I wasn’t sure what she meant by that. Did that mean she was staying? Or was she still going back to that life? I felt too mentally tired to ask her. We’d have to cross that bridge when we came to it.
“Uh, Brady, can I ask you a question?” she suddenly asked.
“Of course you can,” I said as I took a bite of my steak.
“I hope you don’t mind me asking this question, but it’s been a day of revelations, and I feel this is probably the best time to ask. What’s the deal with you and your father? Your real father, I mean.”
I looked at her and frowned. “Why do you ask?”
“Uh, I sort of came across your photo album the last time I was here. I’m sorry but I was too curious not to look. And I could tell that something wasn’t right. There are no photos of the two of you. Your mother was beautiful by the way,” she added.
The photo album. I looked toward the book shelf and saw it. I hadn’t looked at it in a very long time, but I was always aware that it was there. I couldn’t be mad at Sloan for looking through it. I would’ve probably done the same if the roles had been reversed.
I thought of the photos. My mom smiling into the camera. “She was, wasn’t she? I wish she was still alive.”
“Yeah,” Sloan said. “I know the feeling.”
“Well, you’re right about my father. We haven’t been close in a very long time.”
“Will you tell me what happened?”
I looked at Sloan and sighed. How could I ask her to tell me about her life and not tell her about my own? I owed her more than that.
“I’ll tell you,” I said, but it took me a while to finally start talking about it. Just as she hadn’t spoken about her past to anyone, neither had I spoken about mine.
“My father wasn’t a bad man. At least not when my mother was alive. Oh, back then he was a happy man, a good father. But all that changed when my mother died. He retreated into himself and left us boys to fend for ourselves. He started going to pubs every day and would come home drunk. I hated those nights. We’d all be sitting at home trying to watch TV, but none of us would actually be watching. We were all waiting to hear that door open. When he was drunk, he turned into someone else.”
“Oh Brady, I’m so sorry,” Sloan said.
“Yeah, me too. It wasn’t nice. He wasn’t nice. And he took it out on me more than anyone else. It’s my fault. The other brothers kept to themselves and tried to stay out of his way. But one day I went up to him and told him that our mother would’ve been so disappointed in him. He hit me for the first time that day. After that, hitting and whipping seemed to become a monthly occurrence. Then, after that, it was weekly. By then, the other brothers were so busy with their own lives that they didn’t even notice what was happening. I didn’t say anything, and neither did my father. But he’d come home, and walk straight to my bedroom each week. He hated me, and I hated him right back. But I let him do it because I didn’t want him to do the same to my brothers. I’d rather let him take his anger out on me. The only person that saw what was happening was my brother Ryan. He walked in one day and saw the whole thing. I guess that’s why the two of us are so close. He knows what I went through.”
“Oh, Brady. And the scars? They’re from your father, aren’t they?”
I nodded. “Yeah. Memories of what happened.”
“Do your brothers see him now?”
“Yeah. They all see him. Even Ryan. I was so angry about that. I mean, I understood the other brothers seeing him. They didn’t know what happened. They knew some stuff, but they didn’t know quite how bad the whole situation had gotten, so I didn’t blame them. But for a while, I was so angry at Ryan.”
“Did he explain himself?” Sloan asked.
“Yeah, he did. He said that my father is not the man that he used to be. He said he’s a good man, with a good heart, who did a bad thing once upon a time. He said he’s changed, and that he’s now a whole new person.”
“I heard he had cancer recently?”
I nodded. “He did. Wait, how did you know that?”
“Ryan told me. But that’s all he said. He didn’t tell me anything else.”
“I’m not surprised he told you that. He’s been trying to get me to see my father for a while. So has Grant. But Grant . . . he doesn’t understand. He’s my father’s favorite. The two of them have always been close. At least Ryan doesn’t push it when I say that I don’t want to see my father. No matter how changed he is. I’m just not interested. Maybe if he’d apologized a long time ago, I would’ve been okay with it. But I feel like it’s too late now. It went on too long, and there’s no going back. He’s not my father anymore.”
