Fully Automatic (Bullet) (47 page)

She loved him?

He took a moment as it sunk in. 
She
loved
him.  She’d said it.  The words his heart had ached for so long to hear, and he could feel the emotion swell inside his chest.  The woman he’d loved for so long was saying what he’d longed to hear for more years than he could remember.  He could barely believe it.

He kissed her then, this time his passion unrestrained.  He
continued to feel a niggling doubt at the back of his mind, but he had to let it go and trust her.  Yeah, he knew…he knew if she trashed his heart again, he’d be done for, but he couldn’t not try.  If he didn’t trust her and walked away, he would always wonder.

The kiss ended but he held her close.  “I love you too, Val.  I always have.”

He heard her breath catch in her throat and then she swallowed.  She inhaled and said, “
Always?
”

He nodded.  Now she’d know what a fucking dumb ass he was.  But it didn’t matter.
  It was the truth…and he wasn’t going to lie to her.  “Yeah.”

She blinked and touched his cheek again.
  What was she thinking?  He could see something in her eyes—not a question but something.  She finally said, “I had no idea.  I knew…”  She shook her head.  “But I—I didn’t know.”

“It’s okay.  I didn’t publicize it.”  He kissed her again then, because he didn’t have to wait anymore, didn’t have to worry, and she
fucking loved him back.
  He wanted nothing more than to take her, right then, right there, but too many things were holding him back.  The first was her child sleeping not too far away from them.  The other was that niggling doubt.  The one and only time he and Valerie had spent a night together, Ethan had taken hold of her heart the next day harder than he ever had before.  She’d snapped back to the guy like she had a bungee cord wrapped around her heart.  If Brad made love to her, he would spend the rest of the week waiting for the other shoe to drop.  He kissed her once more and then said, “I should probably go.”

She wrapped her fingers around his neck, shoving her fingers into the hair at the nape, and said, “No…
don’t leave.”  His eyes searched hers, and he wasn’t sure what to say.  “Please.  Stay.”

How could he say no to her sweet request?  It wasn’t just desire, though it was there, thick and heavy as it flowed through his veins.

He answered her with another kiss.  He couldn’t say no to his sweet Valerie, the woman he’d wanted for so long he couldn’t even remember what it was like to not need.  As they stayed in that embrace kissing, he heard her breathing change, signaling that she felt the same way he did.  She needed him as much as he needed her.

She broke away from his kiss and looked in his eyes.  “Do you have any condoms, or do we need to run to Walmart?”

He started laughing, in spite of the fact that he did not.  “No, Val.  I didn’t come over here tonight planning to get laid.”

“Shit.”  He
could tell her gears were turning, but he was considering driving to a 7-Eleven.  “Actually, hold on.”  She grabbed his hand and they left the kitchen.  She walked into the bathroom and let go of his hand as she rifled through a drawer under the sink.  “Aha!”  She pulled out a box of Trojans.

“Better check the expiration date.”

She turned the box over while she talked.  “After I had Chris, I didn’t want to get back on the pill since I was breastfeeding.  And I could never rely on Ethan to make sure he had any, and, well…I felt like I needed to protect myself in more ways than one—if you catch my drift.”

He did, but he wasn’t going to say a word.  He knew exactly what Ethan was like, and at least Val hadn’t been a complete idiot.

She held the box up to his face, grimacing.  “They expired last month.  Think they’re still okay?”

He shrugged.  God, he wanted her, but he wasn’t about to make that decision.  “You willing to take that chance?”

She grinned and grabbed his hand.  “Fuck, yes.”

She led him to her bedroom door.  He asked, “What about Chris?”  He’d had plenty of sex with plenty of women, but children
sleeping nearby had never been part of the equation.

“It’s fine.  Just…we’ll close the door almost all the way, and lights off.  That way if he
does
come in, we have a little warning.”

“He can’t reach the light switch, can he?”

Val giggled.  “No.”  She walked over to the nightstand and placed the box of condoms on it.  Brad stood near the doorway, almost in disbelief that this was even happening.  She strode over to him, all confidence and
fucking hell
was she sexy.  She was
the
woman for him and here she was…

She reached over to the light switch near his right shoulder and shut it off.  The door was already all but closed and it was dark.
  He felt her lips on his as she pulled her shirt up and then broke from his kiss to pull it over her head.  He placed his hands on her lower back, feeling her warm flesh, and that was when he felt the blood rushing to his cock, filling it with that familiar need.  It got even worse when he heard the zipper on her jeans slide down, and she bent down to peel them off.

That was when he figured he’d better undress too.  He started pulling his shirt over his head when her fingers attacked his jeans button and her lips assaulted his chest.  Oh, fuck, he was gonna have a hell of a time making it, because she had him completely wound up already.  His cock was throbbing, dying to be inside her again for the first time in years.

They got the jeans off and then she pulled him toward the bed.  He felt blind in the near dark of her room, but somehow it made it hotter, feeling for her instead of seeing her, and he felt behind her back for her bra so he could undo the straps.  He got them undone but then she pushed against him, urging him onto the bed.  “I need you inside me
now
.”

