As we drove to Little Five Points, Carrie chattered happily about everything we’d seen. “This is such a beautiful city,” she said.
“Would you rather live in a big city like this?”
She chewed on her bottom lip, considering. “I don’t think so. I’d love to visit, but Catalpa Creek is my home and I wouldn’t know what to do without the gossips and the busybodies. Life must be very boring without someone dissecting and sharing everything you do with the whole town.”
“Boring isn’t the word I’d use. What are you in the mood to eat?”
We ended up getting burgers at a locally owned place and then we walked the streets and explored until Carrie declared that she couldn’t take another step.
I took her back to my mother’s home and we snuck up the steps to our room, too tired to face family. At least, I was too tired and Carrie didn’t try and force me to spend more time with my family. I closed the door and had her naked and spread out before me in quick order. I made up for falling asleep on her the night before, several times over, and I fell asleep with my arms wrapped around her. I didn’t think about how good she felt in my arms or how there was nowhere else I’d rather be, even with my family just down the hall. Our time together was a fun interlude, I reminded myself, but it didn’t mean anything.
***
The next morning, I was awakened by a warm mouth pressing kisses to my chest and neck and face. It was the best way I’d been woken up, maybe ever. I rolled toward the exploring mouth and wrapped my arms around Carrie, pulling her tight against me. My eyes popped open. Carrie was dressed and her hair was pinned back. “Why are you dressed?” I asked. “I don’t like you dressed.”
She shivered against me. “Your mother has fixed a huge breakfast to see us off. It’ll be ready in twenty minutes.”
I stretched and sat up. According to the clock next to the bed, it was after eight. I never slept that late, unless I was hungover, of course. “How long have you been up?”
She glanced at the clock. “Two hours. I went for a run around the neighborhood. It’s lovely.”
“You should have woken me.” I scrubbed a hand down my face and tried to wake up. “How are you so chipper? You couldn’t have gotten more than five hours of sleep.”
She frowned and I noticed the dark circles under her eyes. “It doesn’t matter how late I go to bed, I always wake up early. It’s a curse.”
“Another one?” I drew a finger along the neckline of her blouse. I unbuttoned the top and then the second and then the third buttons, my other hand tight on her waist. I just wanted a peek. I needed a peek, and maybe a taste, just enough to get me through the morning and the long drive back to Catalpa Creek.
I slid a hand inside her blouse and pushed her bra aside. I lowered my mouth and tasted and licked and loved her beautiful breast until she moaned. That moan made me want another moan. I unbuttoned two more buttons and paid equal attention to the other breast. “Breakfast,” Carrie said, her voice breathy. “Everyone will be waiting.”
“I don’t need a shower. I can be ready in five minutes. That gives us fifteen. Think you can come for me in fifteen minutes?”
“Uh-huh.” She softened and melted against me as I continued to work her breast with my hand. I loved the way she gave into me. She was in such control in every other aspect of her life, always put together and making the right choices. I loved that I could make her bad, make her hand the reins to me.
She reached to undo the rest of the buttons on her blouse, but I stopped her. “Leave them,” I said. “This is a quickie between the…Um, the naked…” I was enjoying Carrie’s role-playing games more than I’d ever imagined I would. I had always been a fairly straight-forward lover, but I loved this game, loved the way it excited her, involving her mind and her body. The only problem was that when the blood left my brain and fled to my cock, I had a really hard time coming up with a story I thought she might like.
“You’re a debauched rock star.” She pressed her breast farther into my hand. “And I’m your manager. I’ve found you naked in bed when you’re supposed to be at an interview. You agree to go to the interview, but only if I let you…”
“I’ll go to your interview, princess,” I said. She stood back, hands on her hips, trying to look stern. She’d never succeed as an actress, but I loved how she tried. “I’ll go to your interview, if you do something for me.”
She glared at me. “Why should I do anything for you?”
“Because I pay you to do things for me. Right now, I want you to slide your panties off from under that prim skirt you’re wearing.”
