Teach Me To Live (Teach Me - Book One) (12 page)

Austin taught me how to hear the voice so many ignore within their hearts—the often soft-spoken pleas of our souls. Forever, I know I will be thankful for the day my anxiety broke free from its chains and I crashed into the tatted conundrum that is Austin Weir.

“Writing again?” Austin asked as he padded into the kitchen wearing a white t-shirt and a pair of dark jeans.

His long-ish hair was still damp from his recent shower and his blue eyes were bright. I felt my eyes lower from the hem of his t-shirt sleeve to his tattoos. Whenever his tattoos were exposed, I always found myself ogling them. I wanted to ask him to take off his shirt so I could be graced with the continuation of the story that he’d chosen to color his arms—because I knew the intricately designed piece continued up onto his shoulders and even onto his back and stomach. I knew this, because I’d watched his shirt rise once when he’d been reaching for a tool in his garage. I saw the same intricate drawings on his lower stomach. The designs climbed up from his arms to weave themselves over the skin of his neck on his right side and I found myself imagining what it would be like to lick them.

I wanted to ask him to remove his shirt, but I was simply too shy. “Yeah, you were in the shower so I figured why not write?”

He smiled. I loved his smile. It was soothing while at the same time it made my heart flutter. “You writing a book?”

I grinned, lifting my journal from the table. “I’m writing in a book.”

“Smart ass,” he muttered. He tossed the words over his shoulder as he leaned down into the fridge. I watched as he pulled a plate with marinated steaks from the fridge before walking to the barbecue.

Rising from my chair, I announced. “The potatoes have been in the oven for a while now. If you get the steaks on quickly, everything will be ready on time.”

“Great,” he winked, stepping from the patio door onto the deck where the barbeque was already heating up. “I’m starving after chasing you around today.”

“I’m not the one who thinks there’s a beast inside of him,” I called my retort from the kitchen. “You didn’t have to chase me.”

“I definitely had to chase you, sweetheart,” Austin replied behind me and I felt my entire body grow warm and aware at his closeness. “Any man would be crazy not to chase you.”

I smiled, trying to calm the racing of my heart. “What a smooth talker you are.”

He grinned cheekily as he leaned against the counter beside me, glancing down to the tomatoes I was cubing for the salad. “I learn from the best.”

“Would that be Kaiden?” Seriously, never in my life had I met a man who was so obscenely flirtatious as Kaiden. I didn’t think I’d ever been in the room with Kaiden for more than three minutes before he made me blush. Kaiden was a womanizer. But he was a sweet, good-hearted, womanizer. Jeez, I don’t know if there was more of an oxymoron than that.

Regardless of whatever Kaiden was, he was a good man. I had a feeling that there was more to his story than what met the eye.

As though knowing he was being spoken of, Kaiden entered through the front door, calling obnoxiously into the space. “Honey, I’m home!”

I laughed, because really, the timing was pretty freaking perfect. “Hi Kaiden.”

“How’ve you been, beautiful?” He winked, and like clockwork, I blushed.

“I’m great. Supper is almost ready,” I smiled gently. “You’re just on time.”

“Told you I’d be here. I wouldn’t lie to you, beautiful.”

“Kai,” Austin shook his head. “Stop calling her beautiful.”

Kaiden raised his brow. “You sayin’ she ain’t beautiful?”

Austin’s jaw tightened. “You know I think she’s beautiful.”

I blushed deeper. This just seemed to happen naturally when Kaiden entered the picture. It wasn’t as though Austin possessed the ‘make girls blush’ talent on his own. No, the universe made two men with the gift of inducing the ever-humiliating rosy cheeks. And because the universe was sometimes asshole-ish, it made those two blush-inducing men, brothers.

“Then what’s the problem with me stating facts?” Kaiden pushed, grinning from ear to ear the way big brothers do when they know they’re being little a-holes.

“The issue is she isn’t yours to call beautiful,” Austin growled under his breath.

“And she’s yours?”

“Not yet.”

I felt my heart race and my eyes dropped from watching the amusing scene to my diced tomatoes.

“Not yet? Why the hell not?” Kaiden demanded. The man was just brutal. Sometimes, he really didn’t know when to shut up. “Make your move, bro. If you don’t . . .”

“If I don’t—what?”

“Someone else will.”

“What are you saying, Kaiden?”

“I’m saying she’s beautiful and sweet. You don’t make your move, some other fuck will.”

“Kaiden!” I scolded. “Language!”

Kaiden chuckled, gesturing to me as he spoke to Austin. “See? Sweet.”

Austin shook his head. “I’m checking the steaks.” He moved to the door, but not first without warning, “Try not to hit on her too much while I’m gone.”

“Sure thing,” Kaiden grinned widely, and again, I shook my head.

When the door was closed behind Austin, I huffed at Kaiden. “Do you have to taunt him?”

“I’m a big brother,” he shrugged. “It’s my right of passage, beautiful. Gotta take advantage of that.”

“Sure you do,” I rolled my eyes, feeling my body tense as a girl walked through the front door where Kaiden had appeared only minute’s prior.

“Hi,” she waved as she moved across the floor to stand beside Kaiden. I watched her face transform into a pout as she leaned against the counter beside him. “You left me in the truck.”

Kaiden shrugged. “You were on the phone.”

“You could have waited. I’ve never been here before.”

Kaiden didn’t bother continuing that conversation. Instead, he gestured to me. “This is Madison.”

“Hello,” I smiled, waiting for Kaiden to tell me her name. When he didn’t, I assumed he didn’t know her name. “What’s your name?”

“It’s Sasha.”