Another surge of blood to his dick and all coherence flushed from his brain.  He wasn’t about to argue with her, because that was what he needed too.  He reached down to yank off his shorts
, and he felt her peel her panties off.  She shoved a condom in his hand, still wrapped.  “Can you take care of that?”  He started to answer when he felt her hand on his cock, and he couldn’t help the low groan in his throat.  He hadn’t expected her to touch him yet.  It felt insane, so fucking good, and she was gonna make him come right this second if he didn’t stop her.  So he moved in with the condom and rolled it on.

She moved into position, poised over him, but he knew there was no way he was gonna make it through the ride.  He was too turned on, too far past the point.  So he slid his finger down her slit.  Oh, fuck, yeah, she was wet.  That was good.  She probably wasn’t too far
from climaxing either, but he wanted to make sure she came before she rocked his world.  He slid his finger up and down over her clit and she paused in place at first, just enjoying what he was doing to her.  She started to move, at first, he thought, to bury him inside her, but no.  She was moving against his finger, and so he responded by applying a little more pressure, a little more speed, and a little different motion.

She made it so easy.  He could tell she was getting close, because her breathing was erratic and her knees were digging into his hips, her thighs tense
, and she kept making little noises of pleasure.  He wanted to say something, to urge her to let it go, but he didn’t want to break the mood.  He didn’t want to rush her either.  Her nails were digging into his chest, and she took a deep breath—followed by a loud moan.  “Oh, God, Brad.”  She kept moaning, clenching against his sides, burying her nails deeper in his pecs, and he wasn’t gonna stop.

She groaned one last time and then, before he could even move his finger, she lifted her hips and slid him inside her.  He’d been on the verge anyway, but hearing her cries had taken him to the brink.  Having her slam his cock inside her as far as he could go was the final straw, and he saw fireworks inside his head.  Yeah, him and Valerie together at last.  It was definite cause for celebration.

Chapter Fifty-eight

T
HE NEXT COUPLE of months, he spent the night at her house, but once in a while, she and Chris would come to his.  He kept waiting for the rehearsal when Ethan would show up and he’d have to tell his friend what was going on.  But the guy hadn’t bothered.

Ethan and Zane were pretty close, though, and he knew Ethan had heard it from Zane.  He didn’t think there was any malice on Zane’s part when he told Ethan, and the guy was gonna find out eventually.

He did get a (probably drunken) text from Ethan accusing Brad of moving in on his wife.  But he knew Ethan knew better.  Sure, Ethan had had Val’s heart for a long time, but he also knew that Brad had loved her first.

And, unlike Ethan, he would treat Val right.

He and Val realized it was stupid, just spending the night when they wanted to spend every waking moment together, enjoying the love they’d denied for so long.  They didn’t live close by each other either, so it wasn’t just two minutes to be in each other’s arms.  So Val asked him to move in with her.  He was going to protest and ask her to move in with him, but she had the bigger house, and it was already Chris friendly.  He loved his sound studio, but he loved Val more and packed his shit, putting his house up for rent.

He’d go back to practicing in a garage.  He didn’t care.

And Chris—that little guy.  He’d always loved the kid, but living with him placed the little boy in Brad’s heart forever.  The more time he spent with him, the more he saw Valerie in the child.  More than that, though, he saw the part of Ethan that he’d always wanted to save.  It was the innocence, the wonder.

Val acted like she was starting to hate Ethan, and it killed Brad to see it, but he also knew why.  First, h
is friend hit bottom like he never had before and was ordered into an inpatient rehab program.  Brad was sure when he got out, he’d be like his old friend.

Only, no.  He was worse. 
He might have been sober, but he was an asshole to the extreme.  It was like Ethan
wanted
Val to despise him.  He was being a real prick, fighting the divorce and threatening to sue for full custody of Chris.  Brad wanted to sit down with his friend like old times and talk sense into him, but he knew those days were past.  He doubted Ethan would ever forgive him for being with Valerie.

He didn’t know that Ethan and Val would ever have an easy time from this point forward either.  Ethan
finally got his shit together, apologized for being an asshole, stopped holding up the divorce, and quit threatening for sole custody of his child.  Then Valerie let him see Chris, and he first took the boy for a few days.  Val was a nervous wreck the entire weekend, and when Ethan showed up, he had a gorgeous redhead with him, but she definitely looked like someone more his type.  Yeah, she was wearing professional clothes, but she had that air about her that Ethan liked.  Val felt the same way too, because she asked to speak to him in private and chewed his ass, only to find out she was way off base.  The gal was Ethan’s drug counselor-turned-girlfriend, a woman named Jenna.

So they both allowed themselves to hope that maybe,
maybe
Ethan was getting better. 

And, with Val’s divorce on the horizon, Brad was inspired to let her know exactly how he felt.  One morning when she was in the shower, he took the ring off the sink that she always wore on her right ring finger.  It
looked like a cord wrapped around her finger but on the front was a microphone, a reminder to Brad that she missed that part of her life.  Someday he’d find a way to get her back there, but first he wanted to ensure their permanence as a couple.

He took the ring and traced it, inside and out, on a piece of paper and returned the ring to the bathroom sink. 
She’d never suspect a thing.  He had a date with the jeweler’s.

