Change of Heart (8 page)

“
Abraham, drop it
,” I said again, grabbing the lid to the ice cream and shoving it back on.

“I'm trying to fucking apologize!” he barked, pulling the ice cream out of my hands and throwing it back in the freezer.

“Fine, you're forgiven,” I shot out, tossing the spoon into the sink.

“Sometimes I wonder how the fuck I've dealt with you for the last fifteen years,” he growled, glaring at me. It was closer to fourteen, but who was counting?

I looked him over, my eyes catching at the long, wild hair barely resting at his shoulders, the brown eyes that were almost black, and the arrow-straight nose with the small bump on the bridge. God, he was attractive. Even more so when he was scowling.

“Because I'm cute,” I finally chirped back, smiling wide as I tilted my head to the side, “and because instinctively you knew that I could suck dick like a Hoover.”

Bram's face continued to scowl for as long as he could hold it, then suddenly he burst out laughing. My smile grew impossibly wider.

“Really?” he asked, raising one eyebrow.

“Only one way to find out.”

I shrieked as he came at me, slinging me over his shoulder as he practically ran out of the kitchen and up the stairs.

“You go. I'm sleeping,” I grumbled as Bram tried again to shake me awake.

“Oh, hell no. You kept me up all fucking night, and I'm the one who has to help Trev put up new gutters all fucking day,” he growled, shoving his hands into my armpits so he could force me to sit up. “Get dressed. We gotta go.”

“You loved it,” I said as I threw my legs over the bed. “I rocked your world.”

“Yeah, you're the best I've ever had. Now get the fuck up. I was supposed to be at Trev's twenty minutes ago.” He sat next to me on the bed and started pulling his socks and boots on.

“Really, the
best
?” I sang, clasping my hands together under my chin as I tiredly batted my eyelashes at him.

“You're such a fucking pain in the ass,” he laughed, shaking his head.

He pulled me out of the room and down the stairs, and I was kind of disappointed that he'd already been up for a while by the time he'd woken me up. I wanted to see sleepy, stumbly Bram again. That Bram was my favorite.

“Ah, there they are,” I said to myself as Bram opened up the door to the garage and I saw my flip-flops discarded carelessly on the cement step right outside.

We climbed in the truck, and I shimmied into my jeans as he pulled out onto the highway.

“I left my tank top and my underoos at your house,” I said as we got closer to Dan and Liz's house to pick up my car.

“You can just grab 'em the next time you're over,” he said easily, turning down the long gravel driveway.

“Ooh, I get another ride?” I said sweetly, turning my head to look at him. “When?” I clapped my hands in front of my chest.

“When I call you.”

“You're so
dominant
,” I murmured breathlessly. “Are you going to spank me if I call first?”

“I fucked you all night, and you're still busting my balls?” he asked incredulously, coming to a stop next to my Toyota.

“It's cute that you thought anything would change,” I mocked, reaching out to tap his cheek with my fingers, then pulling away quickly as he snapped his teeth at me.

“Thanks for the ride!” I sang as I climbed out of the truck.

“Which one?” he asked as I slammed the door closed behind me.

I jogged around to the driver's seat of my car as Bram turned the truck around, and just as I'd started up the car, Dan opened up the front door of the house and took a step outside.

I pretended I didn't hear him call my name as I quickly backed up and turned around. I didn't want to deal with that shit yet. Not yet. Not until I could look him in the eye without feeling like a bug under the microscope.

And not until I was dressed in my own clothes and not braless and commando under one of Bram's favorite flannels.

Bram. I sighed and smiled as I pulled out onto the road, and for a few minutes, I was almost giddy at the tenderness between my legs. Then, without warning, I thought about the night before, and my smile turned to a scowl. I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out my phone to text him.

I wanted to write a long-winded text about how I didn't care if he wanted to see other people but I wasn't going to take the chance of him giving me some STD, but I didn't want to give the impression that I was protesting too much. Even though the thought of Bram with anyone else made my stomach churn. I stared at my phone for a full five minutes, periodically glancing at the empty road ahead and behind me, then finally saw that he was typing a response. I braced.

