Sliding (The Stone Series) (43 page)

I
will contact your lawyer in the near future to set our meeting up.
I will never hurt you again if you give me another chance.
I won't desert you. Please don’t leave me, don’t say goodbye. I love you
Brooklynn Taylor.

 
Yours forever and you are MINE FOREVER,

Tater
Tot

I grab the CD and run from my room with tears streaming down my face clouding
my vision dropping the letter from Tate on my bedroom floor in my wake. I run
past Mac wordlessly and go to the studio. I rip my t-shirt over my head and
throw the CD into the player. I am standing in my sports bra and shorts looking
at myself in the floor to ceiling mirrors and I have no idea who that is
looking back at me. I know it’s my reflection but I no longer have any idea who
I am, who I will become and how.

When “Better That We Break” plays and I hear Adam Levine singing
I crash to the floor in a heap and sob
like a wild animal. My ears are assaulted next by “Rehab” and I’m unable to
catch my breath. I felt like Tate was my best friend and my lover all rolled
into one until the day my world crashed in on me. When did he stop feeling that
way about me? Did he stop? Did he ever really truly feel like that at all? I
can’t trust anything anymore, not words, not feelings.
I rise to
my feet without realizing what I’m doing. I start to move slowly at first but
then the music takes me away. I don’t hear the door open or see Mac walk in as “The
Scientist” starts. With tears rolling down my face I continue to move through
my pain.

“I Don’t Want to Lose You” really says it all to me. I have to accept who
Tate is. I understand now even if it’s not the meaning he’s trying to send that
he’s not going to change. I need to be the one to walk away and stay away. I
can’t let him back into my life or he’ll do the same thing to me over and over
again. He won’t change no matter how much he may want to.

I notice Mac standing in the doorway holding Tate’s letter as “I’m Not
Giving You Up” begins and I lose it when our eyes lock. I know Tate means these
words, he expects me to forgive him for what he’s done like it was just a
misunderstanding between us. He’s not going to accept that I am walking away,
giving him up. He will never allow me to be happy with another man, with Mac.
Tate will make sure to make things as difficult as possible if he knows I’m
with Mac. My mind begins to think that I’ll be forced to walk away from them
both, first Mac then Tate or Tate will never let me be.

By the last two songs I’m not even thinking of Tate, I’m crying over the
fear of walking away from Mac so I can get away from Tate. Mac approaches me
and I put my hands on his beautiful face.

“Take me to your room, please. Make love to me. I need to forget my
past…Tate, all of it. Please Mac I need you right now, my future, please. I am
so scared of losing you just when I’ve realized that I’ve fallen in love with
you. I love you, Tony Macintosh, I love you” I lock my lips on Mac knowing I
will break his heart soon when I leave him. I just hope he’ll take me back
after I do what needs to be done.

“I love you to Brook Taylor.”

“Brook Adams, Taylor is Tate’s name. That’s not me anymore, that’s my
past. I don’t want that, I want my future.”

“Do you see me as your future? Maybe you as Brook Macintosh?” Mac
inquires.

I tell him that when I think about my future I see him there, I hope he’s
there. At my words Mac locks his lips to mine and as our kiss grows more
passionate I know he will not be taking me to his bed, instead he’s going to
have me right here on the floor of the gym.

I am overjoyed to hear Brook tell
me she’s in love with me. When I kiss her and begin to process the words we
just said to each other for the first time, words I have never said or felt for
another woman, my insides begin to burn and I need her now. I told her from the
start that she would never be like the other women I was with; I told her I
would never fuck her. I meant those words so even now when I take her hard and
fast, even though to anyone watching it would look like a fuck I am making love
to the only woman I have ever loved.

I don’t even bother to take off her
sports bra or my clothes. I just take my throbbing dick out of my shorts with
one hand as I tug her shorts down with the other. I am inside her thrusting
deep, fast and hard. I bite her neck, her stomach. She is clawing at me, in
need of it just as hard and deep as I am. When she begins to lift her hips
meeting me thrust for thrust I know she’s about to come. When I feel her pussy
get wetter and clench me I lose it with her. I clench my jaw and moan her name
as she digs her nails in my back thrashing under me.

