“I know,” she said again, without turning to look at him. “But it’s still so new and overwhelming, being with someone like you.”
He was overwhelmed being with her, too. And as elusive as she was, he would probably have hell to pay, trying to keep their affair afloat.
He pulled into the drive-through at the burger joint and placed their orders, then they sat in the car as they drank their shakes: chocolate for him and strawberry for her.
“How long were you with Jim?” he asked. Typically, he didn’t care about a woman’s romantic past. But with Mary, everything seemed to matter.
She shifted in her seat. “We were together for six months.”
“Were you always threatening to break it off with him?”
“No. But I was just used to him, I guess.”
“So when are you going to get used to me?” He leaned in her direction, bumping her shoulder and forcing her to feel his flustered affection.
She turned all the way toward him. “I’m sorry if I’m being difficult. But it’s hard not to think about how high society you are. Or how famous your family is. That’s tough for an average girl like me.”
“You’re far from average.” She was the most complicated woman he’d ever known.
She reached up to touch his face. Her hand was cold from holding her milkshake. “I never expected to get this close to you. It’s an emotional process for me.”
For him, too, but in a different way than it was for her. He was anxious to bring her into his life, and she was keeping him on the fringes of hers.
She removed her hand from his cheek. “Sitting here with you almost makes it seem as if we tumbled back in time.”
“Like teenagers from the 1950s on their way home from a sock hop?”
She nodded. “Where did you go to high school?”
“It was a prep school, not too far from here. I was our class president and the valedictorian. Tommy attended public school. He wasn’t interested in a private education. It was too uppity for him. Or that’s what he said, anyway. But I think he just wanted to go to the same school as Sophie.”
“My high school was in a rough part of town, so we didn’t have any rich kids there.” She leaned back against her seat. “But you probably already deduced that I grew up poor.”
“Yes.” But as to how poor, he didn’t have a clue. “I can’t even begin to know what that was like for you.” He had wealthy parents who gave him whatever he wanted, whenever he wanted it. Of course, mostly all he and Tommy ever wanted was for their bleary-eyed dad to get clean and sober.
“We struggled to make ends meet. But some of the kids I grew up with were worse off than us.”
“When did your parents die, Mary? I know you don’t like to talk about it, but—”
“Please, let’s not ruin this night by going there.” She glanced at him, a pained expression on her face. “I want to have happy memories of being here with you.”
“I’m sorry.” He shouldn’t have pushed those boundaries. It was only their first weekend together. “I can be aggressive sometimes.”
“It must be the lawyer in you.”
“Yeah.” But it was his interest in her, too, and how strongly she affected him. “How about if we listen to some music?”
“That sounds nice.”
“You can go through my playlist and choose.”
“Thanks.” She scanned his device and picked some old country tunes.
They sat quietly, enjoying the music and their milkshakes. After a short while, he asked, “Have you ever heard Tommy’s song, ‘The Urban Name Game,’ where he pokes fun at some of the definitions in the urban dictionary?”
“No, I don’t think I have.”
“It’s not one of his bigger hits. But he thinks the over-the-top meanings people make up for their names on that site are funny, so that’s what inspired him to write it. We can play his song later if you want to hear it. He was going to use my name in it, but I told him I would kick his ass if he did.”
“What are some of the definitions of your name that caught his attention?”
“That Brandon is an awesome guy, smart and funny and ridiculously charming. That just knowing someone named Brandon is considered lucky, and it might even help you win the lottery. You can’t go wrong with Brandon. Even when he is being a jerk, people are quick to forgive him.”
She sent him a wry look. “So you’re an awesome jerk with the power to bring luck?”
He laughed at the foolishness of it. “I wonder what some of yours are.” He grabbed his phone and got on the site. “Ah, here we are.” He scanned the first few entries and raised his eyebrows. “Apparently Mary is a kind and caring girl who will warm your heart. She’s also highly committed and will be loyal to only you. Once you get together with Mary, you’ll want to keep her forever.”
She acted smug. “That sounds about right.”
“Oh, sure, the perfect woman.” Just for the hell of it, he kissed her, slipping his tongue into her mouth and making everything but the taste of her go away.
When they separated, she said, “I like it when you do that.”
“I like it, too.” He studied her in the shadowy light. “Do you know the true origin of your name?”
She nodded. “In Hebrew it means ‘wish for child.’ But it also means ‘sea of bitterness’ and ‘rebellion.’ I always figured that the Virgin Mary was the reason for the ‘wish-for-child’ thing. I don’t know about the rest of it.” She set her drink down. “What does Brandon mean for real?”
Nothing as interesting as Mary, he thought. “A hill covered with broom.”
She cracked a smile. “The kind you sweep with?”
“No, smarty.” He tried to seem indignant, but he thought it was funny, too. “A flowering shrub.”
“I knew what you meant.” She gave a soft sigh. “It’s actually a pretty visual, if you think about it.”
“You’re the pretty visual.” He kissed her one more time, before he took her back to his loft and back to his bed.
