Sweet Sinful Nights(65)
“I’m not going to see her. I’m going to be there for you. I’ll drive you. I’ll wait for you in the parking lot or waiting room or wherever. Wait—do they even have waiting rooms in prison?”
She chuckled lightly. Only Brent could make her laugh about this. “Oddly enough, they do,” she said, then let her mind imagine how much better it would be to have him waiting for her when she was done. “Brent,” she said, speaking softly as she settled into the couch, “why do you do so much for me?”
“Why do I do so much for you?” he repeated, as if her words didn’t make sense. “What do you mean?”
“Does it ever bother you that you’ve had such a normal life and I have this... crazy one? I have so much baggage, and you have none.”
“Baggage doesn’t scare me.”
“It doesn’t bother you that my family is so messed up?” she asked, because it bugged her. “It’s so uneven between us. I mean, you just offered to take me to visit my mother in prison, who’s behind bars for murdering my father for money. Meanwhile, you bake pumpkin pie for your parents every year at Thanksgiving. What could I possibly ever do for you?”
He scoffed loudly. “You have no idea what you do for me.”
“Then tell me. I can’t even imagine what I could ever do that would compare.”
“First of all, it doesn’t have to compare. You send me a selfie of us and I’m f*cking ecstatic,” he said, and his voice was filled with sincerity that made her heart beat faster. He was the easiest person to please, and she loved that about him. “Think of me like a cactus. I don’t require much. A little water, some sun, I’m good.”
“I’ve often thought of you as my sunflower, but cactus works too,” she said, as a smile spread across her face. “I guess that means I’m a hibiscus. They need a ton of water.”
“That’s why we’re right for each other,” he said, and she wished she were with him right now, to see his face, to touch his cheek, to kiss those lips that said words that made her feel so much joy.
“But sometimes I worry that I don’t have enough to give,” she said, voicing her deepest concerns. That no matter what, she would always be the one needing him more than he ever needed her. “That all I’m doing is taking because I need so much. That you’ll resent me.”
“Don’t you realize? I want to give what I have to you. I’m lucky. I know that. I have an overflow of luck, happiness, all that stuff. And yeah, I don’t have family issues, but what I have instead is the ability to be by your side as you deal with yours.”
Her heart leapt. It twirled, it skipped, it tried to jump across the country and find him in New York City. “What can I give you though?” Her voice rose with worry. She didn’t want to lose him again, and she feared that all this crap in her life would be too much. Especially since there was more to come. More confessions, more secrets still to be shared.
“All I want is you. Give me you,” he said, and his words warmed her from the tips of her toes to the ends of her hair.
Later. She’d deal with the rest later. “You can have me.”
“Good. Now tell me what you’re up to right now. Right this second. I want to picture you.”
She carved out a deeper spot in her living room couch, making herself comfortable, not wanting the conversation with him to end. “Just lying here on my couch, glass of white wine in my hand, talking to the most handsome man I’ve ever known,” she said, taking a swallow of the chardonnay, then setting down the glass on the coffee table.
“Oh yeah? Sounds like you’ve got it bad for this guy.”
Shannon turned on her side, perhaps subconsciously shifting into an even sexier pose, picturing Brent’s eyes roaming her body as if he were there, his gaze holding her captive. “I tried to shut him out, but it was impossible. He’s pretty much the cat’s meow.”
“What’s he like? This guy you’re into?”
She closed her eyes, seeing him perfectly. “He’s gorgeous, he makes me laugh, he loves showering me with gifts, he has a matchstick temper—”
“Hey, now.”
“And he’s this totally sexy nightclub owner.” She was keenly aware that she was using his current job, focusing on the man he was now. Not who he used to be.
Brent played along, his deep, gravelly voice sending a charge through her as he spoke. “Sounds like this guy rocks your world. In more ways than one. Is he good in bed, too?”
“Oh, yes. He owns my body. He’s always known what to do to me.”
“What would he be doing to you right now? Kissing your neck, tugging on your hair, doing little things that get you all revved up for him?”
A gentle pulse beat between her legs as he began turning her on. “Kissing me all over. Making me want more.”
“I bet he’d tease you. Drive you wild. Work his way up and down those sexy legs of yours, all the way to your ankles.”
“He loves my ankles. Loves them in high heels.”
“Bet he makes you leave them on, because it turns him on.”
“He does,” she said, in a purr.
“Right now, I have a hunch he’d be getting you so worked up you’d breathe hard, and your knees would fall wide open for him,” he said, as if he were laying out the roadmap to her body. Her skin heated up, and that gentle pulse turned into an exquisite ache between her legs.