Shafting the Halls (3 page)

The thought of having Daisy’s parents here, along with my father, has everyone excited. Hunter and Aiden’s mom couldn’t come due to conditions of her parole, but we are all going down for New Year’s to visit her. My mother has decided to remain with Landon as he serves the remainder of his house arrest for aiding in Tad’s crimes. She has yet to meet Brannon and he just turned one.

“Yeah, long day,” she replies. Pushing me to my back, she straddles my thighs before setting the box on our nightstand. My hips involuntarily roll up into her and I groan when I see her hardening nipples poking through her t-shirt, just begging for my mouth. “Nothing we can’t handle.” Her fingers trace the words "Sex and Sin" across my lower abdomen making my dick twitch beneath her. Rolling her hips, she grinds down on my now rock hard cock.

My fingers tug at her shirt, but she stops me, just like she always seems to do now. I hate it. I hate how she seems to see herself now. I wish she could see what I do instead of covering up what she wishes she could change.

“Da da da.”

The sound through the baby monitor is like ice cold water on the both of us. Rolling from me, Daisy stands to her feet, quickly digging through her dresser for shorts. “Are you getting him, Daddy, or am I?” she tosses over her shoulder.

“I better let you handle this one, Mommy,” I reply, looking down at the tent my dick is pitching in my shorts. “I’m gonna need a minute to talk him down.”

“Okie dokie,” she replies, yanking on her shorts. Opening our bedroom door, Daisy heads across the hall to Brannon’s nursery to wrangle our feisty boy for breakfast.

Sitting up in the bed, I scrub a hand over my face. Blowing out a breath, I shove to my feet and decide to take a shower, hoping it will clear my head. A cold one. There’s a lot of shit swirling in her head. I can see it, but she won’t talk about it. Life gets in the way every time I get her alone, and we desperately need that time to clear the air. With a busy house the next few days, something tells me I won’t be getting much alone time with my wife, unless I get creative.

Which is exactly what I plan to do.

Daisy

Stepping into the nursery, I quickly close the door behind me, grateful for the interruption. How do you tell your husband you don’t want him to see you naked? Shit, I don’t even want to see me naked. How do you tell him that you love your son, but hate what carrying him did to your body?

I want him so badly. I can’t even begin to describe how much I yearn for his body to be pressed against mine, to feel him skin on skin. I can’t though. It’s not like we don’t have sex, we do, it’s just not like it was. That’s on me. For whatever reason, ever since our trip to Florida last month, I can’t bring myself to let go when we’re in bed together. I’m stiff and uncomfortable in my own skin. Of course, Gray knows something is up, he can tell things are off with me. This is a touchy subject. Something I hate, because I know I shouldn’t feel this way, but I feel it nonetheless.  

That’s my dilemma.

I pad across the room to my black-haired baby boy. His hands reach for me as he stands inside his crib. “Ma ma,” he squeals, instantly making me smile.

“Good morning, happy boy,” I say, lifting him into my arms before covering his face in kisses. “We need to get you cleaned up and dressed.

Once I have Brannon changed and dressed in a sweater and jeans, I put on his red and green skull socks that Aiden and Cam bought for him and his black chucks. Opening the door to the nursery, I step into the hall.

“There’s my boy!” Hunter says and the baby immediately reaches for him. “Hey, where’s the bib I had made for Christmas?”

My eyes widen, “I, uh, must’ve forgotten it in the bedroom,” I reply, backtracking toward my bedroom door. “I’ll have to bring it down later.”

Hunter’s lip quirks up. “Sure, that’s why I found it hidden behind all the dish towels.” 

Pulling the green bib from his back pocket, Hunter fastens the Velcro, one handed, around Brannon’s neck. I cringe at the words "I saw Mommy spanking Santa Claus" written in white letters.

“What the hell were you doing digging for dish towels?” I ask, knowing that Hunter goes into the large kitchen on the main level, for one reason only: if he’s out of bacon downstairs in his own kitchen.

Which happens a lot.

“I was handling a cookie hoarding situation,” he shrugs, telling me that he is up to no good, as usual. “Anyway, I just wanted to warn you.” Leaning in close, he grins at me. “Henry must be on his way back from the airport, Mack’s old lady senses are tingling.”

