Harlow: A Military Bad Boy Romance: The Bradford Brothers (37 page)

“No,” she says, looking up into my eyes in a very genuine stare. “You got me out of a big jam I didn’t even know I was in. Thank you.”

She removes my pants and runs her hand up and down my shaft, while staring deeply into my eyes. When she takes me inside of her it feels like ecstasy. Fireworks go off in my mind.

She is good at what she does, and she does it until I’m on the edge of pleasure. Gasping for breath, I pull her head back so that she is looking straight at me.

“Stop,” I tell her. “I want to be inside you.”

“Are you sure you don’t want me to…”

“There’s plenty of time for that another time,” I tell her. “Right now, I just want to take you.”

She looks around, as if expecting me to carry her to my bedroom the way I’d carried her up the stairs to hers.

“Right here,” I tell her, pulling off her blazer.

She moans, and I’m pleased that having me in her mouth turned her on so much. I unbutton her silk blouse and then lift her tank top over her head. Finally I unsnap her bra.

“So many clothes,” I complain, but she’s keeping me ready with her hand. Not to mention the look of her ample breasts and already- erect nipples.

“They made me dress like this to get you off your criminal charge,” she jokes.

“And I’m making you undress to get me off in a different way.”

“Very funny,” she says, as she pulls my own shirt over my head.

I grab the condom I’ve been keeping in my wallet since the first night we got it on, while she shimmies out of her skirt. She’s sitting on her bottom on my living room floor, and I pull off her pantyhose slowly and seductively.

“Turn around,” I tell her, once we’re both naked except for her panties. “I love that you wore a thong today. You just knew that we’d be doing this. I want to see that amazing ass of yours.”

She gets on all fours in front of me, and it’s exactly how I’ve been wanting to see her. I trace my fingers along the curves of her ass, and then pull her panties to the side.

“You have the most gorgeous body I’ve ever seen,” I tell her, as I put on the condom and then insert myself into her.

“Right back at you,” she says, and then groans once she feels me enter her.

I hold onto her hips while I thrust in and out of her, establishing a mind-blowing rhythm between us.

“Jensen,” she says, as she tightens around me, and it causes me to orgasm along with her.

“I’m coming,” she says, as I feel her tighten her legs and wrap her insides around me.

“Me too. Me too.”

We collapse on the living room floor with my arms around her and my head on her breasts.

“You’re perfect,” she says. “I love you.”

“I love you too. More than you could ever know.”

“Here goes nothing,” I say, as I finish setting the table at my house. I stare at the three empty seats, fearing how this evening’s dinner will go.

“It will be fine.”

Jensen comes up behind me and gives me a peck on the top of my head, his strong hands massaging my shoulders. In the week since the trial, we’ve been spending nearly every day together. Although it seems impossible, we just keep getting closer and closer.

“And what if it’s not?” I spin around to face him, wanting him to see how serious I think this is.

“So what?” he asks with a cavalier shrug. Then I see the worry cross his face. “I mean, what’s the worst that can happen?”

“Look Jensen, you said that your family is ‘crazy’ and I think I know what you were getting at…”

“Gee, thanks,” he says, and laughs.

“Sorry. I didn’t mean it that way. I just mean that from what you’ve told me and from my interactions with her, your mom has… some… issues… and I know you’ve had a sordid past with everything she did to your dad and your brothers. And I know things with your brothers don’t always run smoothly even though for the most part you’re close.”

This time he tenses up and now I’m the one comforting him. I wrap my arms around him in a tight hug.

“I’m not trying to upset you. I’m just trying to say…”

“That it’s obvious how fucked up my family is.”

“Well, my point is that my family is crazy too. I guess every family is in its own way, but mine is more… lurking beneath the surface. Everything on the outside looks nice and perfect, but the second someone challenges it, everything starts to boil up to the surface, if not just plain erupt, and I’m afraid…”

“You’re afraid that dating someone like me will cause your parents to go ballistic,” he finishes my awkward run- on sentence for me.

“I… yeah. I do want you to know that no matter what, I want to be with you. But I’m not sure that it’s going to be easy.”

“That’s fine,” he says, kissing me once again. “That’s all I needed to hear. And by the way, nothing worth fighting for is ever easy to obtain.”

“Oh sage wise one,” I joke, as the doorbell rings.

Here goes nothing
.

“Hello, Dear,” says my mom, as soon as I open the door.

She’s holding a pie, and my dad and sister Amy are behind her.

“Hi Mom, come on in,” I say, and step aside to let them through.

“This is my boyfriend, Jensen,” I say. “Jensen, this is Mom, Dad and Amy.”

“Well, hello,” says my mom, as if she doesn’t know what else to say. I watch my dad’s eyes size up Jensen’s tattoos while his mouth curls into a distasteful snarl, as Jensen shakes my mom’s hand and then moves on to meet my father.

“Jensen, huh?” asks Amy, when it’s her turn to meet him. “An interesting name for an interesting choice for my sister.”

Her tone is both flirtatious and condescending, a combination that only Amy can pull off. Her long blonde hair glides along her skinny back as she turns away from Jensen, and I swear she wiggles her almost non- existent ass. I think about calling her out but I don’t want to ruin the evening before it even begins.

