Spotting her walking towards the bar, I look around for her date. I don’t really give a shit about him, but I refuse to cause a scene at Gabriel and Fallon’s wedding. When I see him busy talking with Catherine, I walk over to Brittany, grabbing her arm, surprising her. She jumps when she turns and sees it’s me who grabbed her.
“Jesus Vin, what do you want?”
I get right to the point. “Why have you been avoiding me?”
She laughs and says, “Really? It should be apparent and the fact that it’s not, pisses me off even more. Excuse me.”
She tries to walk away but I grip her arm even tighter holding her in place. “I said, why?”
“Let go of my arm, Vin.”
“Are you going to answer me?”
“I said let go of me!”
She throws my hand off her arm and stares me down.
In a harsh tone, punctuating every word she says. “You. Paid. Me!”
I’m taken aback. “What?”
“You heard me. You left a thousand dollars on my nightstand and left before I could get out the shower.”
“Isn’t that how much I owed you?”
“See? Right there! That’s why I don’t ever want to ever see you again!”
“What the fuck are you talking about?”
Her body tenses, “You treated me like a whore.”
“But, you’re a prostitute.”
She tries to slap me, but I grab her wrist stopping her midair. She’s fuming and tries again to leave but I hold her wrist tighter, refusing to let her walk away. She turns her head and looks directly into my eyes.
“I slept with you because I wanted to, not because I was working. I did it for me and you turned around and paid me like your whore! No matter what I do for a profession, I have a private life. You were inside my home. You made me feel like a whore inside my home!”
Her back straightens and she lowers her voice as she continues, “No one has ever made me feel more like a whore than you did. Now get your fucking hands off me! I have a nice gentleman waiting for me. He, so far has treated me better than you have, and I plan on returning the favor.”
I release her, shocked by what she just told me. Before I can think of what to say in defense, Gabriel hollers out my name. As Brittany takes a step away from me, I turn and leave her there.
All hell starts to break loose with Miles Rollins the Senator’s son, as he tries to plead for Fallon back. What the hell is he thinking? Gabriel goes mad with rage, but we soon handle the problem and try to resume the reception. No longer in the mood for celebration, Gabriel demands to leave.
Once we see Fallon and Gabriel off, I go back to the bar and have a few more drinks. Brittany’s words are still on my mind. Catherine walks in and fixes herself a drink before asking,
“Things went pretty well I think, except for the one incident, don’t you?”
“I saw you invited Frederick to the wedding.”
“I did. Fallon wanted Brittany to come and Frederick is back in town, so I set him up to meet and invite her. I figure I would help Fallon out by having Brittany here and in return Brittany will help me out.”
“How? What do you mean?”
“Come on Vin, you know how it works. The girls help me gather information. Brittany is the best at what she does. If there is anything Frederick is hiding, Brittany will get it out of him.”
“After all these years, is that all Brittany or any of the them are to you?”
“Vin, I will always have a place in my heart for all of them, but it’s their job, and we all have a job to do.”
She puts her glass down to walk away. “I’m going to bed, maybe you should lay off the booze.”
“Booze was never my problem, mom.”
She stops walking then looks back at me. “I love you son.”
As she walks off, I whisper back, “I love you too.”
She’s right. I know how it works, always have. The only reason Catherine told me about the women was because she knew I would never sleep with any of them. But how fucking wrong we both were.
5
Vin
Nearly a year later, a lot has happened to us all. Fallon was kidnapped and in finding her, we found Avery Edwards. She’s one of the strongest and bravest girls I’ve ever met. I’ve seen a lot of shit in my life but seeing her the day we found her, is one of the things that will never leave my mind. She was in a corner, frightened for her life, fighting against us like a scared animal. It took some bond that she felt for Fallon to allow us to even rescue her. We also discovered a hidden bond between her and Liam. I never saw that one coming. The sneaky bastard pulled one over on Catherine. It takes balls to do something like that.
We’ve all come a long way in the months since finding her but none more than Avery. She has slowly started putting the pieces of her life back together and has more courage than I think all of us have put together. I pray Liam gets his shit straight and claims that girl. Time will tell.
Then we also have an ever-growing Fallon, she and Gabriel are expecting their first child any day now. Looks like our family is growing, just like Catherine always wanted.
But unlike she wanted, secrets were discovered along the way. Zander spilled the beans about Catherine getting beat by fucking William over the years and then I learned exactly why Fallon was so important to her. That secret, I wasn’t even privy to beforehand. We also went through Avery’s struggles of getting revenge. When all was said and done, we’ve all stuck together like a family should. I’m just so glad not all our dirty secrets were revealed. Some things need to stay buried.
Thank God, for once the house is quiet from all the nervous energy that has been flowing around us while waiting for Fallon to have the baby. But in the silence, my mind drifts back to Brittany and our one night together. I haven’t spoken to her since Fallon and Gabriel’s wedding. I promised myself it was for the best. I wish I could just get her out of my head. I thought as time passed, it would get easier, but it’s not working. And try as I might to fuck her out of my system with other women, I keep failing miserably.
