by D. C. Stone
“Oh,” she breathed. “Dwayne, you shouldn’t have.”
“I wanted to. This is something a young woman needs to have. Something from Tiffany’s.”
He unwound his arms and reached for the pendant, took it gently out of the box and clasped it behind her neck. She leaned back and fingered the charms, a small smile hovering on her face.
“Thank you.”
He knew what she thanked him for, understood it needed to be said. “Anytime, Hails. I want you to think about the bond we share every time you look at that and know if you ever need anything, someone to talk to, a shoulder to cry on, or even food in your belly, you can come to me.”
She leaned her head on his shoulder and let out a sigh. “I know all that, but thank you for the reminder.”
He wrapped his arm around her and played with the ends of her hair. A question hovered on his lips and he needed to ask it.
“Where’s your mom?”
“Shopping for food. Hilda, the aide, left just a short while ago. It’s nice to finally have some alone time.”
“Until I came breaking the bubble,” he said through laughter.
She matched the laugh but settled her head on his shoulder. “I’m glad you did. I’ve missed you and wondered where you were.”
“I’ve been around, watching, but I’m always around.”
“Did you and Mom have a fight or something?”
What a loaded question. He leaned his head back on the couch and closed his eyes. Hailey snuggled to his side. “We’ll be fine. Just working out a few things.”
Hailey yawned. “Sorry, whew, I’m more tired than I thought.”
He popped his eyes open. “Want me to leave?”
“No,” she said and fisted the side of his jacket. It reminded him of the time she had the chickenpox and had held him tight saying if she did that then she wouldn’t scratch at her skin. He laid his hand gently over where she held him.
“Please stay. I’m not sleeping well but feel like I may be able to sleep better if you’re here,” she said softly.
The admission broke his heart and he closed his eyes against another onslaught of stinging tears. He squeezed her shoulders and settled back in silence.
A few minutes ticked by and Hailey asked, “Can I ask what you and Mom are working out?”
He let out a heavy breath. “I don’t think that’s such a good idea. But I don’t want you to worry. We’re going to be all right.”
“I hope so,” she murmured sleepily. “You two were made for one another.”
His eyes shot open, and he stared ahead at the wall. It held pictures of family, ones where he was included as well. He couldn’t talk, didn’t know if the statement required a response. Hailey’s soft snores filled the air and he let out a breath he didn’t realize he’d been holding.
They sat like that, Hailey sleeping, tucked against him. Him, staring at the wall and seeing how well the three of them fit. It held years of memories, ones he wouldn’t take back for anything in the world. He’d made a home here, physically living there or not, and he hoped Brooke saw it the same way. She hadn’t reached out to him after their conversation on the jogging path and, remembering his parting words, it chipped a bit of his heart away each time he thought back on it.
He didn’t know how much time passed, but the door opened and Brooke stepped inside carrying two plastic bags. He tensed, not sure if he should get up and leave, get up and help her, or stay right where he was seeing as Hailey was sleeping soundly.
Brooke paused and looked at them, her gaze jumping between him and her daughter before coming to rest on his face. “She’s asleep,” she said with surprise in her voice.
“Yeah,” he said softly. “Been out for a while now.”
Brooke closed the door, set the bags down, and stripped out of her coat. She turned toward him. “I was wondering when you’d come by.”
He didn’t say anything, just continued to stare back.
“You could have come sooner,” she said, her voice still soft.
“Could I?”
Her shoulders sagged and she nodded, then looked away. “Of course, Dwayne. She cares about you, too, you know.” Picking up the bags, she turned and walked into the kitchen.
He struggled with the need to remain at Hailey’s side, or to go to Brooke. While she didn’t say anything about what was going on between them, and he really didn’t expect her to with Hailey sitting so close, it still stung. A simple statement such as she missed him, too, would have gone a long way toward his bruised ego.
Right now, in this moment, though, his ego was the least of anyone’s worries.
Gently extracting from Hailey’s clutch, he stood and tucked the throw around her shoulders, watching her snuggle into a pillow on the couch for a moment.
He turned and checked his pockets, making sure he had his keys and phone before heading toward the door. He should leave. Staying around and taking in additional reminders that Brooke was ignoring what needed to be addressed between them wasn’t something he thought he’d stay cool with.
He didn’t have it in him tonight to deal with it.
Just as his hand slid around the knob, he heard her come back into the room. “You’re leaving?” she asked.
He dropped his head to the door. Tired. Weary of it all. Missing the hell out of her. “Yeah, I need to get going.” He didn’t move, though.
She shifted behind him. “Dwayne…” His name, one word. It held nothing but pity and he hated it. This must be what people felt like when their hearts bled, because inside his chest his had torn in two. He’d been the asshole on the other side of the room far too many times and despised that he’d ever put anyone through anything that even resembled something like this.
He turned the knob.
“Stop. Don’t go,” she whispered harshly.
“God,” he said against the door. “I need to. I can’t keep doing this. I can’t dance around what I feel any longer, and I can’t stand knowing that things with us have gotten so mixed up.”
“I know.”
