Swallow (Kindred Book 2) (14 page)

“Young love,” Thad said with a theatrical sigh that earned him a glare from Brodie.

Hiding her own smile, she estimated that Thad was younger than everyone else at the table. He was the most fresh faced at any rate and seemed the most optimistic.

Ignoring Thad, Tuck was the most mission minded and brought them back to point. “We can leave in the morning,” Tuck said. “Zave and I will put the gear together tonight.”

Thad wasn’t back to serious yet. “Get ready to get your geek on,” Thad muttered from the corner of his mouth, then sloped his body toward her. “When those two get together in any room with tech, they always come up with new gadgets.”

“You complaining?” Tuck asked with raised brows as he cleaned his plate. “You love playing with toys. I just made a fresh batch of chips. They’re all ready for programming. What will we make them do, Falc?"

Thad was beyond caring about the mission, or the prep needed for it. He extended his arms high over his head to stretch. “I thought I might get the chance to pry some money out of you fellas,” he said, straining his voice when he overextended. “I brought cash.”

The others at the table sniggered and she enjoyed seeing them relax into a banter with each other. “You may as well hand it over,” Brodie said. “Have you ever won a poker night?”

He straightened up, exuding triumph. “I’ve been practicing,” Thad said, not dejected by the jibe. “I got a league going at the hospital.”

Her smile faltered over this new fact. “Hospital?” she asked

“Thad is a real MD,” Brodie explained.

“Yeah,” Thad said. “You and me are the only two with real jobs around here, Zara. We’ve got to carry the rest of them, teach them responsibility, you know.”

Zave was impossible to get a measure of, she’d try to get more of his story from Brodie, and then try to draw some conclusions. Whereas Thad was as normal as they came, and in their bleak lives, that was something real.

While everyone was in a good mood, she probed further. “Do you live with Zave and Bess on the island?” she asked.

“My mom stays with me sometimes, when she wants to go shopping or take in a show,” Thad said, propping his elbows on the table to rest his chin on his joined hands. “I have an apartment in Seattle. It’s the only way I can hold down a job. And parking the chopper at the hospital everyday would be cost prohibitive.”

Her intake of breath was almost childish glee because she hadn’t expected that incredible revelation. “You have a helicopter?”

He appeared as happy about it as she was. “Zave does,” Thad said, nodding his way. “But we both fly.”

Turning her wondrous eyes on Brodie, she begged for a trip without words because her previous experience with a helicopter carried negative connotations, she’d like to try it without the threat of impending trauma hanging over her head.

Brodie sighed. “Can we fix this mess before you leave me for another guy just ‘cause he has a better ride?”

Though his tone was dry, she suspected he was teasing, and so showed her teeth in a wide smile as she slunk out of her chair to creep around to him. “Baby, I wouldn’t trade your ride for anything,” she purred, and he accepted her onto his lap when she pressured her hand on his shoulder. “You know what seeing you on your bike does to me.” Nuzzling him, she kissed his cheek then the corner of his mouth.

“Yeah, she’s easy to please,” he said, scooping one arm around her torso and sliding a hand up her skirt. She kept placing short, soft kisses on his face.

“How do you get the bike into the bedroom?” Thad asked.

“Who needs a bedroom?” Brodie asked, prying her legs further apart and increasing the urgency of his intemperate groping.

Taking her mouth away from his before he could take control of their kiss. She couldn’t be too eager for him because if he were in the mood, he would deliver what she wanted, and not give a crap about their audience.

“While we have this many guests we do,” she said, disappointed and trying without success to remove his hand from her leg. If he got where he was going, she might have to drag him away from their guests. Dinner was basically over and she had some paperwork to do. Giving Brodie and the boys a chance to bond without a female spying on them would hopefully give her love another boost of progress in his recovery from isolation. “Are you staying down here with the boys or are you in the mood for some private entertainment?”

“You can’t go to bed, not yet,” Thad said. “We just got here.” Scanning the room, he laughed. “Though being here isn’t far from being at home.”

Zave’s house on the west coast island was a duplicate of this one and it had to be strange to travel to a place that was identical to the one you’d departed from, even though they were on opposite sides of the country.

“I’d love to come and visit your place one day,” she said, circling her arms around Brodie’s neck.

