by Jenny Penn
“I have to work tonight,” Angie argued, though she didn’t put up any resistance as he hustled her toward the door. “And so do either you or Mike. I can’t run this whole place by myself.”
“Don’t worry.” Brett waved away her concern. “We got it all covered.”
Angie was not reassured. “The schedule—”
“Will get taken care of,” Brett assured her as he kept her moving down the path.
He steered her away from the main complex and into the maze of gardens that held all sorts of hidden delights. Angie couldn’t help but wonder what he had planned. Neither could she stop from worrying over the schedule.
“How is it going to get taken care of?” Angie demanded to know. “I’ve been working on it for hours and—”
“You should have called in help,” Brett cut in again, casting a quick grin over his shoulder.
“Yeah? What help?”
“Lana.”
“Oh God. You didn’t?”
He did. He had. It was clear from the twinkle in his eyes.
“Patton is going to kill you,” Angie whispered. Then her friend would probably come after her. “You’ve got to send her away.”
“What Patton knows won’t hurt me,” Brett shot back. “And who else is going to make sure this place doesn’t crumble into chaos? Not me and, I’m sorry, honey, not you.”
There was something about the way he said that assured Angie she was being insulted. “Why not me?”
“Because you are chaos.”
“I am not!”
“And a little crazy.”
“I am not!”
“But certainly not easy,” Brett tacked on with a waggle of his brows that left no doubt that he was teasing her.
“You’re playing a dangerous game, Mr. Mathews,” Angie warned him as they rounded one last shrub to arrive a small garden nook.
It was aglow with candles that hung all around, casting a warm hue over the intricately set table. There was Mike, standing beside it at attention and looking as if he was awaiting orders. He must have had them drilled into his head already because he jerked into motion at the sight of them. He circled the table, pulling out the chair at the head as Brett led her to it.
“Well, this is…unexpected.” Angie took in everything and couldn’t help but wonder what they were up to. Whatever it was, there was one big problem that no amount of romance was going to settle. “And very sweet, but it’s not worth throwing Patton into a panic when she finds out about Lana.”
“Patton is not going to object to anything,” Brett assured her, settling her down into her seat before he stepped back and allowed Mike to push her in.
“Right now, the Davis brothers are negotiating the sale of her share back to them.”
That sounded distinctly ominous. Of course, that could have been Mike’s tone. He did not look comfortable or the least bit relaxed. Angie eyed him as he settled down to the right of her. Brett took the seat to the left and, with a nod, set the waiters waiting in the shadows into motion.
“She isn’t going to sell.” Angie offered a smile up the man who lifted her wine glass up to fill it before turning her gaze back on Brett. “Patton has plans.”
“Patton doesn’t have a choice,” Brett countered.
“She doesn’t?”
“She stole personal, private information when she made that flash drive. Whatever guilt Chase and his brothers felt about keeping Lana a secret is gone, and Patton’s ass is probably burning right about now,” Brett promised her. “But that’s not our problem.”
“Says you.” Angie snorted, distracted by the delicious smelling pot the waiter settled onto her plate. It was French onion soup. Her favorite. “Oh, that looks good.”
“I ordered it especially for you.” As sweet as the gesture was, Mike still sounded as though he pissed about something. Angie couldn’t help but eye him with unease.
“Is everything okay?”
“Everything is great.”
“Yeah…” Angie drew out the word as she continued to study him. “I don’t know why I doubted it.”
Brett laughed at that and shook his head. “Ignore Frankenstein over there. He’s just working up his courage to ask you something.”
“Really?” Angie quirked a brow at that, her attention remaining on Mike and the blush raging across his cheeks.
“No.”
“Yes.”
“Brett!”
“You’re running the mood,” Angie snapped, breaking into their disagreement before it could escalate into an actual argument. This time she pinned her gaze on Brett as she made her position clear. “If your brother needs time, give it to him.”
