December (The Oliver Brothers Book 1)

by Watson, Q. M.

  “Get your filthy mind out of the gutter,” Jarvis mutters, laughing into her hair as he holds her to him.

  “That was seriously hot.” January moans, fanning herself with Gray’s script. “Let’s not stop the greatness. Jarvis and Miles are up next.”

  Unlike Gray, Jarvis has no protest about being a bottom. I suspect because he’s always in the top position in real life. Miles and Jarvis take the center of the living room, standing across from one another. I assume they both have their lines memorized because they don’t have their scripts with them.

  “I usually sleep alone,” Miles says, looking into Jarvis’s eyes.

  “I know,” he replies, staring at Miles with brooding intensity. “I usually wouldn’t ask, but I don’t want to be alone right now.”

  Miles steps forward, his gaze directed at Jarvis the entire time. “I thought you were fine with being lonely.”

  “I am,” Jarvis replies, taking a step toward Miles. “Tonight is different, though.”

  Miles’s jaw tightens as he narrows his eyes at Jarvis. “Last time I woke and you were gone.”

  “Didn’t know I would be missed,” Jarvis whispers, fluttering his long lashes.

  “I’ll always miss you,” Miles says, clasping Jarvis’s hand.

  Jarvis suddenly throws his tatted arm around Miles’s waist and buries his face in his neck. “Brother of mine, I won’t leave this time.”

  “Oh my God. My ovaries.” January groans in agony.

  “Damn. This yaoi stuff is pretty hot,” July murmurs, staring at Jarvis.

  “I like it,” I add, rubbing suggestively against Danny.

  “All right,” Miles says, still in character, stroking Jarvis’s hair. “I know how you hate thunderstorms. You can sleep with me.”

  “This is about Jarvis not wanting to sleep alone because he fears thunderstorms?” July whispers, even more confused. “But Jarvis loves thunderstorms.”

  “This is fiction,” January explains. “No need to get real about anything. Job well done, boys. It looks like you’ve won your wager.”

  “Good,” Miles replies. “I’m sure we’ll think of something.”

  “I want to help write it,” Gray says, mischievous eyes shimmering at January.

  “Miles, come,” May says, rising from the couch.

  “On my way,” he says, stepping out of his oxfords. “You guys can show yourselves out.”

  Everyone departs in a blurry frenzy. Danny takes my hand, walking me to our cabin like a proper gentleman. I laugh inwardly. He isn’t a proper gentleman. Danny loves to dirty talk. And I love hearing him whisper wicked words to me.

  He sits me on our bed and begins to undress me while I do as minimum as possible in helping him.

  “Are we going to fuck now?” I ask.

  “No,” he says, stripping me out of my clothes.

  “Why?”

  “You know why,” he says, pulling his shirt over me.

  “But I want to,” I whine. “You’ve got me all worked up with your stroking touches.”

  “How wet are you?” Danny asks, lifting a brow at me.

  “I don’t know,” my voice is honey sweet, “but you can check.”

  He stares at me for a brief eternity. His eyes are dark and radiant. His smile is malevolent but so beautiful. Danny steps forward and towers over me, and then he lowers his hand between my legs. My lips part as his fingers graze across the dampness in my panties.

  “Naughty girl. Getting wet off brothers talking dirty to each other,” Danny chastises firmly, but his touches are light. He moves my panties to the side, shoving two fingers into me. Danny rubs a tender spot deep inside of me, and I whimper, trembling. He smirks down at me. “Look at you coming on my fingers. Such a shameless girl you are.” He leans down to bite my earlobe hard enough I shudder from the sting and clench when he sucks it away. “I have a feeling you’d rather come all over my cock.”

  “Danny.” I groan, wrapping my arms around his neck. “Please.”

  “No.”

  “Please,” I whisper, writhing against him. “I need you inside of me.”

  He laughs darkly, removing his hand from between my legs. “You beg beautifully. But the answer is no. Let’s get into bed.”

