Worth the Wait (Picking up the Pieces #4)

by Jessica Prince

  “That set Lance off. He spun around and raised his hand at Cameron, but I grabbed a hold of his arm. I’d tolerated Lance hitting me for almost ten years, but there wasn’t a chance in hell I was letting him put his hands on my kids. He’d never touched them. Hell, he hardly ever treated them with anything more than indifference, but after that, I couldn’t do it anymore. I was finished. When he left for work the next morning, I packed our shit and got the hell out of there.”

  “And he hasn’t come after y’all?”

  I lifted one shoulder slightly and gave Brett a wobbly smile. “He doesn’t know where we are. My dad grew up in Cloverleaf until he left for college in Ohio. He only came back once when his mother died. I was just a little girl. I never talked about this place with Lance. I knew he’d never find us here. Besides, it wouldn’t matter if he could find us anyway. He’s not looking.”

  Brett’s dark brows dropped over his eyes in a deep frown. “What makes you think that?”

  Sitting back, I took a sip of my now warm beer. “I have stuff on him. Before I left, I hacked his email accounts and found out some things that he’ll never want leaked. I used that against him. Told him if he came after us, I’d send it to the lead partner at his firm. It would destroy him.”

  “Christ,” he sighed, flopping back in his chair. “I’m afraid to even ask.”

  “Then don’t,” I answered simply. “This isn’t your fight, Brett.”

  “Bullshit it’s not my fight,” he ground out between clenched teeth. “Didn’t you hear a damn word I said to you earlier?”

  My eyes bulged out as I stuttered, “But…what about…I just…Brett, you can’t be serious. What about everything I just told you?”

  “What about it?” he asked, infuriating me by how casually he was acting.

  “I’m cursed, Brett! I’ve had two men in my life and both of them have turned into monsters. I’m the only common denominator here! I can’t let that happen to you, too. Don’t you see that?”

  He instantly shot forward in his chair, grabbing my hands in his. “You aren’t cursed,” he demanded in earnest. “You were dealt a fucked-up hand in life. That’s not your fault. And I’m not like your dad or that piece-of-shit ex. I’d never lay my hands on a woman, and I’d rather lose my goddamn arm before I hurt those kids. So you have nothing to worry about there.”

  “Brett—” I pleaded, but he cut me off.

  “You know what I see when I look at you? I see a woman tougher than any person I’ve ever met. I see a mother who’d go to the ends of the earth for her children. I see a person who’d do anything for those she cares about. That right there proves you’re a good person. You aren’t cursed, Kenzie. Don’t ever let anyone make you feel less than you are.”

  My head dropped as tears burned my eyes again. “I’m not a good mother, Brett. Look at what I put them through. For years! All because I was too weak.”

  “News flash, beauty. You aren’t fucking perfect.”

  At that, my head shot up and my eyes narrowed in a glare.

  “None of us are. You made mistakes; I’ll give you that. But you came out on the other side of all that shit. And can you honestly tell me that you don’t spend every single day thinking of different ways to make those two kids even happier than they were the day before?”

  I couldn’t argue that point.

  “They love you something fierce, baby. I’ve never seen a better mom. When you’re with them, they’re faces are lit up like a goddamn Christmas tree the whole time. That’s all you, beauty. That’s what you give to them.”

  “I…you…GAH! Stop being so sweet! I can’t argue with you when you’re being sweet!”

  His rumbling chuckle did unimaginable things, deep in my belly. “Hey, I told you to prepare, baby. Not my fault you didn’t listen.”

  “So, what, this is part of you pulling out all the stops?” I asked, using finger quotes as I rolled my eyes.

  “Like I’m gonna give away all my secrets right out of the gate,” he teased with a sexy wink that pulled a laugh from my throat. “Now, come here and gimme a kiss.”

  “What?”

  He took a step toward me, his eyes narrowing like he was about to pounce on his prey.

  “Come on, beauty. Give me those lips. You know you want to. You’ve been craving it just as much as I have. Tell me you haven’t been going crazy thinking about that night.”