“I don’t need time,” Mike retorted, clearly insulted by her attempts to side with him. “I just think there is a right way and a wrong one.”
“And this is the wrong one?”
“Well, it is now,” he shot back at her as if that weren’t obvious.
“Fine.” Angie nodded and picked her spoon up. “Then let’s eat. I’m hungry.”
Dinner passed by quickly after that. She and Brett kept the conversation going, as Mike seemed to slowly be working his way through whatever had him tense and scowling. By the time the desserts arrived, he appeared ready to talk. True to form, he started out as if he were negotiating some kind of battlefield truce.
“I think we need to discuss the terms of our agreement.”
“What agreement?” Angie paused with a spoonful of ice cream hovering inches from her lips, not certain where this conversation was going.
“The one where we sleep together and then have to marry you,” Brett informed her.
“That’s not an agreement. It’s a condition,” Angie corrected. “And it is not up for negotiation.”
“Yeah, but we both can’t marry you,” Brett countered. “So…”
“So you want to know which one of you I want to bite that bullet?” Angie had never considered that before.
Nor had she considered that the brother who wasn’t legally married to her wouldn’t be emotionally tied. That wasn’t the dream. That was a nightmare. Angie suspected she knew just who to blame.
“You don’t want to marry me.” Angie pinned her look on Mike as she stated that obvious conclusion.
“Angie—”
“That’s fine.” Angie waved away Brett’s interruption as she pushed her seat back. She rose up to stare down at Mike. “I get it. You don’t love me. You don’t believe in my gift, but I do. I love you and I’m not having sex with you until you can say the same..”
With that, Angie turned and walked away. It was up to Mike to make his decision because, the truth was, she’d waited long enough.
* * * *
Mike sat there staring after Angie and feeling a deep, irrevocable sense of loss. He told himself he should be grateful, but the truth was he was resentful. It wasn’t Angie that he resented, though. He loved her.
It was his dad he hated. It was his dad who had turned him into the stupid bastard who had intentionally destroyed what could have been the best thing ever in his life. It was his dad that had sown that seed of fear. Mike just wanted to crush it.
Hailey.
Hailey would know how to do that. Though they’d never spoken about it, Mike knew his sister had been just as deeply affected by their father’s abandonment. Yet, somehow, she’d managed to get over it, managed to trust again. She’d know how to fix this.
With that single thought, Mike shoved away from the table and headed for the exit, leaving Brett calling out after him. He didn’t pay his brother any mind. After all, the one thing Mike was certain of was that Brett didn’t have the answers he needed.
It was over a half-hour later when he pulled his truck to a stop in front of the house that Cole and Kyle rented together. They shared it, just like they shared his sister. He was just going to ignore that detail and pretend as though the three were nothing more than roommates. Of course that was hard to do when Cole opened the door wearing nothing more tha
n a pair of baggy shorts and whole lot of sweat, along with a mean-looking frown.
“Hey, man. What the hell you doing here?” Cole asked, not bothering to open the door wider and invite him in. That snub tempted Mike to return the rudeness, but he held his tongue and managed a much more polite response.
“I’m looking for Hailey.”
“She’s out with Heather. They went to the mall down in Dothan and won’t be home for at least another hour. So go away.”
With that, Cole tried to slam the door on Mike’s face, but he wasn’t about to be so easily dismissed. Lifting a hand, he planted a palm firmly against the door and pushed. Cole might have been ripped with muscles that would normally have impressed most people, but he was still a good fifty pounds lighter than Mike. It was no competition. Cole slid back along the wood floor as Mike shoved his way through the door.
“Fine. Then I’ll wait for her,” Mike declared, turning to step into the living room but pausing as he took sight of their concept of deco. “What the hell is this? A gym? You two that worried about the upcoming competition?”
“Please,” Cole snorted. “Don’t flatter yourself. This is all a part of a compromise. Hailey wanted the spare bedroom so that she could lock us out whenever she got pissed. So, our stuff had to come out here.”