“Zave’s place,” Thad said. “And mom would have you in a heartbeat. She loves to spoil guests.”

Odd that Zave should have people in his house when he was even less social than Brodie. “So you don’t have the same aversion to visitors that my man does?”

Thad laughed again. “Zave despises people,” he said. “But he has regular… lodgers.”

Being cryptic must be a Kindred requirement, because she was confused. “Lodgers?” None of the men offered further explanation. “Is this something to do with your custom suite?”

“Right, baby, that’s enough,” Brodie said, boosting her off his lap and smacking her ass. “Go on up to bed. I’ll come up soon.”

Art gave her answers. The rest of them just gave her more questions. But one of the first things Art had taught her was not to corner Brodie in company.

There was still food on the table and these were active men, so they’d probably eat more, giving her a reprieve from clean up duty.

“Ok,” she said and bent to kiss him. Having a night with the boys would level his mood and his thinking. Passing Zave without acknowledgement, she welcomed Tuck’s hand on her waist when she dipped to kiss his cheek.

“You need anything?” Tuck asked, looking her in the eye.

“No, just look after him.”

“Do I get a kiss?” Thad asked.

She got as far as a smile, Brodie got to speaking before she did. “Not a chance, Wren. And none of that, ‘I’m a doctor so I see the naked form all the time’ either. Go to bed, baby.”

It was nice that he was possessive; she just wished she knew what it meant. After Art, she gave Brodie space to grieve. Now that he was coming out the other side of that grief and had a job to focus on, Zara wasn’t going to let their relationship be sidelined and that meant she’d have to be proactive about going after what she wanted.

She watched TV in the bedroom for a while after completing her paperwork and returned some emails from Brodie’s laptop, which was security protected up the wazoo. No one would be able to trace her email origin from that machine. After that, she took the opportunity to soak in the tub before wrapping herself in the blankets on the warm bed.

Zara had no clue of the time when she stirred to the taste of liquor-flavored kisses and his heavy hand resting on her pubis while his fingers massaged her clit.

“Come on, pretty baby. Wake up,” he mumbled on her mouth and his weight covered her when she turned onto her back.

“Baby,” she grumbled and tried to clear her throat, but his tongue coaxed its way into her mouth. Surrendering to the inevitable, she dug her nails in and returned his kiss.

“You want me to stop?” he asked, lifting his body to shove the covers out from between them.

“Even if I say yes, you should keep going.”

His gruff laugh fogged the air between their mouths. He pulled her legs apart and slid a finger into her as he took his home position between her thighs. “That’s what I love about you, baby, you mix it up and keep me guessing.”

She kept him guessing? The idea made her freeze for half a beat. But his fingers slipped out from inside her and he pressured one inner her thigh at the same time his belt buckle clinked. Zara opened her legs for him and pushed her shoulders back in blissful anticipation of his mouth arriving on her naked body. But before she could fall into the embrace of the ecstasy he usually offered in bed, he brushed his lips across her cheekbone to settle them against her ear.

“Why are you still here?”

The whispered question jarred her from the welcome haze of sleep and hormones, and she tried to push him back enough so that she could look him in the eye to judge just how drunk he was. But he didn’t stay close, and she frowned when he reared back and sat in the center of the bed.

“What are you talking about?” she asked, using her fists to bring herself upright.

Rubbing his jaw, he inhaled and his drowsy eyes betrayed that he was intoxicated. “You shouldn’t be here,” he said and his hand left his face to float toward hers, but before he could make contact, it fell away.

She was no stranger to Drunk Brodie. She’d met him on a night she’d feared they would never recover from—the night of Art’s death. Since then he’d been a regular visitor. Sometimes Drunk Brodie just went quiet and got pensive. Other times, he got violent. Never towards her, he focused his rage on something inanimate that she had to rescue from being annihilated. Those times did lead to some rather physical fuck sessions. On rare occasions, like this one was shaping up to be, he would talk.

Any conversation about their relationship was one that she wanted to be a part of. Sober Brodie was an honest guy who knew how to keep secrets. Drunk Brodie didn’t have the same filters. “Don’t talk crazy,” she said, tossing the bunched covers away with the intention of kneeling up, but he snatched the corner she’d just cast aside and threw it over her to cover her naked body. “What is wrong with you?”