Sloan took my hand. “Thanks for telling me.”
“I’ve never told anyone that story before. I mean it, Sloan, I’ve never told anyone. Not even my brothers. Nobody. Ryan knows because he was there, but I’ve never said a word to anyone. Until now.”
“I love you, Brady.”
I looked at her in surprise. We’d spoken a lot about falling for each other, and we both knew how much we cared for one another. But neither one of us had yet dared to say those words.
“I love you, Brady,” she said again.
“I love you too, Sloan.”
“How about we forget about everything for a little while,” she said.
“Oh, I’d like that a lot. I know just the thing for it.”
I stood up, took her hand and led her to the bedroom.
Chapter Thirty-Six
Sloan
Brady was a gentle lover. We’d had sex in strange places, passionate sex, explosive sex. But no matter where we were or how we were doing it, it always ended up being a thing of beauty. I wasn’t used to being with someone in this way. Usually, sex was just sex. It was great while it lasted, but afterward I didn’t feel the need to hang around. And neither did the guy. It had taken me a long time to want to have sex again after the porn videos. I didn’t feel like I deserved a normal sex life anymore. And I didn’t seem to want it, either. But after a while, I met some guys at various clubs and pubs and found myself taking them to bed. I enjoyed the sex, especially as a form of escapism, but I didn’t love it the way I knew that I should. And then, when I started getting more and more famous, I stopped having sex altogether. I felt that men only wanted to be with me because I was famous. For a while, I thought that I might never have sex again. I just didn’t want to anymore. Nobody seemed worth the effort.
Then I met Brady.
Brady took my hand and led me to the bedroom. He kissed me and slowly took off my clothes, and then his. We stood naked in the middle of the room, kissing and touching each other. Whenever I was with Brady, it felt like I was touching him for the first time. Every part of his body felt new to me again, and I didn’t want to let him go.
“I love you,” he said, and he took my hand and lay me down onto the bed.
“I love you too,” I whispered. I’d loved him for a while already, but it was the first time I was saying it out loud. I now wanted to say it over and over again. “I love you.”
We lay on the bed. It was a cool day, and the windows were wide open. We had no clothes on, and the breeze should’ve made us cold. Yet I had no desire to get under the covers. With Brady next to me, I felt warm. We were lying next to each other, facing one another. Our hands were running up and down each other’s bodies as we kissed. Neither one of us seemed to want the moment to end, and we were savoring the feel of being so close.
“So, what exactly do you love about me?” I said.
“Hmm, that’s the easiest question in the world. For now, I’m going to ignore your personality traits. I have a long list for that, and I’ll tell you another time. I’m going to tell you what I like about you physically. How about my top three things?”
I giggled. “Okay.”
“Your nose.”
“What? My nose?” I crinkled my nose up and laughed.
“Oh yes. Especially when you make that face. You d
o realize that you have the cutest nose in the world, surely?”
“No,” I said and chuckled. “But thank you.”
He reached down and placed a kiss on my nose, then he looked at me and bent down again to kiss my mouth. “Your smile. Definitely your smile.”
I beamed at him. “You make me smile.”
“I’m glad to hear that. Now, let’s see. What’s the third thing about you that I like so much? Can you guess?”
I shook my head. “I don’t know.”
He reached over and grabbed me. “Your ass.”
“My ass?” I said and laughed.
“Oh yes. It’s perfection.”
He held onto me and pulled me closer. I kissed him while he stroked my backside with one hand. With his other hand he reached down and opened my legs, slipping his fingers inside me, teasing me until I was wet and groaning for more. Eventually, when I couldn’t take it anymore, he rolled me over until I was only my back, and climbed on top of me.
