Brax (8 page)

Chapter Ten

Brax

I probably should have woken Nicole earlier. But it was just
past dawn and I knew if I did, she might find an excuse to leave. I was
selfish. I wanted her here. Hell, I wanted to tie her to the bed and keep her
waiting for me. The thing is, I think she wanted me to. We’d gone late into the
night and I did things to her I’d fantasized about since that first time under
the bleachers. I’d lost count of how many times I’d taken her. Four? Five?
Hell,
my
legs felt weak from it. I wouldn’t be surprised if she had
trouble walking today.

My balls clenched again as I cracked egg shells against the
lip of an iron skillet. The yolks sizzled and hissed as they made contact with
the heat. I had bacon frying in another pan and I flipped it just in time.
Yeah. That’s exactly what I wanted. I wanted Nicole to remember the feel of me
inside her all day. Fuck. Every day. The shit swirling around her and her
brother might get more complicated, but one thing was crystal clear. Nicole was
mine
.

Mine.

My phone vibrated on the counter and I picked it up before the
ring could reach Nicole’s ears.

“You coming in this morning?” Tate said.

“It’s early, man. Not even seven. Is something up?”

“No. I just thought you were going to stay here last night.
That’s what you told Mac. Did you forget?”

Shit. I had. We always kept two guys overnight at both the gym
and
The Den
. It was an old habit, but shit had happened in the past that
made it a necessary precaution. We only trusted our own members to protect our
interests and react if something went down.

“Fuck. Yeah. I guess I did. I’ll take tonight’s shift though.
Is everything all right over there?”

“Oh yeah. We’re good. It was just nobody heard from you so I
wanted to check in. Hope you had a good reason for being AWOL.” The sneer in
Tate’s voice would have earned him a slug to the arm from me if he’d said it in
person. Still, my
reason
for staying away descended the stairs dressed
in nothing but an oversized Great Wolves Gym t-shirt she’d probably found in
one of my drawers.

Fuck. She looked sexy as hell in it. Her hair fell in
cascading waves around her shoulders and she rubbed the sleep from her eyes as
she padded over to me in her bare feet. I’d claimed her last night, pure and
simple. But seeing her in that shirt made it feel like she was wearing my
brand. Yeah. I liked that a lot.

“Look, I gotta go,” I said to Tate. He was still talking in my
ear but I didn’t hear a damn thing he said. “I’ll be there before noon.” Tate
said more things but I’d clicked off the phone and set it on the counter.

“Mmm,” Nicole said, her voice groggy from sex and lack of
sleep. We’d only settled for the night about two hours ago. “I’m starving.”

“Good,” I said, reaching over to turn off the burners as she
slid her arms around my waist and rested her head against the center of my
back. She cheated and snagged a strip of bacon. I swatted her round ass and heated
blood raced straight to my cock when I realized she really wasn’t wearing
anything underneath my t-shirt.

I plated her breakfast as she hopped up on the counter. It put
her at eye level with me as I set the plate beside her and stood between her
legs.

“Oh no you don’t,” she said as I fumbled under the hem of the
shirt and found her secret spot. She could feign a protest all she wanted, but
I held my own personal lie detector button right under my thumb. I smiled as
she grew hot for me and I felt that slow trickle of moisture slide beneath my
thumb.

“What do you have going on today?” I asked. Showing her mercy
I let go of her little clit and gripped her ass with both hands instead.

She threw her head back and covered her eyes with her hand.
“God. I shouldn’t be here. We don’t open the parlor until eleven today but I’ve
got a zillion things to do for prep.”

“Can’t your staff handle that?”

She spread her fingers into a vee and glowered one eye at me
through them. “You of all people know what it’s like to run a restaurant. I
can’t do it on autopilot.”

“Yep. I sure as fuck do. What happens if you close it for the
day?”

She shrugged. “Never happened. Not ever. Not even during my
dad’s . . . uh . . . issues.”

I cocked my head. “What issues?” Reaching over, I took a piece
of her bacon. She swatted my hand but I was too fast for her. Grabbing another
plate, I popped up on the counter next to her.

She shook her head and smiled. “Wow, you really didn’t think
about me at all after that one night, did you?”

“What do you mean?”

“You honestly don’t know what I’m talking about?”

“I really don’t. And you’re wrong. I thought about you a lot.”

She raised a skeptical brow.

“Swear to God.” I raised two fingers in a boy scout salute
that earned me snorting laughter. Which earned
her
a pinch on the ass
that made her squeal. Fuck. One more of those and I really
would
tie her
to the fucking bed.

Nicole stabbed a fork through her eggs. Somehow, like
everything else she did, when she answered me with a mouthful of food, I found
that sexy as hell too.

“Well, let’s just say my brother came by his addictive
personality honestly. For my dad though, it was horses and all-night poker
games. He had big dreams to franchise the parlor and brand some of our more
popular flavors. He was a hell of a salesman. Lined up millions of dollars. But
. . . well.”

“Jesus. He blew all of it?”

She nodded slowly and her eyes went far away.

“Where is he now?”

Her tone was flat and colorless. “Serving fifteen. Mandatory
minimum.”

“Fuuck. Federal?”

She nodded and tore through her last piece of bacon like she
meant to murder it. A beat passed between us. Then another. Then I couldn’t
help myself. My shoulders shook and I let out a hard laugh. Nicole’s body
stiffened beside me. Then she cocked her head to the side and laughed so hard
tears streamed down her cheeks. She collapsed in a fit of snorts that sounded
like a goose on helium and leaned her head against my shoulder.

“I’m sorry,” I said, recovering. “It’s just. Good God, woman.
I’ve got to hand it to you. When your shit falls apart, it
really
falls
apart.”