  I opened my mouth, only to immediately shut it again, unable to push a lie past my lips, but still refusing to admit the truth.

  “Yeah, that’s what I thought,” he smirked, clearly reading my mind. In the blink of an eye, he was right in front of me, taking hold of my chin gently between his thumb and forefinger.

  “If you don’t want me to kiss you, you better say something now, because once I start, I’ll be damned if I stop.”

  A huge, goofy smile spread across my lips. “I trust you,” I told him truthfully. I’d opened myself up to Brett completely. I’d exposed myself to him, made myself vulnerable.

  Because I trusted him.

  I trusted him in a way I’d never trusted anyone before, not even Lance. This wasn’t the young, naïve faith I’d put in Lance. It was pure, honest, heartfelt trust. I told him the worst of my past, and he was still standing there. He hadn’t run. He hadn’t looked at me with disgust. He still wanted me, just as much as he did before he knew the truth.

  Yeah, I wasn’t falling for him. I’d already fallen, hard as hell.

  “I’m not planning on stopping you this time.”

  His smirk widened until his smile matched mine. Then he went in, his lips crashing against mine in a fierce kiss. It was as if he was marking me with that kiss, branding my lips with his own, taking ownership.

  And I loved every second of that kiss.

  His tongue pushed past my lips to tangle with my own. A deep moan tore from my throat at his taste.

  “God,” he groaned, his voice thick and gravelly as he trailed his tongue down my neck, nipping as he went. “I’ve been going crazy for another taste of you, beauty.”

  A flood of arousal shot through me. I clenched my thighs together tightly, desperate for some sort of relief. His words were enough to make my panties unbelievably wet, but I needed more. I needed his touch.

  “Brett,” I whimpered wantonly against his mouth. “Please.”

  “What do you want, baby?”

  “Touch me. God, please touch me.”

  Brett pulled his lips from mine and I cried out at the loss. “You mine, baby?”

  “What?” I asked in confusion, my head a cloud of lust and need.

  “Are you mine? You want me to touch you, baby, I need to know you’re mine.”

  “I am,” I replied desperately. “I am, please just touch me.”

  “You done making me chase you?” The small, stinging bite he gave my lower lip pulled a groan from deep inside my chest.

  “For fuck’s sake! I’m yours, Brett! No more chasing, now touch me, damn it!”

  I felt him smile against my lips as his hand squeezed my breast roughly, sending shots of pleasure straight to my core. “There’s my tough girl,” he muttered before hoisting me up.

  Wrapping my legs around his waist for leverage, I let out a startled yelp. “Where are we going?”

  “To bed. I want to spend the night devouring every goddamned inch of you. I’ll be damned if I’m gonna do that on the back deck.”

  I ground my damp heat against the thickness of his hard-on and dropped my head back. “Oh, God, yes,” I hissed.

  He walked through the house and down the hall with me wrapped around him like a second skin the entire time. The laugh I let out as he dropped me onto the bed turned into a sharp gasp as he reached down to rub at the bulge in his jeans. Watching him squeeze himself sent shockwaves through me. Christ, I wanted his cock. I was going crazy for it.

  Brett stepped away from the bed and shut the bedroom door, clicking the lock into place before he reached behind his neck and pu
lled his shirt over his head.

  “Just a warning, beauty. You try to bail on me this time, I’m gonna tie you to this bed and fuck you until you can’t walk for a week.”

  Propping myself up on my elbows, I shot him a saucy smile before saying, “You realize that’s only incentive to bail again, right?”

  His lips twitched in humor, “You’re right. Maybe I won’t let you come tonight. How’s that for incentive?”

  My bottom lip poked out on a pout. “That’s just mean.”

  He popped the button on his jeans and pulled the zipper down. My mouth watered as Brett pulled his rock-hard length from his jeans and began to stroke.

  “You want my cock, beauty?”

  My own hand trailed down my stomach and between my legs as I moaned, “Yes. Brett, please.”

  “No bailing?”