He kissed my nose again and then moved until he was inside me. I arched my back and pulled him deeper in. He leaned in and kissed me hard, crushing his lips against mine as he pushed slowly against me. With each thrust, I found myself losing more and more control. His lips remained locked onto mine as he slid back and forth, pushing me to the brink of total ecstasy. Then, just before we were both about to come, he stopped kissing me and looked into my eyes.
“I love you, Sloan.”
I bit my lip as he thrust once more. I cried out in pleasure.
Afterward, I lay beside him and pulled the duvet up and over us. I suddenly felt the cold air coming through the windows, and I shivered against him. While we were having sex, I hadn’t felt even a tiny bit cold.
“I love you too, by the way,” I said suddenly.
“What do you mean?” he asked.
I chuckled. “Well, you said I love you. And I wanted to say it back, but I suddenly couldn’t talk anymore.”
“Wow, did I really render you speechless?”
“Oh yeah. I couldn’t say a thing. I did think it in my head though, if that counts. Now you know what to do if you ever want to shut me up.”
“I never want to shut you up.”
I smiled. “It’s my turn,” I said as I turned to look at him.
“Your turn? For what?”
“For telling you what my top three things are about you.”
“Ooh, okay, I like this.”
“Your teeth,” I said as seriously as possible.
“What? That’s the most unromantic thing ever. Also, I have horrible teeth. I assume it’s from a lifetime of drinking too much coffee.”
I laughed. “A lifetime? Have you been drinking coffee since a baby?”
“Okay, not quite a lifetime, but you know what I mean.”
“You don’t have horrible teeth. But I’m just kidding. They’re not in my top three. Okay, it’s easy for me too. Although it’s hard to just choose three things.”
“Oh, flattery will get you everywhere.”
I giggled. “Well, let me start with the first thing that I noticed when I saw you. Your eyes. You have the kindest eyes in the world. I lose myself in them sometime.”
“Really? That was the first thing you noticed about me? I thought you hated me when you first saw me?”
“I did hate you. But I also thought you were very good looking. And that annoyed me more than anything else.”
“I thought the same about you.”
I giggled. “Okay, second thing. Your smile. I’m sorry but I have to steal this one. You don’t smile all the time, but when you do I feel like someone has put a light on in the room. And lastly, your legs.”
He laughed. “My legs? That’s a weird one. My legs are just normal legs.”
“You have no idea how sexy your legs are.”
“Sexy? Seriously?”
“Oh yeah. I’ve always had a thing for legs.”
“That’s weird,” he said.
I giggled. “Maybe. But I can’t help myself. Maybe I’m just weird.”
“That’s okay. I’m weird too. It’s nice to have someone to be weird with. This is nice, Sloan. Having you back again. I thought I was going to go mad when you left. I didn’t know what to do with myself. That’s why I went to work so early at the ranch. I couldn’t be here without you. The house just felt too quiet.”
“Wow, am I that noisy?” I teased.
He laughed. “That’s the funny thing. You’re not noisy at all. But it didn’t feel right without you here with me. It felt like a part of me was missing. I was walking around like a lost soul. I was so angry at myself for allowing you to get so close to me. You’re the only person that I have ever let in like this. I honestly believed that I would stay single forever and I was quite okay with it. No girl that I ever met made me want to change my ways. Until I met you, of course. Then my whole world changed. I don’t ever want you to leave.”
I sighed. “Same with me. I met a lot of guys at all these social events I’d have to go to, and everyone kept trying to set me up. But I just didn’t feel anything for them. Not the way I feel for you. I feel like I could literally stay in bed with you all day, every day.”
“Yeah, me too. Wait here; I’m going to make us coffee,” Brady said. “I’ll bring it back here for us to drink in bed.”
I looked at him in amazement. “Could you get any more amazing? Coffee sounds so good right now. I’d love that. Thank you.”
Brady climbed out of bed completely naked, and I chuckled, commenting on how gorgeous his legs were.
“Although, your ass comes a close second. Wait, what are you doing?”
“Uh, I’m putting clothes on. To make coffee,” he said.
