My nephew’s jaw dropped, his eyes almost bugging out of his head as he took in Tricia and raised his eyebrows to his hairline. “You’re kidding me?” Sawyer shook his head. Addressing me, Colby folded his arms like he was interrogating me. “Is my dad joking, Uncle James? You and my Auntie Tricia?” Sawyer burst out laughing as he walked back over to the fridge and grabbed the jug of Sangria from earlier.
“As true as there’s a moon in the sky every night,” Sawyer replied. Colby planted his hands on his hips as he looked first to me, then to his mom’s best friend, his nose scrunched in distaste. “Grab some glasses and take them to the table,” Sawyer told Colby, who moved slowly when asked, but continued to stare at me.
“Erm, that’s all a little bit weird,” he muttered, pulling wine glasses down from where they hung above his head in the bar, and placed them two at a time on the bar counter, suddenly stopping. He leaned heavily on the bar in my direction and took a deep breath. “I mean, do you guys have sex n’all?”
I blinked—my words stuck in my throat—as I held his gaze. Everything around me appeared to slow down. I glanced at Sawyer with a silent question in my head. Are you going to let him ask me this without shutting the conversation down?
When Sawyer hesitated and moved in to lift the glasses from the counter, I knew I was on my own. “She’s my girlfriend,” I replied with a shrug, like my explanation answered the question and hoped he’d leave it there, but he wouldn’t.
He shrugged. “I have a girlfriend, but we don’t have sex—”
“Colby Drummond, I damn well hope not,” Billie interjected, immediately tuning into the conversation. “I’m bringing you up to respect girls, my boy.” The horrified look of alarm on her face would have been funny had I not been at the center of his targeted inquiry.
“What? What did I miss?” Tricia asked, having been distracted by caring for Remy and had no clue what Colby had said.
When no one replied, I looked from Billie to Sawyer like they had been missing the point in allowing their son to challenge me on my love life. They were more focused upon his comment that he wasn’t having sex than the question directed toward me. He’s fourteen for goodness sake. Then I remembered I’d lost my virginity when I was fourteen… and Sawyer had probably been the same, how mature I had thought myself back then.
The scary thought of how everyone said kids matured earlier since I was that age, and I shuddered at the thought Colby could well be sexually active in the hands of the wrong girl… or the opposite could be true. I immediately made a mental note that a private conversation should be had with him in the near future to ensure we all had Colby’s back covered in respect to that.
Looking for a distraction from the topic of conversation, I glanced toward Tricia again, who sat quietly rocking Remy on her knee. The position he lay in was one of complete trust, sitting astride her his knees up under her arms, his chest flat against hers. He’d fallen sound asleep with Tricia sifting her fingers through his hair, and my heart instantly melted.
“I’m only asking, Mom. I just want to know if they’re boyfriend and girlfriend buddies or the kind of couple that like making babies,” Colby insisted in an innocent tone, but he smirked when his eyes flicked to mine, which told me he got a kick out of making me feel uncomfortable. I’d never been awkward in any setting talking about sex, until I was questioned about my sex life by my teenage nephew.
“All right, Colby, I think you’ve embarrassed Uncle James enough for one night,” Sawyer said chuckling, as he swung by the refrigerator and pulled out a tray of marinated steaks. “Besides, I’m starving and we’ve still got to cook the meat. At this rate it’ll be midnight before we eat.” When I cast a glance toward my brother a look passed between us that said, ‘I’ve got you,’ but he smirked wickedly and lifted a brow, like a reminder that his teenage son had gotten one over on me. It made me chuckle and I felt all tension leave my body after being embarrassed by a fourteen-year-old kid.
When I heard Sawyer close down the topic of conversation, I moved away from Colby before he could press the point again and I made my way over to Tricia. Sliding down beside her on the seat next to her, I reached out and cradled the back of her head. Staring into her eyes, I smiled affectionately, but somehow felt a sad aura about her.
“Look at you, you’re a natural with this little bundle on your knee.”