I lift Brook up into my arms and
carry her into the gym shower. I turn on the water and walk under the spray as
I peel off Brook’s now soaking wet sports bra, her shorts were kicked off as I
lifted her into my arms as were mine. I look at her tear stained face with the
water at my back as she pulls my shirt over my head and runs her hands over my
chest and arms. She pauses at my nipples making circles around them before
nipping them with her teeth. She slides down my body and takes me into her
mouth sucking herself off me. I am instantly hard and in dire need to be inside
her again. I pull her up by her shoulders and put her against the shower wall.
I brace myself with one arm on the wall while I lift her leg with the other. As
I rub my hand up her thigh she wraps her leg around my hip. My mouth finds hers
and she moans into my mouth causing a seductive vibration to run to my core.
She pushes my ass, pushing me inside her again. Her pussy is slippery from her
continual arousal making it easy to slide inside of her. She wraps her hands
around the top of my head and lifts herself onto me. Both of her legs are
wrapped around my hips while her back is pressed against the wall, all while
keeping me inside of her. She doesn’t dare move her hips in fear of it coming
to an end way too fast. I understand her need for this to last, I have the same
need. I keep my hips as still as I can while I kiss away her tears. I kiss her
eyes, lick her cheeks. Brook takes my face in her hands and pulls back so she
can study my face. That’s when I know what she’s thinking. She’s trying to
memorize my face because she’s planning on saying good-bye. I look at her with
a quizzical look on my face while I slowly process what she could be thinking.

 
“You’re saying good-bye. Why? What the fuck,
Brook? You love me and you’re planning on walking away from me aren’t you? Are
you going back to him?” I ask as I remain inside her.

She locks her lips on mine and
begins to rise up and down on my cock. I push her harder into the shower wall
and follow her rhythm until its clear this is going to end way before we both
meant it to. When she moans my name in my ear and comes on me again I’m ready
to explode. All it takes is for her to bite my earlobe and I am firing off
inside of her again.

I take her off of me and put her
feet down on the shower floor, I wash her body and she washes mine. I wash her
hair and she rubs her hands over my head, her new favorite thing to do when
we’re making love. We don’t speak a word until the water is off and we are
wrapped in lush white towels, mine hung low on my hips, hers tight under her
arms, her wet dark curls hanging over her shoulders.
   

“I don’t want to leave you, Mac but
Tate…”

“But Tate what? You’re going to
stay with him? What are you thinking? You deserve better than that Brook.”

“I’m not staying with him; I don’t
want to stay with him, not anymore. When I think about my future now I do see
myself with you. But that won’t happen ever if I can’t get away from Tate. You
heard the songs, you read the letter, Mac. He’ll never let me leave especially
if he knows I’m with someone else, with you.”

“He doesn’t own you, he can’t
control you anymore Brook. You don’t need his money, you don’t need him. We’ll
go meet him together and I swear to fucking God if he attempts to pull any
bullshit I’ll snap his fucking neck. You tell him you’re leaving and he can
sign the papers or not. It really doesn’t matter. Either way you are leaving
him. If that’s really what you want. If not please tell me now. It’s bad enough
already; please don’t make it harder on me. If you don’t want to be with me
I’ll still help you any way I can but please don’t play with me. I have never
felt like this way about anyone. You can wreck me Brook, for good.”

“I meant it when I said I was in
love with you. I love you, Mac. I will go see him and tell him it’s over and he
can sign the papers or not but you are not coming with me and snapping his
neck. I’d like to see you smack him around a little though, Lord knows he
deserves it the fucking prick.”

I slip into what can be considered a depression once more. I refuse to
work out with the guys or leave my room to hang out with Jonesie and Tara. I
don’t even go to Mac’s room. He has taken to sleeping in my bed with me even
though it’s not getting him any. I keep myself wrapped in my covers, I’m so
cold, all the way to my bones and I can’t get warm. After a few days Mac
decides that maybe if he goes on with his activities as if he’s having a great
time without me I’ll snap out of it but I’m onto his game so when he tells me
that he’s going out to dinner with Jonesie and Tara I’m unfazed. I tell him
that’s fine and to have a great time.

