Braydon

by Nicole Edwards

  Jessie looked at Brendon. Then over to Braydon. Then back. “What’s up?” she asked, trying not to sound too flummoxed that he was actually talking to her. Since Braydon arrived back in Coyote Ridge, Brendon hadn’t said two words to her. Not that they’d had the opportunity for as much as a conversation, but he certainly hadn’t made any effort, either.

  “How’re you?” he asked, moving up close to her. That was when the warning bells began to reverberate in her head.

  “Good,” she answered, glancing over at Sawyer, who was now engrossed in a conversation with some woman who was practically climbing his body. Jared seemed to have escaped. Lucky him.

  “Can I get you a drink?”

  Jessie stared at him in utter disbelief. And that’s when she realized what he was doing.

  “No,” she said through clenched teeth. “You can’t.”

  Brendon’s eyebrows rose.

  “I’m not playing this game with you, Brendon. I can’t believe you’d even stoop that low.”

  Jessie wasn’t naive. She knew good and damn well that Brendon was using her to make Cheyenne jealous. She doubted it would work in the first place, but God, the feeling sucked.

  “What are you talking about?” he asked, but Jessie knew he caught her meaning.

  “You can’t stand to look at me until you need someone to help you make her jealous.”

  Brendon glanced over his shoulder, proving right then that she had nailed his motive.

  “If you wanna buy someone a drink, you should try her. Ugghhh!” she growled and pushed past him. Jessie couldn’t believe the audacity he had. He couldn’t so much as talk to her, couldn’t give her enough respect to try to talk about what had happened between the three of them or even to tell her that he hoped they could be friends. But he could try to manipulate her to get what he wanted.

  What in the hell had this woman done to him that would make him stoop so fucking low?

  Jessie knew Brendon. He didn’t have a vindictive bone in his entire body. Sure, he was aloof and a little rough around the edges—unlike Braydon. But he wasn’t a womanizer. Yet he—

  “Are you okay?”

  Jessie stopped trying to push through the crowd when she heard Braydon’s voice.

  “No. No, I am not fucking okay,” she yelled back at him, and then shrugged him off.

  Unfortunately, the bar was so crowded, she couldn’t make her way through the people fast enough on her own. It wasn’t until Braydon stepped in front of her and began shouldering his way through with his massive body that she stood half a chance of getting to the door. She stayed right on his boot heels, doing her best not to reach for the belt loop on his jeans. She’d done that plenty of times in the past when she had wanted to remain close to him. But she couldn’t do it now.

  As they stepped out onto the main porch of Moonshiners, humid, gasoline-tinged air mixed with cigarette smoke hit her face, making her feel nauseous.

  “Jess, wait,” Braydon said, grabbing her arm as she tried to leave. Where she was going, she had no idea. She didn’t have a car. She didn’t even have a friend who could drive her home. Her sister was in there absorbed in conversation with her family, so Jessie was left on her own.

  Which meant she was going to have to walk after all.

  “Hold up,” Braydon growled.

  Jessie stopped and spun around to face him. “Leave me alone, Braydon Walker. I’m not going to help Brendon and I’m not going to help you, either. I refuse to be used to help you or your brother land women. Using me to make her jealous ain’t gonna work because I’m not gonna let it.”

  “What the fuck are you talking about?” he exclaimed, fury blazing in his eyes.

  For the first time since she had met him, Jessie actually took a step back when Braydon’s voice rose. She fought the instinctive urge to flinch at his heated reaction, but just barely. His eyes glittered with anger, and his hands were balled into fists. She was immediately put on guard, wondering just what the hell he was going to do.

  Not that she would ever think Braydon would hit her.

  “Just leave me alone,” she said, lowering her voice a little. “Let my sister know that I walked home, would you?” she asked as she walked backward, keeping her eyes on him as she tried to put some distance between them.

  “The hell you are.”