And it had to be there because Pittsview didn’t have an actual gym, which sparked an idea that flared briefly. Then it disappeared behind a fresh wave of irritation at the sight of Kyle coming out the hall bathroom, clutching a towel around his waist with one hand as he shoved the wet locks plastered to his forehead back.
“Shower’s all yours, man,” he called out to Cole before seeming to notice Mike standing there. “What does the fuckhead want?”
“He’s looking for Hailey.”
“Huh.”
That was all Kyle seemed to have to say. With that, he turned and walked away, right along with Cole. Suddenly, Mike was standing there by himself with nothing to do but reconsider his idea. He didn’t need to stand around here waiting to talk to Hailey. The person Mike needed to talk to was his dad.
Feeling more focused than when he’d arrived, Mike turned and stormed back out the door. He’d no sooner reached the bumper of his truck than a set of headlights cut across the road and Brett’s truck came ambling down it with a low rumble. Mike stood there and waited as Brett pulled in along the curb. Brett left his engine idling as he hopped out and came around to greet Mike.
“I thought you might be here.” Brett glanced over Mike’s shoulder before pinning him with a hopeful look. “You didn’t hurt Hailey’s girlfriends, did you?”
“Nope.” Mike shook his head. “Why you following me?”
“Why?” Brett reared back as if Mike had smacked him. “What the hell else would I do? I’m your brother. I know you better than you know yourself, and I know you’re up to no good.”
“Really? Then you must know where I’m headed now.”
“Well, I don’t know that.” Brett huffed and rolled his eyes. “But I do know you’re not going anywhere without me.”
“I want to go ask Dad why.” Mike needed to know but didn’t expect Brett to understand. That didn’t stop his brother from agreeing with him.
“Fine. Then let’s go have a word with the old man.”
* * * *
Angie muffled a yawn and stretched her hands over her head as she glanced over at the clock on the wall. It was two in the morning, and she and Lana had managed to put out all the fires. It helped that the party in the main hall had settled down. Most of the couples and groups had retreated to their fantasy rooms to continue on with the screwing.
That meant her day had finally come to an end.
It had been long, tedious, and unnecessarily hectic, thanks to Brett and Mike. Truthfully, she didn’t know what she was thinking anymore, much less feeling. After all these years, seeds of doubt had finally started to bloom in her mind. Things were supposed to be easy. They were supposed to be a perfect fit. She and Brett were, but Mike…he just wouldn’t let her in.
Angie hadn’t ever realized just how truly screwed up Mike was, but now she did. It about broke her heart. She wanted to the one to help, to soothe away his worries and assure him that it would all work out. If it all could work out.
She was beginning to wonder about that.
The doubts that had always lingered gnawed at her again, but Angie pushed them away. She wasn’t ready to give up. Maybe things weren’t as simple as she’d envisioned, but that didn’t change the fact that she still loved them. Her affection for both Mike and Brett was rooted in the bedrock of her very soul.
That was sort of the problem.
“You’re thinking too hard,” Lana cut in, seeming to read Angie’s thoughts. That was a talent she was known for. “Whatever it is, it’s not going to be solved by giving yourself wrinkles.”
“It’s not the wrinkles I’m worried about,” Angie assured her, shaking her head as Lana lifted up the vodka bottle she was holding in an invitation. “No, thanks. I think dealing with Brett and Mike will be easier sober.”
“They’re giving you a lot of trouble, huh?” Lana topped off her glass before turning around to meet Angie’s curious gaze.
“Not as much as Chase gives you.” Angie pointedly turned the conversation. She didn’t want talk about Brett or Mike or the decisions facing them. “I have to say I was shocked that Patton agreed to let you return to work, but even more amazed that you came back. I would have thought you’d had enough of this place.”
There was a question buried in her comments, one that Lana first appeared as if she was going to ignore. She sat there for a long, silent moment, just watching the clear liquid swirl in her glass. Eventually, though, she shrugged and glanced up.