  I watch him undress until he’s only wearing boxer shorts. He pulls the sheets back, and we cuddle together. My head rests on his chest, and my body moves with each breath he takes. I snuggle even more into him. “I love lying so close to you.”

  “I love you being close to me.”

  “I thought you were a great top.”

  “Mmm-hmm.”

  “No, I mean it. Gray was a little scared of you. That’s all. I wonder if January is going to let him have his way with her.”

  “I can bet she is.”

  “When are you going to fuck me?”

  “When you make up your mind,” he says, giving me a squeeze.

  I don’t say anything to that. In honesty, I’ve made up my mind. And Piper’s right. I do choose Danny. Danny is the love of my life. I don’t want any more back and forth between Josh and Danny. Josh is my friend. He’s my best friend. So maybe I should set some boundaries when I see him again.

  I close my eyes without telling Danny my newfound resolve. He’s waiting for me to declare it and accept it. I already have.

  A smile spreads across my face when I cuddle closer and my knee brushes his hard-on.

  He releases a heavy grunt, shaking slightly. “Stop while you’re ahead, December.”

  “What are you going to do?”

  Danny presses his warm, firm lips to my ear. “I’ll make you ache more, but I won’t let you come. Then I’ll play with you using my tongue and fingers. And that, my bad little kitty, will be frustrating.”

  Biting my bottom lip, I graze his hardness again. “That sounds fun.”

  “I can promise you the aftereffects won’t be,” he says, pressing my arms into the mattress and using his knee to spread my legs.

  Danny takes his time when he plays with me, and I never get to come.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-THREE

  THE PRESENT

  Danny feeds me breakfast in bed. I’m relieved that I didn’t wake up with a hangover from hell. I believe this is because of Danny. He takes good care of me. That’s something I can admit without hesitation. He’s been taking care of me for most of my life. He was everything I needed him to be at one point in my life. Danny’s been my friend, my brother, and something like a father. Now, he’s my lover.

  He feeds me a slice of apple as I slip my ring finger into the gold band around my neck. It doesn’t fit. The band is too big.

  “Why don’t you want to get it resized?”

  His brown retinas stare at me. “There’s no need.”

  “But look,” I lift my finger up to his face, showing him the ring is just too big, “it doesn’t fit at all. We should get it resized.”

  “No.”

  My brows furrow, and I frown at him. “Fine. Whatever.”

  “We have a lot to discuss,” he says, feeding me another slice of crisp green apple.

  “Okay. Where do you want to start?”

  “Why did you feel the need to lie to me the night I took your virginity?”

  I stare at his magnetic eyes for a moment and then turn to look out the window. Flurries are freely falling everywhere, coating the tall green pines in sugar-white snow, and the vivid strawberry pink and orange sunrise streaking the vast sky. “I wanted to hurt you, I guess. Time and time again I’ve been at your mercy. I wanted you to feel pain this time. I wanted you hurt and vulnerable. I wanted to give you a taste of what I had to live with for years. I wanted the power this time. So I took it and used it.”

  He cups my chin, directing my gaze to his. “I never imagined your first time like that. It did hurt me. It nearly killed me.”

  “Why did you leave me afterward?”

  “I didn’t know what else to do,” he confesses quietly. “I was going to lose my mind i
f I stayed any longer. You have this relentless power to get under my skin and soak into my bones. Though you use your powers to prolong my suffering, there’s not a thing I would change about you. I only hate that when I stare into those pretty brown eyes, a scorned woman stares back at me. I never wanted you to be like that, December.”

  “I don’t understand you sometimes,” I whisper as he traces my bottom lip with the pad of his thumb.

  “Ask me anything you want. I’ll answer as honestly as I can.”

  “Why do you keep Piper between us? I don’t understand it. You sleep with her on my sixteenth birthday, you tell her good-bye before you deploy, and you leave me hanging both times.”

  He sets the tray of food on the bedside table and then runs his fingers through his messy hair. “Piper,” he begins. “She’s a sore subject, but I don’t want to shy away from it. Piper has sacrificed herself each and every time. She’s done a lot for me and Josh.”

