The Better Brother

by Rye Hart

  “That rarely works,” he said sagely. “Trust me from personal experience. Deal with your shit when you’re sober. You won’t have unhealthy coping mechanisms in the long run.”

  I nodded and took a sip of water.

  “I don’t usually drink,” I admitted. “I don’t like the way it makes me feel like I’m not in control.”

  “And you usually feel the need to be in control?” he asked me, his green eyes pinning me to my seat.

  “Well someone needs to be,” I quipped. “Got knows my mother never was.”

  He sat back and studied me for a moment. “What makes you say that?”

  “Years of living with her?” I suggested, shrugging my shoulders. “She’s been pretty wrapped up in her shitty boyfriends for the past ten years of my life. It’s like my dad never really existed to her.”

  “Everyone has to move on with their lives eventually.” Gabriel leveled a hard glance in my direction as I sipped at my water. “Is that why you’re with her? Because she moved on?”

  My stomach churned sickeningly when I looked away from him. I didn’t want to talk about anything that involved my mother and her boyfriends. Especially the current one.

  “I didn’t come out here to talk about my mother’s love life,” I pointed out, wishing that I had another glass of wine to steady my nerves. “She can do whatever she wants to do. I’m not going to let it ruin my break away from school.”

  Sensing a touchy subject, Gabriel nodded as he let the topic go. “That’s fair. I won’t ask again if it’s going to upset you. We can talk about something else. What are you planning to do after graduation this spring?”

  I traced the rim of my water glass while I debated how to answer. I wasn’t entirely sure what I wanted to do yet. My mother insisted that I keep going to school to obtain my MBA, but I was exhausted from spending the past four years studying. I did well in my business classes, but it wasn’t what I wanted to do for the rest of my life. I enjoyed my art classes and my English ones as well. Those were the subjects I sorely wished I would’ve pursued, if my mother hadn’t pulled the, “I’m paying for your college education, so study what I want you to study.”

  “Not sure yet,” I said. “I’ve thought about how nice it would be to just travel around for a little bit, to take a break from school.”

  Gabriel nodded. “I did that after college. I needed a break from it, so I built up my office after that. Never been back since.”

  “Really?” I asked, surprised. “I figured you would’ve continued your education, after how successful you’ve been over the years.”

  “I never liked school,” Gabriel said, laughing. “As soon as I was done with my bachelors, I held my middle finger up and walked.”

  “That’s nice to hear. My mother thinks I need to keep going on with school, but I don’t want to do it. I just want to be done.”

  “I’m sure she just wants you to be successful. But I have a feeling you are going to do that whether you get your Masters or not.”

  I blushed at the honest answer, feeling good that this man had such confidence in me when my own mother couldn’t. “I know she wants you to kick me out so that I have to go back to New York for Christmas—” I started.

  “I’m not going to kick you out. It’s nice having you around the place.”

  His eyes darkened a tad bit in the dim lighting. My cheeks flushed hotly as I tried to decipher those words.

  “It’s nice being here,” I replied cautiously. I wasn’t sure where this conversation was going, but I didn’t want it to stop. A part of me felt titillated, knowing that Gabriel didn’t want to push me out of the way. “Thank you for letting me stay. I really do appreciate it.”

  “Of course.” He eyed my empty water glass. “Are you feeling a bit better?”

  My head didn’t feel as fuzzy, but every other part of my body did. Whether I wanted to admit it or not, Gabriel made my body respond in ways it never had before. My thighs felt quivery, and the spot between them pulsed with need.

  “A bit,” I said. “I like the way I’m feeling right now.”

  Gabriel’s eyes danced as he looked at me from across the table. “What sort of feeling is that?”

  Emboldened by the alcohol and the look in Gabriel’s eyes, I licked my lips as I looked up at the heavy drapes that hung over the booth. A surge of something hot and delicious went through me then as I reached up to untie the drape that was pulled back. Maybe it was the few glasses of wine, but I felt particularly braver than usual. The red curtain fell with a gentle swoosh of fabric. I tried to peer through the dark curtains. The only bit of light we had was the small candle at the center of the table.

