“Yeah, we’ll see,” I said, then watched him pull his shirt over his head, revealing a flat muscled belly with a fine dusting of dark hair that grew in even darker and thicker just below his navel.
I stood there for a moment, just dragging air in and out of my lungs and trying to calm down before I turned to Minerva. “How many pies do you think those boys will eat? Five? Ten?”
“I’d go with five,” Minerva said, then chuckled as she reached for her glass of spiked lemonade.
“What?” I asked.
“That one has always been fond of you, hasn’t he?” she asked with a knowing smirk.
I coughed out a nervous chuckle and nodded. “And too damn mannish, if you ask me.”
“Hm. There is nothing mannish about him now. He’s definitely a grown man.” The look on Minerva’s face shifted into something more...lascivious? Yes, that was exactly what that look was, and I was scandalized.
“Minnie!” I gasped, giving her arm a playful thwack.
“Don’t act like you didn’t notice.”
The laughter died on my tongue as shame set my neck and cheeks aflame. “Yeah, I noticed.” And now, I was beginning to realize that it was a problem.
Minerva and I did a quick inventory of the food and drink that we needed for tomorrow’s brunch — the first of two I would host this weekend. This one was going to be small, close family only, but I was more nervous for it than anything else. Mostly because Jolene was going to be there.
Me and my husband’s mistress haven’t been in the same room in more than a year. Shannon willed her his portion of my business when he died, so we were business partners at MacFarland Brokerage, but that was in name and paperwork only. I ran the agency, and she was free to do whatever the hell she does without much interaction between the two of us. Jared was close with his little brother, but with him in Chicago, I only had to be comfortable with knowing he would visit his brother whenever he came into town. But tomorrow morning, Dylan would be in my house, eating at my table with her, and I’d be a liar if I said it didn’t fucking bother me.
Maybe that was why my mind latched onto Tommy’s charm and boyish flirtation this afternoon. I knew that’s all it was. I would be silly to read anything more into it.
I sent Minerva home, poured myself another spiked lemonade, and made my way upstairs.
I loved this old house.
It was a Charleston single, a popular floor plan that could be found in a variety of styles around the Holy City. Mine was a Victorian. In the last seven years, I’d made this house completely mine — leaned all the way into the eccentric plant lady moniker that my friends and family had so lovingly slapped on my back. I caressed my babies, stroked their leaves, and talked to them as I made my way to the stairs, stopping in the foyer to inspect my most prized possession, an eight-foot monstera deliciosa grown from a clipping my grandmother gave me on my wedding day. It was a family tradition, one I intended to continue by gifting Brandi a clipping once she and Jared said their I dos. I just hadn’t decided which of her gorgeous leaves to clip yet.
“Hm… My marriage may have died on the vine, but you’re flourishing, aren’t you? My beautiful monster,” I murmured with a sigh, then turned to climb the stairs to my bedroom.
Greenery crowded the upstairs hallway, making it seem more narrow than it actually was. The leaves created a buffer from the street noise, which was almost constant. I still heard the boys in the yard, though, their laughter cutting into the quiet and spinning me back through time.
In my bedroom, the doors of the piazza were open to the side garden, and now I could hear their conversation more clearly.
“Your mom…” Scott said. “She’s looking mighty fine.”
“Okay, enough of that,” Jared grumbled.
“I’m just saying. She could still get it.”
“He said that’s enough,” Tommy said, a sharp edge to his voice that made strange feelings stir in my belly.
“Oh, so you’re the only one who can talk about his mama like that?” Scott asked.
Was he winding Tommy up intentionally? Quietly and carefully, I stepped out onto the piazza. It wasn’t that I was angry about those quips from Scott, but…I did want to hear what Tommy had to say in response.
“First of all, I don’t talk about Darcy—”
“Darcy?” Scott interrupted, his tone incredulous.
“Ms. MacFarland,” Tommy corrected. “I don’t talk to her or about her that way.”
“Nah…you just turn into a panting little puppy whenever she comes into a room,” Carter said with a laugh. “I mean, don’t get me wrong. We’ve all had a crush on her at one time or another. But I thought you would get over that. It appears I was wrong.”