“No way. What’s the point? You’re just going to come back into bed. Go naked. I want a naked man bringing me coffee.”
He laughed. “Your wish is my command.”
Ten minutes later, Brady walked in carrying two cups of coffee and I was pleased to see that he was still naked. He handed me a cup and then climbed into bed beside me. I took a sip and sighed.
“You’re good at everything you do. I think your coffee making skills are on par with your sex skills.”
He grinned. “You’re easy to please. Listen, Sloan; there’s something I want to talk to you about.”
I looked at him and raised my eyebrows. “That doesn’t sound good. Is everything okay?”
“Yeah, everything is fine. That’s just the thing. Everything is amazing now that you are here. And quite frankly, I’m not prepared to let go of you. But your life is not here. Your life is in New York. You’re an actress, and a damn good one at that. I don’t want to stop you from going back. So, I want to propose that I go back with you. If you’ll have me, of course.”
I couldn’t believe what I was hearing. When I first met Brady, I would have sworn that nothing in the world would take him away from Wyoming. It was the nicest thing anyone had ever said to me. He was willing to sacrifice is own happiness for me.
“Brady, you’re incredible, you know that?”
“Why yes, yes I am,” he said and laughed. “So, you’ll take me with?”
“Hell no!”
“What? Why not?”
“Brady, I’m not taking you away from this place. This is who you are. You are not a city guy, and there is nothing wrong with that. I don’t want you to come to New York for me. I love how much you love what you do. You are part of this town.”
“But I don’t want to lose you,” he said.
“Well, you won’t. I’m going to stay here with you.”
“What? But you can’t do that. That’s not fair.”
“I’ve made enough money to last. This will give me more than enough time to figure out what I want to do with my life. But for now, I’m staying here—and I’m staying with you. I have never in my life felt more fulfilled than I do being here with you. What’s the point in going back? All I will do is want to be with you.”
“You’l
l . . . stay here? Really?”
I chuckled. “Why would I go back?”
“Uh . . . what about your king-sized bed?”
“This one is more comfortable. Plus, this one comes with a man that makes me coffee.”
“Well yes, that is quite the perk.”
I smiled. “I want to be here with you, Brady.”
“Are you sure?”
“Trust me: I’ve never been surer of anything in my entire life.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Brady
“Well good morning nose. Good morning smile. Good morning ass,” I said to Sloan when we woke up the following morning. “You’re up early.”
She smiled. “Good morning eyes. Good morning smile. And a very good morning to those sexy legs. Yeah, I knew you were going to work this morning. I figured waking up early would at least guarantee me a coffee.”
“Ah, you are not only beautiful, but you are wise. Join me downstairs?”
“I’ll be there in five,” she said.
I made my way downstairs, still wondering how it could feel so normal to have Sloan with me again. I ground the beans and boiled the water, and when I turned around, Sloan was walking toward me wearing one of my t-shirts.
“I like that on you,” I said.
“I like it on me too. Let’s have coffee outside. Do you have time?”
I nodded. “I have time. And for once in my life, I don’t think it will hurt to get to work a little later.”
“Your later is still everyone’s early, anyway,” she said.
I finished up the coffee, and the two of us went to sit outside. I took a sip of my coffee and laughed at Sloan, who was waving out to the distance.
“What are you waving at?”
“Oh, I’m saying hi to Betty.”
I chuckled. “You’re crazy.”
We sat in silence for a while, just enjoying the cool air of the morning. I was almost finished with my coffee when I turned to look at her. The sun was starting to rise, and she looked like an angel being illuminated.
“Sloan, about last night . . . are you sure you want to stay?”
I’d woken up that morning and wondered if perhaps it was just something that was said in the heat of the moment. How could I expect Sloan to give her up big city life for a place like this? Just because I loved it here didn’t mean that everyone else did. I was very aware of what I was going to be asking her to leave behind.
Dirty Stepbrother - A Firefighter Romance (The Maxwell Family) Page 153