Well.

My lips curled up as I pulled back onto the road.

“Hey, asshole!” I yelled, answering my phone the next day. I was covered in paint and sweaty as all hell, but I'd finally gotten all the trim painted in my living room, and it looked magnificent.

Good word. Magnificent.

“How's it going, Anita Bonita?” Henry's voice came through the speaker as I set my phone down on a stool and started stripping off my paint-splattered clothes.

“It's going. Just working on the house today. What about you? Anything new?”

“Nah, not much. Same shit, different day. I'm doing some training in a couple months though—that should be pretty badass.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, rolling the clothes into a ball and stuffing them into a garbage bag. They weren't even worth keeping.

“Yeah. I'm thinking about heading up with Shane and Katie when they come up in two weeks. I've got the leave—I just need to get it approved.”

“Sweet!” I yelled, doing a little dance.

I loved it when everyone came to visit. We were all so spread out that it didn't happen often. The last time we'd all been together was Katie's thirtieth birthday party in San Diego almost a year before. This time, the only person missing would be Alex.

“Can I stay with you? I think Katie and Shane are staying at Aunt Liz and Uncle Mike's, but I don't want to stay with the 'rents.”

“You're not bringing skanks to my house,” I warned.

Henry started laughing. “Wouldn't dream of it as long as you don't give me shit for not coming home like my parents or Trev would.”

“I can honestly say that I don't give two flying fucks where you sleep at night, Henry dear.”

“Perfect.”

I smiled at the relief in his voice. Oh, to be young, gorgeous, and single…wait. I was young, gorgeous—sort of—and single. I didn't feel that way though. I felt like I was forty-five.

“So Mom said you had surgery?” Henry asked, then paused. “Oh shit. I wasn't supposed to know, was I?”

“Christ, no, it's fine. I had to have a hysterectomy. It's all healed up, the end.” I walked toward my bedroom.

“Wait, why? So you can't have kids, right?” Henry went silent again. “Motherfuck, Ani. That was a shitty thing to say.”

“You're fine.” I smiled sadly, sitting completely naked at the end of my bed. “No, I can't have kids. It is what it is though. No worries.”

“Well, I've completely fucked up this entire conversation,” Henry groaned. “When I stay at your house, you can shave one of my eyebrows off when I'm sleeping. Fair?”

“I was going to do that anyway,” I said, wiping at my wet eyes. “It's the only reason I said you could stay.”

“Me and you, Anita Bonita. We're going to party like its nineteen ninety-nine.”

“Do you even remember nineteen ninety-nine?” I snorted, sliding beneath the covers on my bed.

“Yes.” Pause. “A little.” Pause. “Oh, shut the fuck up.”

I started laughing while Henry grumbled.

“Let me know what day you'll be here and I'll make sure to get you a key,” I said after I'd stopped laughing.

“Sounds good.”

“I'm really glad you're coming up, dude. I miss you like crazy.”

“Yeah me too. Should be fun to have the kids all together again.”

“Except for Alex,” I said, suddenly really missing my best friend.

“That's what he gets for joining the Army. Pussy.”

“Don't be a dick,” I ordered, smiling.

“Hey, you're not going to be bringing home guys from the bar either, right? I really don't want to hear that shit.”

My mouth pulled up in a devious grin, and I had to bite my lip to keep from laughing. “What shit?” I asked innocently.

“Uh, you know.” Henry cleared his throat uncomfortably. “Moans and shit.”

“Oh!” I nodded my head even though he couldn't see me. “Like,
oh God, stranger from the bar, your dick is so huge. Oh, please, stick it in, stick it in!
” I made my voice as breathy as I could and finished off the sentence with a high-pitched moan.

“You. Are. A. Dick,” Henry commented when I was done, every word enunciated like it was its own sentence.

“You're welcome.”

“That's how you sound when you have sex?” he asked seriously. “I thought it would be hotter.”

