Brick and Mortar (Student Bodies #4) (10 page)

Turner woke alone, wrapped in the forest green throw from the end of the bed. Cannon must have gotten cold in the middle of the night and covered them up. He sat up stretching and sniffing the air, hoping to smell bacon cooking but he didn’t. The house was quiet. Too quiet.

“Cannon?” Turner roared, scrambling out of bed and into the jeans he wore yesterday. He tore down the stairs in time to hear Daisy whining and Cannon about to unlock the front door, his duffle bag was slung over his left shoulder.

“Where are you going?” Turner sat on the eighth step, knowing he didn’t have the strength to stand there and watch Cannon leave him.

“I’m leaving.” He didn’t turn around and left his hand on the doorknob.

Daisy whined and pawed the back of Cannon’s jeans.

“Why?”

“Why should I stay when you’re not willing to risk your heart?”

“You’re brilliant and gorgeous and so damned talented and annoying. You shouldn’t be wasting your time on me.” Turner stared at Cannon’s gorgeous features, trying to memorize them before Cannon walked out of his life for good. His memories of the brat would be all he had to sustain himself through the rest of the long, cold New England winter.

“I know you think I talk a lot and I do, but I’m also capable of listening. You could have come to me and explained everything and I would have been there for you, but you kept your pain all bottled up inside and then blew up at me.” Cannon snapped off the lock and turned the doorknob.

Daisy responded with a howl.

“And besides,” Turner said, his voice barely above a whisper. “I don’t have a heart to risk.” Unshed tears spilled over, cascading down his cheeks. Turner let them fall.

Cannon turned to look over his left shoulder. Tears glittered in his aquamarine eyes. “I know, its dead and buried with Bryce.” He turned back to face the door, his unshed tears cascading down his face.

“No, silly boy. I don’t have a heart to risk because it already belongs to you.”

Daisy ran up the stairs and licked all over Turner’s face before running back down to Cannon whose hand was still on the doorknob.

“Stay with me, Cannon, please. I love you so much. I have from the beginning. I didn’t tell you because I was afraid of getting hurt again. Please stay, brat.”

Woofing her approval, Daisy grabbed Cannon’s jeans in her mouth and pulled back, her nails skidding on the hardwood floor.

Cannon burst out laughing and let Daisy pull him away from the door. He bent down to hug her and she bathed his face with her tongue.

“Hold on a second, can I get in on the kissing too?” Turner came down the remaining stairs, his hands shoved in the pockets of his jeans.

Cannon wiped his face on the sleeve of his jacket and pulled Turner into his arms. “So damned stubborn.”

“I’m going to spend the rest of the morning showing you just how much I love you, but after that, we’re going shopping for a heavier winter coat , boots, gloves and a hat and anything else you need. I’m so sorry about what happened yesterday. Brock was right, I was a dumbass for letting you leave in the cold. Can you ever forgive me?”

Cannon dashed the back of his hands against his eyes. “Of course I forgive you.”

“Does that mean you love me too?” Turner smiled, cradling Cannon’s face in his hands.

Cannon nodded. “You know it does.”

“Say it, brat.” Turner pressed a kiss to Cannon’s temple.

“I love you, sir.”

“Took you long enough.” Turner pulled him into his arms, vowing silently to never let him go.

Spring break, three weeks later…

“Can you boys handle the rest of these boxes?” Turner asked, lugging the last of Cannon’s things in from the car.

“Here, let me get that, sir,” Morgan said, taking the box from Turner and piling it up with the others in the hallway of Turner’s house.

“Sure, we can handle this, where are you going?” Cannon pressed a kiss to Turner’s cold lips. They had just finished moving his things from the dorms to Turner’s house. Now that he was moved in, he didn’t want Turner to leave.

“I’m running out to get some champagne. All of you boys are twenty-one, right? I don’t need a spanking from any of your men.” Turner burst out laughing.

“We’re all twenty-one, sir,” Phillip laughed. “Xander’s the baby and he’s almost twenty-two.”

“Do you need anything while I’m out? We’re all set with enough dog food for two, right?”

Daisy and Belle, who had been napping in the living room, scrambled to Turner’s side.

“All I need is you.” Cannon kissed Turner, cupping his face. His friends making barfing noises behind them broke the kiss. “Oh, like I didn’t spend hours at your wedding reception last month watching you suck Brock’s face off?” Cannon sneered, turning to Ryder.

“Continue to fight amongst yourselves, but I’m off. I’ll be back soon, brat.” Turner kissed Cannon one last time and headed out the door.

While Turner was gone, the rest of the men showed up with crock pots and covered dishes for the surprise dinner party they were throwing Turner and Cannon, to celebrate the end of their being dumbasses as Brock put it.

Cannon didn’t notice how long Turner had been gone. He and Ryder were in the bedroom putting away his clothes and toiletries, while Xander and Phillip helped in the kitchen. Morgan had stayed in the living room to play with the dogs.

“You know,” Ryder grinned, “I think if I had a bouquet to toss at the reception, you would have been the one to catch it.”

