Brothers

by L. A. Casey

  Alannah pulled back from Bronagh’s hold and looked at Aideen.

  “I’ll pay. I don’t want them to help me with no charge, but if it could be in instalments, that’d be perfect.”

  Aideen said, “We’ll work it out. Just don’t worry about it.”

  Alannah nodded, but she wore her heart on her sleeve, and I could see worrying was all she would be doing. When I looked at her, the urge to protect her was something fierce.

  “Lana.” Branna moved away from me and towards her. “Come with me. I want to talk to ye’.”

  They both left the room, leaving us to wait in silence. No one knew what to say, not even Alec tried to filled the void with a joke. Minutes went by, and when Branna returned to the room, she frowned.

  “She’s in denial,” she told us. “She thinks she can make ‘er da stop cheatin’ on her ma. She is puttin’ pressure on ‘erself to keep ’er family together.”

  Bronagh rubbed her face with her hands. “What are we goin’ to do?”

  “All we can do,” Branna replied. “Just be there for ‘er. Tellin’ ‘er what to do will only result in a fight because right now, what she has decided is the only thing that makes sense to ‘er.”

  Silence fell upon the room until Damien said, “I have to fix shit with her. I heard what she said to Dominic, and I need to fix it. I hate what I’ve done to her.”

  “I understand you better than anyone,” I said, “and my advice is baby steps. You’ve said you’re sorry multiple times, and you give her space whenever she is around, but what you need to do now is let her know you’re here, you’re staying, and that you will earn her trust back.”

  “How the fuck am I going to do that?” Damien asked on a groan. “She barely looks at me.”

  “I can’t answer that. It’s something you’ll have to figure out for yourself, kid, but it’s obvious you do care for her, so just stick to your guns.”

  Damien nodded, then retreated into the company of his own mind so he could think. We spent the next few hours together, and after Keela made us a big feast, we scattered around the house to digest our food. I went upstairs with Kane and Alec to check out some new weights he bought, then went back downstairs to Branna. I had hoped I could entice her to come over to my house for a nap, but when I reached the doorway of the living room and saw her sitting on the couch with my nephew lying on her chest, my heart tightened. I loved how she looked holding a baby, and I imagined her hold a baby of our very own one day.

  Branna locked eyes with me for a long moment, then said, “Ado, take ‘im, will ye’?”

  Aideen got her and carefully lifted her son, resting him on the growing baby bump of my second nephew, then looked between Branna and myself, and said, “I’ve a feelin’ the drought is about to come to an end, am I right?”

  “Yeah, babe,” Branna said as I stood, still staring at me. “There’s about to be a fuckin’ storm.”

  “Go get ‘im, Mama.”

  I straighten as she approached me, though I tried to appear like my heart wasn’t beating a mile a second. When she reached me, I grabbed her hand, and together we turned and rushed out of the house.

  “Don’t break him, Branna!” I heard a voice shout from behind us then someone said, “I still want to be Ryder when I grow up!”

  Branna and I laughed until we got into my—no, our house. As soon as the door closed, Branna turned to face me.

  “I’m movin’ back in. Tonight.”

  “Okay.”

  “We aren’t usin’ a condom either because I want us to have a baby.”

  “Okay.”

  “From this moment on, bein’ a gentleman is over. When we’re alone, you’re to touch every part of me. Every. Single. Fuckin’. Part.”

  “Okay.”

  “And I want to get married. Soon. We can figure out a date.”

  “Okay.”

  Every time she spoke, she took a step backwards, and every time I replied, I took a step towards her.

  “Just okay?” Branna asked. “Ye’ agree with everythin’ I’ve said?”

  “Every. Single. Fucking. Word.”

  Branna swallowed. “D’ye have anythin’ else to say?”

  “Yeah.” I shot forward. “I’m going to make you scream.”