* * *
Mary spent the following day with Brandon at his country estate. The redbrick, two-story home sat on four acres and had six bedrooms, seven baths, a swimming pool and a gazebo.
The whole place was light and airy with dome-shaped windows and rounded archways. The floors were wood and the fireplaces trimmed in marble. Everywhere that Mary looked, on tables, shelves and walls, were stunning pieces of art. But Brandon had already told her that he used the house to store and display the bulk of his collection.
After he completed the tour and escorted her outside to sit by the pool, one of the caretakers, an older woman with a friendly smile, brought them lemonade.
Once she was gone, Brandon said to Mary, “You can see how much Cline enjoys being here.”
“Definitely.” The dog was playing in the yard, racing around in the grass. “It’s funny that you take him for walks in the park every Sunday when you could just bring him here.”
“I like going to the park. It makes me feel free, to go out in public and just be with my dog. When I was a kid, I used to wonder what it would be like to come from a regular family. My childhood was like a circus, with all of the fans hanging around at the gate at Kirbyville. The paparazzi were a huge factor, too.”
She reached for her glass, which was artfully garnished with fresh mint and lemon wedges. “Do you think Matt’s wedding will be a circus?” There was a part of her that wanted to go, to be there with Brandon. But how was she supposed to face his father, knowing what he’d done to her mother?
He replied, “It’ll be a private ceremony on Matt’s recreational ranch, with plenty of security in case the media tries to crash it. So I don’t think it’ll be a problem.” He caught her gaze. “Are you reconsidering taking the trip with me?”
“I don’t know.” She was al
ready feeling like a stranger in a strange land, so how could she subject herself to his entire family? Still, traveling with Brandon sounded romantic.
“If you decide to come, it’ll be four days. The first two will be wedding stuff, and the last two we’ll be on our own. We’d be staying in one of the guest cabins on the ranch. There are lots of things to do—hiking, fishing, horseback riding.” He added, “I’m not a cowboy like Matt and Tommy, but I grew up around horses.”
“So you like to ride?”
“Definitely. I do Western and English. I played a little polo in college.”
That didn’t surprise her. He was a Harvard man, and it seemed like something he would do. “I’ve only been riding a few times, and that was when I was younger.” Mama used to take her and Alice to a rental stable, but it wasn’t a luxury they could regularly afford.
“Did you enjoy it?” he asked.
“Yes, very much.” But she couldn’t tell him about her mother’s love of horses and how much it meant to Mama to give her daughters those experiences. Mary even had some old photos of her and Alice astride the rental ponies. But that was before the Kirby fiasco, before Mama got so depressed.
She cleared her mind and glanced around. “Is this property zoned for horses?”
“Yes, but I don’t see the point of getting any, not unless I stayed here more often. I can ride at Tommy’s whenever I want to.”
“Are you and Tommy going to be in Matt’s wedding?”
He nodded. “He asked us to be his groomsmen.”
Mary went quiet. If she’d met Brandon under different circumstances, if his father hadn’t hurt her mother, if Brandon hadn’t filed the restraining order, this affair would be so much easier. But as it was, it shouldn’t be happening at all.
“You’ve got that look,” he said.
She glanced up. “What look?”
“As if you’re considering ending it with me again.”
“I’m not.” But she should be, she thought. “Really, I’m not.” She wasn’t ready to let him go. She made a grand gesture, trying to focus on something else. “This really is a wonderful house. It’s too bad you don’t get more use out of it.”
“Why don’t we go for a swim?” He smiled. “Cline loves to swim, too, if you don’t mind sharing the pool with a big, smelly dog.”
She laughed. “He isn’t smelly.”
“He will be when he gets wet. But that’ll just give us an excuse to shower together.” He smiled again, sexier this time. “Without the dog.”
“Okay,” she said, scooting her chair closer to his. “I’m game.” She’d seen the shower in the master bath, and it was a huge glass enclosure with a variety of water jets. She could only imagine how glorious it was going to feel. Brandon was fast becoming the lover of her dreams. Dreams she didn’t even know she had. “I didn’t bring a swimsuit, though. It hadn’t occurred to me that I might need one.”
“There are tons of brand-new suits in the pool house. I’m sure there’ll be some in your size.” He shrugged. “My caretakers provide them, just in case I have guests.”
“Thank you for inviting me here.” As mixed up as everything was, he had a way of making her feel better.
This beautiful man that she was deceiving.
Eight
Swimming with the dog was fun, and the shower with Brandon was heavenly, just as Mary had assumed it would be.
The main fixture poured water over them like a waterfall. The rest of the jets kept steady streams shooting at them from different directions. Luxury at its finest, she thought, with a tall, tanned, blue-eyed attorney. Before he’d come into her life, she couldn’t have imagined a scenario like this if she’d tried.
He washed her hair with his shampoo and conditioner, and she inhaled the crisp fragrance. She liked him using his products on her. She liked everything about this weekend with him. Everything except the lies she was keeping. She hoped their affair ended mutually, during a time when both of them were ready to let go, and her secret could fade into oblivion.