“No,” he answered, “I don’t think you do. I understand what I’ve done, hate that I’ve done it, and get now what I must look like to others. It’s not right, I know that. But I just can’t pretend that I don’t want you. I can’t dance around the subject any longer, and I can’t say something that I know you want to hear.
“I want you to trust me, Brooke, I do. And I can’t stand that you don’t. I want you. Only you. And no one else.”
Silence met his bold statement and he hated himself more. The soft brush of a hand against his back felt like heaven, and he lost it. Disgusted with himself, he whipped open the door and stepped outside. He was a masochist when it came to her and could only hope distance and time would heal things.
“Dwayne, stop,” she called from the door. He halted in his tracks and closed his eyes. Could he deny her anything?
Her footsteps sounded, drawing closer until he knew, even with his eyes closed, that she had stepped up before him. “I’m not good at this,” she said.
He let out a laugh that was anything but humorous. “You’re plenty good at it. Trust me.”
She palmed his face. “No, that’s not what I’m saying.”
His breath hitched and he opened his eyes.
“It’s not?”
She shook her head, a small smile on her lips. “No, it’s not at all.”
He laid his palm over hers on his face and stepped closer. “What are you saying?”
She inched her fingers around the back of his neck. “I’m saying I want you, too. I want to give us a shot. I want to show you that I do trust you. I trust you with my daughter, with my life, and with my heart, my body.”
He blinked, hearing words too good to be true. It took a moment, but they finally hit him and he surged against her and planted his fingers in the soft strands at her nape. “Say it. Say it again. I don’t think I heard you.”
She laughed then and the sound released
every bit of tension. It flowed and made him soar like an eagle high above the Hudson. “Even if you don’t believe in the words, I do, Dwayne, and when I say them they may not be as pretty as yours.”
He winced. “Pretty?”
She grinned wider. “Yes, as pretty, but I love you, and I want to make things work with us. I want you in my home, in my life, and in my bed. You’re my best friend, my lover, and my rock.”
Unable to wait any longer, he kissed her. Hot and deep, the contact heated him down to his Italian loafers and did things to his body he never thought he’d feel again. Only with Brooke… With her mouth fused against his, he knew things would be okay, that they’d be okay, and that they’d face whatever approached, head-on, together.
“Come inside,” Brooke whispered, tugging on his hand.
He watched her and followed, one foot in front of the other until he stood inside again. The door shut with a soft swoosh of air and it was as if that small sound, the one minor act, solidified it all: the worries, the doubt, the questions on if she’d ever accept him. She’d told him as much but looking at her, smiling up at him, holding gathering warmth in her eyes, said so much. The one tiny act spoke more than her words outside. She was inviting him not only into her home but also her life.
Hailey roused on the couch and glanced over. Her gaze landed on their linked fingers and instead of a question, she smiled, slow and sure. He couldn’t help but answer her with one of his own.
The words that came next shocked him down to his toes.
“It’s ’bout time, you two.” Hailey sat up. She hunched her shoulders slightly as if she still carried a burden there, and he figured she did. She’d been through a lot in the past few weeks and he hoped that this transition, this big change in her life—because it was huge—wouldn’t be too much for her to handle.
“Are you okay with this, Hails?” he asked.
Her sleepy smile turned goofy and it reminded him of a few weeks prior, when she’d been an innocent jokester with her whole life ahead.
“I’m more than okay with it. You two have been dancing around one another for years, and you’ve been in our lives for so long, it’s exactly as it should be.”
Such simple words stated so much.
He cleared his thick throat.
“Ah hell, Hails, come here,” he said gruffly.
She rose and crossed the room. He held his arms outstretched and she walked right into them. The scent of baby powder wafted through the air as he hugged her tightly, knowing without a doubt he’d do anything to protect her, to protect her mother, and to provide for them both for as long as he lived. In a world where people had surrounded him, his true home was here with these two remarkable women.
Brooke’s hand brushed the back of Hailey’s hair, and she lifted her head, then stepped back from them both.
“So, I’m just gonna, you know…” She tilted her head toward her room.
He laughed.
“And I’m probably going to put my earphones on really loud, so you two can just enjoy, you know…”
He laughed harder and Brooke gasped next to him.
“Hailey!” she said.
Hailey’s goofy grin returned and she walked backward down the hall. “You know, don’t mind me, and don’t do anything I wouldn’t do!” she sang before darting into her room.
A moment later voices came from behind the closed door. “I’m watching TV, too!” she yelled.
Dwayne couldn’t help it, he doubled over laughing and looked up at Brooke. Her face was two shades of red, her mouth gaping at her daughter’s room.
“I cannot believe…” she started.
He rose to his full height and took her hand.
“Where are you going?” she asked.
He grinned. “My mother taught me to always listen to the advice of a good woman.”
She balked and mockingly tried to resist his tug down the hall. “You are not thinking of…”
He nodded. “Oh I’m thinking it all right. You don’t argue with my momma.”
Her eyes widened as he pulled her into her room and shut the door. “You’re not thinking of your mother right now…”
He pushed her against the closed door and breathed out a groan as his body met hers, every glorious inch of her curvy, beautiful existence. “Oh, you’ve got that right. I’m definitely not thinking of my momma anymore.”