“I wish you would come along. It might make you feel better.” Mac tries
to coax me. “You’re safe, the threat is long gone and the house is locked safe.
I’ll see you in a couple of hours then.”

I hear Mac close the door but I never turn around to say good-bye.

Shortly after they all leave another storm comes through and cuts the
power again. I sit in darkness waiting for the generator to kick in. When it
doesn’t I start to get scared but tell myself I am being ridiculous. I am about
to go out to the living space when I hear a sound. Was that footsteps? I’m
making myself crazy. It’s probably Mac. I’m sure when he heard the storm he
felt guilty leaving me here all alone and rushed back.

I climb back into bed so he won’t think I was waiting for him. The
bedroom door opens and I pretend to be asleep. Then in one fast violent
movement I am ripped out of my bed by my hair. I’m guessing it’s not Mac.

Brook has been in a funk since she
listened to that damn CD from Tate. She won’t leave her room, she won’t talk
about it and she won’t touch me. I sleep next to her every night in her bed but
it’s worse than sleeping alone. I am trying to be patient and give her some
space but I am reaching the end of my rope. Tonight Jonesie and Tara invite us
out to eat and I accept even though I know Brook won’t come along. I walk out
of her bedroom, hoping she’ll change her mind before I reach the door but she
just lays there and lets me leave without a good-bye. I know I won’t be able to
eat at the restaurant and I am the worse possible company so I call a taxi and
leave as soon as I arrive. It’s a good thing that I do because as soon as I get
into the taxi a major storm hits. I can’t imagine Brook alone in the house if
the power goes out again. Not in the state she’s been in. It seems like every
ounce of strength I watched her develop since being here was so easily taken
away by just a few of his words and music.

The driving is rough on the way
home, visibility is next to non-existent. The driver is crawling along and a
bad feeling is creeping at the back of my mind. Nudging me into killer mode and
I don’t know where it’s coming from until we finally pull up in front of the
house and I see that lights are on at Jonesie’s but not at the guest house. I know
immediately that power has been cut to the house, the house where I left Brook
alone like a sitting duck.

At first there are only two of them. One of them is holding me with my
arms locked behind my head so I can’t move or grab at him and the other has me
by my legs so I can’t kick. Then another older man comes in, clearly the one in
charge and I am stunned to see eyes so familiar I’d know them anywhere but
without the warmth and compassion of Mac’s.

“Where’s the boyfriend? Stupid of my little brother to leave such a
delicious little thing alone. You’ll have to forgive him, he wasn’t raised
right. You see our father raised me to protect the ones that I love but Anthony
seems to have a hard time doing that with his girls. I tried so many times to
talk Anthony into being a part of this family but he was just too good for us,
turning his back on his roots every chance he got. He never seems to learn his
lesson either, it’s a shame first that partner of his and now here you are in the
same predicament. Stupid like our mother he is. I don’t know what my father saw
in her. I guess he was blinded by a tight piece of ass. Maybe Mac has the same
issue as our old man.”

My blood runs cold remembering Mac’s story of what happened to Holly, the
name he stills cries out in his sleep some nights. I look at this man who
resembles Mac so much but it’s hard to believe that they are brothers. He is as
tall as Mac and his build is similar but Mac has age and Sven on his side. He
is much darker skinned than Mac but it’s the eyes, they are identical. He goes
on to tell me, like it’s a family fucking reunion that he’s ten years older
than Mac who he calls Anthony. He says that their father would have wanted him
to be with his family not in military schools and “shit like that.” He claims
Mac knows all about him but apparently instead of joining forces in the family
drug cartel he has chosen to fight against them. This monster with Mac’s eyes
claims the deal with Ted was the last straw and he will no longer tolerate his
brother’s disrespect. He says he needs to be taught a lesson.