Brandon finished washing her hair and spun her around to kiss her. She latched on to him as if there was no tomorrow, hating herself for what she was doing to him. The more time she spent with him, the more convinced she was that he was a kind and caring person. That he hadn’t hurt her mother deliberately. That it had been all Kirby’s doing. But Brandon loved his father, just as she’d loved her mother. Nothing good could ever come of this.
He deepened the kiss, and her mind went blank. She reached between his legs and stroked him, making him big and hard. She ran her thumb over the tip, moving in little circles, and he shuddered.
Wanting to give him the same kind of pleasure he’d already given her, she ended the kiss and dropped to her knees.
He looked down at her, and their gazes met and held. He shut off the side jets to keep her from getting drenched, but the waterfall fixture was still running, creating a sensual ambience.
She took him in her mouth, and he played with the wet strands of her hair. She imagined how she must look to him, this nice girl that she supposedly was, taking him all the way to the back of her throat.
She enhanced his experience with flicks of her tongue, and he rocked his hips. The hands in her hair tightened. She felt powerful, knowing that he was having trouble containing himself. But she felt dominated by him, too.
It was a feeling she liked. A feeling that aroused her.
He growled her name, and it echoed through the spray of water. She increased the rhythm, using her hands and her mouth.
Right before he came, he tried to pull away. But she tugged him closer, letting him know that she wanted him to spill into her. So that’s what he did, in the midst of rising steam and splashing water, with his stomach muscles jumping and his breathing short and shaky.
Afterward, he staggered, and she eased back. But she didn’t get up off her knees. She touched herself, running her hands over her breasts and working her way down, pressing her fingers between her thighs. Mary needed to come, too.
Brandon didn’t intervene. By now, he’d recovered from his orgasm. He remained at his full height and watched her. Clearly, he was enjoying the show.
She closed her eyes and let the sensation of performing for him sweep her away.
Finally, when she was sated, she climbed to her feet and turned off the waterfall. Their sexy shower was over.
They left the enclosure and dried off with towels and heat lamps.
Brandon said, “That was incredible.” He put his jeans on. They’d both brought clothes into the bathroom. “But how am I supposed to ever be with anyone else after that?”
She got dressed, too. “I’d rather not think about you being with someone else.”
“Good. Because I’m hanging on to you as long as I can.”
“You’re turning me into someone new.” Someone far more daring than she’d ever expected to be. She moved closer to him. “I should be blushing.”
“Sometimes you blush. I like both sides of you, the good girl and the bad. It’s tough to make up my mind which one excites me more.”
She nuzzled against him. “I think I’m becoming more bad than good.” But for now her heart was pounding, relentlessly, right next to his.
* * *
On Sunday morning, Mary and Brandon took Cline to the park. As they strolled beside the river, she envisioned spending every weekend together. But she knew that wasn’t possible.
Brandon stopped to let Cline sniff a tree. “I have to go out of town next week for work. I have an important client in Vegas, so I go there fairly often.”
“I thought your parents and Tommy were your most important clients.” She knew that he specialized in entertainment law because he wanted to represent his family.
The family he protected, she thought. She’d tried to protect hers, too, but she’d failed
where Brandon had succeeded. Her family was a mess, and his was a success.
He replied, “Mom and Dad and Tommy will always come first. But I’m still loyal to my other clients.”
As well he should be, she thought. He’d built his practice on some of the biggest names in the music industry. But without his family, he wouldn’t have made those connections. He’d grown up around celebrities.
He resumed walking, and she fell into step with him. If only she wasn’t developing such strong feelings for him. If only he wasn’t burrowing inside her.
“My dad wants to start dating again,” he said.
She started. “What? With who?”
“With whoever he is attracted to, I guess. We didn’t talk about how he plans to meet someone new. Mostly he just wanted to run it past me. He hasn’t been with anyone since he’s been clean and sober, and he’s getting lonely for companionship. He spoke to Tommy about it, but my brother isn’t too keen on the idea.”
Her heart thumped. “And you are?”
“It’s not my decision to make. But I told Dad that I’d support him. Tommy isn’t convinced that our old man has changed, at least not where females are concerned. But I think Dad is respectful of women now.”
She tried to curb her distain, but some of it came out anyway. “What if Tommy is right?”
He frowned at her. “You don’t approve of my father, do you?”
She glanced away. “I don’t even know him.”
“But it’s obvious that you don’t like the way he was portrayed in his book. You made that clear on our first date.”
“I just don’t like the way he treated his wife and children.” And she especially couldn’t bear the way he’d treated her mom. After his betrayal, Mama was afraid that all of Nashville would find out that she’d been accused of harassing one of the biggest country stars on the planet. Her dream of making it in that industry had been completely crushed.
“Are you reluctant to attend Matt’s wedding because you’re uncomfortable about meeting my dad?” Brandon asked.
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