“What?” She pretended confusion, but her voice was husky and needy.
“You want to keep your job? You want to keep managing my career?” I bit down on the words as hard as I could, my own acting ability probably no better than hers. “You’re going to do exactly what I tell you, exactly when I tell you.”
“I…I can’t lose this job.” Her voice trembled with want. “My elderly father is in treatment for a fatal disease and the medicine—”
“Take off your panties.” I stood and stalked to her. Her eyes dropped to my cock and, if it hadn’t already been ready to go, it would have been then. She reached under her skirt, a fitted blue skirt. It fell to just above her knees and I watched as a red, lacy thong dropped from under it and to the floor. I curled my hands into fists to keep from touching her. As much her role-playing got her going, me being dominant got me going. “Go to the door, press your hands against it, and bend at the waist.”
She did as I said and I admired the view for a few moments, letting the anticipation build for both of us. I slid a small step stool over. “Stand on this.” She whimpered and my heart rate picked up. She loved being told what to do, giving up control, as much as I loved telling her what to do, as much as I loved being in control. If this wasn’t fake, I’d say she was perfect for me. She got into position. I lined myself up behind her, the height was perfect. I slid my hands under her skirt, caressing her smooth, soft skin and flipped her skirt up and over her back, exposing her completely to my view. My breath came in pants and it hurt to wait, it hurt not to grab her and thrust into her immediately. Even after the night before, I still wanted her so bad I ached with it. “You’re going to take everything I give you.” I gripped her hips hard and pulled her ass against me. She gasped.
“Yes,” she said in a breathy voice.
“I’ll do your interviews and publicity stunts and public events. I’ll be wherever you want me whenever you want me and you are going to do the same for me, only you’re going to take whatever I have to give you, whenever I tell you to take it.”
“Yes.”
I couldn’t hold off any longer. I slid into her in one long, hard thrust and she pushed back against me, taking everything I had. I pumped into her hard and fast, listening to the sounds she made, sounds I’d become surprisingly well acquainted with after only a week of hearing them. I waited until I could tell she was close and then I touched her. I didn’t slow my pace as I rubbed and pinched. “And you’re going to come for me when I tell you to come.”
“Yes, please.”
“Come for me now.”
She squeezed me tight with her inner walls and bit back a scream. I felt her pulse and shiver and explode and it drove me crazy. I loved what I could do to her. I came with a final hard thrust and bit my own lip to quiet my growl of possession. Because that’s what I felt. I owned her. She belonged to me.
I slid out of her, disposed of the condom and dressed while she straightened her skirt and buttoned her shirt. She bent to reach for her panties.
“Leave them. I want to know you aren’t wearing them. It will help me get through this miserable interview.”
“The game is over,” she said, reaching for her panties again.
“Leave the panties.” I couldn’t explain why it was so important, but I wanted this from her. “Please.”
The please did it, the please meant I wasn’t bre
aking our rules. I wasn’t telling her what to do outside the bedroom, I was asking. “At least let me pack them in my bag.”
I let her and we walked down to breakfast, our fingers laced together.
My entire family was already seated around the table, all eyes on us as we walked in together. Carrie’s cheeks reddened as though we’d been caught. “Morning all,” I said to the table. “I guess I overslept.”
“Very unlike you,” May said with a suspicious glare.
“I’m getting lazy in my old age.” I pulled out a chair for Carrie and took the empty seat next to her. I reached for her hand under the table and linked our fingers together again. I knew I was venturing into dangerous territory, but I couldn’t help it. I needed to touch her. She didn’t pull away. It made me feel better not to be swimming into shark infested waters alone.
I caught May’s eye and she looked pointedly to where my hand disappeared beneath the table. I shrugged and picked up my fork to eat.
“Cody,” my mother said. “Let me know when you think you’ll have the property. I’d like to take some time off and come up to help you get started.”
“I don’t need any help.” My tone was harsher than I’d intended. I guess I was a bit more defensive and touchy than I’d realized.
