Because I Love You

by Amy Brent

  “No more rum and cokes?” I asked.

  “Gotta switch it up every now and again. You still slinging back beers.”

  “Always,” I said with a grin.

  “So—how’s the show coming along? Any hot ass women you can set me up with?”

  “I’ve been good, how are you?” I asked.

  “Come on, you know I’m joking. Skinny’s never been my type.”

  “You and me both, brother.”

  The two of us clinked our drinks before I took the first pull from my beer.

  “I’m glad you’ve been good. And that you’re fucking back in town. How long are you here for?” Justin asked.

  “Hopefully for a while,” I said. “I have no intention of leaving.”

  “Good. I’ve missed my wingman.”

  “Not getting enough pussy without me around?” I asked.

  “I’m doing fine, but it’s no fun when I’ve got no one to brag about it to.”

  “Ah, so I’m just another one of your props.”

  “Says the guy surrounded by clothing props for his career.”

  “Hi there.”

  The soothing voice caught my attention as I whipped my gaze around to look at the woman it was connected to.

  “Hello,” I said.

  “I’m Charlie. I um—couldn’t help but overhear your conversation. You say you work with models?”

  My eyes scanned her body as Justin grinned out of the corner of my eye.

  “I can’t do anything about your career,” I said. “I’m just out having a drink with my buddy.”

  “Oh, no. I’m sorry. It’s nothing like that. It’s just—well if you’re surrounded by all those girls all day, but you’re here with your friend, I figured that was prime nice guy status.”

  “Nice guys your thing?” I asked.

  “I’d like them to be, if I could luck up enough,” she said. “Here’s my number, if you’d like to call me sometime.”

  Then she winked at me before she turned and walked away.

  “It’s so easy for you, isn’t it?” Justin asked.

  “It’s really not,” I said.

  “She walked right up to you. Out of the blue. That’s about as easy as it gets.”

  And right on time, another woman walked up to my side.

  It was like that all night. Justin and I would laugh and get a good conversation going, then a woman would come up and introduce herself. It happened so often I thought Justin was putting me on. Paying these women in drinks to throw me for a loop or some shit. But whatever the hell was going on tonight with these girls, I wasn’t interested.

  I had my sights set on one woman.

  And nothing was ripping me away from her again.

  “Which number would you like?” I asked, as I fanned out the sheets of paper.

  “You’re an honest-to-fuck dick,” Justin said.

  “You put them up to this, didn’t you?” I asked.

  “Not one of them.”

  “Justin, I’m holding nine different numbers.”

  “I didn’t talk to them, I swear!”

  “You’re a terrible liar,” I said.

  “Okay, I talked to three of them. But that was it! Three! The other ones—those are on them.”

  “What? You think I can’t get a woman on my own? Six of these numbers says I can.”

  “Six of those numbers says that women follow a pack mentality. The first three were the ones I had talked to before you came walking in twenty minutes late.”

  “I’m sorry that I have a job that interferes with your drinking hours.”

  “Apology accepted. Now, I want that last number you got. I’m going through a redhead phase.”

  I slid the number to my friend before I got the girl’s attention. I pointed to Justin and he waved, and we watched as the girl’s eyes lit up with excitement. Justin made a show of sticking her number in his pocket and she grinned, her cheeks blushing before he turned back to me.

  “Guess she’s okay with the backup friend.”

  “You’ve never been the backup friend,” I said.

  “And anyway, what gives? In any other scenario, you wouldn’t have gotten to the third girl before you had one of those women out the door.”

  “Just not feeling it tonight. Been a long day.”

  “Of watching hot ass women walk up and down a stage. Have you met someone? Is there something you aren’t telling me?” he asked.

  “Maybe. Sort of. It’s not really a big thing, but I like spending time with her.”

  “Are you settling down on me, Chris? Did turning thirty do something to your libido?”

  “My libido’s fine, thank you very much. But sometimes, there’s just that woman you can’t shake.”

  “I had that happen one time,” Justin said. “Kept her around for an entire weekend. Best weekend of my life.”

  “Then why are you still single?”

  “Because her husband kept calling her.”

  “Seriously?” I asked.

  “What? I didn’t know she was married. She didn’t have a ring on her finger, she certainly wasn’t dressed like she was married.”

  “How’s a married woman supposed to dress?”

  “Yep. Turning thirty did something to you,” he said.

  “Sorry, I don’t like sleeping with married women.”

  “Apology accepted again,” he said with a grin. “So? What’s her name?”

  “Who’s name?”

  “Your flavor of the month this month. The woman that’s ruining the plans I had for us tonight?”

  “Not important,” I said.

  “Oh come on. If we aren’t gonna pick up any women tonight, the least you can do is fill me in on some of the wonderful details of the one you’re sporting around for now.”

