Betting on Beaumont: A Brooklyn Novel #3 (The Brooklyn Series) (19 page)

“I see where you’re coming from. It’s just that I feel bad for firing the girl. She hasn’t done anything wrong.”

“Yet. That girl is biding her time until she can sink her claws into you. Now that she knows we’re married, I can tell you right now she’s going to up her slut game and work even harder to seduce you. I will not lose you to that skank. As soon as I met her, all I could think of was freaking Giselle. Dealing with one gold digging skank is enough for me in one life time.”

Rolling her onto her back, I slip between her legs and press my dick at her slick, wet core and slowly slide back inside of her. She rolls her eyes at me, but lifts her legs, locking them around my waist, and pressing the heels of her feet into my ass, urging me to push myself completely inside of her.

“Seriously, you’re hard again already?”

I let out a low chuckle, “Hearing my wife getting all territorial got me horny, what can I say I love a woman willing to fight off any skank that comes near her man. If you feel that strongly about her working for me, first thing Monday, I’ll let her go. I’ll even allow you to help me hire my new assistant. How’s that sound?”

I give her one hard thrust as she tries to answer, her eyes roll into the back of her head as her eye lids flutter shut, and she drags her teeth across her bottom lip and moans loudly. “
Sounds…fantastic
…” she mumbles under her breath before I put an end to this conversation by sealing her lips with mine.

-Dixon

“I cannot believe you bought a dog.”

I have to do a double take as I walk through the door of the beach house and find Brooklyn sitting on the floor with a yellow fluff ball bouncing between her outstretched legs. It’s a yellow Labrador wearing a pink bandana around its neck with flowers all over it. So I’m taking a wild guess and saying she bought a girl dog.

At least it won’t try to hump my leg every time I walk through the door.

Dangling a toy rope in the air, making the puppy even more excited, Brooklyn shifts her eyes from the puppy up toward me. Her eyes are sparkling with joy as the dog—
which I just pray to God she hasn’t named it fucking Tinkerbell or Fluffy. I will not stand outside yelling some Disney character or over the top girly fuckin’ name down the beach at my dog.
It barks up at the rope she’s teasing it with, and I have to admit it’s cute. At least she got a dog I can do manly stuff with like hunting and fishing, unlike those little purse ridin’ dogs whose only purpose is to look cute and wear fuckin’ tutus.

“It was a spur of the moment thing. I didn’t plan on buying a dog—but how could I resist? I mean come on, Dixon! Look at that face!” she says, cupping the dogs face in her hands and talking in that obnoxious yet adorable voice all women use when they’re around puppies and babies.

Rolling my eyes, I walk into the kitchen and grab a beer from the fridge. Twisting the cap off, I toss it onto the counter, before dragging my boot-covered feet back into the living room. I’m tired as fuck, and so not in the mood to deal with cleaning up dog shit and piss…which I already know is how I’m going to spend the evening. The scattered about puppy pee pads I’m betting will be the last place this pup goes potty.

Plopping onto the couch and kicking my boot-covered feet out, I cross my legs at my ankles and sink into the overly cushioned sectional. Dangling the long neck of the bottle between my fingers, I bring it to my lips and take a long pull from my beer, relishing in the feeling of the cold liquid as it slides down the back of my throat. I’ve worked all day in sweltering temperatures while hammering and sawing until my arms screamed for me to stop. If there is one thing I deserve at this moment, it’s an ice cold beer and a big ass juicy steak, which Brooklyn has marinating in the fridge as we speak.

Resting my beer bottle on my thigh, I narrow my eyes onto Brooklyn as she continues to play with the dog, ignoring the irritated look etched into my face. “Brooklyn, a spur of the moment purchase is a fuckin’ pair of shoes, or some ridiculously expensive purse. Not a dog. Have you forgotten that you pretty much live out in L.A. three days a week? So who do you think will be trying to take care of this puppy and run two businesses while you’re off in Hollywood playing movie star?”

The next thing I know a tennis ball is flying past my head and bouncing off of the wall, followed by the dog barreling across the floor and up onto my lap.

“Jesus Christ!” I curse as I throw my hand in the air to save my beer from spilling all over myself and the damn sofa. The dog darts across the couch grabbing the tennis ball that’s landed onto the cushion beside me, before lying down with it, trapping the ball between its fluffy paws.