  Branna yelped when I picked her up, put her over my shoulder, and beelined up the stairs, taking the steps two at a time. Like the snap of my fingers, we were in our bedroom, and I had her pressed against the bedroom door, pulling her clothes from her body as I dominated her mouth with mine. Branna matched my hunger and kissed me back, hard. Her hands frantically pulled at my shirt, and I heard some of the material rip. I growled against her mouth, grabbed my shirt, and continued what Branna started. I ripped the fabric from my body and blindly tossed it behind me. Branna placed her hands on my bare chest and groaned when she slid them around to my back.

  Christ.

  “Now,” she begged against his lips. “No foreplay, just you inside me. Please, Ryder.”

  She didn’t have to ask me twice.

  “I love you, sweetness.”

  Branna hummed. “I know, and I love ye’ too.”

  “I just wanted to tell you.”

  She licked her lips. “Why?”

  “Because I’m going to fuck you like I don’t.”

  Branna sucked in a sharp breath when I picked her up and moved her over to our bed. When I laid her down, I rid her of her shoes, socks, jeans, and panties. Her T-shirt was thrown somewhere in the room and so was her bra. I stripped out of my clothes so fast that it made Branna giggle.

  “You’re so eager.”

  I looked at her. “You have no fucking idea.”

  I was starved of being imitate with her for a long time too, and I was beyond ready to bring that to an end and reintroduce myself to every part of her soft, curvy, perfect body. To show her eagerness, she parted her thighs for me as I crawled up her body and hovered over her. Branna groaned when I balanced my weight on my left forearm and used my right hand to grip the base of my throbbing cock and rubbed the head back and forth over her pulsing clit.

  “Ryder,” she moaned and slid her hands around my waist and to my back.

  “I’m here, sweetness,” I said, my body shaking. “And I’m not going anywhere. Ever.”

  “I’m holdin’ ye’ to that.”

  I slowly rubbed the head of my cock down her pussy until it kissed her entrance.

  “Fuck,” I trembled. “I’m scared, and I don’t know why.”

  Branna moved her hands to my face.

  “You’re nervous, but don’t be. It’s just us.”

  “Just us.”

  Branna nodded. “Watch me as ye’ enter me, ye’ll feel better. I promise.”

  With my eyes locked on hers, I slowly slid into her tight, wet cunt. My eyes threatened to roll back as I pushed into her body, inch by agonising inch. Branna’s eyes did roll back, her lips parted, her cheeks flushed and bliss contorted her features.

  “Beautiful,” I murmured.

  I leaned down and pressed my mouth to hers, and she moaned.

  “I fit perfectly with you,” I whispered against her lips. “You’re wrapped around me so tight, Bran ... fuck.”

  She returned her hands to my back and gently grazed her nails against my skin, causing me to hiss and begin to thrust into her harder. Branna’s moans were music to my ears, but when she moved her hand to her pussy and slowly circled her clit, heat ignited in my balls.

  “Yes,” I rasped. “Rub that pretty clit of yours, baby. Show me what you’ve been doing when you didn’t have me.”

  Branna hummed, then surprised me when she lifted her essence-coated fingers to my lips. Her eyes were hooded with desire as she watched me lap away the cream before I sucked them into my mouth. When she returned her fingers back to her clit, her body shook.

  “Holy fuck!”

  I drove into her harder, faster, and a hell of a lot deeper.

  “Did you pretend your fingers were my mo
uth, baby?” I asked, my voice primal. “Did you fuck yourself and wish it was me?”

  “Yes!” Branna panted. “Only you.”

  Jolts of pleasure flooded my body. “Come on, baby. I’m so close.”

  My orgasm slammed into me just as hard as Branna’s did. It consumed me and flowed through my veins, pumping the feeling of ecstasy throughout my body. My spine stiffened, my hips jerked in involuntary motions, and a pleasure so hot and intense spread across my body and soothed me completely. I was vaguely aware as I fell forward, covering Branna’s body with mine. She laughed and moved her hands to my sides and began to tickle me. I twitched and jerked in response and rolled to the side, falling off her, and out of her, in one fluid motion.

  “Baby.”

  Branna hummed. “My thoughts exactly.”

  I reached my hand out, and Branna threaded her fingers through mine.

  “Can we do that again?” I asked, my breathing laboured. “Right now?”