Nicole erupted in a fresh fit of laughter. I hopped off the
counter and turned to face her. She braced herself with her hands on my
shoulders and tried to recover. “I know,” she said through snorts, flapping a
weak hand against my chest.

“Oh God. I know. I shouldn’t be laughing. It’s just . . . oh.
God. Brax. It feels really good.”

I pressed my forehead against hers as she shook with the last hiccuping
gasps of her laughing fit. Then I folded her against me and held her, making a
solid cage with my body for her to lean on. When she finally pulled herself
together, she craned her neck and looked up at me with those wide, beautiful,
gun-metal gray eyes.

“So will you help me? With Doug, I mean? Do you understand why
I just can’t give up on him? Not yet.”

I let out a sigh. “I get it. I do. He’s a shithead, but he’s
your
shithead.”

She laughed. “Exactly.”

“Look. I can’t make you any promises. There're some angles on
this you don’t understand and I have no intention of explaining to you. You’ll
just have to trust it’s for your own good. So when I tell you to do something,
there might be times you can’t ask me any questions. But yes, I will try.”

Tears glistened at the corners of her eyes. “Thank you.”

“But no promises. You heard that part, right? There’s a fair
chance he’s messed up with some people I can’t go near. And unfortunately, I
can’t do this by myself. I’m going to have to talk it over with the rest of the
club.”

She saluted me. “I get it. I do. And I swear I don’t want to
put you in a position that could make things bad for you.”

I nodded. “But yeah. I’ll see what I can do.”

She bit the bottom of her lip and I think it was on her mind
to tell me something else. But she stopped herself. Instead, she pressed her
forehead against mine again. God, she was something else. Fierce and strong in
her own way. She didn’t seem afraid of anything. I was starting to love that
about her as much as it made me want to spank her ass.

“You’re not who I thought you were,” I said as I kissed the
top of her head and smoothed a lock of hair away from her forehead.

She straightened her back and draped her arms around my
shoulders. “Who did you think I was?”

I took a breath and looked at a point over her shoulder. I
thought about her back then. To me, she was everything pure and good that I
could never have. Until the one night I did. But somehow, since she’d told me
her secrets I saw her in a different light. Not some Barbie doll with a perfect
life. No. She’d gone through hell and survived it.

“I noticed you, you know,” I said. “Not just that night. I’d
see you in the hallway. There was a light in you. Like from within. I don’t
even think you were aware of it and that’s what made it so special. Like
sunlight. Every girl in that school secretly hated you. I thought you were too
good to be true. Every guy in that school wanted to . . . well . . . you know.”

“God,” she said. “Just ugh. Was I that insufferable?”

“No. No!” I hooked my fingers under her chin and tilted her
head toward mine. “I’m not explaining it right. You were just something
special. Untouchable, somehow. Better than the rest of us. And I don’t mean you
were conceited or anything. I actually mean the opposite of that. Then that
night when your car wouldn’t start after that football game. I don’t know what
the hell made me think I could even talk to you. But you looked sad. And there
was no one else around. I don’t think you realized how vulnerable you looked
and it kind of set me off. I was afraid somebody might try to take advantage of
you.”

She nodded and her face grew serious. “I couldn’t believe you
did. You just came out of nowhere and it was starting to rain.”

“Why were you crying? You tried to pretend you weren’t. But
I’d been watching you for a minute or two before I came over to see if you were
okay.”

She looked toward the ceiling and blew a hair away from her
eyes. “I wasn’t sad. Well, maybe a little. I’d just found out Derek Moyer had
been cheating on me with one of the cheerleaders from East Bradford. Isn’t that
stupid? I can’t even remember why I cared. He was an asshole. It’s just, well,
he was my . . . uh . . . first.”

My blood boiled thinking about it. Of course I’d known she
wasn’t a virgin that night. But the idea of anyone else touching her, even
fifteen years ago. I took a breath to settle my raging heart. I wanted to reach
back in time and punch that asshole for her. “That’s who you were dating?
Moyer?”

“Well, he was captain of the football team. He was headed for
medical school. All that shit seemed so important at the time. He and I were
just, I don’t know, expected. Like I was following someone else’s script.”

“Well, I’m glad he cheated on you. Or at least, I’m glad you
found out about it that night. Still, I always felt a little bit guilty about
everything that happened between you and me after that.”

“Do you regret it?” She reared back. Her eyes widened and I
wanted to kiss away any doubt I might have put into her head.

“Are you kidding? Um. No. I just felt like I took something
from you. I don’t know, I knew being with me dirtied you. I knew you were
having a rough night. God, Nicole. I wish I
had
insisted on driving you
home. I wish I’d known how bad things were for you there. I knew you were
vulnerable. But, man, I was eighteen and you were something else in that tight
little cheerleading outfit.”

She snorted with laughter again and flung her arms around my
neck. “You didn’t dirty me. I seem to recall I was the one who kissed you
first, even. Do you want to know why I did? Why I went off with you?”

My body went rigid. I wasn’t sure I wanted to hear her answer.

“I noticed you too. All the time. God, Brax. Do you realize
what you were? What you are?”

I shook my head. “I was a thug, Nicole. A shithead. The guy
all the teachers hated and all the parents feared. Even my own parents. By the time
I was a senior both my parents had split. I was living in the back room at the
body shop where I worked. I can just imagine what your father would have
thought if he’d known I ever even looked at you.”

“No. Brax, no. You were a man. You were different. I can’t
speak for any of the rest of the idiots in our class. But I
noticed
you.
You tried to keep your head down and not draw attention to yourself in class
but you were paying attention. What was your GPA? Be honest.”

I narrowed my eyes at her.

“Come on.” She slapped my chest. “Tell the truth. I’ve told
you most of my secrets in the last twenty-four hours. Tell me one of yours.”