And while that goddamn ring was being created according to his specifications, Val told him she had a little news.

She was pregnant.

He felt like an idiot.  He couldn’t even remember the last time they’d used a condom
, and he was more than okay with it.  She knew he loved Chris, so to have a child of his own put him out of his mind.  He kissed her tummy and asked if he could go with her to her first doctor appointment.  “You need to go to the ultrasound too.  That shit’ll blow your mind.”

Knowing he was going to be a father, he would have thought everything would have changed, but it didn’t.  He was already like a father, for all intents and purposes. 
The baby would simply be another child he would love in his life.

Val had been right, though.  When he saw the baby’s heartbeat on the weird screen, its little limbs moving around, he felt his eyes grow wet.  That baby was part of him.  That was huge.

He woke up early one morning, Val and his new baby heavy on his mind.  He rolled over and pulled Val close, her back up against his chest.  She wasn’t completely asleep, because she muttered a
Morning
to him and he started kissing the back of her neck.  Before he knew it, they were making love, not changing position, but hot and sweet just the same.

She rolled over then, kissing his chest
, and he held her close, rubbing her back, grateful to have her there.

Chris threw the door open.  “Mommy, mommy!”  He ran over to the bed.

“Come on up, sweetie.”

She rolled onto her back.  Chris touched her belly.  It had been a source of fascination for the boy ever since Val and Brad had explained to him that he had a little sister on the way.  “Baby?”

“Yes, baby, honey.”

“We love baby.”

“Yes.  We love baby.”

Chris looked up at him.  “Daddy Brad?”

“Yeah, buddy?”

“You love baby too?”

He laughed.  That kid cracked him up.  “Yeah, of course, I love the baby.”

His kissed Val and then picked Chris up, bringing him over to the other side of the bed and giving him a big hug.  Val asked, “So what are we doing today?”

“I’m doing band practice this afternoon.”  Ethan wasn’t involved…
yet
.  The two of them had talked on the phone and the conversation had been promising.  Ethan and his girlfriend were going to be picking Chris up that weekend and Brad planned to find out if Ethan was for sure in or out.  Either way, they had an album to make.  It had been way too long and the powers that be who had been patient and indulgent and had said that Ethan’s rehab woes and bad behavior were good press had since changed their tune and told the band they needed something—
soon
.  Brad had considered bringing Val on board for a duet too, but she’d been hesitant.  It’d be a shame to waste her new vocal cords, though.

She asked, “So…breakfast in or out?”

Chris chimed in.  “I want pana-cakes.”

Val ran her fingers through her child’s hair, grinning.  “With maple syrup?”

“No.  Boo-berry.”

“Well…”  She looked over at Brad.  “Does Daddy Brad have all that stuff?”

“Nope.  I think we’ll have to go out for
boo-berry
.”

“I get my shoes,” Chris said.  He slid off the bed and ran back to his room.

No better time than the present.  Brad slid over to Val and kissed her.  “So…we’re getting the little guy pancakes.  What’re we gettin’ his mama?”

“A cup of decaf, I think.”

“Is that all?”

“I’ll figure something out.”

“Uh…there’s something else I think you should get.”

She grinned.  “And what would that be?”

She’d fallen for it.  He rolled over and opened his nightstand drawer to pull out the little box from the jeweler.  “Close your eyes.”

“Do you have hash browns over there?”

“Close your eyes, Val.”  When she did, he opened the box and took out the ring.  The woman at the jeweler’s had promised that any woman would love that ring—it was simple but stunning, she’d assured him.  He took her left hand and held it by her ring finger.  They’d only talked about it once and she’d dismissed him because she’d thought at the time that Ethan would never give her a divorce.  She’d told Brad it didn’t matter, that she was married to him in her heart.  That told him all he’d needed to hear. “Will you marry me, Valerie Quinn?”

She opened her eyes, stunned at first.  She took in a breath and then smiled.  She looked up at him and stroked his cheek, then kissed him
.  “Yes, yes, I will, Brad Payne.  I will marry you.”

He slid the ring over her finger just as Chris bounded back in the room.  He set his shoes on the bed and climbed up.  Brad almost laughed because he was still wearing his pajamas.  He didn’t know that he’d ever felt this happy in his life, and Chris was a part of that joy.

Chris grabbed his shoes and finished making his way to Val’s side.  Instead of asking her to help him, though, he touched her cheek. “Why are you crying, mommy?”

“Because, I think, my life is finally perfect.”  Brad touched
her belly, and Chris smiled, placing his hand on top of Brad’s.  “No, I take it back, sweetie.  I don’t
think
.  I
know
my life is perfect.”

Brad leaned over and kissed her on the cheek.  “Fuck it.  Let’s get dressed.  We’re gonna have breakfast and then we’re gonna go to the Justice of the Peace.”

“What?”

“Why not?”  He could tell she was giving it a lot of thought.  She wasn’t sure.  He would give in—if she wanted another big wedding, hell, yeah, he’d do it for her, but he didn’t give a shit.  She was already his girl.  He’d seen it in her eyes the moment she’d said
I will
.  That was enough for him.  That would last forever.