Climbing to her feet, Brooklyn takes two steps before stopping between my legs that are now bent and spread apart as I sit up on the couch. “I’m not stupid, Dixon. I know I’m traveling all the time. It’s lonely out there by myself with Savannah living out here now. I’m going to take the dog with me since I use the jet now. They have doggy day care out there that a few of my friends use and recommended to me when I texted them earlier. I have it all figured out.”

I can only hope she’s right. I don’t think she understands just how hard it is taking care of a puppy. It’s more than playing with them and feeding them. They chew everything and make your house their giant toilet. I, for one, have enough on my plate; I don’t need to add chasing after a dog all day to my ever growing list of shit I need to do within a twenty-four-hour span.

“Alright. If you think you can handle the responsibility of a dog, then I’m okay with having a puppy. I just hope you know what you’re getting yourself into because dogs are a handful.”

Brooklyn climbs onto my lap and hooks her arms around my neck. “It can’t be that hard?”

The worst five words that could ever be spoken by any human being about a damn dog.

Turning my head over to the puppy, I watch as it jumps off of the couch, tumbling onto its face as it loses its balance, and then struts across the floor, stopping just in front of the pee pad and squats.

Grabbing Brooklyn by the waist, I toss her onto the seat beside me and jump to my feet shouting at the dog, “Bad dog! Bad dog!” As I scoop it up and set it onto the puppy pad, a second too late I might add, I discover a small puddle on the hardwood floor where it just pissed.

Glancing over my shoulder, I take in the sight of Brooklyn leaning back on her elbows, still lying in the same position she landed in as she stares blankly at the puppy. She blinks a few times, then scurries to her feet, running into the kitchen to retrieve paper towels and kitchen cleaner.

“Don’t worry baby, I got this,” she says, overly sweet. Squatting down beside me she begins cleaning up the tiny puddle. “She’ll be house trained in no time.”

Thankfully, Brooklyn went to PetsMart and bought everything she needs for her new puppy. Including a dog training crate, which it is safely tucked away in and howling at the top of its lungs right now. I barely got a wink of sleep last night because the sound of the dog crying inside of its cage kept me awake most of the night. Finally, I told Brooklyn I didn’t care how mean she thought it was, the dog was sleeping downstairs in the living room. So at almost three in the morning, I finally fell asleep. But it didn’t last long because Brooklyn was waking me up as the sun was coming up a little after five thirty in the morning asking me to walk the dog.

Me. Up. At five thirty in the fuckin’ mornin’ on a Saturday! After waking up all week at the ass crack of dawn for work! I swear this woman has lost her ever lovin’ mind! Now I understand why people say, before you have kids, get a dog. Because believe me, after one night of almost no sleep, I’m ready to run back to my penthouse and sleep the entire weekend away. I can’t imagine having a screaming newborn keeping me up every single night.

Thank God we both agreed that we want to hold off on starting a family. Because after one night with a dog, I am 100% certain that I am not ready for fatherhood. I don’t even know if I am ready for doggy-daddy hood,
if that is even a word? But what the hell, I’m making it one.

In the midst of planning our own wedding reception, which we’re hoping to have next month, we’ve been invited to a get-together at Kayden and Savannah’s beach house down the street for their engagement party. It’s a low key get-together with friends since they had a family celebration in Hawaii on the day they got engaged. This is more of a last hooray with friends before the final weeks of wedding preparation kick in. I can’t believe they’ll be married in less than two months. Then Knox and I will both be officially off the market.

The bachelors of Houston we will be no more.

It’s an end to an era.

Things with Brooklyn aren’t all roses; we fight like cats and dogs because we’re both stubborn, but the makeup sex is always worth it. We’re taking things slow, and it seems to be working for us. Every day I fall a little more in love with her. Watching my best friend and cousin settling down with Savannah right alongside me makes it not so scary.

At first I was terrified of taking that leap and committing myself to only one woman. But now Brooklyn and I just celebrated one month of marriage…which is something I never thought would happen, but here we are one month later, still in love and both still breathing.

I can’t imagine my life any other way. She’s my entire fucking world now.