  “Wow,” I said. “You really can’t see anything through the curtains,” I said thickly.

  “Nope, not one thing.”

  I turned at the sound of Gabriel clearing the huskiness from of his voice. It occurred to me then that the few drinks he’d consumed over the past hour were affecting him just as much as me. His eyes were bright and clear but also lazy in his contentment.

  I couldn’t say what spurred me on to scoot across the booth to where Gabriel sat, but I felt myself being drawn toward to him.

  This is wrong. This is so fucked up.

  That rational part of me faded away quickly when Gabriel’s hands skimmed along the back of my arms to grip my shoulders. I couldn’t tell if he was trying to pull me closer or push me away. I needed to pull back, to push him away. This was Gabriel Bradley—my best friend’s father. But the power he had over me was delicious.

  I stared into his eyes. They were conflicted as he gazed back at me. Desire. Guilt. I could see it swimming in his eyes. Then, he leaned forward to crush his mouth against mine in a searing kiss that knocked the wind right out of my lungs.

  I let out a startled gasp at the contact before the butterfly sensation in my stomach spread throughout my body. I kissed him back, hard. I battled his tongue fiercely as Gabriel’s hands smoothed down the curve of my back to grasp my ass through the fabric of my dress as he pulled me into his lap.

  It didn’t matter to me that Alyssa could come walking up to the table at any moment. I couldn’t think of anything else besides the sensation of Gabriel lifting me over his lap to lay me back down on the leather couch. He kissed me expertly, rendering me into putty beneath his lips and hands that were now bunching my dress up over my thighs. Those sinful lips continued down to bite and lick at my neck teasingly. I arched up against him in pleasure as he coaxed a breast out to suck hard at one of my nipples. His other hand skimmed along the inside of my inner thigh.

  The first brush of his fingers against the soaked fabric of my panties sent jolts of pleasure up my spine. I buried my fingers into the dark locks of Gabriel’s hair as his fingers pushed aside the fabric to tease the nerves there. His thumb pushed down hard then. My hips jerked up in response to it as I ground against him desperately.

  “Gabriel,” I sighed out, running a hand through his hair. “Please. Your fingers feel so good.”

  His teeth bit down at the tender skin of my breast. “You feel amazing, Penny. You’re so fucking wet.”

  I sucked in my bottom lip to bite down as those dexterous fingers parted me. They rubbed at me with a rough pace meant to bring a quick release. My body jerked and spasmed at the onslaught of his hand against my core. His mouth was biting and teasing the skin of my chest while he panted against me. I reached down to grasp the hard and twitching erection that I could feel through the fabric of his pants.

  His hips jerked in response against my touch. The pleasure inside me climbed higher and higher until my peak came bursting over me. I felt Gabriel groan hard against my right breast, biting down there to muffle the noise.

  Fuck. Sweat poured down the back of my neck as I gazed up at the dark ceiling of the booth. The sound of chatter and laughter washed back over me. I swallowed thickly as I gathered my senses. A conflict of emotions filled me as Gabriel sat back suddenly to grasp at his head with a flu
shed face.

  “I’m sorry,” he whispered, shaking his head at me. “I took advantage of—”

  “You didn’t take advantage of me,” I whispered back, tugging my dress down to cover myself. “I didn’t tell you to stop. I’m sorry.”

  We both stared at each other, completely at a loss of what to do exactly. Gabriel was the first one to slide out of the booth, with a troubled frown tugging at his lips. He paused to look at me as he parted the red curtain.

  “I’m sorry, Penny,” he said. “I have to go.”

  He quickly walked away, leaving me there to wonder what the hell had just happened between the two of us.

  CHAPTER SEVEN - GABRIEL

  The pounding in my head had little to do with the previous night when I woke to the sound of Neil’s children running down the hallway. After last night, I couldn’t trust myself to go back to the condo. Not after what had transpired so quickly and heatedly with Penny.