“Aw, look, Cody is going through an independent phase,” Jared said. “Can you tie your shoes by yourself, too, buddy.”
I ignored my brother, used to his smart mouth. Carrie’s grip on my hand tightened and I turned to see her glaring at Jared. I rubbed my thumb over the back of her hand to soothe her and met my mother’s glare. “I’m sorry,” I said. “That came out more harshly than I’d intended. It’s not that I don’t want your help, but I want to do this on my own. I need to do this on my own.”
“There’s no shame in asking for or accepting help,” my mother said. Her voice was soft, but there was real concern in her eyes. “Even your father didn’t buy his first hotel alone.”
I assumed she meant that she’d helped him, his partner in everything. “I’ll let you know if I need anything.” I had no intention of needing anything, but she didn’t need to know that.
“Mom,” Jenna said. “How old is this house?”
Mom looked at Jenna, her eyes wide. “It’s just fifteen years old, dear. Why?”
Jenna looked at me and winked before turning her attention back to our mother. “Has anyone ever complained of ghosts? Because I heard a lot of creaking and banging while I was trying to get to sleep last night.”
“No, Jenna,” Mom said, clearly reading that my sister was up to something. I stuffed another bite in my mouth and nudged Carrie to do the same. The sooner we finished eating, the sooner we could leave. “No one has complained about ghosts. Since your room is next door to Cody and Carrie’s on one side and Noah and Aubrey’s on the other, I assume you’re complaining about how noisy they were in a roundabout way.”
“Oh,” Jenna said, finger to her chin like she was considering. I had a mouthful of food, or I might have interjected. Might have except that would give us away. “But I don’t think it could have been either of them, because I heard a lot of moaning and panting and—”
“That’s enough, Jenna,” Noah said, giving himself away. I was glad I was chewing, otherwise my mouth might have dropped open. Aubrey turned a lovely shade of pink and stared at her plate like it held the answers to the biggest questions of the universe. “No one wants to hear about what you imagined you heard last night.”
“I do,” Jared said, practically bouncing in his seat. “I want to hear.”
“That’s enough,” Mom said. “I want to discuss something serious with you children and I want you to listen with open minds.”
May caught my eye again and mouthed oh, shit.
“Is this about that man I saw you out at dinner with last week?” Jill asked, her mouth curled in a disapproving frown. Atlanta should have been a big enough city to hold all the Reynolds without them running into each other every other day, but that didn’t seem to be the case. I was once again grateful I lived in a different state.
“Yes,” my mother said. She folded her hands on the table. “Jonas and I have been seeing each other for three weeks now and it’s serious enough that I wanted you kids to know.”
“How serious can it be after only three weeks?” Noah asked. He looked angry, which surprised me. It had been five years since our father died and our mother had every right to date again.
Mom shrugged, unfazed by Noah’s angry tone. “Serious enough that we’ve agreed to be exclusive. Serious enough that he’ll be here to have breakfast with us in just a few minutes.” Some families did Sunday dinners, ours did Sunday brunch. A big breakfast on Sunday had just always been part of our family tradition and it suited me. My mother’s blueberry pancakes were the best I’d ever had and she made grits like no one else.
“I think that’s great, Mom,” May said in a sweet tone. I couldn’t be sure if she was trying to butter up Mom to get college tuition out of her or if she was serious. May wasn’t a bad person, she just didn’t spend a lot of time thinking about other people.
“What’s he like?” Carrie said, breaking a silence that had fallen over all of us at the table. I don’t know what the others’ excuse was for the silence and the tension, but I was still trying to hurry up my exit. It was great that mom was seeing someone in a hypothetical way, but I wasn’t ready to see my mother with a man who wasn’t my father.
Mom smiled at Carrie gratefully. “He’s sixty-three-years-old, and he has three grown children, all boys. He’s a criminal defense attorney and has done well for himself. He makes me laugh every day and I’ve smiled more in the past few weeks than I had in years before I met him.”