“Oh my God,” I shriek, slapping him on the arm. Nearly gagging on the thought of my mom and Mack. I’ll need to bleach that vision out of my head or I’ll never be able to keep a straight face, much less do anything like eat or drink. “That’s just, no. I’m thinking we should just leave him in Georgia with your mom.” Grinning wide, I pat his shoulder in mock excitement. “Daddy’s home, Hunter, and he’s ready to take goooooood care of Mommy.”

Hunter heaves a little before making a gagging sound. “That was a low blow, baby momma. I can’t be friends with you right now. Bran, your mom is a very disturbed woman. She’s got naked granny ladies playin’ on repeat in my head. Dancing with their saggy titties blowing in the wind.” He shudders before shaking his head. “I think my dick just dove into my asshole to hibernate for the winter.” Turning to the stairwell, Hunter mumbles something about saving the young and heads downstairs.

Walking back into our bedroom, I strip out of my clothes and pull out the emerald green halter dress that Camaron bitched about until I tried on while we were shopping last week. I only bought it to keep Cam and Chase from throwing fits in the store. I was planning to take it back to the store until Grayson saw it hanging in the closet. Now, here I am, wearing it today when I’d rather put on yoga pants and one of Grayson’s sweatshirts.

Stepping into the fabric I pull it up over my body, covering not nearly enough. Taking the ties, I reach behind my neck to secure them and lock eyes with a very naked Gray as he steps out from the bathroom. Scrubbing a towel over his hair, his eyes rake over my reflection. “Wow,” he says on an exhale.

Dropping the towel to the bed, Gray makes his way over to me. His eyes sparking with heat that make me want to do nothing, but stand here and let him engulf me. It feels like so long ago that I just let go and felt all those things, but something stops me every time.

I stop me.

“Daisy,” Gray breathes stepping up behind me, his breath tickling my neck as he brushes my hair to the side. Softly, he presses his lips to my bare shoulder. His arms wrap around my middle, pulling me back against him. His erection presses into my back, letting me feel each of his piercings. Slowly his hands glide up the smooth fabric to my breasts. Cupping them with both hands, Grayson groans. My head lulls back against his shoulder, a tiny moan escapes my lips as he pinches my hardening nipples through the fabric. My eyes flutter closed as I force myself to let go, to let us have his moment.

“Look at us, Daisy,” Gray says into my ear. He says nothing until I blow out a breath and meet his eyes in the mirror, his gaze is hard and serious as he watches me, but his desire is boiling just beneath the surface. “Don’t lose focus of what lies between us, baby. You let the shit in your head drown out everything I say to you. You can’t hide from me. I won’t let you, not anymore.”

Releasing my breast, he cups my jaw, capturing my lips with his in a kiss that has my toes curling into the carpet beneath me. His tongue thrusts into my mouth as he turns my body so that my chest is pressed firmly to his. Grayson’s hands dive into my hair, cupping my head to hold me to him. He moans against my lips in desperation, as if he can’t get close enough to me.

“Grayson,” I gasp into his mouth.

Breaking the kiss, Gray brushes his lips along my jaw. “I need my wife.”

“Hey, your parents are here!” Mack shouts through the closed bedroom door. “Better hurry before Hunter scares them off.”

Gray cups my jaw. Looking down into my eyes, his face goes serious. “This is a conversation we are going to have, Wildflower.” Scooping up clothes from his dresser, Gray disappears back into the bathroom and closes the door behind him.

He knows, just as I figured he did. Obviously, Grayson was trying to give me the space I was silently asking for, even if it hurt him to do it.

Henry

Closing the door to my bedroom, I throw my coat over the chair and take in the bare, lonely space. The holidays are something I would prefer to work through. With the guys touring, we never used to stay still for long. I liked that, it kept my mind off of things I gave up. The things that were lost to me because I gave in to weakness, because I thought I was invincible.

I thought that after twenty years of running from those ghosts my life was turning around. The boys have made it big. They are settling down and making families and I am damn proud of my part in that. Then, I met Katheryn. The timing was right and something about her just made sense.

What started out as the two of us finding a way to unleash the sexual tension we both let build up for so long, ended up being something I found I needed. I buried all the pain and didn’t let anyone in for so long. Then, somehow, she got in. I gave her a piece of me, a part of me no one had gotten through to in years, no one since Jenn.

“That’s over now, Big Man,” I remind myself. I’m alone in ways that I should be used to, but I’m not. With everyone around you happy and in love, how do you pretend that your heart doesn’t hurt for what you had and lost more than two decades ago?