She hates me now, and I keep trying to understand it, but she had to of known what I wanted. Which was no expectations, how can a woman in her line of work not understand that?
“Fuck!” I rub the short stubble on my head and decide I need get out. Maybe go to the strip club or something. So, I get in my car and head over to Theo’s. Once I get there, the place is crowded but I’m not worried. Theo has a permanent table for me and my brothers. Taking a seat, I order a drink. It doesn’t take long before one of the dancers comes around offering me a lap dance. I sit back and enjoy, she knows exactly what to do to get my mind off everything else.
I’m enjoying the woman grinding on my lap until I look over and spot a pair of long, sexy, beautiful crossed legs, a few tables over. My eyes trail up said legs to see they are attached to the woman that has been haunting me. Brittany.
I forget the woman on my lap and start concentrating on every inch of those long legs and the woman attached to them. When my eyes lift to her face again I catch her staring back at me. She’s watching me like I’ve been watching her. I find myself so turned on right now. Not because of the lap dance, but Brittany. So much so, that if I don’t stop the movements on my hard cock, I’m going to cum in my pants like an idiot. My hard-on doesn’t last long when I notice a man’s hand land on Brittany’s knee. She turns her head to him, breaking our moment to give him her full attention.
She’s on a fucking date. The spell she had on me is broken and it pisses me off. I tell the stripper to stop, then toss some money at her and leave. There’s no way in hell I can watch as Brittany casts her spells on another man.
When I get to my car, my phone’s ringing. I answer to a nervous Jeffery. He says that I need to hurry, Fallon is in labor and the doctor doesn’t think they can make it to the hospital.
I speed all the way home, running every red light and going far beyond the speed limit. I start
running upstairs and see Zander, Liam, and Avery waiting in the hall. Liam sees me first.
“Where the hell have you been?”
“I had something to do.”
“More like you had someone to do.”
He thinks he’s funny but I sure as fuck don’t. He knows not to question me, so I pretty much shut him up with my facial expression, and he backs the fuck up just like I expected him to do. We all continue pacing back and forth until we hear a baby’s loud screams. We all instantly let out a sigh of relief. It doesn’t take too long before the doctor opens the door and lets us inside to meet our newest member of the Stern family.
About three weeks later Brittany is invited to the house with the rest of the girls, but she is asked to come early. Unknown to the rest of the family, Fallon and Brittany have quite a friendship. The minute Gabriel finally agreed to go back to work for a few hours a day, Fallon and Catherine were immediately on the phone, planning to have all the girls here to see the newest Stern.
Brittany shows up right on time, carrying wrapped presents like it’s Christmas. I walk pass her in the foyer as Jeffery helps her up the stairs. I haven’t seen her since the night Fallon had Gavin. We don’t make eye contact, it’s better this way. I try hard to find something to occupy my mind but again, I’m failing with her being so close, having her inside my home is driving me insane.
An hour into her visit, I can’t help myself anymore. I walk to Fallon’s bedroom just to get another look at her. But when I pass the nursery I hear humming. I peek in and see Brittany changing Gavin’s diaper while she hums him a lullaby. I lean on the door frame and watch as she expertly changes his diaper. I would have never thought she knew what to do with a baby. She doesn’t exactly strike me as the maternal kind. When she’s done, she lifts him up into her arms, and talks sweetly to him, telling him how much she already loves him and how she is going to keep all the skanks off him when he’s older. I can’t help it, I practically choke on laughter. She turns, stunned.
“Oh sorry, I didn’t know you were there.”
“I’m glad you didn’t.”
Confusion sets on her face, “Why?”
“Because I just learned a new thing about you.”
She gives me a scowl and walks right past me with the baby in her arms, returning to Fallon’s room. I can’t let that pass so I follow. I walk in as she heads straight for the rocking chair and starts rocking the baby. Fallon sees me and says,
“Vin, come see all the stuff Aunt Brittany bought for Gavin.”
As I’m walking in, Fallon addresses Brittany.
“I swear Brittany, what did you do, buy the whole store?”
I look at everything Brittany bought as Fallon goes through it all. It sure does look like she bought everything she could get her hands on. I raise a brow and look up towards Brittany. It’s easy to tell she’s not happy to see me here. Trying her hardest not to look at me, she continues to give the baby her full attention. Then I think back to Fallon calling her Aunt Brittany. Without wanting to give it any more thought or merit, I excuse myself.
Soon the rest of the ladies arrive and they’re all escorted upstairs. I sit in the living room pondering everything I know about Brittany, which isn’t much. After about two hours, they all start to leave but of course Brittany’s last. Walking back up to the room, I overhear Fallon telling Brittany that one day she will have her own and will understand how much love you feel for your own child. Brittany smiles sweetly but doesn’t say anything in return.
When she stands, I move to the corner of the wall, not wanting her to see me. I wait for her to pass. The minute I hear her footsteps closing in, I pull her into me turning her against the wall hard and fast, knocking the breath out of her. I grab her wrists and raise them above her head, she’s breathing heavy as I have her pinned under me. We’re so close I can feel her beating chest against mine as we stare at each other. I’m so lost in her deep brown eyes until she abrasively asks,
“What do you want Vin?!”