  “So why did she divorce you?”

  His eyes are bleak before he blinks it away. “She didn’t want to burden me.”

  My expression is utterly perplexed. “Burden you how?”

  “There is another side of this story you need to make sense of it all,” he replies quietly. “You need Piper’s side.”

  “I don’t get it. Why can’t you just tell me her side?”

  “Because you need to hear it from her,” he answers. “As much as I want to tell you everything about Piper and me, I can’t. I can’t tell you what you wish to know because it isn’t mine to share.”

  “Fine,” I mutter, getting frustrated. “I’ll just ask her.”

  He gives me a tender smile. “Good. I’m sure she’ll give you all the answers you’re looking for.”

  “Right,” I mumble, lifting a brow at him. “So how long have you been without sex?”

  “Since your sixteenth birthday,” he says without irony or any playful indication.

  My jaw just about hits the floor. I can’t compose my shocked expression. “You haven’t had sex in six years?”

  He rubs his hand over his beard. “Yeah. It’s been years before you. I didn’t have a lot of time for sex.”

  “So that’s why you were horny when you came home?”

  Danny laughs, smiling hard. “I’m a man, December. I’ll always be horny. But you can say my sexual arousal level was amplified when I got home and saw you. You have a wicked little body, December. You’re all tits and ass and legs. You have a lot of hair, which I love. All I could think about was dragging you down to the ground and marking you like a wild animal.”

  “Dirty. I like it.” I’m laughing when he pulls me close to his chest and begins to lick and bite at my neck like the wolf he is.

  “I had a feeling you would.”

  Reaching up, I stroke his beauty mark. “How do you spend your days? You got pissed when I implied I worked hard and you didn’t.”

  “I was wondering how long it was going to take before you asked me this.” He grins down at me. “I own a studio where I teach underprivileged teens hand-to-hand combat. I also help them with homework. You know how good I am with that.”

  “Do I ever.” I lean in to kiss his happy accident. “I feel like shit now. There’s a whole side of you that I don’t know. What you do is amazing.”

  “I try.” He seems humbled. “My brothers help out a lot. We feed them five days out of the week. I send them backpacks full of food on Fridays to get them through the weekend. I love my boys. You should come and see them in action.”

  “I’m so down.” I squeal in glee. “I want to help, too. What can I do?”

  Danny ponders this for a moment. “They all could use a good female presence in their lives. I’m sure some of my boys like animals. You can show them around the Sanctuary. They’ll love that.”

  “Oh, Mia and I can give them a private tour and we can have a pizza party afterward.”

  He aims his brilliant smile at me, and it’s dazzling.

  “Now that we’re less complicated, do you want to shower together?” I ask, straddling him and entwining our fingers as I lift his hands above his head. “I can wash you, and you can wash me.”

  “That sounds like my kind of morning.”

  ***

  The Oliver and Page clan are playing a game of cards. We’re once again in Miles and May’s cabin. They have the best cabin, so we take advantage of it. I’m mellowed out and content in this moment, and I haven’t even touched a drop of alcohol.

  Gray and January can’t seem to take their hands off each other. Miles and May have been affectionate, passing kisses and embraces all night. Jarvis and July are a different story. He glares at her whenever their gaze meets. She ignores him but then looks at him longingly when he isn’t aware of her eyes on him. Jarvis is hot and cold toward July. He’s insanely protective of her, yet he doesn’t want her. I’m confused by his actions, and I can only imagine how July feels.

  I shift on Danny’s lap because he’s grown hard under me.

  His hands grip my hips with punishing force. “Stop moving.”

  “I can’t help it,” I whisper. “Your boner is poking me.”

  “Can’t help that, either,” he whispers back. “You smell mouthwatering, and your ass is in my lap.”

  “Want a quickie in the bathroom?” I suggest, squirming purposely.

  “I’m going to be upset if we lose this game because of you, and there is no telling how far I’ll go for revenge.” He bites me behind my ear, and I jump, stifling a moan. “Concentrate.”

  “All right.”

  I try hard to focus but fail in doing so.