“Fuck you!” I laughed.

“I'll call you in a couple days and let you know when I get in.”

“Get in,” I snickered, making him chuckle, too.

“Bye, Bonita Anita.”

“Bye, asshole.”

I dropped the phone on the bed and snuggled farther underneath the blankets. It was nice to hear from Henry. He'd been such a cute kid when I met him. Fourteen and skinny as a rail, he'd been the only one in either of the families that was anywhere close to my size. He'd bulked up as he'd gotten older, but he was still pretty small compared to his brothers and cousins. He'd hit on me back then, so sure that he was smooth.

I'd shot him down faster than the words could come out of his mouth.

The little cutie-pie. I'd wanted to just reach out and pinch his cheeks, but I was pretty sure, if I'd done that, he would have died from mortification on the spot.

I sighed. I needed to go get him a key for the house—or maybe I'd just see if he could borrow Bram's, even though I was pretty sure Bram would say no. Take away his key and give it to absentminded Henry? No way in hell.

I hadn't seen Bram since he'd dropped me off the morning before, but I wasn't really concerned about it. I'd been busy napping and then working on my living room long into the night, before crashing and waking up early again to finish it up. Now that the walls were completely done, I needed to refinish the floor in there, and just the thought of it made me groan. I was so freaking tired.

I closed my eyes and relaxed into the bed. It was Sunday—I could nap if I wanted to.

“You waiting on me, gorgeous?” a soft voice whispered into my ear a few hours later, making me smile.
Bram.

“I'm pretty sure the front door was locked,” I replied drowsily, opening my eyes as Bram's body slid in behind me. His hand smoothed up my hip and around my belly as his body curled into mine.

“I have a key,” he whispered in my ear, his fingers running lightly up my ribs and over my breast.

“I was really too trusting when I handed those out.”

“Why you sleeping in the middle of the day?” he asked, ignoring my comment as his lips met my bare shoulder.

“Because I was tired?”

“Living room looks good. You got a lot done.”

“Yeah, now I need to refinish the floors and finally put some furniture in there.” My voice grew husky as Bram's fingers ran slowly down my torso and between my thighs.

“I'll do the floors,” he argued gruffly, gripping my thigh to spread my legs wide, one resting over the top of his. “Look at you, wet already.”

“Look at you, hard already,” I teased back, pressing my ass against the very hard cock behind me.

“Shit, I was hard as soon as I saw you were naked,” he said with a small laugh, reaching down between my legs to position himself.

I moaned deep in my throat as he slid slowly inside me from behind. As soon as he was buried to the root, he pushed my leg back down so my thighs were pressed tightly together. Then I breathed deeply through my nose as he began rolling his hips in a smooth, slow rhythm.

“There's the sleepy sex I wanted,” he murmured against the side of my neck. “Feel good?”

“I've had better,” I ground out as he ran a finger lightly around my nipple.

“No you haven't,” he argued with a small chuckle.

I started to arch my back, and Bram's hand was immediately at my belly, stopping the movement.

“No. Just relax,” he ordered.

“I don't want to relax,” I replied, reaching up to clench his hair in my fingers.

“Shh. Close your eyes, Ani. Just let me get you there,” he said sweetly, running his fingers up and down my belly.

I wanted to flip over and ride him into oblivion. The emotions clogging my chest were becoming really uncomfortable. Instead, I took a shuddering breath and relaxed my hand, letting it slide down to wrap around the side of his neck.

He rewarded me by slipping a finger between my tightly pressed-together legs, running it over my clit.

When my orgasm hit, it rolled over me in small waves, and it went on for freaking ever.

“I talked to Henry earlier,” I said a while later, running my fingers through Bram's hair as I rested on his chest.

“Oh, yeah? What's he up to?” Bram asked, his arm wrapped around my shoulders and his fingers tickling my back softly.

“He said he's coming up with Katie and Shane, and he wanted to know if he could stay here.” I snorted. “He doesn't want to stay with Trev or his parents because he wants to whore it up.”