  “You’ve got the number of a nice redhead in your pocket. Who the hell said you couldn’t leave with her right now?”

  “Because I’m with my best friend, that’s why! It’s taken me four weeks to get you out somewhere with me. And no woman is going to ruin it.”

  “Even though you keep harping on mine.”

  “Point taken,” he said.

  In reality, I had no idea how I was going to tell him I was fucking his sister. Hell, I had no idea how I was going to tell him I’d had a prior relationship with his sister. Justin was protective as fuck over Jessi, and the last thing I needed was for my best friend to beat my fucking face in. I saw how he got when men were around Jessi. There was some pimply asshat that invited her to prom her senior year of high school and Justin about jumped down the poor guy’s throat. And that was just for asking her to prom.

  He’d kill me if he knew I was fucking around with his sister.

  “Okay. Change of subject,” Justin said. “My father’s having this album release party tomorrow night. You in?”

  “Hell yeah I’m in. I’m always in for your dad’s parties. After work, though. Tomorrow night’s dress rehearsal night with the designer. Sometimes that shit ends around eight, and I’ve been part of some that have gone until midnight.”

  “Oh shit. Well, damn. Okay. I’ll text you the address. Just come by whenever you can. And dress nice. You know the drill with these things.”

  “Should I come ready to be your wingman at that thing, too?” I asked.

  “Nope. Because if I play my cards rights, I’m hoping that petite little redhead will be on my arm tomorrow night.”

  “You do you the best way you know how and have no shame in your game,” I said.

  “I’ll drink to that.”

  We tapped our drinks together again as I relaxed into my seat. It was nice being out with Justin again. Before shit exploded in my face, we used to do this all the time. It was our Friday night ritual. Drinks, women, we went our separate ways, then we’d have breakfast Saturday morning and talk all about our nights between the legs of the gorgeous creatures we’d left with the night before.

  Justin was still stuck in that world, which was
fine. But I had graduated to other things.

  To a woman no one would ever find in a place like this.

  “Earth to Chris. Hello?”

  “Sorry. Long fucking day. What was that?” I asked.

  “I asked you if you’d talked to your mom since you came into town.”

  I clenched my jaw as I felt my gaze harden.

  “Shit, Chris. You still haven’t resolved that thing with her yet?” Justin asked.

  “What she did was wrong. Everything about it was batshit crazy. That woman threatened to ruin my career over that piece-of-shit man. Of course I haven’t talked to her.”

  “Fine. Okay. Sorry for asking. But I’m worried about you, if I’m gonna be honest.”

  “There’s no need to worry,” I said.

  “What happens if you come across her in town?”

  “I’ll nod my head like I do every other stranger, then go on with my day.”

  “You’ll just—treat your mother like a stranger.”

  “She treated me like a common criminal. Compared to that, ignoring her is a damn favor.”

  “Point taken. But still, she’s your mom,” he said.

  “And I get where you’re coming from. Your family is wonderful. Your mother and father have a wonderful marriage and the two of them are really in it for the long haul. Not all of us are fortunate enough to have that family dynamic. It isn’t anything you can fix and it isn’t anything that’ll ever change.”

  “I see why the girls like you now,” he said.

  “What?” I asked.

  “They like a guy they can try to fix. You’re just broken enough to draw them in with their desire to patch up your life.”

  “Do you think about anything other than sex?” I asked.

  “Do you?” he asked.

  I laughed at my friend as a smile crossed his face. Justin was the biggest fucking horndog I knew, but he had been there through everything. I owed him so much more than I could ever communicate to him, and I was glad he wasn’t angry that I dropped off the face of the planet for a time.

  Especially since Jessi still was.

  “I’m glad you’re back man,” Justin said. “To Friday nights and Saturday morning breakfasts.”

  “Here, here,” I said.

  Then we threw back our drinks, ordered some more, and shot the shit until the bartender signaled last call.

  Just like old times.

  Chapter 9

  Jessi

  Dress rehearsal day and as such, a madhouse. Everyone was dashing around, trying to tailor everything to the designer’s needs. Apparently, he was one of those people who wanted to come in and change everything at the last minute. Christopher was running around at his side like a pathetic personal assistant, and it made me grin every time the designer got onto him about something he didn’t like.

  I knew the choreography was going to get changed last minute.

  “All right, girls. Get in your heels and your practice skirts. The designer has some changes to the choreography, so I need you all alert and awake.”

  I grinned and shook my head as I got ready to go on stage.

  The designer was an asshat, but most of them were. I was used as an example and I grinned at the girls who were glaring at me. They hated the fact that plus-sized models were so in demand right now. They hated the fact that I had my own dressing room. They seethed at how Chris praised me and how the designer used my body to showcase the new choreography that ran right over what Chris was trying to do.

  Fuck, it was the best day of my damn life.

