Ten (My Brothers Best Friend) (11 page)

“Don’t be. You’re welcome to stare any time you like.” He smirks, and then strides back inside, leaving me standing there rosy-cheeked with embarrassment.
Perfect.

I’m drooling I can feel it. The coffee aroma is driving me insane and they’re taking too long making my order. I wonder if they’d mind if I went around the counter and made it myself.

“Sorry about the wait. Tall skinny latte, extra foam.” She hands me the cup and I don’t have the heart to tell her I didn’t want a skinny latte, and I also don’t have the willpower to wait for her to correct it. I greedily take the cup and exit. I place the cup to my lips, knowing it’s going to be hot and probably burn me, but I’m past caring.

I hit a wall of steel and the coffee tips over my face and drips down my top and into my bra.

“Sugar puffs!” I screech, instead of shouting, “shit” like I wanted to, my mother mouth coming into play for me.

“Haven’t you fucking left yet?”

My head rises to see the steel wall is, in fact, Dalton.
Fuck my life.

I meet his condemning eyes without flinching.
How dare he?

I respond sharply, with the same anger in my eyes that he holds in his. “Oh, I’m sorry, sheriff of nowhere, I didn’t realize that little show the other night was a scare tactic to run me out of town.”

He crowds around me and his scent hits me in waves, forcing me to step back and try to not think about how amazing he smells, and how it feels to wake up with that scent on my skin.

“If I wanted to run you out of town, I’d find much scarier ways to do it than that little run-in you had the other night.” His thumb rubs across my mouth, collecting the remnants of my spilled coffee, causing me to gasp from the unexpected contact. He clearly wasn’t thinking about what he just did because he snatches his hand away so fast I wonder if I imagined the whole thing.

He’s so different to my Dalton; I have to remind myself that he is the same man.
My Dalton doesn’t exist anymore
.

“What happened to you?” I find myself asking as my eyes linger on his.

His facade wavers slightly before hardening again. “Is that a fucking joke?”

“We were inseparable once. How can that have changed for you so much?”

His hand grips my chin and I watch as he battles the rage bubbling inside himself. His grasp hurts a little, but not enough to pull away or call out for help.

He keeps me there, unmoving, unspeaking for what feels like forever. Heat and passion flare inside me to mix with my anger as I hold him with the same gaze he has me in.

“Ten.”

He releases me and steps away as Lisa saunters over to us. “What’s going on?” she asks, accusation clear in her tone. I want to slap her, but instead I push past them both, making sure my shoulder shoves into her. “Watch it, bitch,” she screeches at my back.

I turn, straighten up to my not-so-tall height, but enough to warn her that I’m not lying on the floor unsuspecting this time. “Grow up, Lisa, you sure do look like you’ve aged, you should act it”

I relish in her mouth dropping open, and turn and leave them to it.

“I
could have made you coffee,” Jude says as I walk back into the bar.

He bought one of those coffee machines you put the pods in, but I don’t like that fancy shit. I wanted black, strong coffee, and one of those strawberry cookies they sell at the coffee shop. I have a sweet tooth, and those women know how to bake cookies.

I ignore Jude and gesture for Lisa to go straight up to my room.

I look over the order form left on the counter from our supplier and jot my signature on the bottom. My father had everything transferred into my name for when I got out, and let Uncle Keith know I’d be running things from now on. He wasn’t happy about it, but he knew he didn’t really have a choice; this was his fault anyway. If he hadn’t given the drugs to Jonah in the first place, I would have never been sent away. Prison changed me and gave me a lot of time to get to know my father in a way I never had before.

“Ten, are you coming?” Lisa is naked and standing at the top of the stairs, flaunting her flesh to a drooling Jude. She isn’t one for modesty, but I was going to fuck her not marry her, so I didn’t give a fuck.

I take the steps two at a time and stop her from trying to run back through the door.

“Like to put a show on for Jude, huh?” I tease.

“He doesn’t get much action, so no harm in treating him to a little glimpse of what you get every once in a while.” She bites her lip. I grab her arm and pull her into me, lifting her and tossing her over my shoulder. “Ten!” she screams, giggling.

I bring her down the stairs and over to the bar where Jude is standing, sorting change for the cash drawer. I put Lisa down on the bar and she yelps from the coldness on her naked skin. I turn her body so she’s facing Jude and reach around her waist and part her thighs.

“She wants to give you a show, Jude. What do you think?”

She’s wrong about Jude not getting any. He’s a dirty bastard and he’s had his share of pussy.