The instant I paid her the compliment she stiffened. Shifting forward on the couch, she stood adjusting Remy in her arms. “Do you want me to put this little guy back to bed, Billie?” she asked. Billie turned from the conversation she was having with Colby and looked toward me, then more closely toward Tricia.
“Give him here, I’ll take him, his sheets are probably tangled, and his bed will need remaking. It would be better if I do it because if he wakes up and he’s with you, he’ll be wide awake again and we’ll have to start over.”
My heart clenched when I thought Tricia had perhaps regretted not having children, and I watched in wonder at the delicate way the two women swapped Remy from one’s arms to the other’s without my nephew waking. With his head draped over Billie’s shoulder, she made her way inside to put him back to bed.
“Can you grab the paella from under the pizza oven? I stuck the pan there to keep it warm,” my brother asked, as he weaved his way back to the barbecue and turned the steaks over. Sliding back and forth between the table and the barbecue he set out platters of food, while Colby grabbed salads and dressings from their huge refrigerator.
I was helping as he’d asked me to when I realized Tricia hadn’t gotten involved, and when I looked around, I saw her leaning over their railing and looking toward the horizon. The sun was low in the sky, the orange reflection shimmering across the water.
“Penny for them?” I asked, sidling up behind her and wrapping my arms around her waist in a tight hug. Seeing her that way made me wonder again what had happened in her life that had made her so preoccupied and gave her an appearance of melancholy.
Flashing me a half-hearted smile she shrugged. “Just appreciating the beautiful sunset,” she mused, and I knew in that instant she’d lied to me. For a fleeting few seconds, I thought of calling her on it, but decided whatever had held her back all these years may take time to be shared. We knew each other, were committing to one another, but I knew there was still much to learn.
Chapter Twenty
Slender fingers gently sifted through my hair, dragging me from my deep unconscious state to a semi-conscious one. The soothing gesture had felt truly sublime as I lay basking somewhere between blissful contentment and semi-aroused. Tricia liked to play with my hair, messing it this way and that when we lay in bed and she woke before me.
Slowly I opened my eyes and smiled. Fresh from sleep she looked gorgeous, her thick dark blonde hair cascading over her bare shoulder. Without thinking I reached out and swept her hair behind it, leaving it bare, lifted my head off the pillow, and placed a soft kiss on it.
“Morning,” she whispered, her expression serious as her eyes roamed over my face. Her finger traced my lips then my jawline before she leaned forward and planted a soft, closed-lipped kiss on mine.
“Morning,” I croaked back, stretching my arms up in the air and wrapping them around her.
Having her next to me felt perfect. Pulling her into my body, our legs immediately tangled until I rolled above her, spread hers with my knees, and settled between them. My morning wood poked at her delicious wet entrance. Kissing her neck, I nipped it and felt her entrance grow wetter. I loved how responsive she was to me.
“I know what you’re doing,” Tricia mumbled, a slow sexy smile on her face.
“Oh, yeah?” I asked, playfully, “and what’s that?”
“You’re trying to get me to polish your morning wood.” I chuckled and pecked her on the nose.
“My daddy told me once I had to shine up to look my best. You can’t blame a man for taking his father’s advice.”
Her smile widened as did
her eyes. “In that case, who am I to come between you and your father’s guidance? Although, talking about your dad when you’re about to fuck me doesn’t really give me that passionate buzz… you feel me?” she replied through a chuckle in a hick country voice.
“Yes, ma’am, I can feel you,” I playfully replied, and without any prior warning I slid deep inside, halting her soft chuckle instantly when her breath hitched.
“Mm,” she hummed, her eyelids half-closed as her body adjusted beneath me.
“Fuuuck. I could decimate you, right here, right now,” I told her shaking my head, barely restraining myself. Sometimes I couldn’t believe my luck we had gotten together. My words were barely out of my mouth before we were entangled in a messy but fun, hard and fast show. Twenty minutes later, Tricia had come three times and I’d come twice. Afterward, we somehow dragged ourselves out of bed and into the shower.