I waited to hear Tommy make some sound of dissent, but none came. Instead, Scott said, “Oh, shit! Look at his face! You thought we didn’t know you had a crush on her all this time?”
“Guys… I’m sitting right the fuck here,” Jared complained.
“I’m just saying—”
“Shut the fuck up, Scott,” Tommy snapped.
The group went quiet, and I knew that Tommy and Scott were exchanging one of those tense looks. I’d seen those looks more than once when they were younger. The group of young men gathered on the bottom floor piazza all called themselves friends, but it was clear who they were loyal to — Jared. My son had always been the center of the group, the one that brought all of them together. The four of them — Jared, Matthew, Carter, and Scott — all came from money. They met in preschool and remained friends all the way into adulthood. Tommy was the outsider, and Matthew, Carter, and Scott treated him that way. They hated that he and Jared were so close. Maybe that was why I always looked out for Tommy when he was around. Treated him special. Hell, part of me wanted to go down there and get between them now. End this petty disagreement and take Tommy into the kitchen for some cookies. But that was the exact reason why they were teasing him, wasn’t it? My preferential treatment.
“You’re fucking disrespectful,” Tommy said in a low, dangerous voice. “I thought you would have grown out of that, but I guess not.”
I heard the scrape of the chair as he stood up, and a few moments later, I watched Tommy’s broad, muscular back stalk toward the pool and dive in.
Quietly, I stepped back inside and closed the piazza doors. They were grown men now. They could sort out their problems without me getting involved.
I took a quick shower, pulled on my favorite silk robe, poured myself another drink, and went back onto the piazza. Tired but still too wired to sleep, I decided to read until I was sleepy enough to climb into bed. The boys weren’t arguing anymore. They’d taken to reminiscing in low voices, which I was glad of as I turned on my Kindle and cued up my latest steamy read.
The self-proclaimed bad boy millionaire had just told the pretty postulant that he’d wanted to fuck her since the moment he saw her when I heard it.
Retching.
Dropping my Kindle on the chaise cushion, I stood and leaned over the railing of the piazza, scanning my yard to find Matthew bent over my knockout roses, throwing up his whole life.
“Goddamnit, Matt!” I cursed. “Not my goddamn rose bushes!”
Cinching my robe tighter around my waist, I ran down to the side yard. Jared was snoring on one of the chaise lounges. I gave him a smack as I passed. Tommy was in the pool but swam to the edge and levered himself out of the water the moment he saw me.
“I thought you had this under control, Tommy?”
His face crumbled into such a heartbreaking look of contrition that I immediately felt bad for putting this on him. “I’m sorry. I’m so sorry. I’ll take care of it.” He was drunk, but not nearly as drunk as the rest of them.
Tommy ran over to the garden shed and grabbed the hose while I attempted to assess the damage from a distance. Unfortunately, that wasn’t far enough away because the smell of regurgitated whiskey and pepperoni wafted toward me.
“Oh, god… Mat
thew,” I complained, covering my mouth and nose. “If you ruined my knockout roses, so help me…”
“I’ll get it cleaned up,” Tommy said. He turned on the water and pointed it at the chunks of vomit, pushing it around instead of breaking it up.
I snatched it from him and rotated the nozzle to hard, direct spray. It broke up the chunks, and gradually, the smell started to dissipate. Thankfully, Matthew had stopped retching and was headed toward the garçonnière.
“Y’all’s little reunion is over for tonight. It’s two in the morning. Get yourselves to bed,” I ordered.
“I’m so sorry, Darcy,” Tommy said again as he took the hose from me, wound it up, and put it away. “Matthew has never been able to hold his liquor.”
“You’re right,” I said with a laugh. “Stop apologizing. I shouldn’t have put that responsibility on you. Everyone out here is an adult and should know their limits.”
“I know, but I told you I would keep them in line—”
“It’s fine. You fellas need to head to bed, though. Goodnight,” I said then, on some inexplicable impulse, I leaned in to give him a kiss on the cheek. Just a kiss goodnight. Harmless. Innocent. Completely chaste...