“Nice to meet you,” I gestured to my tomatoes. “Are you hungry? Dinner is almost ready.”

“I could eat.” She nodded, still obviously irritated with Kaiden.

The door to the deck opened and Austin walked in with the steaks, stuttering in his step at the sight of Sasha. Shooting a glare toward Kaiden, Austin muttered. “Only cooked three steaks.”

Feeling embarrassed for the poor girl who fell victim to Kaiden’s blue eyes and easy grin, I spoke up. “I don’t mind cutting mine in half. I’d never eat the whole thing anyway.”

Kaiden waggled his brows. “See, everything always works out.”

Dinner had been so terribly awkwardly and horribly tense.

I don’t know how Kaiden and Sasha went from sending glaring eyes at each other, to where they were now, in his bedroom, screwing. I swear, every time I heard Sasha moan, I turned a deeper shade of red. I was sitting as far as I could get from Austin on the couch in his living room. I mean, I was literally plastered against the arm of the couch, my hands gripped together in my lap. Every time I heard Sasha moan, I flinched. It was awful, listening to this while trying to watch a movie with a man all I wanted to do was kiss.

“Oh God, yes, Kaiden!”
I heard Sasha yell on a unnaturally high pitch and Austin jumped up from the couch.

His eyes were dark and angry as he held his hand out to me. Obviously, he’d had enough of listening to his whoring brother. “I should take you home.”

I nodded eagerly. “Probably.”

Austin closed his hand around mine as he guided me to the door. “I’m sorry about Kaiden.”

“Don’t apologize,” I smiled. “I honestly adore Kaiden. He’s a little rough around the edges, but he’s sweet.”

“Sweet,” Austin narrowed his eyes as he opened the passenger door of his truck for me to climb in. “Do I have to worry about you slipping away from me for my brother?”

I snorted. “You would never have to worry about that. I have too much class for Kaiden. He likes his girl’s—different.”

Austin nodded. “Yeah, he’s got his own bucket of problems.”

“Don’t we all?”

“We sure do,” Austin closed the door of the truck and I watched as he walked around the front. Over the last week, I’d realized that Austin refused to allow me to ride on the back of his bike when I wore shorts or anything but jeans. I liked that he was conscious of when danger turned into too much danger. It made me feel all warm and fuzzy inside, but that was how Austin always made me feel.

Lifting himself into the truck, the engine rumbled to life and Austin took off down the gravel drive. As he drove, I couldn’t seem to banish my grin from my face. I was happy. Simply happy, like I always was when I was with Austin.

“What are you grinning about over there?” Austin asked, his voice deep and curious.

“Nothing,” I nibbled the corner of my lip.

“Liar.”

“I’m just happy. There’s really no reason.”

“Happy is beautiful on you, sweetheart.”

“Thank you,” I beamed because there was no sweeter thing Austin could have said to me in this moment.

“What are you doing tomorrow night?”

It was a little presumptuous, but I had assumed I would be spending tomorrow with Austin. “Um, I don’t know.”

“My parent’s are having a fire,” he stated. When I didn’t reply, he continued. “I’d love it if you came.”

“You want me to meet your parent’s?”

“Well, yeah,” he nodded. “Why wouldn’t I?”

“Oh,” I glanced out the window. My heart was rushing in my chest as I spoke. “I’d love to come.”

There was a pause and when Austin spoke, I could hear the rattle of nerves in the underlay of his tone. “We’ve been spending a lot of time together, Madison.” He paused and I felt my breath catch at the sound of my name on his lips. He very rarely called me by my name. It only ever happened when he was really serious. “I kind of assumed we were, well, seeing each other. Am I wrong?”

“Seeing each other?” Oh, holy hell, my heart was a mess of beats in my chest. “Like boyfriend and girlfriend?”

He laughed at my childlike assessment of our situation before agreeing. “Yeah,” he glanced over at me. “Like boyfriend and girlfriend.”

“Is that want you want?”

“More than anything.”

“Okay,” I beamed. “We’re boyfriend and girlfriend.”

Austin nodded, his chest rising and falling with each heavy breath. “You’re adorable.”

I stared at my father’s disappointed face through the windshield as I pulled my car up to the house. It wasn’t even dark yet, and he was giving me the sour-mouthed, angry eyes.

Sighing heavily, I pushed open my door. “Hey, Dad.”

“Good evening, Madison.” His tone was tense and curt, but I could see he was trying to maintain his cool control. I couldn’t call it calm, because I knew my father, and he was anything but calm. But he wasn’t losing his crap either, so that was a bonus for me. Obviously, Mom had straightened him out.

“How are you?” I asked, pausing on my way to the pool house where I found peace from my parent’s.

“I was worried about you.”

“It’s not even 8:00 pm, Dad. You had no reason to worry,” I replied tiredly. I was exhausted from the past week of fighting with my parent’s. Truly, I didn’t like being the rebellious little girl that they saw when they looked at me. But I just had to make them see that I was a woman now. I had my own views of how the story of my life would unfold.

“You’ve been spending your days and evenings with a boy you have yet to bring home to meet your mother and I.” His eyes were piercing. “Are you ashamed of this boy, Madison?”

Oh, my father was good with his words. And being a Judge, he knew just which words to place into a question to make his opponent react. Even though I knew my father, and I knew his tactics, I couldn’t help falling victim to his veiled accusation.

In no way was I ashamed of Austin. I was proud of him. I was proud of my relationship with him. The only reason I hadn’t brought him home to meet my parent’s was because I was ashamed of how I knew they would treat him. He was covered in tattoos and he rode a bike. My father would instantly lump him in with all the juvenile bad boys he saw in his court.