“Before you start protesting—How much work do you have to do today?”
He gingerly sat up and swung his legs over the side of the bed, giving me a half-shrug as he thought about. “No more than usual.”
I raised an eyebrow at him before bending down to pick up my discarded dress and sliding it back on. When I walked towards him and spun around, I didn’t even need to ask for him to zip me up. A true gentleman as always.
And while I truly loved that quality in him, I looked forward to making him lose control when his leg was fully healed.
“But the usual amount of work for you is still a lot and the sooner you get up and get it done, the more time we’ll have to spend together later.”
Recognition began to dawn in his eyes and he nodded, smiling at my plan.
“I think I can wrap everything up by four.”
“Perfect. I think I’ll spend my day lying out on the beach covered in tanning oil,” I said idly, waiting for the inevitable reaction.
I grinned at the sound of his tortured groan.
“Why must you tell me that? Fuck. We better make it five. I’ll need an extra hour to come out and randomly check on you.”
“Check on me?” I asked with a snort of disbelief. “You mean check me out.”
“Semantics,” he said with a scoff and a wave. “I need to make sure you don’t get dehydrated or suffer from a heat stroke.”
His reasoning made me laugh out loud and he smiled fondly at my mirth. I was still smiling as I fetched his cane from where I left it the night before and backed away to let him stand up on his own.
“Do you want to eat first or just get straight to work?”
His reaction was completely unexpected. His head whipped towards me and a sly grin appeared before he commented, “Oh I think I’d enjoy that, but I wouldn’t be getting any work done.”
He chuckled at my slack-jawed expression and began the slow walk to his bathroom. Before he closed the door, he called out a warning that if I wasn’t gone when he got out—there wouldn’t be any work going on today. I took his words to heart and left the room, although I was extremely hesitant to do so.
As much as the idea of lounging on the beach all day appealed to me earlier, I really wasn’t looking forward to getting even more hot and bothered than I already was—even if it was just in the literal sense. The idea of releasing my tension in the shower popped into my head, but I quickly dismissed it.
If anything, I felt like purposely waiting for tonight was going to make it all the better. Until then, I’d do everything in my power not to think about Brandon and the noises he made last night.
* * *
Hours later, I finally accepted that not thinking about Brandon in a sexual manner was now an impossible task. I was embracing the freedom of that knowledge and indulging in some very explicit fantasies when the sound of a motorboat approaching the dock ruined the mood.
I sat up and tried to shield the sun from my eyes with my hand, squinting down the beach and watching as Shaw, Grant, and another man who looked vaguely familiar hopped off the boat. The unknown man was carrying two recyclable grocery bags and if I hadn’t already been so warm from the sun, I imagined I would have been able to feel the blush sweep across my entire body at the mere thought of Shaw knowing what was likely in that bag.
I consoled myself with the thought that he probably didn’t know. The stranger could just be a random delivery person hitching a ride with Shaw and not someone associated with him and his team. I squinted harder—trying to figure out why the man looked so damn familiar.
Then it clicked. It was the driver who picked me up at the airport. He never gave me his name, but his scowl was still firmly in place. I breathed a sigh a relief, knowing it was one of Brandon’s personal employees.
All three of them walked right up to the house, not even noticing me lounging down the beach. I had opted to go a little further away from the path, mainly in the hope of avoiding Brandon coming out to check on me.
With the fantasies I’d been having, there was no telling whether or not I would have been able to resist riding him right here on the beach in broad daylight. Better just to avoid the temptation altogether.
In the spirit of avoidance, I laid back and stretched out, willing my body to relax and my mind to clear, just enjoying the sounds of the ocean and the wind blowing through the trees. My hope was to lose track of the time and a long while later when I heard the boat engine rev up again, I knew I had succeeded.
I sat up to watch it depart, then angled my body to look towards the house. Brandon was standing on the edge of the walkway—cane in hand and staring down the beach at me with a content smile.
When he noticed I was looking his way, he raised his hand and waved. I returned the gesture, then frowned when I saw him shaking his head. The hand went down then came back up, all five fingers stretched out but not otherwise moving.
Oh. Five o’clock. Damn it.
I nodded and gave him a thumbs up, sighing sadly after he turned and started up the walkway. I dug my phone out of the bag I’d brought with me and took note of the time, knowing by the position of the sun that it couldn’t be much later than lunch time.
1:26. Two missed calls. One unheard voice message.
“Shit,” I grumbled, toying with the idea of listening to the voicemail but ultimately deciding against it.
I knew not calling her back was probably throwing her into a state of panic, but I couldn’t do it until after I discussed it with Brandon. And judging by how things were progressing between us, I just prayed that she’d be able to stay calm until tomorrow morning.
No matter how our discussion went, I’d call her to make sure she knew I was fine. After I made the promise to myself, I powered the phone down and flopped back, resigning myself to waiting around doing nothing until five.
* * *
“How’d your meeting with Shaw go?”
Brandon startled and I laughed, unable to stop myself as he looked up from his computer screen with wide eyes. He turned his head to the clock on the wall and frowned at it like he had no idea how it could possibly be five o’clock already.