  We lose the game of spades.

  Oh, well.

  I’ll just have to live with Danny’s retribution.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  THE PAST

  Danny, age twenty-five

  December, age sixteen

  Finally I’m sixteen. Today is the day I’ve been waiting for. I’m sixteen years old. I can hardly believe my birthday is here. Danny has the entire day planned out. Thank God it’s Saturday and not a weekday. That means I won’t spend my birthday like I did last year—doing homework. That was depressing.

  A box wrapped in silver wrapping paper sits in the middle of my bed. It was waiting here when I got home from the Lazy Ville Sanctuary. I approach the box warily. Danny hasn’t told me much of anything. I don’t know what he has planned. Lifting the lid, I feel inside and pull my gift out. It’s a zebra beanie with a smooth, small white card that has Danny’s bold handwriting slashed across it.

  Here’s a special hat for my little lady.

  I met you when I did because of the zebras.

  We owe the zebras.

  Meet me at your favorite place at six.

  And wear this hat.

  -Danny

  My gaze slides to the blue clock on my wall. It’s five-forty. It takes twenty minutes to get there. “Mom, I need you to drop me off at the Sanctuary.” A massive smile takes over my face. I stuff the note into my jean pocket and put on the hat. The hat fits perfectly.

  The ride to the Lazy Ville Sanctuary is relatively short. I spend most of the time gazing at the snow-covered streets, daydreaming about Danny.

  When the vehicle stops, I barely tell my mom bye. Once my feet are earthbound, I’m one way, running. I run inside the building, past the entrance where two employees are smiling like they know what’s waiting for me.

  I’m running as fast as my feet will carry me. I’m running to something. I’m running to Danny. My lungs are about to burst when I skid to a stop.

  Danny stands in front of the enclosed zebra exhibit. A hand is shoved into the pocket of his dark jeans. Danny made the effort to dress up in a nice navy blazer and white button-down shirt. His gaze is directed at the thick-plated glass and what’s happening behind it. He’s watching the zebras.

  I wipe at the wetness on my face as I take slow steps toward him. He turns to face me, smiling like it’s the first time he’s seen
me in years. His smile is dazzling and as white as the snow outside. I throw an arm around his waist and collapse against his strong body. He holds me tightly against him when I begin to cry. My entire body is shaking from the force of my sobbing.

  “What’s up with all those tears? Huh?” he asks, gently stroking my back.

  “I thought you weren’t going to be here,” I mumble into his chest, pressing my face into his nice shirt to hide my tears.

  He has to wrench me back from him. I don’t pull away without a struggle. Danny cradles my face with both of his hands. He tips my chin up so he can look into my watery eyes. Danny has the most spectacular brown eyes I’ve ever seen. I love his irises because they’re able to penetrate through my shell and see down into my soul.

  “Why wouldn’t I be here? I’m not going anywhere. There’s no place I’d rather be, December.”

  “I thought you would leave me because I’m late.” I sniff, wiping at my nose.

  “I’m never going to leave you. I won’t be the man that ever hurts you, December. Not ever,” he vows solemnly.

  I break free of his hold, swinging my arms around him to embrace him with urgency I’ve never felt before. “I don’t know why, but it felt like I was losing you. It felt like I had to cross an ocean just to reach you. I thought you would disappear, like I was one second away from losing you forever.”

  “I’m not going anywhere,” he assures me. “But if I had to, I know you’d cross an ocean for me. And I’d cross a desert for you. Nothing will ever keep me away from you, December. Do you believe me?”

  I nod against his shoulder, my eyes still leaking.

  “Then have some faith in me,” he whispers in a pleading tone. “Stop with the tears, little lady. You haven’t lost me. I’m right here with you.”

  “Okay.”

  He takes my hand in his. “Let’s eat.”

  “Eat?” I ask, rubbing my eyes.

  “Yes. I have dinner for you,” Danny replies, leading me to a candlelit table with dinner already laid out. He pulls my chair out and everything. I sit and stare down at my plate. We’re eating pizza. I love pizza.