  “I swear,” I panted as I rubbed myself through the denim. “No bailing. I’m not going anywhere.”

  He let out a feral growl before stalking to the bed. When the mattress dipped under his weight, I almost threw my hands in the air in victory.

  His mouth came down on mine as his hands worked the button and zipper of my pants. Scraping my nails down his back lightly, I shoved at his waistband, trying to get his jeans completely off.

  “I can’t go slowly right now. I want you too badly,” Brett panted as he slid his fingers inside my panties, finding me already wet and needy for him.

  “That’s okay. I don’t want you to.”

  Shoving one finger deep inside me, I let out a loud cry that he silenced with his mouth. “If I’m too rough, tell me. I swear I’ll stop, beauty. I don’t want to hurt you.”

  I snaked my hand between our bodies and grabbed hold of his cock, pumping up and down until I forced a low grown from him.

  “It’s fine. I’m fine, Brett. Please, just fuck me already,” I begged, close to losing my mind if I didn’t get him inside me soon.

  “Yes, ma’am,” he said with a smile against my lips before nipping at my mouth. He stood from the bed and kicked the rest of his clothes off, then reached for me and whipped my jeans down my legs, underwear and all, tossing them over his shoulder recklessly as I pulled my shirt over my head and unhooked my bra.

  His weight was on me instantly as he shoved his cock into me. The moment our bodies connected, I cried out in relief.

  “Yes! Oh, fuck, yes, baby,” I called as he thrust into me over and over again, like a mad man.

  “Gotta be quiet, beauty,” he warned, but I was too far gone.

  My hips met his, stroke for stroke, until I thought my body might explode.

  “So fucking tight,” Brett grunted. “Fucking perfect, Kenzie. Christ, you’re perfect for me.”

  His hips circled with each slide into my body, grinding against my clit in the most delectable way, pushing me closer and closer to the edge of sanity until I thought my body couldn’t take any more pleasure.

  “Baby, you have to keep quiet,” Brett grunted as he fucked me, my moans and sighs growing louder and louder the closer I came to climax.

  “I can’t. Oh, shit, Brett!”

  His hand covered my mouth to keep me from screaming out as my release washed over me, my orgasm almost painful in its intensity. Lost in a haze of exquisite ecstasy, I bit down on his hand and raked my nails across his back so hard I was sure I’d drawn blood.

  “Fuuuuuck! Oh, shit!” Brett buried his face in the pillow beside my head as he hollered out his own release, his hand still over my mouth as he emptied himself inside me, every twitch of his cock sending tremors through my sensitive walls.

  Bliss.

  That was what I experienced with Brett. Shear, unadulterated, body draining bliss.

  “Shit,” he sighed, still out of breath. He lifted his head and pushed up on his forearms to look me at me. “Baby, I forgot a condom.”

  I gazed into those worried eyes and couldn’t help it—maybe it was because my brain had been turned into post-orgasmic mush, or maybe it was because he just looked so adorable, all concerned, but a laugh bubbled up from my throat.

  His brows dipped down further as he said, “Well, I’m glad you find this funny.”

  “It’s okay, honey,” I giggled as I reached up to rub his cheek. “I have an implant in my arm. It’s all good.”

  “I’m clean, baby, I swear. I just had a physical a month ago.”

  “I trust you,” I told him with a sincere smile. “I trust you, and I’m clean, too.”

  He let out a huffed, “Thank Christ,” and dropped his full weight back down on top of me, sending the air from my lungs in a loud wheeze.

  “Can’t. Breathe,” I grunted as his body shook with laughter. “You weigh a ton!”

  Lifting back up with a chuckle, Brett looked down at me with smiling eyes as he brushed a strand of hair off my forehead.

  “Hey,” he spoke softly.

  “Hi.”

  “You still with me?”

  “Not bailing,” I promised. “I’m right here.”

  “Good, beauty. I like you right here.”

  In that moment, wrapped in Brett’s warm embrace with him staring at me with so much adoration, I kind of liked being there myself.

  It was perfect.