  Branna laughed, again. “After I take a power nap because that orgasm was ... wow.”

  “I know how you feel.” I shuddered. “It wasn’t the longest sex we’ve ever had, but damn if it didn’t feel like the best.”

  “All that foreplay and teasin’ over the past three months has finally found its release.”

  I turned and grabbed her. I pulled her a few inches up the bed until her head rested on a pillow. I covered us with the bedcover and snuggled my body against hers. Every bad thing we had been through over the past couple of years led to this moment, and it was all worth it.

  “I love you, sweetness.”

  Branna squeezed me. “I love ye’, too.”

  Hearing her say those words, but better yet, feeling those words whenever she looked at me or touched me meant everything to me. I had a woman who loved me like I was her whole world, and in my heart, I knew that to her, I was her world. Just like she was mine to me. We had spent our lives looking out for our families and always put ourselves on the back burner, but no more. I would take care of Branna, but in return, she would take care of me too. She was my future, and I was happy to say it had never looked as bright or as beautiful.

  She was my happily ever after, and I’d be damned if I didn’t deserve her.

  CHAPTER SEVEN

  Present day ...

  * * *

  When I entered the kitchen and found my wife preparing dinner, I snuck up behind her and snaked my arms around her petite body, making her yelp with fright. I laughed, then leaned down and planted kissed on her neck.

  “Scared you.”

  “Ye’ bloody well did.” Branna chuckled. “Ye’ still move so silently. It freaks me out.”

  I smiled and placed a soft kiss on her cheek. “How are you feeling after what happened with the twins earlier?”

  “I’m fine now that they’ve apologised and are okay with each other,” she answered as she continued to peel potatoes. “I often ask God why he didn’t give us five girls to raise, then I think of all the hassle Georgie gives Dominic and me sister, and I realise that I’m perfectly happy dealin’ with five annoyin’ lads.”

  I patted her behind. “I’d have a lot more grey hairs if we had five Georgies. I love that girl something fierce, but man, she gives her daddy and mama a hard time, and she doesn’t even mean to.”

  Branna chuckled. “She’s such a good girl, though, and she has all of you men, young and old, wrapped around ‘er little finger.”

  “Don’t remind me.”

  My wife relaxed back against me. “Can ye’ believe the twins will be fifteen in a few months? I can’t. It feels like we just met yesterday, and now we have two almost fifteen-year-olds.”

  I pressed my face against her hair. “I know, I was just thinking earlier about past events and meeting you was one of them.”

  “What else did ye’ think of?”

  “This and that,” I answered. “Things that brought us to our now.”

  Branna hummed. “We’ve had an eventful life together.”

  “And the best is yet to come.”

  “I know,” Branna chirped. “We’ll hopefully have grandbabies in another decade.”

  “Jesus,” I laughed. “Don’t saddle me with grandkids when we still have a kid under ten.”

  “Can’t help it. I love babies.”

  Her occupation proved that.

  “Where are the boys?”

  “Their bedrooms,” Branna answered. “They’ll come running when food is ready for them.”

  “Want to have some fun in the meantime?”

  My wife snorted. “If we have fun, then the dinner won’t get cooked.”

  “We can get takeout.”

  “I already have everything in the oven cookin’. The potatoes are the last thing to be prepared before I boil them.”

  “Then I’ll help you, and we can have ten minutes to ourselves,” I mused. “I know you like long, thorough sex ... but a quickie is good for the soul.”

  Branna’s shoulders shook as she laughed. “Help me then.”

  I sprang into action, and in just a couple of minutes, we had potatoes peeled, washed and placed in a pot of water on top of the stove to boil. When Branna turned to face me, I was already stripping out of my clothes at a rapid pace. She burst into laughter as she rushed over to the kitchen door and shut it. She flicked off the lights so our neighbours behind our house wouldn’t see my bare ass if they looked into our kitchen.

  “You’re worse than a teenager!”

  “It’s your fault,” I stressed. “I hurt for you, woman.”

  “Aw.” She clicked her tongue. “D’ye’ want me to make it better?”

