Page 50 of Seducing Bran
She laughed. “And that would have been too long?”
He pressed her closer, his cock hard and ready. “What do you think?”
Her brow furrowed. “Your brothers don’t know you very well, do they? You’re not at all celibate.”
“Been trying to tell you that. Though, to be fair, hooking up was never a sport to me like it was for some of my brothers.”
“They don’t seem like they were players. Except Hunt.”
“Don’t let their current relationship status fool you. They were bad before they met their girlfriends and wives.”
He leaned up and kissed her soft lips, teasing him from above.
“Were you ever like your brothers?” she asked.
Bran’s body tensed, and he could tell the moment she sensed it, because she frowned.
“When I was young, yeah,” he said.
He gently eased her to the side and sat up. They’d been careful tonight, and God knew Bran wanted Ireland more than his next breath. But his past still haunted him. “I was careless when I was a kid.”
She covered her chest with the blanket and sat next to him. “Careless how?”
He turned and looked her in the eye. “When I was in high school, I slept with a lot of girls. If they were willing, I was down. It was stupid; I was lucky I didn’t catch something. But what resulted wasn’t any better.”
Ireland scooted closer until her side pressed against his. She watched him, seemingly waiting for him to continue.
The only brother who knew about his high school fuck-up was Wes, and not until recently. But Bran wanted Ireland to know. Wanted her to understand him better.
“I got a girl pregnant,” he said.
Her eyes widened. “You…you have a child?”
“No.”
“I don’t understa—”
“The girl I got pregnant had an abortion. It was my fault.”
Ireland didn’t knowwhat to make of Bran’s confession. She’d been older when she lost her virginity, and even then she’d been careful. She couldn’t picture Bran—the definition of a man in control—not taking precautions. Even so… “How could it have been your fault?”
He gazed off. “She told me she was pregnant, and I said nothing. Dumb shit that I was, I hadn’t considered anything like that could happen to me.”
“You didn’t think you could get a girl pregnant?”
His smile was hard. “Sure. When I was ready.” He rubbed his thigh. “Stupid, I know, but I was seventeen and she was sixteen. I didn’t know shit.”
She let out a long sigh. “I’m sorry, Bran. What did your family say?”
“They never knew.”
She blinked several times, making sure she’d heard him right. “Never?”
“My home life consisted of my brothers and a housekeeper. My father wasn’t around. He lived at Club Tahoe, hence the resentment my brothers and I have toward the place.”
“But you…you run it now.”
He sent her a sidelong look. “Irony is a bitch. My father dies and leaves us in charge, and none of us can walk away from the place. We spent our lives avoiding it. Avoiding our father as punishment for putting Club Tahoe first, and now we’re devoting all our time to it. Life is complicated.”