  Jessie ignored him, continuing to walk until there was a safe enough distance for her to turn around. If she had been in Dallas, she would’ve called for a cab. But the chances of getting a cab to come all the way out to Coyote Ridge were slim, if not impossible.

  The sound of boots crunching on gravel told her that Braydon was still behind her, still pursuing her. But she didn’t stop. She didn’t want to.

  Jessie was still fuming over the fact that Brendon thought she was naive enough to let him use her to piss off that woman. And Braydon had come to save the day. Probably planning to take her back in and pretend to be her friend while the two of them plotted how to get Cheyenne into their bed.

  Her stomach lurched and she had to stop. It was the heat. That’s what it was. The unusually high temperature was making her sick to her stomach. It had nothing to do with the fact that thinking about Braydon with another woman actually made her sick.

  “Jess, wait. Let me take you home.”

  Jessie didn’t bother to look up at him. He had moved around in front of her as she stood there, trying to keep from losing her lunch. Yes, lunch. Because that was the last time she ate anything. She did eat lunch, right?

  “Let me take you home and we’ll let Kylie know.”

  Jessie shook her head.

  “Come on. You can’t walk. It’s ten miles out to the house.”

  Jessie slowly lifted her head until their eyes met. The black Stetson he wore tonight shielded his eyes, casting his face in shadows. In the dim light from the distant street lamp, the silhouette of his big body was surrounded by a yellow glow.

  She didn’t say anything. She wanted to tell him fine, he could take her home because otherwise, she was either going to have to go back inside and endure seeing Brendon and Braydon with Cheyenne, or she was going to have blisters on her feet from walking ten miles in her boots.

  Neither sounded like fun.

  When Braydon’s hand slowly slid down her arm, Jessie stared at it. He continued until he linked his fingers with hers, all while he continued to stand way too close.

  His voice was calm, soft when he said, “Let me take you home. I’ll even drop you off. You won’t have to worry about me trying to talk.”

  Jessie’s heart fluttered strangely. His hand was so big, so warm against hers. His voice was rich and soothing, and she wanted nothing more than to close her eyes and let it wash over her. She wanted to feel the safety and security she’d felt in his arms again. It was one of the things that kept her up at night. Thoughts of what it would be like to be held by him again.

  Braydon began moving and Jessie allowed him to lead her back the way they’d come. He walked around to the passenger side of his truck and opened her door. Once she had climbed inside, he shut the door gently behind her and she watched as he made his way around the front of the truck once again.

  As his door opened, Jessie sent up a silent prayer: God, please, please, please don’t let me let him break my heart again.

  chapter TEN

  Braydon was relieved that Jessie had allowed him to drive her home. If she had insisted on walking, he would’ve walked with her. Or even ten feet behind her if she demanded to be left alone. Under no circumstances would he have allowed her to walk home by herself.

  He’d actually been surprised that he could persuade her to go with him. She’d been hell-bent on doing things her way since the moment he got back to town, and he hadn’t expected tonight to be any different. But then she’d climbed into his truck and he’d joined her. After he’d ins
tructed her to message Kylie so she wouldn’t worry, the two of them had driven in silence.

  But now, as he pulled down the main drive that passed by his parents’ house and led to hers, Braydon kept replaying what she’d said over and over in his head.

  Leave me alone, Braydon Walker. I’m not going to help Brendon and I’m not going to help you, either. I refuse to be used to help you or your brother land women. Using me to make her jealous ain’t gonna work because I’m not gonna let it.

  It still pissed him off that she could possibly think he was capable of something like that. But then it had dawned on him that Brendon had done exactly that. Braydon had been watching the two of them as Brendon made his way across the room, and when he started talking to Jessie, her eyes had flashed with rage. When she came barreling through the crowd, Braydon had known something was wrong, but not until she scolded him in the parking lot had he realized why.

  If Braydon was correct, which he was pretty sure he was, then Brendon was trying to make Cheyenne jealous. And he had been planning to use Jessie to do so.

  What the hell had gotten into Brendon?

