Bad Bride Good Cowboys (5 page)

“Yours?”

Mickey’s strong arm behind her legs faltered and Brady made the strangest whistle sound. “Um, no, your bed. In your room” Mickey informed her with the oddest tone of voice as he adjusted her in his arms and tightened his hold.

“Careful of my strappy
heels,” she warned and held them up. “They were reeeeeally expensive.”

He darted a glance
at the shoes dangling from her fingers then rested an amused gaze on her. “I know. We bought them for you—because they called your name.”

“Ah yes,” Brady chimed
in. “Nine hundred and fifty dollar talking shoes.”

Felicia giggled as Mickey started carrying her to the house. “That’s right,
because you guys are rich and I’m spoiled.”

Brady
laughed. “Says the woman that got her twenty-fifth birthday present from us drunk.”

Yeah, her really nice luxury convertible had been from them. Come to think of it, whatever she wanted, she got. Except the men themselves. “You guys are sooooooooo good to me.”

“We know,” Mickey sighed as he stepped up the stairs.

Brady walked ahead and unlocked the front door
and opened it.

“But it’s both your fault
s the car got drunk.” There, she finally told them the truth. Odd, it wasn’t as liberating as she’d hoped it would be.

“God, I would love to hear your logic behind that one.” Brady shut the door and she glanced over Mickey’s shoulder at him. More of the sexy cowboy’s scent invaded her senses.

“Because you and Mickey denied me.”

Mickey snorted. “We never have. You want and we buy.”

She turned and blinked at him so damn cute—and totally clueless. “Yeah but what I really want has nothing—nothing whatsoever—to do with money.” She waved the arm with the hand holding the high heels for emphasize.

For the second time that night Mickey’s arm wavered
, but this time he set her down as Brady removed the shoes from her fingers.

She cast
Mickey a scowl. “I know I’m not that heavy, so you need to work out more. Not that your body could get any better than it is now.” She grinned then giggled as she curled her hand around his strong bicep. “Very nice. Great shoulders too.”

His eyes widened and well…the hotty looked stunned. Oh well, he did have great arms and great body and
…

Felicia
staggered slightly and glanced up at the stairs. Nope, she wasn’t ready to tackle those; besides she was on a roll and by God she was going to say what she needed too now or forever hold her piece. Or was that just for weddings? “It’s not that I don’t like the pretty expensive things, but you got me into this mess by having me get engaged to Paul—which is no more.”

Mickey shook his head. “We’ll find the ring.”

“Good! Send it to him  by mail cause I called him at midnight said fuck you, it’s over, have a nice life, cause by that time my idea about getting laid was gone—like the wind—and I was having a pity party how you and Brady were bad for this whole mess.”

Brady dropped her shoes off to the side then stepped over and steadied her. “You were the one who said yes when
Paul asked you to marry him.”

Sadness touched her heart.
“Because neither of you asked me.”

“Christ!” Was the only word that left Mickey’s mouth in a sort-of whisper and he turned away to look in the kitchen. Why? She had no clue; she doubted the room had changed since she left earlier.

“Then again, I am to blame.” It was now or never to be honest. She stared at Mickey and her heart started to hurt. “I should have screwed more guys before you, because in the end, it just completely turned you off women and it’s my fault you’re gay.”

A whistle sound left Brady followed by the resounding echo of knuckles cracking. She turned to the other cowboy. His expression revealed he was angry, but she couldn’t figure out why. “Right, as if you didn’t know Mr. Clueless himself. You’re no better and even tonight when I was in your arms outside you could have kissed me, but the moment has passed just like any chance I
ever had with you. Gone like the dinosaurs.” She thought about it a minute and got a bit teary. “Why did the babies have to die? The big dinosaurs were so ugly but the little bitty…”

Brady stepped forward and studied her, still not looking very happy. Mickey
, for once in the cowboy’s life, was quiet. Good thing to the mood wrecker. “What are you talking about?” The look of confusion on Brady’s handsome face wasn’t hard to miss—unlike her knees.