Until he turned his head.
His lips brushed against mine. Hesitant but soft, with the slightest pucker that was barely a suggestion of a kiss. But my body registered it as one. My nipples furled against silk gone cold in the night air — reminding me that I was naked under my robe.
When the tip of his tongue, wet and hot, traced the curve of my lower lip?
I moaned…
But it was more than a moan. It was like the sound of a thing long-starved that had awakened at his touch. The tips of his fingers traced the lapel of my robe, and my pussy fluttered. The shock of it made me gasp his name in a sharp whisper.
“What are you doing?” I asked.
“Hmmm?” His fingers stilled, stopping just shy of my skin. He looked into my eyes. His were dark, deep pools of want that nearly pulled me in.
“Goodnight, Tommy.”
He let out a long, slow, wistful sigh. “Goodnight, Darcy,” he whispered.
I took a couple of steps back, feeling all the heat that our bodies had generated bleed away just as quickly as it had built. I shivered, and he saw it. The corners of his mouth twitched.
Aw, hell. I want to kiss him again. I wanted to lick the edges of that secret, wicked smile. Discover the taste of his mouth. Feel his wet, hot tongue circle my still hard nipples, split my slippery wet pussy lips, and fit around my aching clit. I folded my arms over my chest and backed up a couple more feet.
No. This was bad. Not good. Dirty. Wrong. Bad.
And I want it — want him.
Worse than wanting him? I was pretty sure Tommy wanted me, too.
5
Tomás
My first waking breath tasted like last night’s whiskey. I stank of chlorine, sweat, and…was that pepperoni? “Oh, fuck,” I grumbled, covering my eyes with my hand.
The drunken night I’d tried to avoid had happened, and in a spectacular fashion, if the conditions of my aching body and head were any indication. Hell, it felt like it was still happening in my head.
Like some frat boy, I’d allowed my college friends to bully me into getting shitfaced even though I knew the schedule we had to keep. Now, it felt like a tiny gnome with a pickaxe was hacking away at my temples, and I was just coming to the realization that I was lying in a wet bed.
“Wait…”
Did I top off this night by wetting the bed like a five-year-old?
Damn, I drank a lot in college, but pissing myself was not the end result of any of those drunken binges. Some brawls, and maybe some questionable sex partners, but…
Slowly and carefully, I opened my eyes just enough to look down the length of my body. I was still wearing the shorts I had on yesterday, but now they were dark and damp — thankfully, not just in the crotch. Gradually, memories of last night’s activities began to filter through the hammering in my head.
The pool.
I’d jumped in the pool in my shorts and underwear after getting into a heated argument with Scott. And then I’d climbed straight into bed with them on.
That explained the sweat-and-chlorine stench that hung over my pain-wracked and dehydrated body.
Fuck…
Things weren’t supposed to go this sideways. I was Mr.-Fucking-Responsibility. It was my job to keep these fools in line.
“God…where the fuck is my phone?” I groaned, levering myself out of the bed with nothing but sheer will to get me to my feet. The moment I stood up, my wet shorts tugged downward. I patted my pockets, but the phone wasn’t there.
My internal clock told me that it was around eight or nine in the morning, so we hadn’t overslept, but I needed my phone. I needed the exact time and the list of reminders of the errands and tasks I had to do. I tore up the bed, pulled out the nightstand drawers, got down flat on my belly to look under the bed and dressers.
The phone wasn’t in here.
“Shit, shit, shit,” I cursed under my breath while yanking the bedroom door open. “Haven’t even been here a full twenty-four hours, and I’m already fucking up,” I muttered.
Out in the living room, I found Carter, Matthew, and Scott sprawled across the sectional. They weren’t invited to the family brunch, but they still needed to wake up so they could get back to the hotel to shit, shower, and shave before the tux fitting.
“Hey, assholes,” I grunted, clapping my hands loud enough to crack my own skull. “Wake up. Time to get your asses back to the hotel to shower and change. We have appointments today.”