“It took up far too much time for my liking. I wish he would have given me some warning,” he grumbled before turning his attention back to the monitor. “Let me just save out of this and I’ll be done for the day.”
I took a seat and gave him a few minutes to shut everything down, then smiled at him expectantly. I wasn’t entirely sure how to go about this, but I imagined he probably wanted to eat first.
Which would be the perfect opportunity for me to bring up Harold and my mom.
“Do you want to have dinner? I’m not going to lie—I already ate.”
“What’d you have?”
“Just a sandwich.”
He nodded and came over to the couch I was waiting on, reaching his hand out for mine. I slid our fingers together and stood up, staying silent as he led me through the house and down to the kitchen. I was about to offer to put something together for him when he made a beeline for the loaf of bread that was still sitting on the counter.
“A sandwich sounds good. Sounds quick,” he said with a smile full of promise and innuendo.
While he moved to the fridge, I took a seat at the bar and nervously twisted my hands together. I wasn’t entirely sure how to broach the subject of our parents and I was worried that if I went about it wrong, his reaction might affect everything I had been looking forward to all day.
“Hey, what’s wrong?” he asked as he plopped the jar of strawberry jam on the counter and braced himself against the edge, looking at me with a concerned frown. “Are you having second thoughts?”
“About tonight? Hell no. You got condoms, right?”
Brandon blushed and nodded. “Yes.”
Another thought occurred to me and I felt stupid for not even thinking to mention it earlier.
“You got the correct size, didn’t you? Because, uh... you aren’t exactly aver
age.”
His face turned even more red, but he managed to maintain eye contact as he nodded. Now that I could rest assured that the sex part of our evening was covered, so to speak, it was time to bring up the less pleasant part.
“My mom called.”
His back straightened, but whatever thoughts he had were carefully hidden beneath a mask of indifference as he continued putting together the sandwich.
“Oh yeah? What did she say?”
“I didn’t answer. She left a voicemail but I haven’t listened to it yet. I wanted to discuss it with you first.”
“What is there to discuss?”
I sighed heavily and laid my palms flat on the bar to stop myself from wringing them together any longer. The gesture caught his attention and he looked up, his expression neutral but his eyes wary.
“What am I supposed to tell her? About where I am?”
He sat the knife down and stared off into space for a moment, his lips pursing together as he thought about our predicament. I was silently hoping he would say I was free to tell her the truth, but I instinctively knew he wasn’t going to be thrilled at that prospect.
“Do you have to tell her anything?” he finally asked, breaking the thick silence that had settled in the kitchen.
“Um, yes. Her and Harold were on vacation which is why we didn’t talk for a while when I first got here, but if I don’t call her back soon she’s going to get worried. She’s been that was ever since...”
“Since I disappeared,” he finished for me, the resolution melting off his face. It was as if the implication of just how much his disappearance had affected us back home was finally starting to come together in his head. “If you have to tell her, then do it. But I’m... I’m not going back. Just make sure that is very clear. I suppose if they want to come here to see me, that could be arranged.”
I completely blanked out after the words ‘I’m not going back’, feeling my heart break in every sense of the word. He had his own private paradise here, but I knew that the isolation wasn’t going to be something I could deal with long-term.
Which meant that when the time came for me to go home, I’d be going back to the city alone.
“Vanessa?”
“Hmm?” I hummed, blinking rapidly to clear the tears that were beginning to form.
“Call her and tell her whatever you need to. All right?”
I nodded and smiled, but it wasn’t genuine. He frowned at me from across the bar, knowing that he’d somehow fucked up but seemingly unable to figure out how. Temporarily heartbroken or not, I was determined to live in the moment and hold on to the hope that we’d find a way to make it work. Because knowing Brandon, he wouldn’t give up on me—on us—so easily.
When I realized he was still looking at me with concern, I waved him off and gave him a real, hopeful smile.
“Eat. You’ll need all the energy you can get,” I said playfully, adding an exaggerated wink at the end for good measure.
My effort was rewarded with a smile before he bit into the sandwich, tearing it off with a snarl and chewing dramatically. I laughed at the sight and just like that, the pain in my chest eased until I could barely remember why I had been upset in the first place.
Chapter 18
The time while Brandon ate was ripe with sexual tension, but as soon as he put the plate in the dishwater and turned back to me, I could almost see his anxiety set in. He awkwardly suggested that we watch a show or movie or something considering it was still so early, a suggestion that I agreed to only because I wanted him to be at ease.
But mid-way through the romance movie I had purposely picked, the love scenes began and I snuggled closer to his side. I really couldn’t describe the pleasure I got from feeling his chest rising and falling faster and deeper the closer I got, but it made me want to swing my leg over his lap and grind myself down until he begged me to go to bed with him.
To my surprise, I didn’t have to let it get that far. Brandon blindly reached for the remote and turned off the TV, licking his lips and taking a deep breath before he asked, “Would you like to move this to the bedroom?”
I smiled and nodded, detangling myself from his side and helping him stand up. We walked through the house hand in hand and it suddenly hit me that more time had passed than I realized. The sun had already gone down and I wondered if Brandon timed it that way because he thought it would be more romantic at night.