Her breath fluttered from parted lips and washed over his face. He gripped her hips and brushed a kiss to the side of her mouth.
“What-what are you thinking about?” she asked on a breathy gasp.
Trailing his mouth to her ear, he gloried in the scent of her, all ripe with the feminine smell of vanilla. He whispered naughty things designed to make her blush, words of promise, and told her how high he wanted to take her, how much he wanted her, how he craved her more than his last breath.
“Oh,” she breathed.
He leaned back and grinned briefly at her dazed look but didn’t get another word or thought through his head. She wrapped her arms around his neck and jumped him.
Yes, she jumped him.
He staggered back and met her kiss for kiss. Their tongues clashed and tangled in pleasure. He nipped and sucked on her mouth, groaning as she repeated his ministrations on him.
Falling to the bed, he couldn’t get her clothes off fast enough. She must have had the same idea as she growled under her breath, tugging and pulling on his belt. He laughed.
“You are not laughing!” she huffed and glanced up. Her hair fell over her face, her beautiful blue eyes blazing with heat. The white camisole she had worn beneath her sweater pulled down on one side, showing him tantalizing glimpses of the lace beneath. He groaned.
“No, no, I’m not laughing. God, I want you.”
She sat back on his thighs and pushed her hair from her face, bit her lip. With agonizing slowness designed to drive a man wild, she slid her camisole up, inch by beautiful inch. Rich, tanned, and smooth skin revealed with each slow shimmy and shake she gave. Then, in one fell swoop, it was pulled from the top of her head and tossed aside, forgotten.
Gripping her hips, he rolled her over and rose above her, kissed the exposed cleavage of her breast, then the other. He worked at his pants, whipped his belt off, and undid the zipper. He struggled with getting his pants over his hips as she pushed his shirt off his shoulders, lifted, and put her mouth on his chest.
His eyes rolled back in his head. “God.”
“Hurry,” she pleaded.
With as much finesse as he could muster, he kicked off his shoes, tore away his shirt, and discarded his pants. She wiggled beneath him and finally—finally!—they both lay as naked as they’d been born.
Her warm hand wrapped around his erection and he saw stars. She slid her hand down the length and back up, giving him a squeeze that threatened with an impending release.
“Stop, Brooke,” he said roughly.
She spread her legs and guided him between, to where he belonged, his home, nestled in the body of this woman. Once she posed him at her entrance, he reached down to make sure she was ready and, feeling she wanted this as much as he did, he filled her with one stroke.
Embedded inside her, he sat to the hilt and stilled, taking it all in. Her scent wrapped around him as her arms and legs did. Her love and acceptance took his heart and locked it safe. His head swam with pleasure, but she anchored him to this world, kept him afloat in a sea of desperation to be closer…to her.
“Please, Dwayne,” she whispered, her hips moving anxiously beneath him.
He couldn’t hold back and surged forward. Their movements were in sync, the rise and fall of hips meeting one another, their bodies both chasing the release coming, the ecstasy that would take them both over the ledge.
He dropped his head, captured a dark nipple in his mouth, and sucked. She greedily arched her back, gave him more, and took it all.
She whimpered and he glanced up, feeling the rising tension in her body. Her legs tig
htened around his waist. Her hand was over her mouth, teeth biting into the tender flesh, pleasure awash over her face. She tilted her head down and reached for him.
He met her halfway, their mouths a clash of passion as the crest lifted and broke. Her nails dug into his ass, pushing him deeper into her, harder into her sweet heaven. She cried out and he sucked it all greedily down, his orgasm bringing a groan from his chest.
For long moments, the world held suspended, turned into nothing but a buzz of orgasmic bliss as they tumbled and fell together. He slowed his thrusts, gentled his touch, and deepened his kiss, letting her know with his actions how much he cared for her, how this thing called love could take him to such heights and all because of her.
She kissed him, brushed her fingers through his hair, and let them trail down his spine.
Pulling back, he brushed one, two kisses across her lips and rested above, making a point to hold his own weight so he didn’t crush her. Her expression was sated and happy, her mouth relaxed. Her long hair spread beneath her like a waterfall of the Arizona desert. Beautiful.
“I want you to know how much you mean to me,” he said softly.
She smiled, and brushed the back of her fingers over his cheek. “I do. I see it clearly, Dwayne. And I love you.”
He swallowed, the words sitting thick on his tongue. He wanted to say them, yearned to give that to her, but he didn’t see them as she did. But God, he wanted to try.
“I know the words don’t mean the same thing to you,” she said as if reading his mind. “But I know you love me, too. In time I’m sure I’ll hear them, and I don’t want you to say them just to make me happy. I want to hear them come from your mouth because you believe in them, and not a moment sooner. Okay?”
She lifted and brushed her mouth over his while he stared at this amazing woman. “Okay—”
His cell rang from his pocket, cutting off anything he’d been about to say.
“I need to get that,” he said and she smiled.
“I’ll be right here.”
He lifted off her, grabbed his pants, and hit the answer on his phone.
