Trish’s stream of curses mixed with the sounds in the room as he locked her legs around his waist. He supported her weight by placing his hands under her ass. He grabbed up her purse and began to walk out the room. As they passed by, his family patted Trish on the back. He chuckled before he caught his father’s grinning stare.

  “Loyal,” Brayden shouted back in Italian.

  **

  The next day, Trish checked her GPS for the third time to ensure she was going in the right direction. She knew it wasn't because she doubted the coordinates, but it was her nervousness about going to Brayden's house for the first time. It had been a week since they had taken their relationship to the next level in the hotel room. She didn't know what to expect when he suggested for her to come to his place. He told her that his back was hurting, so he was a little slow that morning.

  She slowed her SUV and glanced down the gated lane of the house that her navigational system said was her destination. She pushed the code he had given her and like magic, the iron gate started to swing back. She slowly put her ride into motion and drove down the long driveway with the low hanging trees up to the two-story colonial style house with rope swings and rocking chairs on the large front porch. She opened the door and walked in just as he had instructed her to do. The layout of the house was nothing short of beautiful. The large windows that he had throughout the bottom level of the home brought so much natural light into the house; his use of wood for the flooring, and even the furniture made the house look both old and contemporary.

  Brayden heard when she entered the house. He gave her enough time to look around before he called her upstairs to his room. He was still laying in the bed on his stomach when she finally walked in. His eyes feasted hungrily on her figure as she twisted into the room wearing a black wrap dress and heels. No matter how many times he saw this woman, every time was like the first time to him. His reaction was so intense. He wanted her so much, and not just for a little while.

  “Are you okay? What happened?” she asked as dropped her purse.

  “It's my back from decking a roof yesterday, that's all,” he mumbled.

  "I don't know why you choose to be out on the site anyway. You should be overseeing, not actually doing the work,” she spoke with her hands on her hips.

  She hoped he was just tired, and not hurt; then maybe he'd be ready to have sex some. It was a perfect time with no kids and him in bed already. The possibility of doing it was all that she had imagined the entire drive over. The sight of his tan body against the white crisp sheets and his ass hidden under the covers was making her pussy hurt.

  “Don't stand over there. Come over here,” he waved her over.

  “I can give you a massage if you think it would help,” she offered.

  “Hell, yeah,” he mumbled as he turned his head away.

  He could hear her fumbling around for a second. She must be taking off her shoes, he thought. However, he stiffened when the realization of what she had been really doing came to light. A smile formed on his face. He felt her sure, soft hands as they rubbed his shoulders, but it was what he felt on his lower back that made him take note. He let out a low moan when she sat down and moved her hips. He felt the heat and moisture from her cunt on his bare skin.

  “I hope you only keep your massage talents for me,” he whispered as he stole a glimpse over his shoulder. His eyes widened when he saw that she only had on her bra. “And here I thought you came over to see about me when all you want is my body,” he remarked jokingly.

  “You can't feed a starving woman and then take it away,” she whispered while she grinded her hips.

  “Are you hungry, Sweets?” he asked huskily.

  He rolled over onto his back. He positioned her on his upper torso. She felt the tip of his cock tapping on her backbone. She reached into her bra and pulled out a foil package.

  “You always think of everything,” he acknowledged.

  “Well, I don't think you want to have a baby,” she answered.

  “I don't know. The idea of having a little someone that looks like me running around wouldn't be so bad. I wouldn't mind nursing on those either,” he replied as he put his arm under his head, refusing to touch her.

  Trish looked down into his handsome face confused. He had allowed his facial hair to grow out to include a now tapered full beard, which added to his stunning good looks.

  “What do you mean, one? You already have two kids.”

  He stared unblinkingly at her. He knew that he was setting himself up to walk into a door that once inside, he wouldn’t be able to escape. After last night, he realized that he would have to tell her sooner or later. He hadn’t been scared for her to find out about his past relationship that had been revealed at dinner. No, there was something that was far worse. There was something that had left deep scars on a lot of people, and although Trish had nothing to actually do with it, the fact that she had been connected to the person that did might affect her by association. He was willing to go as far their conversation took them.

  “Ciro and Jessica aren't my kids,” he spoke softly, as if he was sharing a secret he was afraid might be overheard.

  “Then...but they call you dad,” she stuttered, not knowing which question to ask first.

  “They call me dad because, for all intents and purposes, I am their father. I've been raising Troy since he was two months old, and I brought Jessie home when she was just a day old,” he explained.

  She ran her fingers through her h
air.

  “Okay, slow down and start from the beginning. Who and why?”

  Brayden tapped his finger on her hip for a moment while he thought of what to say.

  “What I'm going to tell you is something I haven't shared with many people. The kids are from my sister, Brandi. She can't care for them because she's a meth addict walking around Atlanta somewhere. When Troy was born, my cold ass mother didn't want to take him. She claimed it was because my younger brother was still at home. My first business was doing good. I had my own place. I didn’t care that I was only twenty-four and still had pussy on the brain. I adopted them both.”

  “Do they know, the truth?”

  “They know, but I treat them as my own. I don't want them to be teased about having a drug head for mom and a dad that was probably one of her tricks. I know how bad it feels to be bullied,” he finished sadly.

  He gazed upon her face as he waited for her to say anything.

  “I always wondered what those wings on your back meant. I guess you're an angel,” she responded softly. This man was beyond anything she could have imagined.

  “No, Trish. I’m far from an angel. I'm just willing to fight for the people I love, that's all.”

  Trish really didn't know what to say at that moment, so instead she leaned over and kissed him deeply. His hands came up and unstrapped her bra, freeing her breasts.

  “I want this to be the last time we have sex for a while,” he spoke against her lips. He could tell she was taken aback from his comment. “I don't want that to be the main focus of our relationship, Trish. I'm hoping for something more stable than that.”

  “Brayden, why do you say things like that? I'm—”

  “I can say things like that because I know what I want, and I want what I see.”

  “You say that now, but then—”

  “Then what?” he questioned as he pushed her back further so he could get a good look at her before he spoke. “You think I feel that you're good enough to fuck, but not good enough to offer you a hell of a lot more than making you my bitch,” he stated with an amazed look on his face.