  Never in their lives had Brendon used a woman. And certainly not to make another woman jealous. What was it about Cheyenne that had Brendon acting like a dumbass? What had the woman done to him? Braydon knew firsthand—thanks to Jessie—just how much a woman could fuck with a man’s head, but what Brendon was doing wasn’t acceptable. His brother was out of control.

  “Thanks for the ride,” Jessie said, pulling Braydon from his thoughts. He hadn’t even realized that they had reached her house. That was only a little worrisome, especially since he was the one driving.

  “You’re welcome,” he answered, but after coming to a complete stop he climbed out of the truck. He left the keys in the ignition and the engine running, but he wasn’t about to let Jessie walk to the door herself. He was raised to treat a lady right, and he wasn’t going to change that now. No matter what she said.

  “You’re not coming in,” she argued when she flung her door open, although he hadn’t said anything.

  When they met at the front of the truck, he put his hand on the small of her back and urged her toward the front door. She stiffened immediately.

  “You’re not,” she said again, but Braydon ignored her.

  Once they were on the porch, he waited for her to unlock the door. She didn’t. She just stood there staring at him.

  “I’m not leaving until you’re inside, Jess.”

  It was her turn to not speak and they stood there, staring at one another for a long time. The only light was that of the moon passing between the trees and the dim glow from a lamp inside, filtering through the big window overlooking the porch. Not enough for him to see Jessie’s expression clearly, but enough for him to know that she could feel the energy pulsing between them.

  Three months or three years, Braydon wasn’t sure that the staggering attraction they harbored for one another would ever go away.

  Maybe neither of them were capable of making rational decisions when it came to relationships, but he knew right then and there that he wasn’t giving up on this woman. No matter how much she wanted him to.

  He couldn’t.

  He loved her.

  And Braydon took that seriously. He had never loved another woman in all his life. He’d been in plenty of relationships, mostly sexual, occasionally not, but never had he felt like this. Even after all those days of being away from her, the moment he laid eyes on her again it had been as though he had never left. His heart had her image imprinted on it, and another hundred years could pass but Braydon knew he would never be able to forget her.

  “Braydon,” Jessie whispered.

  Braydon realized he had taken a step closer. His hand was caressing her cheek and he was staring down at her. Her eyes were wide, her mouth slightly open, and Braydon wanted to kiss her more than he wanted to take another breath.

  “Jess,” he said, losing the tenuous grip he had on his control. “Oh, God, Jess.” Braydon slid his hand behind her head, cupped her nape, and leaned down, pressing his lips to hers.

  Fire erupted in his bloodstream; emotions he had just come to accept ripped through him, and he felt the physical remnants of the hold she had on his heart. And when she kissed him back, her hands sliding around his waist and then up his back, he wasn’t sure he would ever be able to pull away from her.

  She was sweet, warm, and so fucking soft.

  He tried to keep the kiss slow, gentle. He wanted to savor the way she went liquid in his arms. It registered that they were completely alone. No one waiting on the other side of a door, or in another room . . . They were alone. And he didn’t have to rush. This was a moment that would forever be emblazoned in his memory. There were no expectations of what was going to happen. No premeditated sexual exploits to be carried out.

  This was a kiss. Pure and simple.

  Braydon didn’t care what happened next, but he didn’t want to stop kissing her.

  Jessie’s body pressed against his, her breasts crushed against his chest, her fingernails digging into his back while she tried to pull him to her. Braydon kept his hand at the back of her head, refusing to yank her closer because he didn’t want to ruin the moment. He tried to tell himself that he didn’t need more than this. Kissing her was better than breathing, better than sunshine after a weeklong rainstorm.

  Yes. Yes, he had gone there. This woman made him wax poetic about fucking rainstorms and he didn’t even care.

  Air was in short supply and he pulled back slightly, refusing to let her go. As he pressed his forehead to hers, he opened his eyes and looked at her. “Jess,” he said again. Her name was the only word he could come up with.