Nothing gave me more pleasure, apart from being inside her, than washing Tricia’s hair… and her tits… as well as the rest of her body, but her hair and her tits especially. The moans and groans that came out of her mouth were utter verbal erotica. It tickled me that every time I lathered her hair she got goosebumps, but her moans made me hard and showering usually resulted in me taking her against the wall, or one of us going down on the other.
“Uncle James, are you in there?” Brynn’s sweet little voice accompanied small fists banging on the bathroom door, just as Tricia was about to come. That morning our passion had burst through as usual and we were fucking like rabbits when Sawyer’s three-year-old daughter had wandered into our bedroom to find me.
Clamping my hand over Tricia’s mouth, I never broke stride, but called out, “I’m in the shower, sweetheart. Come back in five minutes.” My voice had sounded shaky from my exertion. I had been all set to finish us off until Tricia pushed me away.
“What the fuck, baby?” I asked, disappointed at how abruptly she turned cool on me.
Tricia wiggled her way down to the floor. “It doesn’t matter, she’s obviously dying to see you,” she muttered with her head down, and gently shoved me back as she got out of the shower.
Her mood switch flip was so unexpected, I’d felt lost for words as I watched her dry, pull on her clothes, and tie her wet hair in a bun atop her head. Without waiting for me, she left the bedroom without saying a word and I knew something was wrong. The change in her attitude made me replay the scene again in my head.
Eventually, the only excuse I found was frustration of not reaching that final high we’d both chased, and I promised myself I’d make up for it when we got back to her place. She only lived a short drive from my brother’s place, but as we both knew a lot of alcohol would be involved at Sawyer and Billie’s, we had already planned to stay over last night.
When I stepped out onto the veranda, I spotted Tricia and Billie deep in conversation. My intuition told me not to interrupt, unlike Remy who was in the process of climbing onto the couch beside her. Brynn came out of her room and joined Colby in the hot tub. “Morning,” I offered, as I made my way to my brother, who was deep in concentration pouring coffee beans into his insanely professional coffee machine.
He sneaked a peek at me before continuing to finish his task. “Oh, there you are. Did you sleep okay?” he asked, his curious eyes searching my face before he glanced over toward Tricia. His brow took on a frown which puzzled me.
“Some,” I offered in return with a grin, and looked over my shoulder, following his gaze. I could see that Tricia looked upset or annoyed, I wasn’t sure which, and I figured I’d left her frustrated. “We were enjoying an invigorating morning shower until that little cockblocker interrupted us,” I told my brother, nodding at Brynn. We both looked at his daughter who was chatting a mile a minute with Colby, and jumping up and down in the hot tub. The girl was full of beans, much like Sawyer was when he was that age, I recalled.
“They both are. They’re like a fucking tag team at times,” Sawyer agreed. “There was a time when I thought Colby was ridiculously so, but that one,” he scowled, nodding his head toward his daughter, “won’t take no for an answer and climbs into bed with us. She has no boundaries and go away appears nowhere in her vocabulary. My boy, Remy, there is the only one with any sense of occasion. He understands go away means get the fuck back to your own space, dude, I’m a little busy here.” Sawyer’s affection for all three of his kids shone through in his eyes, despite his disparaging remarks.
“Just as well I locked the bathroom door this morning then,” I agreed, chuckling.
“God, yeah, I wouldn’t want my daughter to be scarred for life,” he chuckled, as he poured me a cup of fresh coffee. It smelled incredible. “Anyway, that would explain the sullen mood if you got interrupted,” he added, nodding toward Tricia.
“Hm,” I hummed, a little intrigued as I watched her more closely, and noted how Remy had made himself at home on her lap and was sneaking bites of her toast, while she spoke with Billie.
“It may not be too late,” Sawyer suggested, and I looked back to him with a puzzled look on my face. “Kids,” he clarified, “you think she’s regretting not having some of her own?”