Which I was kind of inclined to agree with. Sex in the morning or randomly throughout the day was fun and all, but this time was really about him. Whatever he wanted to do to make it special was fine by me.
When we finally got into his bedroom, I watched as he used the dimmer to lower the lights. He turned them down so far that for a moment, I couldn’t see a damn thing in the room. But then he seemed to think the better of it and turned them up just enough to see.
“Everything okay?” I asked when I noticed how undecided he looked.
“I just... I want to see you, but I’d prefer if you couldn’t see me.”
“I saw you yesterday,” I gently pointed out, reaching over to place my hands on his shoulders. “I think you’re gorgeous, Brandon. You know that.”
“I don’t know why you think that,” he said dejectedly, leaning into my touch when I put my hand on his disfigured cheek. “You’re the gorgeous one.”
“We’re both gorgeous. Leave the lights like this,” I told him, reaching for the hand that wasn’t holding the cane and pulling him back to the bed. “I want you. I love you.”
“I love you, too,” he said softly, allowing himself to be pulled. “More than anything. I’m just afraid of doing something to fuck this up, or you seeing me and changing your mind later.”
“There’s nothing I’ll see that will make me stop loving you,” I said bluntly. “As for you doing something to screw it up? Well, I think no matter what you do— I’ve got you beat.”
He laughed lightly at my pitiful attempt to lighten the mood, but I think we both knew that I was serious. I had caused so much damage between us over the years that I couldn’t even think of something that Brandon could possibly do that would be unforgivable. Short of cheating on me— something that I was certain would never happen— I came up empty.
Realizing I was being side-tracked again, I shook my head a little and said, “Sit on the edge of the bed again. Where’d you put the condoms?”
“In the nightstand.”
“Perfect,” I said, mentally making a note for when it came time for it. Which, if I was being honest, was going to be very soon.
An entire day in the sun getting hot while thinking about Brandon had made me even more turned on than I had been the night before. Add on the snuggling on the couch and I was desperate to finally feel him inside me.
“Take this off,” I mumbled, tugging harshly at the buttons on his shirt.
His hands covered mine and assisted me getting the shirt off, then his immediately moved up to pull my shirt over my head. I pushed my shorts down my legs while he pushed himself up enough to reach my back and unclasp my bra and I was ecstatic that he seemed as desperate to get going as I was.
His eyes were staring up to my face when he licked my taut nipple, then sucked it into his mouth and gently bit down. I mimicked our positioning from yesterday and propped my knee up on the bed beside him, grinding my center against his slacks. His eyes drifted shut and he let out a huff of breath against my breast, trying to cover his reaction by switching sides.
The way his hips rocked upwards to push against me was all the welcome I needed to move us forward. I pulled back and stepped down, then hooked my thumbs in the elastic band of my underwear and shimmied them down my hips.
The pure lust on his face when he finally saw me fully exposed was unlike anything I’d ever seen before. No man had ever made me feel this beautiful before and Brandon was managing to do it without even needing to speak.
His jaw clenched when I drifted a hand down my navel to rest between
my legs, his hands flying to unfasten his pants and wiggle them down his hips. His briefs went along with the pants and after he kicked them off, I motioned for him to slide up the bed.
“I hope you’re all right with me being on top,” I said as I crawled up after him, settling my legs on either side of his knees. “I think it’d be best to keep as much pressure off your leg as possible.”
Brandon nodded in agreement and swallowed hard. “I asked Shaw about it today. I… Well, I tried to be as neutral as possible, but I think he figured it out on his own. At worst, it’ll only be two weeks before it’s healed enough to... take the lead.”
I was slightly horrified by the thought of Shaw not only knowing about us having sex, but having an actual conversation with Brandon about it. Then again, the news about his leg was good enough to make it fairly easy to ignore and when Brandon put his hands on my hips to bring our bodies closer together, it was almost entirely forgotten. At least for the time being.
“Hold on.”
It was one hell of a stretch, but I managed to reach his nightstand and pull out a strip of condoms without getting off his lap. I tore a gold packet off and tossed the others to the side for the time being.
“Wait, wait. I’ll do it,” Brandon offered, reaching up to take the packet from my hands and tearing it open himself. “The more you touch me, the faster this is going to end.”
“It’s not like that’s our only condom,” I pointed out, watching with hooded eyes as he stretched the latex over his cock. “And if you think I only plan on having you once tonight, you are sorely mistaken.”
Brandon let out a breathless, incredulous laugh as he finished putting the rubber on and I was mesmerized by the sight of his dick twitching at my words. I moved to place my core over him and pressed down, moaning as his cock slid up my wet folds and brushed against my clitoris. Brandon tipped his head back and closed his eyes, fighting to stifle the low groans that were coming out of his mouth and failing miserably.
I thought about getting myself close to the edge before taking him inside me in hopes that we could both finish on his first time, but my need for him was too strong to bother. There was always next time to worry about myself.
Wrecked: A Stepbrother Romance Novel Page 14
