Braydon (2 page)

Jessie noticed Zane and V dancing, too. Zane being Zane, always the cutup, was copping a feel with a mischievous smirk aimed at V. Jessie admired the way those two were clearly hot for one another, and after all they’d endured back when Zane was attacked over a year ago, it was nice to see that they’d come this far.

As she scanned the room again, Jessie’s gaze landed on her sister, currently wrapped in Gage’s arms, a huge grin on her face. Jessie envied what her sister had found in the arms of two men who obviously cared so deeply for her and for each other. The three of them were perfect together. Her gaze strayed away from the pair and landed on Travis, who was deep in conversation with Sawyer, both men laughing, clearly enjoying themselves.

As she clung to Braydon, relishing the way he continued to graze her skin so lightly, Jessie noticed Kaleb and Zoey sitting at one of the cloth-covered tables, their son, Mason, cradled in Kaleb’s arms while they leaned close and talked. Jessie had fallen in love with that baby as much as everyone else had since the moment he was born. Watching the doting parents caused a strange pang in Jessie’s chest.

Shoving off the envious response, Jessie glanced away, her gaze immediately landing on . . .

Oh no.

Brendon was talking to Cheyenne Montgomery.

Not that Jessie was all that surprised. She had known for some time now that Brendon had a thing for Cheyenne. It was obvious in the way he talked about her, although he rarely did. And when Brendon looked at Cheyenne . . . it reminded Jessie of the way Travis looked at Kylie and Gage, or the way Braydon looked at her. There was a sense of wonder in Brendon’s brooding expression, and as much as she knew he was trying to deny what he might feel for Cheyenne, it was unmistakable.

And no, Jessie wasn’t jealous. Not in the least.

Should she be? Maybe.

But the fact of the matter was that she wasn’t. And she knew the sole reason was the man in her arms.

“What the fuck?”

Speaking of the man in her arms . . .

Jessie came to an abrupt stop thanks to Braydon. She felt the tension in his shoulders, saw the corded muscles in his neck, and she immediately knew what he was looking at. Brendon with another woman.

Starting back at the holidays, Jessie had noticed a change in both Braydon and Brendon, and she got the feeling it had to do with her. At first, she had worried that they had figured her out, knew that she was pining away for Braydon when that wasn’t supposed to be part of their tryst. But then one night, Brendon had issued her an ultimatum—choose between Brendon and Braydon. Truthfully, that incident had shocked her, but somehow she’d managed to defuse the situation, refusing to do anything of the sort. Since then, their interactions had grown increasingly strained, and yes, Jessie noticed that anytime Cheyenne’s name was mentioned, Braydon morphed into someone she didn’t recognize.

For whatever reason, Braydon always had a volatile reaction to seeing Brendon talking to Cheyenne. Jessie wasn’t privy to
why
that was, nor had she bothered to ask. She figured she was better off not knowing. When Braydon released her, his growl reverberating through her limbs, Jessie knew she had to do something. Placing her hand on his arm, she peered around him at Brendon and Cheyenne. She knew what Braydon saw when he looked at his brother and the famous country music singer. Two people clearly interested in one another even though they tried to deny it to themselves and everyone else. It was that obvious, especially from the way they were standing so close together.

But the expression on Cheyenne’s face wasn’t one of admiration for the handsome man staring her down. No, the woman looked pissed.

Realizing Braydon was pulling away from her again, Jessie called out to him, trying to keep her voice low. “What are you doing?”

There was no way she could let him confront Brendon. She had a feeling Braydon was doing it on her behalf, and as much as she wanted to tell him that she didn’t care, she knew she couldn’t. Letting on to Braydon that she had feelings only for him was something she’d vowed she wouldn’t do.

For many reasons.

“Stop, Bray,” Jessie said, her heels clicking on the floor as she rushed after him. “He’s just talking to her.”

Braydon turned, his expression one of disbelief. “Are you blind?” he asked none too gently.

