Braydon(52)

He didn’t wait for Braydon to say anything. Brendon just shut his bedroom door behind him and leaned up against it. He sucked in a deep breath and let it out.

Brendon was almost certain that his brother would forgive him for being an *. That’s what family did.

As for Cheyenne . . .

Brendon feared he might’ve lost her long before he ever had her.

And if that was the case, he would be subjected to a hell of his own making.





chapter TWELVE

Jessie was sitting on her bed, her ereader on her lap, rereading for the fourth time the same paragraph in the book she’d been engrossed in just a few days before.

Okay, so it was safe to say that Braydon had effectively distracted her, because she couldn’t seem to stay focused. This time in an entirely different way than what she’d been going through for the last several weeks.

She’d been trying to figure out just what the man had in store for her. The whole starting-over thing intrigued her and scared her a little. Up till now, Jessie had known what to expect from him . . . or at least she thought she had. He’d gone and surprised her with his bold statement the night before, and she’d done little else besides sit around and think about what he could’ve possibly meant.

“For now we’ll go slow. But I can’t promise that I won’t make you burn for me. I want you to go to sleep at night thinking about what it’ll feel like when I’m above you, sliding deep and then f*cking you hard.”

He had effectively ignited a slow burn deep in her core from his words. Let alone the anticipation she’d harbored since he said them.

Just when she was giving up on her book, Jessie’s cell phone rang and she glanced over to the nightstand to see who it was.

Her mouth tipped into a huge grin when she saw Braydon’s name light up on the screen.

“Hello,” she greeted him tentatively.

“What’re you wearing?” he asked, his rich, dark voice seducing her effortlessly.

Jessie leaned back against the headboard as she said, “Nothing.”

“Oh, dear God” was the response that she received, making her laugh.

“Just kidding.”

“Well, damn.” Braydon cleared his throat but remained silent.

“Why are you calling me?” she asked, adding a hint of excitement to her voice. Not that it was hard to do. She was actually feeling rather enthusiastic that he’d called her.

“I was sitting here with my tablet, hoping to find something to go do today.”

“You’re resorting to Google for our first date?” she asked dramatically.

“Well, yeah. I’m not chancing it. Did you know that dinner and a movie is no longer the way of the world?”

Jessie laughed. “I didn’t know that. I happen to enjoy dinner and a movie.”

“Well, we’ll save that for our second date. I’m not willing to go down into the record books as the most boring first date.”

Still grinning, Jessie asked, “So where are we going?”

Her skin was tingling with excitement and anticipation. She felt like a teenager again. And the boy she’d wanted to talk to had surprised her by calling.

“You’ve got options,” he told her.

“I like options.”

“I’m sure you do,” Braydon said throatily. The fact that he was still affected by her comment made Jessie’s body hum louder.

“Okay, so whatcha got for me?”

Another throat clearing from Braydon had Jessie laughing uncontrollably.

“Simmer down, woman. We’ve got a date to plan,” Braydon finally said, pulling her back from the brink of hysteria.

“Okay,” she said on a choked laugh. “I’m listening. Wait, should I Google it, too?”

“No, just listen,” he answered abruptly, making her chuckle again.

Jessie quieted so she could hear what he had to say. Although he didn’t sound serious, she was really interested in what his date suggestions were. She’d never done this before, never had the opportunity to map out a first date, so to speak. It seemed to be a day full of firsts, because she’d never gone on a first date with a man she’d slept with, either.

She wasn’t sure she really wanted to think about what that said about her—the fact that she had slept with him without going on a real date, that is.

“Okay, so it looks like we’ve got some choices. I’ll call them out, you say yea or nay. In the end, we’ll figure out which sounds best.”

“Got it,” she confirmed.

“Bowling.”

“Ummm . . .” Jessie wasn’t much of a bowler. “Nay?”

“Is that a question or a statement, Jess?”

“No. No to bowling,” she said affirmatively, laughing while she did.

“Okay, no bowling. Rock climbing?”

“Wow. Seriously? That’s a first date option? That seems a little high risk, don’t you think?”

“Okay, no to rock climbing. How about paintball?”

“Is this a date? Or an afternoon with the guys?”

“No paintball, huh? Okay, fine. What about go-karts?”

Jessie considered that for a minute. “I like go-karts.”

“My kinda woman right there,” Braydon replied. “Okay, that’s a possibility. What about arcades?”