He wasn’t feeling sorry for himself or fishing for compliments, he was pissed at her and at himself. He was most comfortable being angry or aggressive, so those seemed to be his go-to places. But he’d never had a problem with her naked form being on show in his bedroom before.

“I treat you like shit,” he grumbled.

“No, you don’t,” she said, scooting her ass down enough that she could squeeze her hand over his on the bed. “You’re grieving.”

His glower made him look dangerous and she wondered if Drunk Brodie was still a crack shot. “Which only makes this relationship more crazy,” he said, shaking his head and running a hand over his hair to clench his fist at the back of his neck. “I was a bastard before… now I ain’t got nothing to keep me sane.”

That he was being this honest about his insecurities made her feel closer to him. If this was going to last, he had to be transparent and prove he trusted her more than anyone, even more than the other Kindred members.

“You’ve got me,” she said, slipping her hand up his arm to cup his face. She rose onto her knees and kissed him. “I’ll keep you sane.”

“And I’ll drive you insane,” he said.

For a quarter of a year, she’d worried about him, his health, his sanity, his eating habits; now he was proving he was putting her ahead of all those needs. The sentiment was touching, but she wasn’t going to give up her responsibilities. She wanted to look after this man, to value him above everything else because when he was ready, and if he chose her, he’d exalt her welfare up into a stratosphere beyond any she could reach.

“I am not going to let you self-destruct,” she whispered, trying to bolster him. “I know you’re a good man.”

He whipped his hand out from under hers then shifted away to sit on the far edge of the bed with his back to her. “You don’t know me,” he mumbled. “You don’t get it… you don’t get it at all.”

Climbing out from beneath the covers, she crawled over to hook both arms around him from behind and then hung over his shoulder to kiss his cheek. “I want to get it,” she said. “I promised Art that I wouldn’t let you push me away.”

An idea struck her while he was reflecting on her words. She jumped off the bed to head for the closet, but he caught her wrist and she ricocheted back, sinking to her knees between his feet.

He was scowling. “When did you tell him that?”

“On the day we lost him,” she said. “Tuck told me that he and Art talked about us, he said you lied about Quebec to push me away.”

He flung her wrist out of his grip. “Nice to know you all enjoyed gossiping.”

Slapping her hands onto his thighs, she straightened her legs to stand but stayed bent so she could kiss him, but he didn’t return her kiss. He pushed her aside and got to his feet.

“You think I don’t know you?” she asked, folding her arms, she considered him as he strode away toward the door.

He paused and his voice became clearer than it had been. “I think you have limited experience. I’m bad for you.”

Considering this, she concluded he could be right, but this wasn’t the first time she’d thought about what her future with him would be. She’d spent plenty of time alone with him, in bed, and here in his house. She knew his brother and his upbringing. She knew he’d killed… but she hadn’t seen him in action or heard his life story in his own words.

And just like every time she’d contemplated what lay ahead for them, she came to the same conclusion. “I’m willing to take that risk,” she said, eager to follow through on her idea that might shake him out of his funk. “Stay here.”

She went into their walk-in closet and wrapped herself in her calf-length wool coat. Fastening all the buttons, she hurried out of the closet to join him in the bedroom again and was pleased to see he was still here. Snagging his hand as she passed him to head for the door, he followed her out of the bedroom, but his lumbering pace slowed her down.

“Where the fuck are we going?” he asked her and didn’t sound happy that she’d taken them out of his room.

The house was spooky at night, but she didn’t fear the shadows. This building was her nest now and the safest place she had ever known.

Peeking over her shoulder, she let her coquettish smile tempt him and she let go of his hand. “You want to play with me, baby? You’ve got to catch me first.”

Hurrying to the stairway, she ran down the black space without confirmation he was coming after her. But he was curious and horny and he liked to be the one with the secrets, so it was doubtful he’d let her keep any of her own.

She got to the parking garage and used her fingerprint to gain entry through the internal door and to open the main garage door. While the motor was working to raise it, she ran over to the key cupboard and snagged the keys she wanted.

It was when she turned to cross to the car that the sight of him in the center of the space made her stop to catch her breath. His broad body was intimidating in a room filled with night and if it wasn’t for her determination, she would fall to her knees and seduce him right here.