Well, okay.

Jessie’s eyes widened in surprise as she stared up at him. Hoping he couldn’t read her thoughts, she immediately masked her reaction to his outburst. After taking a deep breath, with her invisible shield securely in place once again, Jessie squared her shoulders, ready to address him. She didn’t get a chance to say anything though.

“Don’t do this. Today is Ethan’s day.” The rough, growling voice that drew her attention away from Braydon’s disapproving look belonged to none other than the oldest Walker brother, Travis. Jessie twisted to look at him in time to hear, “You handle your issues with him later. Right now, right here, you’re gonna behave.”

Jessie could tell it was taking a tremendous amount of restraint for Braydon not to say anything to his brother. If she had to guess, he was tempted to give Travis a salute and a “fuck off,” but to his credit, he kept his mouth shut.

And Travis was right. Even if he did have a crappy way of relaying that message to Braydon, today was Ethan’s day.

“Come on,” Jessie encouraged Braydon, sliding her arm into his, hoping he’d listen. He was still glaring at Travis, the muscles in his square jaw ticking.

But then Jessie’s shock returned full force when Braydon shrugged her off, effectively dislodging her hand as he said, “I’ve got to get out of here.”

Without another word, Braydon stormed off. The only positive was that he was moving toward the door and not toward Brendon and Cheyenne. For that she was grateful, even if she felt like the biggest fool standing there while the man she loved walked away from her. Something he had never done before.

“Braydon,” Jessie called, but he continued walking.

“Let him go,” Travis told her, his words causing Jessie to spin around to face him. “He needs to cool off.”

Although she wanted to tear into Travis—for what, she didn’t know—Jessie kept her lips sealed shut. She was hurt, and there was no reason for her to take that out on Travis.

Instead, she nodded and turned away, hoping no one noticed the agony she knew was written across her face right then.

UPON RETURNING TO
his house after running out of Ethan’s reception with little more than a good-bye to the happy couple, Braydon had ditched his tux, all but ripping the damn thing off. His anger had been a tangible thing, but somehow he’d managed to refrain from doing any damage to the monkey suit. After yanking on shorts and a T-shirt, he plopped his ass on the couch and stared blankly at the television.

The same thing he was doing when Brendon and Jessie walked inside.

At first, he was surprised to see Jessie standing there, staring back at him as though he’d sprouted a third eyeball in the center of his forehead. He expected her to be pissed, but what he saw on her face was probably something closer to tolerance.

Yeah, she was pissed, but just as Jessie always did, she was trying to hide her reaction.

Avoiding looking at Brendon, Braydon kept his eyes on Jessie, watching as she moved across the room, that silky gown clinging to every soft curve. Damn it, she made him so fucking hard, and his frustration wasn’t helping.

In fact, it was amping up his response, something he knew wasn’t a good thing.

“Hey,” Jessie greeted him, her voice soft. “You doing all right?”

Leave it to Jessie to pretend nothing had happened earlier.

And no, he fucking wasn’t doing all right. But he didn’t say as much. He wanted to grip her shoulders and shake her, insist that she tell him what she was feeling. But then he’d be a hypocrite because he was keeping just as much inside.

Turning his attention back to the television, Braydon ignored her.

“He must be, since he’s watching the fucking nature channel,” Brendon stated sarcastically as he walked past the two of them toward his bedroom.

Braydon glowered at his brother’s back, wishing like hell he had the nerve to confront him.

If it weren’t for Travis interfering, Braydon would’ve done so earlier. Part of him was thankful that his brother had stopped him; the other part wanted to rip into Brendon in front of everyone, just to release some of the pent-up aggravation that was churning in his gut.

“Mind if I sit with you?” Jessie asked, interrupting his thoughts.

Braydon shrugged, taking the time to peer up at her where she now stood beside his chair.

The next thing Braydon knew, Jessie was sitting. With him. Or rather,
on
him was more like it.