We head to the kitchen where I serve the chicken cacciatore I made earlier today.

“Very nice, Riley,” Mom says approvingly.

“What happened to the low carb diet?” Amy bursts out.

“I ditched it.”

I take a defiant bite of my dinner. Amy sizes Jensen up again, and he graciously says, “I don’t think Riley needs to be on a diet. She looks great the way she is.”

“Thanks, honey.” I smile and squeeze his hand under the table. He squeezes back reassuringly.

I can tell that Amy wants to ask how a completely in shape guy could like a fatty like me. It’s something I wondered myself, before something changed. At some point I realized that Jensen was really into my body, and that I should be too. And I feel confident enough around him to wear the spaghetti strap dress I’m wearing tonight.

Amy doesn’t ask that question. I think even she knows that would be taking things a bit too far. Instead, she asks, “So what happened to Brian?”

“Amy dear, that’s inappropriate,” Mom says.

“But what did happen to him?” asks my Dad.

“I ditched him too,” I shrug.

Just before Jensen knocked him out cold
, I think, but don’t say. I decide a half-lie is better than the whole truth. He is technically the one who dumped me, but there’s no way I’d want him back.

“Riley, you know I respect your choices but this is a bit of a shock to us,” my mom says. “One day we’re at the Albuquerque Country Club with your fiancé and his father who is the head of the firm you work at, and the next day we’re…”

“At my house with my new boyfriend?” I ask them. “And by the way, it’s the firm I
used
to work at.”

My father sets his silverware down and clears his throat. I gulp, scared yet proud of myself for putting it out there right away. I could anticipate that asking about my job and career was next on their agenda, and I wanted to be in control of the conversation, for once.

“I’m sorry, what?” Mom asks, her smile fading.

“This is great entertainment, Riley,” says Amy, as she stuffs her face. “And to think I almost went to the movies instead.”

“Please stay out of this, Amy,” Dad says. “Riley, what are you talking about?”

“The firm and I weren’t a good fit,” I tell him. “I don’t want to work there— or anywhere like there— ever again.”

Jensen squeezes my hand again and I turn my head slightly to see that he’s smiling proudly at me. And I’m proud of myself for saying exactly what I mean, for once. And even for
knowing
exactly what I mean.

At lunch after his trial, Jensen said that he had gotten everything he wanted and then realized it wasn’t actually what he wanted. For me, the reverse is true. I didn’t get anything I wanted, but then I realized I hadn’t really wanted any of it anyway. I had wanted something different. I had wanted
this
.

“I don’t understand,” Mom says. “What are you going to
do
?”

“I’m going to sleep in later than 5 am, and go to bed later than 9:30 pm. I’m going to feel much more relaxed not worrying whether I’ve impressed enough of the right partners for my next evaluation, or whether I’ve accidentally impressed a partner who’s on the outs with the firm, and somehow gotten caught up in firm politics without even knowing what happened…”

“She meant for
work
, Riley,” Dad says, as if I’m an idiot and didn’t know that. “What are you going to do for
work
?”

“I work for Veterans’ Legal Alliance, representing former members of our military,” I tell him.

“Tell me that’s not how you met Jensen!” Amy sputters.

I glare at her. She’s just jealous because she can’t avoid drama long enough to keep a boyfriend, and she has no career at all, and still lives with our parents. She may be the standard definition of beautiful, but for once I feel confident that I’ve got a lot more going for me than she does.

“You shagged your client! You
did
!” Amy gloats.

I ignore her and continue.

“I also have my own office, downtown, and I’m going to start to take on some of my own clients.”

“But how are is any of this going to be enough to make a living on?” my dad asks. “I mean, a
real
living? And what about all the money we invested into your future? Law school cost a fortune.”

“It was money well spent, Dad,” I tell him, and reach out to put my hand on top of his. He looks down at it, surprised. He and I have never had the best relationship. “Thank you for putting me through college and law school. I really appreciate it. I am enjoying being a lawyer now more than I ever have in the past.”

Mom and Dad look at each other, completely perplexed. I can just see them saying to each other telepathically: “This is
not
the Riley we are used to!”

But I’m sick of bending over backwards to please them, going along with everything they want and basing my life decisions off of their demands. I’m on a new path, and they can either come with me or stay where they are, stomping their feet at me for not going exactly the way they want me to go.

“How about some pie?” Mom asks.

“What?” Amy says, quickly turning to face Mom.

“Well, why not?” I say, and stand up to retrieve everyone’s plate.

“I’ll get it,” says Jensen, getting up with me, and so I go to get the pie.

I can practically
see
Amy fuming and storming inside. She is used to our parents lecturing me and even belittling me like she does. She’s the pretty one and as spoiled as can be. But I’m the smart one and the family expectations ride on my shoulders.

“We’re only so tough on you because we care so much, and know you’re capable of so much,” they’ve told me many times before. But this time they don’t know what to say. They had no idea I’m capable of being myself. And neither did I, before I met Jensen.

Later, after they’ve finally left, Jensen and I are laying in my bed, cuddling.

“That wasn’t so bad,” he says, and then laughs.

“Stop it!” I laugh too, so hard that I snort.