Draw (Gentry Boys #1)(50)

“Okay. Well now that we’ve gone to a place no one should ever visit again, what do you say? About Saturday?”

Cord sucked in a breath and looked skyward. “Is this important to you?”

“I don’t know. No. Maybe.” I was struggling. “Maybe I just wanted to walk in with some eye candy on my arm.”

“Really?” he grinned.

“I don’t particularly want to go back to Emblem. The very concept makes me so exhausted I want to curl up and take a six day nap. But going with you just makes the prospect a little less awful. When I’m with you, I feel…better.”

Cord had to think I sounded like an idiot. I did sound like an idiot.

He stopped walking and turned to me, pulling my face to him and running his lips over mine. “What’ll you give me?” he asked in a husky voice.

“What do you want?”

He ran his fingertip across my collarbone. I shivered.

“I want a lot of things,” he responded glibly.

“Name a few.”

He started rattling off on his fingers. “Your *, your ass, your tits.”

I sighed. “Be serious, jackass. I’m talking about something deeper here.”

Cord nodded eagerly. “Yeah, I feel pretty seriously and deeply about those things.”

I squeezed my thighs together as his hand went underneath my shirt. “Damn, Cord. You’re getting to me right now. You know that? Of course you know that.”

He laughed. “Good. Need you to be wet and ready when we get home.” He took my hand and pulled me along. “I’ll go with you, Say. If it means something to you.”

I stopped him. “Cord?”

“What?”

“Kiss me.”

He did. He spread his hands across my lower back and pressed me firmly against him as his tongue invaded. It was the kind of kiss which electrified, inflamed and made me fervently believe every man on the planet ought to take lessons from Cord Gentry.

“Oh, stop it already!” Brayden’s irritated voice pulled me away from Cord’s lips.

He was leaning over his apartment patio with an irked frown. “Glad I didn’t run over to hold the front door for you guys,” he complained. “I’d have been standing there for a while.”

I rolled my eyes at him and opened the apartment door as Cord followed closely. Millie was curled up in an overstuffed chair next to the television. Her eyelids fluttered but she merely sighed in her sleep. Brayden appeared and put a finger to his lips, as if we were too clueless to know that it was a good idea to keep quiet when someone was asleep in the same room.

The boxes we’d retrieved on that dreadful trip to Cali were stacked neatly by the front door. I rifled through them briefly, finding a few articles of clothing which I stuffed into my purse. After grabbing my toothbrush from the bathroom I was ready to go.

Bray was standing barefoot in the living room, appraising Cord with a stern look as if he was assuming the role of disapproving father. He shot a quick glance to his sweetly sleeping girlfriend and then followed us outside.

“You going to the wedding?” I asked as soon as he’d shut the door.

Bray blinked. “Yours? Am I the maid of honor?”

“Nooo,” I poked him while Cord chuckled. “My mom is getting married on Saturday. To Gary the Gnome.”

Brayden seemed impressed. “No shit. My invite must have gotten lost in the mail.”

“Maybe your folks will be there.”

“Well, my dad refers to your mom as ‘that rancid bitch who f*cked my brother over’ so probably not.”

“Right,” I muttered. “Sometimes I forget who hates who.”

My cousin looked from me to Cord and then back again. He seemed amused. “So do I!”

Brayden’s eyes got wide behind his glasses when I threw him a rather irritated glare. He held his hands up. “Kidding. Totally kidding.” He nodded to Cord. “Anyhow, what’s the plan? You guys living together already? If I was the conventional type I might argue it’s too soon.”

I glared at him. “If I was the sensitive type I might argue that I can figure it out for myself.”

Cord piped up. “And if I was the manly type I might argue that I actually have an opinion about all this.”

“You do?” Bray gasped in mock surprise. “And what is it? Tell me, Cordero Gentry, what exactly are your intentions towards my dear cousin? Leave nothing out please.” He crossed his arms as if he was settling in for a long explanation.

Cord wasn’t daunted. He circled a firm arm around my shoulders and looked Brayden square in the eye. “I know how much Saylor means to you,” he said quietly. “I know she’s your family the way my brothers are mine. And even though you’ve seen the worst of me you shook my hand once anyway and offered friendship.” Cord coughed and stepped up. “I won’t f*ck her over, Bray. I’ll swear on whatever you want me to swear on.”

Brayden blinked rapidly. He removed his glasses and pretended to swipe at imaginary tears. “That was beautiful. Really. Wow. I’m aghast.”

“Bray!” I hissed but Cord laughed.

Brayden grinned at him. “I’ll shake your hand again, buddy. If you’re willing. In friendship.”

I watched as the two men who meant the most to me abandoned old memories in favor of new ones. As they completed their little male ritual of affectionate back slapping, Millie opened the door. Her lovely face was still flushed from sleep.