My face scrunches with realization of what the hell do I want? I bend without releasing her and lay my head in the crook of her neck breathing in her scent. Just feeling her body against mine, wanting so desperately to act but knowing I can’t. This, us, will never work. Reluctantly, I slowly release her and stand back at my full height, I start backing away while she remains against the wall. Staring straight into her eyes, I straighten my suit jacket and cufflinks, and without a word, I walk away from her. What the fuck was I thinking?
6
Vin
Two months later, my youngest brother Liam gets married to Avery. He finally got his head out of his ass and got the girl he always wanted. Catherine is so pleased to have Avery Edwards Stern as part of our family now. The only problem is now, Catherine, Fallon, and Avery keep bugging Zander and me to find a woman to settle down with. No thank you.
However, I don’t see Zander holding out much longer. He soon becomes fixated on a redheaded beauty named Murphy. But let me tell you, she is something else. I never thought I’d see the day when big Zander would fall to his knees for a woman. I can’t say I blame him, she is one hell of a woman.
We find out Murphy’s pregnant with Zander’s babies and they are immediately married. Yes, I said babies. Zander is ecstatic to be a father. But in true Stern fashion, we soon realize we have a new enemy. Someone is after Murphy and it looks like they are using her to get to us.
Now as far as I go, my life is the same, mundane bullshit. The holidays are here, and I go with Gabriel to the casino to help prepare for our absences during Thanksgiving. Liam and Zander go to our new casino we obtained with Murphy. With her pregnancy, Liam has been in charge and is doing really well. He found his calling and his soulmate; the man couldn’t be happier.
When we return home for the family Thanksgiving feast, we’re greeted by all the new Stern women. They immediately tell us to sit, that dinner is almost ready to be served. Catherine always gives the staff time off for the holidays, she believes everyone needs to be with their families and not here, serving us. Plus, she very much enjoys playing the domestic goddess during the holidays. I pick up little Gavin and sit him in his high chair and slip out of my jacket. Everyone takes a seat including Theo.
Once we’ve stuffed ourselves with the delicious food they prepared and engaged in great conversations, I take a moment to look around the table. Seeing all my brothers happy and looking so fulfilled in their lives brings me joy but it also brings something I haven’t felt in a long-time, jealousy. I don’t hate them for being happy and I don’t want the wife and kids bullshit. I just think there’s something missing in my life that I see is complete in theirs.
I glance over and see Catherine watching me. She reaches out and lays her hand on top of mine. Smiling at me, she tells me,
“I love you son. You know that, right?”
I smile back and lean into her and whisper, “I know mom, I love you too.”
I see tears forming in her eyes and she allows one or two to slip down. I understand why she’s so emotional. I hardly ever call her mom. Not because I don’t feel like she is, it’s just that when we first met to the time William died, I was never allowed to call her mom. But no matter what, she has and always will be mom in my heart.
7
Brittany
Present Day
Fallon calls and asks me to meet her and Avery with their new sister-in-law for supper. We agree on a time and start making preparations. It’s been a long time since I’ve spent any time with the girls and I have not had the opportunity to meet the newest Mrs. Stern; I hear she’s very interesting.
I show up at the restaurant a little early like always. The hostess tells me she has a table waiting for our arrival. Once seated, she asks,
“Mrs. Stern would you like to have something to drink while you wait?”
She catches me off guard, calling me Mrs. Stern. I am speechless for a minute, but before I can say anything, Fallon walks up and tells me,<
br />
“Don’t correct her. Leave it. She should’ve known who you are.”
She then looks at the hostess and says, “This Mrs. Stern would like to order your best bottle of white wine.”
The hostess shimmies away scared, and Fallon starts laughing.
“So, Mrs. Stern, I hope that will be to your satisfaction?”
“Ha, ha! You should’ve let me correct her. I think she might have pissed her pants. You’re sounding more like Catherine every day.”
“Nope, just me. Still little ol’ Fallon.”
“That’s more like it. I can only take one Catherine.”
“Ahh, you haven’t met my new sister-in-law yet?”
I eye her wondering where she’s going with this, “No why?”
“Because Zander went and found a woman extremely similar to Catherine. Not totally, she’s kind of a hot head, but damn does she keep Zander on his toes.”
We both bust out laughing. I can just picture the great Zander Stern, one of the most feared men in Louisiana, on his toes, following behind a woman. But then I hear Fallon’s laughter die off as she says, “They’re here.”
I look up and see the beautiful blond bombshell, Avery and behind her is a walking, living Jessica Rabbit. Well, I’ll be damned. Dark red hair, blue eyes and a body that will not stop. All wrapped up in sophistication and five-inch heels. No wonder Zander is in love. If I didn’t like dick so much, I would be too.
As they reach our table, Avery comes around kissing my cheek then Fallon introduces me to Murphy. Once they sit, our conversation becomes natural. I’ve always been instantly comfortable around Fallon and Avery, but I wasn’t sure about the new Mrs. Stern. But I find myself liking her very much which puts me at ease right away. My working persona leaves, and I can just be Brittany, enjoying a day with friends.
Art of Loyalty Page 4