“Martinez… I fucking hate you,” Scott groaned, his face buried in the couch cushions. And honestly, that might be true. We were both here because we were friends with Jared, but we’ve never been tight.
“Now, you hate me. I told ya bitch ass not to get shitfaced last night. I knew this shit was gonna happen.”
“Jesus Christ…” Matthew complained, rolling onto his back. “My mouth tastes like ass.”
“Probably because you threw up a whole medium pizza last night,” Carter volunteered.
My heart dropped into my shoes. “Matthew threw up? Where? Did you clean it up ‘cause if I go in that bathroom and—”
“Relax, den mother. He threw up outside,” Scott said. “Ms. MacFarland came out to handle it and sent us all to bed.”
“Shit…” I cursed again, arrowing my fingers into my hair, which felt stiff and dry from the chlorine. “Was she pissed?”
“Nah…not really. She just hosed off the rose bushes. To be honest, she reacted as if she expected it to happen,” Matthew volunteered.
I sighed in relief. “Good.”
“She didn’t get pissed until you kissed her. That’s when she sent all of us to bed,” Scott added.
My heart stalled in my chest. I turned to Scott, who was wearing a smug smile on his face. “I tried to kiss Darcy?”
“Who said tried?” Scott asked, pushing himself off the couch. “You did kiss her.” He bumped my shoulder as he made his way down the hall to the bathroom. But I was too stunned by his words to react or retaliate.
I kissed Darcy?
Wow. That Marrow Bone Creek bourbon must be stronger than I remembered because I had no recollection of kissing Darcy. And I really wanted to have some recollection of kissing Darcy. Even if it was drunken and sloppy and ended with her slapping me—
And now my dick’s awake.
Scott stumbled out of the bathroom, still pulling up his pants. Matthew made movements toward the open door, but I shoved him back.
“No. I need to get ready, and the three of you need to get out.”
“Come on! I just need to take a piss!” Matthew whined.
“Go to the main house. Piss in the alley. I don’t give a fuck.” I closed the bedroom door, stripped out of my still wet underwear and shorts, and stumbled into the bathroom. My dick bobbed out in front of me
, hard and ruddy dark, pointing the way as I reached in to turn on the shower. While the water heated up, I looked at myself in the mirror. My eyes were bloodshot, and my face was covered in half a day’s scruff, but I saw no bruises or welts, so maybe she didn’t hit me. But fuck… I wished she had.
Part horrified that I had crossed that boundary without her consent and so aroused that my head was swimming, I stepped into the shower and stood under the waterfall of hot water. I closed my eyes, gripped my dick, and dug deep for some remnant of the stolen kiss.
I was already halfway drunk when we came in from dinner last night. Darcy was in the kitchen, looking flushed and dewy and wearing an indulgent smile as she welcomed us. We bickered about who was gonna buy the pizzas, and I pulled her into my arms, and god yes, I remembered how that felt. Her body was tight but soft in the places I liked my women soft — breasts, ass, hips. She’d laughed when I twirled her, and after that laugh, we shared a moment…an almost kiss.
But Scott wasn’t in the kitchen then, so that wasn’t what he was talking about.
That moment with her against my body was good, though. So good. Good enough to have me tugging on my dick as I squeezed my eyes even more tightly closed, still reaching for the actual kiss, and—
“Oh…”
She was in the doorway wearing a long, black silk robe with colorful birds of paradise all over it.
Yes…that was it.
I could tell that the robe had been hastily tied because it slipped off of her shoulder, and she flashed one firm, smooth brown thigh as she descended the porch stairs and marched across the flagstone patio that surrounded the pool. Her hair was tied up in a silk scarf, exposing her long neck.
She’d scolded me. “Tommy, I thought you had this under control?” she’d said, pointing to Matthew bent over a bush at the far end of the yard retching.
That scolding had made me climb out of the pool and drag the hose out, which she’d snatched from my hands to spray the flower bed.
There were lots of apologies. Mostly from me. She’d accepted my apologies then leaned in to give me a kiss goodnight, a kiss that was aimed at my cheek. Full of liquor and cocksure, I’d turned my head at the last minute and…
If She Says Yes Page 5