Kayden was able to fly Reagan and Rebecca in from L.A. to surprise Savannah. It was hilarious watching Brooklyn try to keep that secret in. She knew since she talked with them while back in L.A. a few days ago about getting the time off to fly out.

This is actually our first time hanging out with Jax since Vegas, and I was worried it would be awkward seeing that I’m the reason Brooklyn broke things off with him. But surprisingly he’s been cool. We’ve spent the evening drinking, busting each other’s balls like usual, and even been playing doubles for beer pong for the last half hour. With him and Rebecca partnered up against Brooklyn and me.

Holding my hand up in the air, I narrow my eyes onto the red solo cups at the other end of the picnic table and get ready to toss my ping pong ball when I spot Savannah and Kayden making their way up onto the deck. They’ve been hanging out down on the beach with friends by the fire while we’ve been up here battling it out on the deck. The sun has set now and the only lighting is from the tiki torches and fire below, and the deck lights up here. We’ve lucked out weather wise that it’s a warm, clear night with not a single cloud in the sky.

“There’s the love birds!” Rebecca yells over the music as Savannah and Kayden approach us with their arms wrapped around each other’s waists. Savannah slips away from Kayden and jumps cheerfully into a hug with Rebecca.

“I still can’t believe you two are getting married in two months! We need to seriously get our asses in gear and get our dresses picked out. Girl, two months is going to come and go really fast!”

Brooklyn leans into my side, smiling up at me as I bring my hand to rest on her hip, slowly rubbing my fingers along the small part of exposed skin peeking out from her t-shirt that’s ridden up her sides during the game.

Suddenly the sound of something clinging against glass comes from below, and Braxton’s voice fills the beach as he shouts over the chatter and music. “I think I should give a toast now, before we’re all too shit faced!”

We all follow behind Savannah and Kayden as they make their way to Braxton and Mya.

Clearing his throat, Braxton flashes an all-teeth grin at Savannah and Kayden while holding his beer above his head. “We’re all here tonight, not to party our asses off...” Braxton lets out a low chuckle, “Shit, well we’re here for that too, but we’re also all here tonight to celebrate my best friend,” he says, pointing his beer at Kayden. “Kayden’s finally retiring his player ways, and being smart enough to see that Savannah is the perfect chick for him. Congrats, you two, on your engagement! I’m glad to see you have finally found your soul mate!” Mya snuggles into Braxton’s side, holding her red solo cup up in the air to say cheers along with him.

“To Kayden and Savannah!” Braxton cheers, and we all yell up into the night sky with our glasses in the air.

Kayden raises his beer into the air as we all finish taking a drink from our cups and bottles and turns his attention from Braxton to Brooklyn and I. “Awesome toast, but now it’s my turn to toast my lil’ cousin here, who as y’all know by now, got hitched in Vegas!”

The beach explodes with loud excitement as everyone begins hootin’ and hollerin’ at us. I tighten my hold on Brooklyn, pulling her closer to me as I grin and press a kiss to the top of her hair.

Kayden’s eyes are glossed over and he’s seems to be sporting a good buzz, so God only knows what this fucker’s about to say. One thing is for sure, Brooklyn is blushing as red as a fucking apple as she shyly waves and says thank you randomly to everyone around us.

Clearing his throat, Kayden begins to speak. His voice booms across the beach with his familiar,
demands attention without even trying
drawl, but the amusement and relaxed tone he’s speaking with let’s everyone know he’s here to have a good time. The all business Kayden is nowhere to be found. In his place is his alter ego, Knox—the ball busting, trickster who’s up for anything. When he’s in a relaxed setting, you just never know what will come out of that fucker’s mouth, especially when he’s drunk.

We’re way too much alike for my own liking sometimes.

“When I heard these two crazy kids eloped, I gave it a week max before they either killed each other or annulled their marriage.” Brooklyn’s body tenses slightly in my arms, but I softly rub my fingers along her warm skin peeking out between her jeans and t-shirt, silently showing her I’m by her side. “But Dixon surprised me, and one month later these two are still married and both breathing!” Everyone starts laughing along with Kayden, as do I, especially since it seems my cousin seemed to have crawled inside my fucking head and stole every damn thought that’s crossed my mind since we eloped.