He seemed to have the same idea because when she strutted toward the car, he caught her and tried to pull her into his arms. “Let’s go back upstairs, baby. I’m gonna fuck you so good—“

“No,” she said, trying her best to stay strong. “I want to take you somewhere.”

“I’m gonna take you right here,” he said. Picking her up, he carried her across the room and dropped her to push her backwards over the hood of one of their vehicles. “Just bend over there, nice and easy.”

Wrestling her over onto her front, he used his lower body to pin hers against the grill and rested his weight on his forearm on her back to hold her down. He loosened his belt and the descent of his zip echoed in this vast concrete cavern.

“Baby, you’re gonna love this,” he murmured. “I’m gonna fill you up. You’re gonna take my dick deep in that pussy, you’ll be branded for life.”

“Brodie,” she said, trying unsuccessfully to move. “Baby, I want to take you somewhere. Can we get in the car then—“

“Shut it,” he snapped and yanked her coat up to find she was bare beneath it. “Well, you dirty girl. You were ready for it, weren’t you? You’ve been thinking of my hard cock fucking you fast.”

He was more than horny, he was deep in the throng of blind desire. “Always,” she said, writhing against the hand he was fondling over her ass. Although she was dedicated to fulfilling her idea, she wasn’t ignorant to his persistence and any time that he wanted her this much, she was controlled by her own need to satisfy his body.

With an open hand he smacked her twice, then twice more, and the joy of the burn made her suck in a breath through her teeth.

He bent his body over hers to growl his words into her hair. “You don’t run away from me again. You heel, you kneel, you come. You do what I say.”

The primal tone and meaning of his words sent blood to all the right places in her and she breathed his name. Logic didn’t feature when they were this far into the throng of arousal.

He stopped caressing her ass and spanked her again before the thick lump of his dick pushed its way through until it impelled itself into her. The sting of his mass made her pant, she hadn’t been quite prepared for his entry, but he didn’t notice, he drove his way into her.

The cool metal under her cheek didn’t lower the temperature of her body that was shunted forth every time he drove into her. He grunted and shoved in deeper, his engorged cock stayed in place as he rocked his hips, testing the limits of her capacity. She cried out and he continued to pulsate within her.

Grinding himself further, he forced her to take him to the hilt. Crammed so full, she yelped and gasped in a breath, but when she tried to turn, he pressed a palm onto her cheekbone and held her down, covering her eye.

“You choke my cock with your cramped little pussy,” he said, working himself side to side. “You tense, baby? You’re real tight tonight.”

He smacked her hard and ran his hand up between her cheeks where he pressed the tip of his thumb into her ass. Wriggling up to explore this new sensation, he let it edge a little farther then grumbled an exhale of his own arousal that didn’t quite become words. Dragging his hips back, he slammed into her, keeping hold of her ass as he jolted in and out of her until a minute or so later, he swore, smacked her ass, and then staggered back.

Trying to remember where she was and where she wanted them to go, Zara remained on her face with her eyes closed while she absorbed the tingles of unsated arousal.

“Baby?”

His voice was right behind her. He ran a rough hand up the back of her quivering thigh and pulled her coat down to cover her. Still on the brink of her own climax, she squirmed in the covering of soft fabric. She was tempted to slide her hand down her body to finish the job he started.

“We’re going back upstairs,” he said and seized her wrist, but she pulled back when he tried to tug her toward the stairway.

Even though things had gone further down here than she’d expected, she still wanted to follow through on her plan. “Come with me,” she said, rounding her eyes when he turned back to look at her. The irritation on his face wasn’t mirrored by his grip because when she backed away, her arm fell out of his hand.

“Where the fuck you want to go?” he asked, opening his arms.

But she wasn’t going to tell him, she reversed and kept her eyes on his until she got to the car. She unlocked it and opened the driver’s door and only then did he loosen in concession.

“We’ll take the bike.”

“You’ve been drinking,” she said. “We’re going in the car.”

Ducking down, she got inside and started the engine. Before she even got the headlights on, he climbed in the passenger side door with a gun in his hand.

“What do you need that for?” she asked, aware that there were weapons stashed in the garage and all over the house and probably the grounds too.

“Don’t know yet,” he muttered with a shrug that moved the gun up and down his thigh. “I like to be prepared.”