“I don’t have anywhere else to go.”
There was a sadness to that reality that Angie could share. If things didn’t work out with Brett and Mike, where would she go? That question echoed through her. It sparked a fine thread of fear that snaked up her spine, but Angie squashed it, marshaling her defenses and offering Lana up the same assurance that she gave herself.
“Then we’ll find you some place.” Angie smiled. “After all, you are a beautiful, intelligent woman who can manage a whole club full of annoying men. That’s got to be a marketable skill.”
That did get a laugh from Lana, who lifted her glass toward Angie. “Well then, to new beginnings.”
Angie didn’t have a drink, but she gave nod in salute and lingered long enough to assure that Lana would be okay before taking off. She was tired and a little worried about Brett and Mike. They hadn’t checked in all night. Neither were they answering her calls. Worse, there were no trucks parked in the driveway when she got home.
The house was dark and quiet as she entered. A quick peek into their room assured her that both bunks were empty. That couldn’t be good. It was nearly three in the morning, and every bar was closed. Crawling into her own bed, she lay there and listened to the minutes tick by on her clock, wondering with every single second where they were.
It seemed as though she would never get to sleep, but she must have dozed off because somewhere in the middle of the night her worries faded away and dreams of both Brett and Mike began to flood her head. The things they did to her left Angie gasping and sweating in her sheets as she came to full awareness in a rush of ecstasy.
Chapter 14
Saturday, June 30th
Angie’s eyes popped open as her back arched, her hips lifting into the mouth devouring her cunt. It was, in that second, that she realized she wasn’t alone in bed. Mike really was there, his face buried between her legs as his fingers dug into her thighs, holding her pussy open to his ravaging kisses.
His tongue was wicked and wild as it licked up the trembling walls of her sheath. He drew out her release until it imploded on itself, becoming a seething whirl of need that had her straining to reach another climax. Angie buried her fingers in Mike’s hair, pressing him closer
as she begged with broken breath for more. He gave it to her.
Lifting his lips to clamp them around her clit, he began to torment the swollen bud as he pressed the flared head of a plastic cock past the clenched ring of muscles guarding her sheath. Her pussy sucked in the long, hard length as the pleasure of being stretched and packed full left Angie twisting with the delight starting to sparkle too brightly through her.
Then he was fucking her, hard and fast, driving her from one peak to another and giving her not a second to catch her breath. Angie was flushed, her whole body tingling and tense as the sensations blurred. It wasn’t until Mike reared back and rolled her over that she realized he’d distracted her. All the while he’d been lubing her up, making sure she was good wet and ready for the hard ride he planned on taking her for. Mike didn’t hesitate to take it, slamming the hard length of his dick deep into her ass.
He made his intentions clear with his first thrust. He pounded into her with all his strength and set up a rhythm that was too fast for her to possibly keep up with. Not that he expected her to do much but lie there and take her fucking. He didn’t leave her any choice in that as he kept her pinned beneath him with a rough grip on her hips.
He took complete advantage of that, showing off his skills as he reamed her hard and fast, only to slow down every time she came close to coming. In those moments, Mike treated her to longer, slower strokes that only stoked the inferno of need consuming her. He didn’t stop until she was crying, pleading with him to release her from the tension binding her so tightly that pleasure had become tinged with pain.
“Tell me you love me,” he demanded, finally breaking his silence with a snarl, but Angie had no strength left to take offense at his tone or deny him what he wanted.
“I love you.”
“Even if I fucked another woman tonight?”
That question brought tears to her eyes, but, still, she couldn’t lie. “Even if.”
“Shit!”
Angie didn’t know what that meant, didn’t have time to figure it out. Her whispered confession seemed to snap something within Mike, making him grow impossibly more savage as he took her without thought, without fancy moves, without any deliberations at all. She couldn’t deny that as much as she loved him, she loved his fucking just as much.