  Everything about being with him in that moment was just so wonderful. I opened my mouth to say so when our little bubble of bliss was shattered with a, “Mommy? I’m thirsty,” being called from the kids’ bedroom.

  Brett rolled off me, and I moved to get up when he grabbed my wrist. “You stay here. I got it.”

  I watched with a perma-grin, admiring his ass as my man climbed from the bed and shrugged on a pair of sweats before heading to the bedroom door. That was when it hit me.

  My man.

  Brett insisted I give all of myself to him, but at the very same time, he’d given me all of him in return. He truly was my man. I laid back and basked in that knowledge as I heard Brett talking from the hallway.

  “Hey, little buddy. You want some water?”

  “Yeah. Is Mommy sleeping?”

  “She sure is, bud, but I’m always here to help you out.”

  And I knew he spoke the truth.

  “Will you make me into a burrito again?” Cameron asked, their voices growing quieter as the made their way into the kitchen.

  “Any time, bud. All you gotta do is ask.”

  The last thought I had before sleep claimed me was, God, that man. He made it impossible not to love him.

  What the hell happened to the sweet, angelic little rugrats that I’d come to know and love over the past few months? Gone were the toddlers who looked up at me with loving smiles and bright hazel eyes. In their place were demented soldiers of Satan, hell bent on annihilating all of humanity.

  And no, I didn’t feel I was being dramatic in the slightest!

  “I don’t wanna go to daycare!” Callie shouted, flinging herself onto the floor in a tantrum that would have given that little bitch from Willy Wonka a run for her money.

  “Ladybug,” I coaxed. “You have to go to daycare. Mommy and I will be at work all day. There isn’t anyone here to stay with you.” I didn’t know why I tried reasoning with her. I was ill equipped to say the least. I needed a goddamned hostage negotiator.

  “I’ll stay by myself,” she pouted from the floor, arms crossed over her tiny chest as she stared up at the ceiling.

  “What if I stop and buy donuts on the way to school, huh? If you get dressed, I promise to get you and bub a donut.”

  “For the love of God,” Kenzie grumbled as she rushed into the kitchen, pouring a bowl of cereal with one hand and trying to button the last few buttons on her blouse with the other.

  “Cameron Michael!” she shouted. “If you don’t get your little behind out of that bed this minute, I’m cancelling the Fall Festival! You have to the count of three. One! Two!”

  Before she got to three, Cameron came running down the hall and skidded to a halt in the kitchen. His hair stuck up in every direct
ion, eyes still heavy with sleep as he plopped his butt at the table and started in on the cereal Kenzie set in front of him.

  She spun around and gave her daughter, still sprawled out on the floor, the stink eye. Hell, even I had to cringe at Kenzie’s glare.

  “Callie Anne. Get your butt off that floor and finish your breakfast. You’re two seconds away from losing the Fall Festival and Halloween. Don’t test me, little girl.”

  Bottom lip still poking out, Callie climbed from the floor, parked her rear end in the chair, and finished breakfast as I watched on in wonder at how Kenzie took seconds to get a handle on a situation I’d been drowning in for the past half hour.

  “You can’t bargain, baby,” she said, planting a kiss on my parted lips as I stood in awe of her. “They’ll eat you alive if they sense the slightest weakness.”

  Kenzie puttered around the kitchen, pouring herself a cup of coffee and adding half a bottle of creamer to it as I kept my eyes firmly planted on the twins, just waiting for one of their heads to start spinning around on their shoulders. The house had gone from chaotic to serene in sixty seconds. I didn’t trust it.

  “Gotta tell you, beauty,” I whispered to her. “I’m a little scared right now.”

  Kenzie reached up and patted my cheek sympathetically. “Never let them smell your fear, honey. They’ll tear you apart.”

  She turned casually to the kids and started barking out orders like a drill sergeant. “Clothes, shoes, teeth and hair brushed. You have ten minutes. Go, go, go!”

  “What just happened?” I asked as Cameron and Callie scampered from the kitchen to get dressed. “You’ve been living here for two weeks and they’ve never acted like this.”