“I think it probably tastes as good as it looks.” He leans forward and inhales her scent. She grabs his hair and pushes his face against her pussy. He wastes no time diving in, lifting her ass so her back rests on the bar and her head tilts off the edge in a perfect position for me. I unzip my jeans and pull my cock out, tapping her on the cheeks with it before pushing it down her throat. She’s writhing and moaning like a nympho, and I have to close my eyes so I can ignore the fact that it’s her sucking me off. My mind wanders to the earlier run-in with Alex, and the feel of her lips as I stroked away the coffee. Her words echo in my head.
“We were inseparable once. How can that have changed for you so much?”

My mind keeps me prisoner and drifts to our first time together.

I can’t look away or deny her. We waited like we promised ourselves we would. I’d been feeling her warm, soft body up against mine for years and never stepped over the line. Kisses and caresses were all I’d allowed us, and it was torture. She was beautiful, always had been. When I stepped towards her and reached for the straps of her summer dress, the air around her crackled with relief. The only emotion on her face was wanting, her teeth pushed into her bottom lip as she nervously bit down. When her eyes clashed with mine, my heart flipped in response.

“I’m going to go slow, and if you want to stop at any time, just tell me, okay? We can stop any time. I love you and can wait.”

“We have been waiting. I can’t wait anymore. I need this. I want to be with you completely. I love you.” Slowly and seductively her eyes lowered to my jeans, and with a deep breath, she reached forward to un-button them. I caught her hands and smiled down at her, my eyes working hard to not roam the creamy expanse of her neck, leading down to the pert, full tits I knew hid just beneath the thin fabric of her bra. “Let’s not rush this. You only have your first time once, and I want you to remember and cherish every moment of yours.”

Her hands dropped to her sides, and sadness lit the amber of her eyes. “Do you cherish yours?”

“This will be the first time for me with someone I love. Can this be my first time too?”

Her smooth hands slid over the hem of my shirt, lifting it from me and letting it drop to the floor. Her soft palm explored the skin beneath causing a shiver of anticipation to tingle up my spine. I traced my hand down her face and continued to her neck where I could feel her pulse pounding, making my heart stammer in return. I have to fight the overwhelming need to be with her completely so I don’t rush one of the most important parts of both our lives. She didn’t know how or whom I lost my virginity to, and it was something I’d never tell her, but I couldn’t let hers be anything like mine. I needed to make sure she was ready, and felt loved and cherished. Because she was. She was everything to me. I slipped my hands down her arms, taking the straps of her dress with me until it puddled at her feet. Every day my love for her deepened, and in that moment, the intensity of what I felt for her couldn’t be measured by anything because nothing compared to the emotion stirring inside me. Her nimble fingers once again found the buttons to my jeans, and this time I let her undo them. I wanted us both naked, bare before each other so we could explore everything we had withheld from for so long. I memorized every inch of her by heart. My soul lit with happiness when I finally entered her and she gasped and then smiled up at me. This was life. This was everything. She was everything.

“Do you want me to come back?”

My eyes open to see Six standing at the end of the bar, completely unfazed by the sex act playing out in front of him. I should have remembered to lock the door. I pull my dick from Lisa’s mouth and fasten my jeans. “No. Come upstairs. We can leave Jude to finish this up.”

“Ten?” Lisa gasps, but I ignore her. She doesn’t have to stay if she doesn’t want to, but I’ve lost interest.

“How was Louisa?” I ask as I sit down at my desk.

Six grins at me and slouches down on the couch in the corner. “A screamer.” He nods with a wink.

Louisa was a girl who’d been batting her lashes at me for months, but Lisa kept warning her off. As soon as she saw Six last night, he gained her attention and he ended up taking her home with him.

“I really appreciate the place to crash.”

“Don’t mention it. Now, you want to talk about work?”

He sits forward, leaning his hands on his knees. “I want to open my own tattoo place. I know that’s going to be a problem with licenses and money, but it’s something I’ve always been good at and I just want to do something I enjoy, you know?”

“I can help you with that.” And I can. I’m always looking for investments, and I know how talented Six is with a needle.

“Are you serious?” he asks, shaking his head in disbelief.

“It won’t be expensive to set up, and I have a function room outback that I don’t use. It has its own entrance, and with a little money, it could easily be transformed into a studio for you.” I lean back in my chair. “It’d be good for business.”

There’s a knock at the door. I call out for them to come in. Cole and RJ, who work for my uncle, come in. They offer a chin lift to Six and then stand there staring at me. “What?” I ask, annoyed. They look over at Six again like he’s an intruder. “He’s good. Just say what you have to say.”