  “What are we doing, Bray?”

  He didn’t know, so he didn’t even try to answer.

  “We can’t do this,” she finally said.

  “We can,” he disputed, forcing his voice to work. “It doesn’t have to be tonight, Jess. But we can do this. We can make this work. If you want it bad enough.”

  “Me?” she asked, and the warmth of her body was stolen from him as she let him go. “I’m not the one who made the rules. And I don’t want to play by them anymore.”

  “There aren’t any rules,” Braydon informed her.

  “Sure there are. Remember Brendon?”

  Braydon sighed. Why did Brendon have to be brought into this? Braydon was tired of the incomplete relationships, the ones that were simply based on sex. That’s all he had ever known, and he didn’t want to go back to where they were when Brendon had been involved. He wanted to start over. Shit. If it came down to it, Braydon would rather be celibate than be in another meaningless sexual relationship like that.

  Then again, it wasn’t her fault that Braydon had fallen in love with her.

  Braydon moved to the wooden post that held up the roof above the porch as he stared out into the darkness surrounding them. He placed one hand on the smooth wood, the other on the back of his neck, trying to massage some of the tension out of the knotted muscles.

  The only sounds were the crickets chirping in the underbrush, the lonesome howl of a coyote somewhere in the distance, and the steady rumble of his truck’s engine, which was, yes, still running. Oh, and the erratic thump of his own heartbeat.

  “I’m sorry if I came between you and Brendon,” Jessie said faintly.

  Braydon lifted his head to see her standing a few feet away, leaning against another one of the cedar posts.

  “What are you talking about?”

  “I never thought you would leave. I knew from the beginning that what the three of us had was supposed to be temporary. It went on too long, but I . . .” Jessie trailed off and Braydon waited for her to continue. He needed her to continue.

  She didn’t.

  “You what?”

  “I got too comfor
table,” she said.

  That wasn’t what he wanted to hear.

  “I enjoyed your friendship. And Brendon’s, too. It was easy to be around the two of you. And like it or not, the sex was amazing. But . . .” Jessie paused again. “Being with both of you . . . That was exciting at first. But I don’t think I’m capable of being in a relationship like that. My sister has managed to do it. But it isn’t for me. And I know that you and Brendon don’t have relationships without the other being involved.”

  Braydon let go of the post and moved closer to Jessie. “Jess, that’s exactly what I want.”

  “What? A relationship without him?”

  “Yeah. Exactly that,” he told her. “I’ve been dying to have you all to myself, Jess.”

  “But what about Brendon?” she asked.

  “What about him? He’s a big boy. He can figure it out on his own.” Braydon glanced away briefly. “Not to mention, Brendon’s on a single-minded quest to win Cheyenne Montgomery, which might be an impossible feat. But I know Brendon. He’s not gonna stop until he gets her.”

  Jessie nodded. “I’ve seen the way he looks at her.”

  “This is new for us, Jess. Brendon and I have always done things one way. But then you came along and . . .” Braydon sucked in a deep breath, but before he could say anything more, Jessie spoke.

  “I don’t want to come between the two of you,” she told him, her blue eyes sparkling in the light from the moon as she looked up at him.

  “You won’t,” Braydon said. He wasn’t sure whether that was the truth, but he would make it work. If she gave him half a chance, he would prove his love to her. Prove to her that he could be the man she needed.

  “He’s going to feel betrayed.”

  “Doubtful. That’s not to say he won’t be pissed because things aren’t working out the way he planned, but it is what it is.” Knowing Brendon, especially the man he seemed to be now, he wasn’t going to give a shit. He seemed to have a one-track mind. And honestly, Braydon wasn’t particularly fond of the man his twin had become.

  JESSIE WAS STILL reeling from the kiss she’d shared with Braydon. Pulling away from him had been damn near impossible, and if it weren’t for the fact that she had to breathe, she never would have. But now, as he stared down at her, she felt her resolve slipping where he was concerned.