Braydon’s body immediately reacted to her nearness, the sweet, flowery scent of her shampoo mixed with the spicy, floral fragrance of her perfume. His head was spinning by the time he was holding her weight on his thighs.

“What are you doing?” he growled softly, furious at her for ignoring the elephant in the room.

“The same thing you are,” she said softly, her voice lacking any of the sweetness that it had before.

They stared back at one another for a moment, Braydon’s hands gripping her hips firmly while she straddled his lap. There was a tumultuous sea of emotion roiling between them, but as always, neither of them said what really needed to be said.

“Pretending nothing happened?” he finally asked.

“Exactly.”

“And sex is your answer to this?” he asked, knowing he was pushing her, not caring that he was probably pissing her off in the process.

“Yes,” she insisted. “It is.”

Braydon didn’t say a word in response. He knew she was just attempting to soothe the tensions the only way she knew how—by distracting them with sex. It wasn’t that she did it on purpose, but that’s what Jessie proclaimed that she wanted.

Not that Braydon had any intention of turning her away.

He was in love. Not an idiot.

At the moment, he couldn’t think of anything better than sinking deep inside of her and forgetting everything, including his own damn name. But he wanted to do this his way tonight. Not hers. Not Brendon’s.

Jessie maneuvered so that she was straddling his lap fully, her knees wedged on either side of his hips while her dress pooled high on her thighs. Instinct had Braydon placing his hands on her thighs, slowly sliding his fingers upward until the tips traced the silky softness of her panties.

When she leaned in to kiss him, Braydon braced himself for the impact.

He groaned when her tongue slipped past his lips and delved into his mouth. She was fire in his arms, primed and ready. He loved when she was the aggressive one, which was about 50 percent of the time. Unfortunately, the other half of the time, Brendon was generally the one in control, leaving Braydon odd man out.

Not that he didn’t bring his own blend of heat and passion to their relationship. His goal was to pleasure Jessie, any way he saw fit.

In all the months that the three of them had been together, it seemed as though the intensity of their lust never managed to abate. And it didn’t matter if they fucked twice a week or twice a day.

Despite the warning bells clanging loudly in his head, Braydon wasn’t able to resist her. He didn’t want to.

“Fuck.”

Braydon opened his eyes when Jessie drew back, both of them turning their attention to Brendon, who had just walked into the room shirtless, his tuxedo pants unbuttoned.

“Don’t let me interrupt,” Brendon added gruffly. “I’m right behind you.”

Braydon could sense the tension in his twin. Whatever had transpired between Brendon and Cheyenne had left him as it always did, pissed off and frustrated.

There seemed to be a potent concoction of emotion building between Brendon and Cheyenne lately, yet for whatever reason, they were all pretending it didn’t exist.

Just as Braydon was doing now.

Braydon ignored his brother, turning back to Jessie. Reaching up, Braydon cupped her face firmly yet gently, holding her right where he wanted her. He allowed his fingers to slide through her glossy caramel hair, pulling her against him until he was overwhelmed by her. The heat of her skin, the exquisite grip of her knees against his hips, the lushness of her breasts resting against his chest . . .

“Braydon,” she whispered, her breath warm against his lips.

“Hmm?” he asked, sliding his mouth down her jawline, inhaling her sweet scent, not wanting to let her go.

“Get naked.”

Another round of bells tolled loudly in his head, but once again, he ignored them. That was getting harder and harder to do though. He knew he shouldn’t, knew he was supposed to be addressing the two of them because for so many reasons this situation was no longer working for him. But he couldn’t bring himself to do it. Not when Jessie was looking at him, talking to him, kissing
him
.

She was the only thing Braydon had ever wanted just for himself, but he knew good and damn well that Jessie wasn’t on the same page. She expected Brendon to join them. He wouldn’t put it past the two of them to have discussed their plan on their way home from Ethan’s reception. That’s the way it worked.