  I nailed the choreography after thirty minutes and was dismissed from the stage. Which left Chris alone with the pack of wild women that wanted to devour him whole. A bit of sweat was dripping down my back as I made it to my dressing room, and I was ready to cool down. I grabbed the ice cold bottle of water sitting on my vanity and sank onto the couch. I closed my eyes and ran the choreography through my head to make sure I had all of the changes the designer had made.

  Then there was a knock on my door.

  I ignored it and the knock came again. Probably one of the women wanting me to show them the turns again or something. I sighed and pushed myself up off the couch, my feet aching in the six-inch heels I was being tortured with.

  But when I threw the door open, I didn’t see any of the girls.

  Instead, I saw Chris.

  “I see you picked up on the choreography pretty quickly,” he said.

  “I see you didn’t,” I said, with a grin.

  “Some designers come in and change things last minute. Comes with the territory, and I know how to go with it by now. Nice room, by the way.”

  “Thanks. It comes with being a sought-out model.”

  “I really underestimated where you’d taken your career,” he said.

  “You did, yes.”

  He chuckled and shook his head as he leaned against the doorway.

  “I saw Justin last night,” he said.

  “How’s my brother doing?” I asked.

  “He invited me to your father’s album release party tonight. Will you be there?”

  “Don’t know,” I said, shrugging. “I wasn’t planning on going.”

  “I bet your father would enjoy having you there,” he said, as he stepped into my room.

  “Which tells me you haven't seen my family in a while,” I said.

  “What makes you say that?” he asked.

  He closed my dressing room door behind him and leaned against it.

  “Family tensions can run—rough sometimes,” I said.

  “Trust me, I get it,” he said, flatly.

  There was a history there, and I wondered if it had anything to do with why he disappeared. The reality was, I knew about the release party. But I didn’t want to go. I wanted to stay in for the rest of my Saturday night and spend time with Caleb. Every time a show got down to the wire like this, he saw his nanny more than he saw me. And that always made me feel guilty. I wanted to wrap my body around my son and be there with him.

  I didn’t want to stick him with his nanny again so I could go off and look into the eyes of a man who couldn’t stand my existence right now.

  “Anything I can do to convince you to come?” Chris asked.

  “Probably not. I wasn’t planning on going, so I was looking forward to a quiet night in before the big show,” I said.

  “Oh, come on. It’s gonna be fun. And I’ll be there. Maybe we could play the game where we fake we haven’t seen each other in a while before sneaking off to the bathroom?”

  “We’d have to play that game anyway if we didn’t want my brother killing us both,” I said, with a grin.

  His hands came down onto my hips as he backed me into the wall. I watched his eyes dilate with lust as his body pressed against mine. I felt my tits rising to painful peaks, betraying how much I wanted him as I grinned up into his face. He was right where I wanted him. Unable to resist me and getting attached in ways he couldn’t yet see.

  But he would when I threw everything back in his face.

  Just like he had done to me.

  His lips dipped down to mine and the kiss was kind. Quiet. Sensual. I slid my hands up his chest and gripped at his strength, committing his muscles to memory. Fire ignited in my toes as his tongue slid across my lips. My knees were growing weak in my heels as he pinned my hips to the wall.

  “You want to do this here? Now?” I asked, breathlessly.

  “Well, I won’t see you tonight. What other choice do I have?”

  He bit down onto my lower lip, pulling a moan from my throat. I could feel his cock grinding against me. Teasing me and heating my body as his hand ran up my leg. His lips dipped to my neck, sucking on my skin as I sighed into his ear. I ran my hands through his hair as his arm hooked my leg around him. I could feel his hands reaching for the robe I had on. I felt him undoing it. Exposing my body underneath as he slid it from my shoulders.

  I watched his eyes twinkle with delight as he stared
at my voluptuous breasts.

  “How the hell did I not know you hid in this room back here?” Chris asked.

  “I’ll take that as your apology,” I said, with a grin.

  The robe fell to the ground as he turned my body around. We both fell to the couch, his hands working my panties off my body. He shoved his pants down and pulled out his raging cock, slicking the head of it between my dripping folds. His lips connected with my chest, biting into my skin in places that would be covered from the crowd the next day. Little tidbits of our passion for my eyes only as my legs spread for him.

  “Holy fuck, Jessi. You’re gorgeous.”

  His words heated my core as he slid harshly into my pussy. His lips crashed against mine, stifling my groans as my hands flew around his neck. He snapped his hips against mine as my legs wrapped around him, and I could feel the palm of his hand traveling up my leg.

  My tits bounced in his face as he burrowed into them. My hands wrung tightly in the tendrils of his hair. He rocked me against the couch as I bit down onto my lip, trying to keep myself silent as his fingertips found my aching clit. My legs jittered with delight. My clit swelled with every flick he delivered. I felt his cock growing against my walls, pressing into crevices only he had ever touched.