Page 61 of Her Brother's Keeper

I let that be it between us and swept up my helmet. I got on my bike and made one quick stop on the way to my girl’s; the woman who made me laugh, who made me feel lighter when the shit got heavy at work or around the club. I just about always found that I couldn’t wait to see her and when we parted? I almost started missing her before she was even out of sight.

When she opened the door, I looked up and damn near had a heart attack. I hadn’t expected her to be in that black satin number that made my cock jump on sight. Usually, she had on some leggings or something. I gave up holding up the damn paper bag with her favorite ice cream in it and settled for crossing the threshold and kicking the door shut behind me.

I dropped the bag and pulled her into me, Dragon’s questions still scalding my mind, adding to the heat that was rising in my fuckin’ jeans. I covered Maren’s mouth with mine and folded her tightly in my arms where she went limp with relief. I held her to me, hands smoothing over all that satin, craving the feel of her warm, supple skin beneath –but dammit I have to wait.

That didn’t stop me from kissing her like it would be our last, and it didn’t stop my body from going through the motions either. My hands found her ass, then the backs of her thighs, and I lifted her. Her lithe, long legs going around my hips as I made strides over to the couch, laying her down, my body grinding against hers, my dick aching something fierce, her hands at the back of my neck pulling my mouth tightly against hers as our tongues danced and intertwined.

Fuck, I was gonna go. I was gonna come in my fucking pants likeIwas the teenager and right that second I was like,fuck it,I wanna.

I wanna, and I wanna make her come too, but I couldn’t, because as much as I loathed the little fucking reminder, Dragon’s words were still chasing around in my head. I couldn’t stop myself, though; I ground against her and ran my hand along the outside of her thigh, pushing the satin material out of my way, fingers smoothing along the silk of her skin andfuckI was dying. This waiting was poison, and Maren? Maren was my antidote; my only chance for survival.

“We have to stop,” she uttered, her voice strained, and it was like a bucket of ice water. I stood up and retrieved the ice cream off the floor, making strides in the direction of the kitchen while she tugged the long skirt of her nightgown down over her sopping panties. God, that sight made it so hard to keep walking, but I had to. We needed a minute and we needed some distance or neither one of us was going to stop and that wasn’t right, at least not by society’s thinking.

Goddammit, this was so fucking complicated, and it didn’t need to be. Why couldn’t people just mind their own fucking business?

“Are you mad?” she asked as I dished up two bowls of melting pralines and cream ice-cream.

I looked up, and over at my beautiful woman and shook my head, she stood, hugging herself, having quickly added her bulky coat over herself, in an attempt to cover. I laughed a little.

“That coat isn’t going to save you, you know. You could be wearing a burlap sack and it would probably bring on the same reaction.”

She slipped up onto one of the counter stools and blushed furiously, crossing her arms and leaning forward on them to watch me with utter fascination as I finished splitting up the pint of ice cream between the two bowls.

She made me feel both powerful and sexy when she watched me like that. I didn’t think it would ever get old, either. I was pretty sure it would break my fucking heart if she ever decided she was bored with me or that I was too old for her, but those were troubles I didn’t want to borrow for now; not when we had so many heaped in front of us.

I slid her bowl over to her with a spoon and leaned over the counter to eat mine, keeping the expanse of whatever stone it was between us. She edged her hand out and I covered it with my own to reassure her. She’d been through so much, and we’d discovered that the bullying had had its effects; not being able to fully trust social cues being one of them. Made me wish I’d nipped that in the bud a lot sooner and made me less regretful over how it’d been handled.

“I’m not mad, Angel. I’m just frustrated, like you.”

Silence pressed between us and she put a spoonful of ice cream in her mouth. She sucked on it, and it drove me fucking wild, but I held my place across the counter. Finally, she spoke, her voice solemn and a little sad, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

I sighed, and nodded, “Happy Valentine’s Day.”

Chapter 22

Maren

I didn’t think things could get worse after yesterday. I was even beginning to get my hopes up about this job interview, but now, it felt like everything was crashing down, the timbers burning and I was utterly crushed under the weight and the rubble.

I kept listening to the phone ring as I stared through the gently falling snow at Soul Fuel’s front door.So close, yet so far away…

“Yes, hi! I know that Nox, I mean Landon, is probably in with a client but it’s an emergency and I really need to speak with him.” I waited and stared blankly at the Ol’ Ladies of The Sacred Hearts MC laughing at the counter inside, praying they wouldn’t look out the window, desperate that they wouldn’t see me. Not just yet.

“Maren, what’s wrong?” Nox asked through the phone line and despite how hard I tried not to cry, an errant tear snuck free.

“I just got a call from Three Tree Hospital, it’s an hour and a half north from here… They have Sage. I guess he left school and somehow caught a bus up there and I have this stupid interview and the school never called me, and Ineedthis job and I don’t know what to do!”

Dammit! I’d meant to hold it together, I’d meant to keep my cool and be an adult, like the adultiest adult, and here I was, crying and begging Nox for yet another fix, but honestly I was at the end of my rope and I just wanted someone,anyone, to tell me what to do because I just didn’t know with this.

“Okay, slow down, take a deep breath,” Nox murmured, and he breathed with me over the phone until I was calmer.

“Interviews don’t take long, so pull it together, go in there and do what you need to do. Sage is at ahospital,Baby. Nothing is going to happen to him there. I’m going to come get you and we’ll go get him together, okay?”

“Okay,” I said and it was a plan, it was a good plan.

“Why did he even go up there in the first place?” Nox asked, confused.

“Because our mother is there,” I said miserably.

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