“He sounds wonderful,” Carrie said.
“Have you been to his law office,” I asked. “Have you heard anything about him other than what he’s told you?”
Mom’s smile didn’t falter. She looked from Noah to me to Jared, who seemed preoccupied with picking the blueberries out of his pancake, and back to me. “I love that you kids are protective of me,” she said. “But I’m a grown woman. I know what I’m doing.”
“Cody’s right, Mom,” Jill said. “What do you really know about this man? If you give me his vitals I can run his credit score.”
Mom sighed. “There will be no checking credit scores or backgrounds. I was introduced to him through a mutual friend, his sister, and I’ve been to his law office and I’ve seen his house and I’ve met his children. I’m certain he’s not a gold digger. Even if he were, most of my assets are tied up in the business.”
“You’ve met his children?” Jenna said. “You met his children before you introduced him to us?”
Mom’s smile was starting to look a little brittle. “Well, he and his wife divorced more than fifteen years ago, so it was less of a shock to his children that he’d have a new girlfriend, and—”
“Girlfriend?” Noah said, his face going a bit red. Aubrey patted his arm, but he shook her off. “You didn’t tell us he was your boyfriend.”
“Is,” my mother said. “He is my boyfriend. And, quite frankly, I’m surprised at how badly all of you are taking this. You couldn’t have honestly believed I would stay single for the rest of my life.”
“Dad was the love of your life,” Jill said. “You two fought all the time, but you loved each other. I know you did.”
“We did love each other,” Mom said. “But I think you are all old enough to understand that he wasn’t the love of my life. He was one of the loves of my life and he was a good one, but he left me. He left me and I had to change my plans for the future. I didn’t go looking to fall in love, but I met Jonas and —”
“Love?” Noah said. “You’re in love with him?”
This was spiraling fast. Noah was a good guy and an even better businessman, but sometimes it was hard for him to see anything that wasn’t right in front of him or exactly the way he wanted it to be. He was fiercely loyal to our fat
her, to the point that I thought he no longer remembered our dad’s fierce temper or the way he changed after he started making real money.
“I’m happy for you, Mom,” I said. “And I think Dad would be, too.”
Mom blew me a kiss. “Thank you, sweetheart.”
“What do you mean?” Noah asked. “How could he possibly have been okay with this?”
“Because I know he loved mom,” I said. “He loved her with every fiber of his being, even when he wasn’t being a very good husband. I know he’d want her to be happy.”
“How can you know that?” Noah asked. “You did nothing but fight with him your whole life.”
“I did,” I said. “Except when he and I went into the woods together. He told me how he’d fallen in love with mom the first time he saw her and how he believed it was his job in life to make her happy, to make sure she had everything she wanted. If I ever loved a woman, I’d never be okay with watching her live alone and unhappy.”
“You’d be okay watching her with another man?”
“If the alternative was her being alone and unhappy? Hell, yes.” I’d never really given it much thought before and I’d certainly never been in love, but I loved my mother and I couldn’t believe my father would want her to be alone.
“I agree with Cody,” Jill said. “Daddy loved Mom too much to want her to spend the rest of her life alone. I’m happy for you, Mom.”
“Me, too,” Jenna said. She elbowed Jared and he looked up with a start.
“Oh, yeah,” he said. “I think it’s great. I want to meet him and give him the interrogation, but I think it’s great that you’ve met someone.”
We all looked to Noah, but he stabbed a sausage with his fork and stuffed it in his mouth, not saying a word.
“I’m happy for you, Nora,” Aubrey said. “And I can’t wait to meet Jonas.”
Noah glared at her, but she ignored him.
A decisive knock on the door halted our conversation. Mom rose to her feet, a smile already blooming on her face. She crossed the room and returned moments later with a tall, lean man with an angular face and a warm smile. “Children,” my mother said, her fingers laced through the stranger’s. “This is Jonas Murray.” Mom then pointed each of us out and introduced us.
The Deadbeat Next Door Page 20