“We’ve never discussed it,” I replied honestly and shrugged, turned to my own thoughts. “Do I want kids? There was a time when Charlotte…” I glanced toward my brother, my heart pinching at the hurt she and I had caused him, and drew a deep breath. I released it in a slow hiss and glanced down at my feet before pinning him with direct eye contact. “You know… the baby… it wasn’t planned. She was the last person I’d have wanted to start a family with. But when it happened, I accepted responsibility for that child immediately. There was no doubt in my mind, and it had felt like the one ray of light, the single positive to come from a very fucked-up situation. I’m not going to lie, the thought of being connected to Charlotte for the rest of my life like that scared me shitless,” I sighed, stuck for words.
The crushing weight in my chest made it hard to breathe when I thought back to how Charlotte had aborted our accidental pregnancy without me being aware. For all intents and purposes she told me she had miscarried, and as such my sympathies kept me with her until her venomous lies spilled from her mouth when she confronted Billie at my parents’ New Year’s Eve party, the night they had gotten engaged. “I’m sorry,” I repeated at the thought of the pain I’d brought on him in our past.
“Forget it. It led to a much better life. You did me a favor, even if it hadn’t felt like that at the time,” he said, holding his hands out as if to say look around you.
Relief spread through me and my body relaxed. “It did, and you’ve got it all. I’m really happy for you, Sawyer,” I told him.
“We’ve just got you and Tricia to sort out, then we can find poor Lorna a man.”
“Poor man more like, whoever gets that one will have to measure up,” I joked and we both laughed.
“The guy who gets her is going to have his work cut out for him. Nothing less than a duke will do, I fear,” Sawyer agreed about the youngest of our sisters, who was a couple of years older than him.
Sawyer’s live-in housekeepers, Kate and Maynard, had come with the house he’d inherited from our uncle Alex, and only worked when Sawyer and Billie felt they needed extra hands whenever they had guests. Kate had made breakfast for us all and arrived out on the veranda with a small trolley laden with platters of cinnamon French toast, fruit, pancakes, small Danish pastries, bacon, sausage patties, and some fried eggs.
Maynard came out with a breadbasket filled with fresh rolls and a cheese board. They both transferred everything from the cart to the bar counter while Kate swapped out the empty toast trays with new ones. After setting a couple of jugs marked Old Fashioned and Maple Syrup at the center of the table and replenishing the fresh orange juice, they left us and went back inside.
“Brynn, Colby, out. Dry off, brunch is ready,” Billie told them, and moved away from the table with all three kids trailing after her toward the food. Passing th
em on the way, Brynn smacked my ass with her wet hand and chuckled.
“You’re it,” she mumbled, her hand covering her mouth and I added mischief to her list of flaws.
“Brynn, behave,” Billie admonished, and her grin immediately turned to a pout. I snickered because if my brother thought her inconvenient at times, as a teen I had an inkling she’d make my brother’s life hell.
“You’re quiet,” I stated, sliding into the seat beside my woman and pulling her into my chest.
“Tired, is all,” she replied, holding my gaze, but that wasn’t it. The look in her eyes not quite like the one I had seen in them the night before, but I couldn’t put my finger on the unsettled feeling it gave me.
“Can we go back to my place after we’ve eaten?” she asked, and I glanced toward the kids who had an expectation of us spending time with them.
“What’s the matter?” I probed. “What happened?”
“Nothing happened. I’m just not up to playing happy family today.” Her response floored me. Billie was her best friend, she loved her, and both Billie and Sawyer loved her… hell, the kids loved her too. My thought went back to Sawyer and the stuff he said about the baby, and I nodded, thinking perhaps she wanted to talk about having a child. Maybe we both should discuss it, before it’s too late.
Billie and Sawyer were far more understanding about us leaving than the kids were, and it was only after we’d arranged a boat trip for all of us the following weekend, they appeared more settled about us going.
During the short drive back to Tricia’s place, I mulled over starting a conversation on the way, but knowing Tricia, I had decided against it. Whatever was up, I knew it was up to me to ask the right questions in the right way and read the responses she gave me. I couldn’t do that and watch the road at the same time.
Resist You (Unchained Attraction Book 3) Page 17