“Nah,” Cannon laughed. “That would have been Phillip. Rumor has it Chris is going to propose when they’re doing that study abroad trip in Greece next month.”

Ryder laughed. “The person who catches the bouquet is the next one to be married, not the next one to get engaged.”

“No way.” Cannon threw a balled up shirt, hitting Ryder in the face. “There’s no way Turner’s ready to walk down the aisle.”

“Right, just like you said he wasn’t ready for you to move in here with him.”

“I was wrong about that, but not about this.”

Both dogs barking stopped Ryder’s comeback in its tracks. “Must be Turner with the champagne. Let’s go see.” He grabbed Cannon’s hand and dragged him out of the bedroom.

“I’ve seen champagne before and I need to get unpacked.” Cannon let Ryder pull him toward the stairs where he could see everyone lined up leading into the kitchen. “What’s going on?”

Phillip pulled him in for a hug when he reached the bottom of the stairs and pointed toward the kitchen where Turner was standing with his back to him, Daisy was sitting like a pretty princess at his feet.

“Turner, what’s going on?” Cannon walked toward him.

“Surprise!” Turner whispered loudly, turning around with a bundle in his arms.

“Bones?” Cannon walked the rest of the way to Turner who was holding the bulldog in his arms. “But you said you were going out for champagne,” Cannon babbled, reaching his arms out to take Bones. The bulldog responded by licking the side of his neck.

“Does that mean you want me to take Bones back to the shelter?”

Cannon wrapped his arms tighter around Bones. “Not if you want to survive the night.”

Brock burst out laughing. “You know what this means, right?” He cocked a thumb at his husband. “First he wanted a dog because you had a dog. Now you have two dogs and you know what Ryder will want next?”

“A baby!” Ryder chirped from behind his husband.

Brock spun around to pull his husband in for a kiss.

“Check out Bones’ dog tags,” Turner whispered, hugging Cannon from behind.

Cannon reached to fiddle with the tags when his fingers brushed across a ring attached to the buckle of the dog’s collar. “Turner, what?” His mouth gaped open in shock.

“You made me see that my heart wasn’t made of brick and mortar. I don’t want to spend the rest of my life without you, brat. Will you marry me?”

Cannon spun around and saw a lifetime of love in Turner’s dark eyes. “If I say yes can I have a baby like Ryder’s getting?”

All of their friends burst out laughing.

“I don’t know, Cannon. Guess you’ll have to say yes to find out…”

“Yes, yes!” Cannon grinned, pressing his lips to Turner’s. “So can we have a baby?”

Turner smiled. “A whole houseful if you like.”

“Don’t say that!” Brock yelled. “If Cannon gets a whole houseful of babies, then Ryder will want the same thing.”

Turner couldn’t care less what Ryder got. What mattered most was that the man of his dreams just said yes.

ACKNOWLEGEMENTS:

The creative process can often be a lonely, solitary progression from idea, to a sketched outline, to the final written manuscript. I am so blessed to have walked that path with Dani on this book. Thank you so much for all of your ideas and plot twists as well as for loving me endlessly!

Thank you so much Courtney for being my biggest fan. You’re always there for me with words of encouragement and tips for making my words stronger. One of my greatest joys in life is being your biggest fan!

Many thanks and much love to my mother. You edited this book with your usual style and grace while balancing your own burgeoning writing career.

From the bottom of my heart I want to thank each and every one of you who have read my books. It is a dream come true to share my heroes with you!

AUTHOR’S NOTES:

One of the most often asked questions put to writers is: Do your characters talk to you? In my case, the answer is an emphatic YES! For me, I always know a book is meant to be when my characters interrupt my day to introduce themselves and then tell me the title of their book. Not only did Cannon and Turner introduce themselves, but Cannon went so far as to tell me his kink would not be wearing panties as I originally intended, but would be gags instead. Talk about topping from the bottom!  I’m so glad I listened to him! In my research for this book, I came across several instances of submissives who claim the gag was soothing to them.

One of my favorite things about Cannon was that he was pro-active in dealing with his ADHD. He didn’t use it as an excuse when he failed. He used it as a reason to succeed. He researched what worked for others and adapted what he learned to his own situation.

Paws For People is a product of my imagination. Massachusetts does have local chapters of the SPCA.

For those of you who enjoyed meeting Morgan St. James, I’m thrilled to announce you’ll see him again in
All Fall Down
, Book Five of the Student Bodies Series. Morgan finds a lost child in the cereal aisle of the supermarket and it turns out to be the son of one of his former accounting professors, Wentworth Langston.
All Fall Down
is now available for pre-order and will publish on March 1, 2016.

March 2016 will be a busy month! Not only is the next Student Bodies book available, but so is Book Two in the Out Of Time Series. We’ll see what happens to Cadence McCann after agreeing to travel back to Moone Castle in 1433 with her brother Carter.
Time And Space
will be available on March 22, 2016!

If you’re interesting in reading my previous books, including the Student Bodies and Out Of Time Series, please visit my Amazon page:
http://www.amazon.com/Pandora-Pine/e/B013BSSBX0/ref=dp_byline_cont_ebooks_1