  Penny fucking Marshall.

  Had I really fingered my daughter’s best friend in a nightclub like some sleaze?? I rolled over with a groan to stare up at the shadows dancing across the ceiling. It was still early, judging from the darkness outside, but Neil’s kids were already up and playing before the start of school. I needed to take a long cold shower to get rid of this feeling that lingered inside of me. It was the same damn feeling that had prompted me to kiss Penny in the first place.

  It had felt fucking amazing; Penny’s hand on my erection through my pants, stroking with confidence and ease. The feel of her tight and heated flesh on my fingers.

  I felt my dick harden against the sheets and blankets at the memory of it replaying in my mind. I threw an arm over my eyes in frustration. I had no idea how I was going to deal with this one. Normally, I would’ve walked away without a single damn regret in my head. I didn’t care much for relationships these days, but this had been Penny. My daughter’s best friend.

  Hot guilt coursed through me all over again when I reached down to brush my fingers against my erection. This was the only way that I could concentrate again. I needed a release to be able to function.

  I let my eyes slipped closed in pleasure while I stroked myself to the memory of Penny’s warm and wet clit against my fingers. I heard her pants and moans in my ear as I had coaxed an orgasm from her. I imagined my hand was her luscious mouth, taking me in and sucking me until I exploded down her slender throat. My orgasm crashed over me, and I shot warm jets of cum over my own stomach, trying my hardest not to imagine how good it would feel to release myself inside of Penny.

  Afterward, I stared up at the ceiling with a pounding heart while half-listening to Neil converse with his wife downstairs. I needed to do something, now that I had crossed the line. I needed to talk to Penny to make sure that she was all right. I could still picture the wide-eyed and horrified expression on Penny’s face when I had backed out of that booth quickly to call Neil for a place to crash for the night.

  I took a cold shower in the guest bathroom across the hallway. Toys from the kids were scattered around the bathroom floor. I showered quickly before getting dressed in the same clothes from the previous night. I texted my driver to let Alyssa know that I needed a fresh pair of clothes so that he could meet me at work before the rest of my employees arrived. I didn’t want any more talk going around the office, and showing up in the same rumpled clothes with an obvious hangover was one way to spur the rumors on.

  “You look like hell,” Neil commented when I managed to make it down the stairs without tripping on a single toy. “What the hell happened to you last night?”

  “I don’t even want to talk about it,” I said with a grimace. “Is there any coffee?”

  “Coming right up.”

  I followed Neil through the chaos of the living room where his children were currently gathered in front of the television. They greeted me with cheerful smiles as I walked by them with a strained looked. Michelle looked up from where she was cooking bacon in a large skillet over the stove.

  “Good morning,” she said. “How are you feeling, Gabriel?”

  The smell of bacon made my stomach twist with nausea. I forced myself to sit down at the kitchen island to be polite. I nodded gratefully at Neil as he poured me a cup of hot black coffee that smelled heavenly.

  “I feel like my head is going to burst open,” I said. “Do you have any Tylenol?”

  “Of course. I’ll grab some from the bathroom for you.”

  Michelle squeezed my shoulder in passing when she walked by me to the bathroom. I sipped at my coffee while I waited for my driver to text me back.

  “So, are you going to tell me what happened last night?” Neil asked. “I mean, I’ve seen you get drunk once before, but not like this. I had to carry your ass up the stairs and put you to bed.”

  I grimaced at the memory of it. I could remember hitting another bar on the way over to Neil’s house to have a couple of shots in an attempt to numb the guilt of what happened. Everything after that was a dark blur of Neil dragging me up the stairs with muttered curse words coming out of his mouth.

  “Thanks man and I’m sorry. I don’t know what got into me last night but I’d like to just forget the entire evening.”

  “So you’re not going to tell me what happened that made you crawl into a bottle of whiskey?” Neil asked again.

  “You would be right about that. We need to get to the office soon, though. I want to go over everything that we are going to present to the government. I want it to be perfect.”