Yanking my shirt over my head, I stare at the scar on my side. The only reminder that I have of my time with Jenn. My fingers run along the jagged flesh and I wince. Not in physical pain, because those wounds healed long ago. My pain is more than a flesh injury, it’s a deep and terminal wound, and with each passing day, only proves there are things so much worse than dying.

In a few hours, I’ll be back in my zone. Hiding behind my sunglasses while everyone parties at Ironsound headquarters for the company Christmas party. Grabbing a beer from my mini fridge, I pop the top and down, swallow after swallow. For now, I’ll just be Henry Richardson: the man who had it all and gave it away because he was too scared to fight for it.

Aiden

Thumping the pencil against the coffee table, I work the beat in my head for the new song I have been working on with Gray and Hunter. With my headphones blaring in my ears, I can’t hear the discussion around me, but I watch everyone move about the room. Studying people is what I do; it’s second nature.

Daisy’s parents stand with Gray’s dad, completely captivated with their grandson, while Jazzie chases Bits around with some stupid fucking elf that Daisy and the girls arrange in different places every night before we go to bed. That stupid thing is everywhere and all I want is to "arrange" him in the fireplace.

Bits yelps and barks as he skids under the table, coming to a stop at my feet. Jazzie walks up to me, her red dress swishing back and forth before she stops to tap her shoe on the hardwood. Her eyes narrow, staring down at my shoes, where the damn wiener dog sits.

“Can I help you?” I ask, slipping my headphones off my ears.

“Tell Bits he has to play with us,” she grumbles. “He keeps running away.”

Smart dog. I’d run from that elf too.

“Uncle Aiden, where should I put the elf so it will scare Bits?” she whispers loudly, covering her mouth as she giggles.

Grinning, I lean down and kiss her cheek. “You know what’s better than getting Bits?” I ask, tapping her nose with my finger. “Getting everyone. Would you like to do that?”

Her eyebrows knit together before she smiles like a Cheshire cat. “Yes!” she exclaims, jumping up and down still clutching that fucking holiday menace. “How do I do that?”

Wrapping an arm around her shoulder, I lean into her ear and tell her exactly what to do with that creepy looking fucker and promise to buy her a goddamn Queen of the Ice doll, or what the fuck ever that movie is she watches on repeat every day.

“Really, Uncle Aiden?” she shrieks, making me wince.

“Yes, I’ll have Mack go right now,” I assure her. “I just really really want to watch you get everyone with Mr. Nibbles.” I swallow hard at the mention of that damn thing’s name. “Make sure you do it quick, but don’t get to close. Just throw that little asshole, I mean little buddy, into the fire so he can warm up. It’s got to be cold at the North Pole this time of year.”

“Oh yes, it is, Uncle Aiden. You’re so smart,” Jazzie gasps, looking down at the elf. “Come on, Mr. Nibbles. Let’s warm you up.”

“Aiden Chesterfield,” Cam says behind me and I groan.

“Busted,” I say, tossing the pencil down.

“Jazzie,” Cam says, turning her attention to our five-year-old niece. “Mommy has the cookies in the kitchen and I bet she has you some chocolate milk ready too.”

“Oh boy!” she squeals, hauling ass for the kitchen.

“Hi, baby,” I reply, pulling Cam into my lap. “How’s everything?”

“Don’t you ‘how’s everything’ me.” Her eyes narrow, but there’s amusement in those deep blues. “Were you just conspiring to kill an elf on Christmas Eve?”

I shrug, attempting to look innocent. “Maybe, but that damn thing is creepy,” I argue, when she just shakes her head at me and rolls her eyes. “Those eyes are the eyes of a killer, Camaron. You’ll see when that bastard starts stealing knives and there are strange deliveries from hardware stores. Next thing you know, he’ll start killin’ us off one by one.”

“Do you hear yourself?”

“There’s my girl!” Daisy’s mom, Lisa, squeals when she spots her daughter coming down the stairs wrapping a black sweater tightly around herself as if she were freezing.

“Hi, Mom,” Daisy replies, walking into her hug and squeezing her tight.

Grayson walks down, bypassing the women completely, heading for his dad, Dan, who is holding Brannon while talking to Daisy’s father, Collin. Brannon instantly starts reaching for Gray and he takes him without a thought. “Something isn’t right here,” I whisper to Cam as we both watch things as they play out.