He looked like a man ready to regroup. Evan, on the other hand, finally managed to second guess what he’d missed. Kane understood how his brothers thought. Hell, while they were different in many ways, in many others, all three brothers were the exact same.
“I love her.”
“You what?” Braden roared out the question.
“Shit, you must have gone mad overnight.” Evan glared at Kane.
“You don’t?” He questioned them, both at one time.
“Kane, this is a bad idea,” Braden said, somehow gaining some sort of forced control, yet dangerously bridled.
“Might be, and if so, I don’t care. I love her.”
“I’m going to go get Peyton. She has company, and she can at least act like a happy hostess for one night.” Braden shook his head as he headed for the fields.
“She will,” Kane said.
Braden stopped when Kane spoke for her. He didn’t look back. “Just because she’s in your bed doesn’t mean she’s going to lose her focus, her goals and dreams.”
“I wouldn’t ask her to give up anything for me, Braden.”
“See that you don’t.”
Evan watched his brother take the easy pathway through the fields. “You wanna talk about it?”
“Nope.” Kane smirked.
He knew Evan wanted all sorts of details. Too bad.
“That good, huh?”
Kane chuckled. “Yep.”
“Damn.”
“How many girls are up there?”
“Too many,” Evan said.
“Great,” Kane groaned.
“Was she a virgin?” Evan had a thing for virgins.
“Yeah.”
“And you did the unthinkable, didn’t ya?”
“Yeah, I did.” Kane wasn’t proud of it, not exactly, but he was smug. He knew she wanted him, and she wanted him just as raw as she could get him.
“You’re not going to give me details?”
“Not today,” Kane smiled. Maybe never. “Right now, I’d say we have a few hungry girls to feed. I may run out for pizzas.”
“Yeah, pizza sounds good.” Evan headed for the passenger’s side of Peyton’s car, “And there’s a new candy shop next to the pizza place. Somebody said they have the best cotton candy in the world.”
Kane’s body went rigid, and he knew his face gave everything away.
“Oh hell,” Evan said. “She let you…”
“Cotton candy sounds like a plan.” Kane chuckled and stepped inside the car. He smacked his lips and looked over at his brother. “In fact, I can almost taste it now.”
Chapter 15
“I’m not a little girl,” she snapped when Braden approached her. She was hanging upside down from the split rail fence.
“Funny, right now, you look like one.”
“I’m not one.” She pulled her arms back above her head and continued to do sit-ups, her shirt flying up and down with her body.
He reached out to hold it for her as she continued to work on her abs but instead of gripping the shirt, he touched her stomach with his open palm. The sensation sent chills up and down her spine.
She continued to sit up and fall down, her hair flowing over her back as she taunted him. His hand caressed her stomach, his palm stayed on her abs as she pulled herself up and over the old rickety boards.
His cheeks stained blood red when she twisted her body over the plank and landed at his feet. He grunted.
“I like working out over here. No one bothers me.”
“Your friends are up at the house, waiting on you.”
“I don’t care. Vicky got them into some chick flick before I got home and they had another hour or so before it’s over. She covered for me and told them I had to do some chores before I could party with them. Besides, they’re like four hours early.”
Braden scratched his chin. “I wondered about that.”
She cracked a smile. “Sorry, I guess I should’ve sent them home and told them to come back.”
“It’s fine, Peyton.” He brushed her cheek with the back of his hand and shocked them both when he leaned in and kissed her.
It wasn’t a kiss like any other she remembered. It was soft, tender, and so sweet, she almost cried when his lips touched hers. She didn’t latch her arms around his neck but instead, she let him lead. He didn’t take them far. It was a simple kiss, and it was only a kiss, she told herself. It didn’t mean anything. It didn’t promise anything.
Only, it did.
“Did he hurt you, Peyton?” Braden asked as he pulled her into his arms. “Tell me the truth.”
Peyton wrapped her arms around his waist, and he stroked her head and back. “Did he?”
“No, Braden. He’d never hurt me.”
“Are you sure?”
“Braden, he wouldn’t hurt me.” She pressed her palms to his belly and looked up at him. “He just loved me.”
Braden swallowed tightly and then released her. He ran his hand through his wavy hair. “What do you mean by ‘loved’ you?”
“Exactly what I want you to think I mean.”
“Peyton just because he…” Braden shifted his weight and then tried again. “Peyton just because he…”
“Fucked me?”
“Oh hell.” He took a deep breath and then choked on it. Coughing, he doubled over from the impact of a soft blow she dealt with a man’s word and a woman’s delicate explanation.
“He did, Braden. I did, he did, and we did. I think it’s called consensual sex and it was like-”
Braden’s mouth covered hers. Kissing her proved effective. It kept her quiet, and since Kane used the same tactic on her before, she imagined it must have been a man thing, either that or it was a Cartwell-thing.
This time his kiss was ravenous. He devoured her lips with a devastating kiss, one meant to change things, one meant to destroy the rules he put in place to save them from this. Her hands fisted in his shirt, bunched the material and clawed at the skin underneath. And just as soon as it started, he stopped it.
“I can’t do this to you, Peyton. I’m sorry I…”
“No need to apologize. I wanted it. I still want it.” She wanted it bad. She’d heard stories about Kane and Evan but evidently Braden didn’t fuck around a lot. She’d never heard anything about him or his skills in the bedroom. Kane and Evan, as much as they might hate it, were open encyclopedia volumes.
Kane and Evan held quite the reputation. After one night with Kane, she realized why. The man’s cock was on steroids or something. Braden must’ve kept his on valium because even now, with a hard cock, and she saw the imprint of it, he wasn’t aggressive. Kane and Evan pursued a woman, and when they did, they stalked her. Braden took his time and worked his way into an intimate situation.
He kept a tight upper lip but she saw the lust there in his eyes. He wanted her, needed her all the more since she’d revealed her dirty little secret.
“Let me love you too, Braden.” She brushed his hair away from his face and framed his cheeks. “Please let me love you.”
He picked her up and cradled her in his arms, and before she knew what she’d truly started, she held onto him with her kisses matching his. He carried her up the hill, and she was so lost in his mouth, his tongue, and his lips, she never paid attention. Her left hand ran over his chest while her right gripped the nape of his neck.
And he kissed her all the way up to the barn. Then, he released her.
“Braden, don’t walk away.” She was dying for more now.
“I have to walk away, at least for tonight, Peyton.”
“Why?” she whined.
He ran his hand through his hair again. “Because if I don’t, God help me, if I don’t, there may be hell to pay here. I have a lot of things to sort out, and if you’re smart, you’ll take some time to decide what it is you want.”
Her eyes widened in acknowledgement as the memory of their mother’s story, the way Braden once told it, replayed over and over again in her mind. She saw the fear in his eyes too. The harrowing anxiety existed there.
“Kane knows, Braden. He’s not stupid. Just because something happened between us first doesn’t mean-”
“Nothing will happen between you and me or you and Evan until I talk to him.”