  “We’ll make sure it’s good to go. I doubt that you have to worry about Jack Miller.”

  I laughed darkly as I took another long sip. “That’s the thing about him. You don’t feel like you have to worry about him, but he’ll steal your ideas and wife in a heartbeat. He pretends to be average so you don’t worry about him, then he sneaks right up on you. ”

  “Sounds very clever.” He eyed my disheveled clothes. “Your driver is bringing you clothes from the condo, right?”

  “He should be. I told him to wake Alyssa up to go through my closet. She knows what I like to wear to work.”

  We drove thirty minutes through thick traffic and cold winter air to find my driver waiting patiently in the parking lot. He handed me a set of clothes that Alyssa had picked out for me before leaving us to enter the office. I changed quickly in my office, just in time for the rest of the office staff to arrive for the start of their shifts.

  The next two hours passed by me in a surreal blur, filled with a throbbing headache and a shit tone of guilt. I didn’t want to deal with anything, but I gritted my teeth through the PowerPoint presentation my team had made with my notes. It wasn’t until nearly eleven in the morning when one of my receptionists came by to tell me that there was a visitor waiting for me in the front lobby of the office.

  “Who?” I asked grumpily while I followed her down the hallway. “This person better be damn important because—”

  I stopped short when I recognized my ex-wife standing in my office lobby. The years had not been kind, judging from the wrinkles lining her face and the overall exhausted look she had as she looked at me with a timid smile. She was dressed in an expensive pencil skirt suit that hugged her tightly. Gray streaked her dark hair that was pulled back in a clip.

  Coupled with my fucked up night, I felt a deep-seated anger start to brew all over again. I crossed my arms to gaze at her coldly.

  “What are you doing here, Michelle?” I asked. “Does Jack know you’re here?”

  “He knows that I’m here,” Michelle said. “He’s parked safely around the block. He figured you’d rather put a bullet in him than me.”

  “That’s debatable.”

  Michelle sighed as she pulled out a manila envelope from her brief case. “I didn’t come here to argue with you. I just wanted to drop this off.”

  I eyed the envelope warily when she offered it. “Drop what off?”

  “Papers for a lawsuit,” she replied. “We’re awar
e of your algorithm for the new consumer spending predictions. I believe it follows our own, so I personally told the lawyer that I would happily drop this off with you.”

  “Very nice of you,” I said darkly. I snatched the envelope from her hand. “But I think you’ve forgotten who stole what from who.”

  She just shrugged and looked at me. “How is Alyssa?”

  I stopped short at the question. I twisted back to look over at Michelle, who had yet to move. I tried to read the expression on her face, but she was utterly devoid of emotion. My ex-wife had become a stranger to me over the years. Just the same way she had become to Alyssa, who didn’t even consider her a mother.

  “You don’t deserve to know how our daughter is doing,” I said icily. “In case you forgot, I am the one who has been raising her. Not you.”

  I didn’t wait for a reply. I stopped to tell the office staff to make sure she left before I retreated back to my office to call Alyssa.

  “Where are you?” I asked, listening to the wind on the other end of the phone. “It sounds like you are outside.”

  “I am outside. I’m doing some Christmas shopping for Penny.”

  “Penny isn’t with you? She’s at the condo?”

  “Sleeping, the last time I checked,” Alyssa said. “What’s wrong, Dad? You sound pissed off.”

  Pissed off didn’t even begin to cover it. Now that I knew Penny was back at the condo alone, I wanted to take advantage of the situation to talk to her about last night.

  “Just a long day,” I replied. “I’ll see you at home.”

  I left the office with the excuse of needing to get some lunch. I arrived at the condo thirty minutes later to find Penny awake and sitting on the living room couch with a laptop propped up on her knees. The long strands of her blonde hair were still damp from a shower. She was dressed in a pair of sweatpants and a tank top, and I couldn’t deny that pang of desire going through me again. She looked up at me nervously when I came into the living room.