  “Yes,” I almost pleaded. “Yes, please.”

  Just as she reached for me, the kitchen door opened, and Branna screamed. I grabbed the first thing I could from the counter to cover my groin and did so just in time for the light to turn on.

  “It’s not what it looks like!” Branna shouted, her hands on her cheeks.

  Jules looked back and forth between us, and said, “Are ye’s havin’ a bleedin’ laugh?”

  Branna didn’t speak, but I laughed, and it drew my son’s hostile glare my way ... until he dropped his eyes to my hands.

  “Da, please don’t tell me you’ve no boxers on behind that cookbook. Please.”

  “Okay.” I smiled at my son. “I won’t.”

  Jules threw his hands up in the air, and to his mother, he waddled his finger, and said, “I’m so disappointed in ye’, Ma. Messin’ around with him when your children are home. Had I been one minute later walkin’ in ‘ere, I could have been scarred for life. For life, I tell ye’. Shame on ye’, woman. Shame!”

  Branna stared after our son after his dramatic exit, then she looked at me and said, “Why do I feel sad at disappointin’ ‘im?”

  “Because he could convince the Devil that he was God, that’s why. Now come here and give me some of that sweet loving.”

  “I can hear everythin’,” Jules hollered from the hallway. “Every single word, and I’m callin’ Childline!”

  Branna burst into a fit of giggles, then proceeded to pick up my clothes from the floor and hand them to me, breaking my heart entirely.

  “I’m gonna whoop your ass, Jules!” I shouted. “You ruined Mommy and Daddy’s alone time.”

  “I’m diallin’ Childline as we speak!”

  Branna’s laughter brought a smile to my face as I dressed. When I was fully clothed, I leaned my hip against the counter and watched her busy around the room as she checked on the dinner as it cooked. She was the most beautiful woman I had ever seen in my entire life, and she was mine. She vowed to spend her life with me, to love me and stand by me through thick and thin, and she had done just that. She stuck by me when she probably should have run for the hills, and she gave me my children and took care of all of us even though she worked a trying job.

  She was the light of my life.

  “Do you have any idea how perfect you are, Branna?” I asked, walki
ng over to her and pushing stray hairs away from her face. “I’m not sweet-talking or trying to get you naked. I’m being serious. Do you have any clue how incredibly amazing you are? I can’t believe you’re my wife, sweetness.”

  Her cheeks flushed. “Ryder, what’s brought this on?”

  “Nothing,” I answered. “I was just watching you, and it struck me just how in love with you I am. I’m in awe of you, sweetness. I always have been, and I always will be.”

  Branna’s eyes glistened with unshed tears, and before she could say a word, I leaned down and pressed my lips against hers. She turned her body towards mine, slid her arms around my waist, and relaxed against me as we kissed. I loved how she felt against me, how she tasted, how she smelled. I loved everything single thing about her.

  “I love you,” I said against her lips. “I love you so much, Branna.”

  “I love ye’ too, Ry.”

  I smiled when I heard a long sigh from the doorway.

  “I hate to admit it,” Jules grunted. “But that was very romantic. Ye’ have to teach me that, Da. Everythin’ ye’ said was gold.”

  Branna turned her head, and to our son, she said, “What he said isn’t rehearsed. He put what he feels for me into words. When you fall in love, you’ll say somethin’ similar to your partner, I imagine.”

  Jules rolled his eyes. “Yeah, yeah. How long until dinner will be done? I’m leppin’.”

  “Half an hour,” Branna answered. “Eat an apple if you’re hungry in the meantime.”

  He groaned but grabbed an apple and ventured out of the room. I heard arguing in the living room then which told me Jules wanted the remote control for the television and whichever one of his brothers had it wasn’t giving it up. I was about to go and dissolve the argument by the taking the remote for myself when my phone rang. I found it on charge on the other side of the room.

  “Did you put this on charge?” I asked my wife.

  “Yeah,” she answered. “It was nearly dead.”

  I thanked her, picked up my phone, and answered it when I saw it was Kane calling.