“I think my knees turned to Jell-O shooters.” Her world got spinny and her head became fluffy.

“Oh hell!” was the last thing she heard Brady say as his strong arms wrapped around her body.

I‘m pathetic. I still love them both.

And she’s out!
On the bright side, that means she can’t talk anymore.

Brady shifted the limp doll in his arms then scooped her up as Mickey walked down the hall toward the living room. He carried her up stairs to her room and gently laid her on the bed. After a bit of struggle
, he got her under a quilt and stared down at the woman who had just turned his world completely upside down.

Pain pierced his heart. “What have you done, doll?”

With her ringlets splayed across the snow-white pillowcase, never had she more resembled the nickname he and Mickey had given her the first summer she came into their lives. With a heavy sigh he leaned in and gently placed a light kiss on her mouth. No matter what chaos she’d just caused Mickey and him, she held his heart. If he was to be honest with himself, which he avoided when it came to Felicia, she probably held just as much as the man he shared his life with. The same man who was waiting downstairs, no doubt expecting all hell to break loose.

Brady hurt to the core and had no idea
what the exact cause was. As he exited Felicia’s room and walked back downstairs, his body felt like it had been run over by a tractor. He didn’t even know what to say or where to begin.

Brady walked into the living room and decided the
best place to start would be at the beginning. With a deep, resigned sigh he said “Tell me the story of how you ended up sleeping with our best friend’s sister and why she thinks she turned you gay?”

Mickey walked over from the bar and passed him a beer.

“Thanks.” He digested the words of his statement and realization struck. “She doesn’t know we’re bi?” He didn’t mean to sound terse, but considering the revelations which had occurred prior to the doll passing out, he had an onslaught of varying feelings similar to a jumbled mess of barbed wire swirling like a tornado through his body and soul.

Mickey sighed
heavily, as if the weight of the world were now on his shoulders. “She doesn’t know we still like women. Neither of us has been with one in front of her in seven years and it’s not like we make our sex life public knowledge.” He shoved a hand through his dark hair and shook his head.

The tension between them could be cut with a knife and by the wash of emotions working over his friend’s handsome face
, Brady wondered if there was more than a story of sex, but unresolved feelings where Felicia was concerned.

He
took a swig of the beer and wasn’t sure if he felt betrayed for not knowing what had transpired between the two or jealous because Mickey had experienced the one woman he had always wanted too, but had held back.

The silence continued to stretch
. In less than twenty-four hours the cyclone of wavy curls and curves called Felicia had created havoc on his libido, his heart and now his relationship. The woman caused as much catastrophe as a wrecking ball to a brick wall.

Mickey’s tanned
complexion had turned ashen and sadness reflected in his dark gaze. In truth he looked like hell. He threw his large frame down on the sofa. “It was the fourth of July before you and I got together.”

Brady did the math—not even
two weeks before he and Mickey got together to be exact. He struggled not to get mad or be hurt, after all he did ask for the details, but never did he think hearing what had happened would be painful to listen to. “She would have just turned nineteen.” Bitterness coated his words, saying them tasted like poison on his tongue. “I should be grateful she wasn’t a virgin and she was legal.”

Mickey’s long lashes blinked and a strange expression crossed his face.
“She was legal.” He averted his gaze to the bottle in his hand and picked at the label.

Somewhere between Mickey’s tone
and his words Brady got the distinct impression she’d been a virgin. “Tell me she wasn’t. How is that possible? Who waits until nineteen?”

His friend
flexed his jaw and Brady knew, by that action alone, there was a lot Mickey wasn’t saying. His friend hauled himself off the edge of the sofa and stormed over to the bay window and stared out at the landscape, again falling quiet and lost in thought. Finally he turned. His expression became unreadable. “She was a virgin, and had given up on saving herself for the right guy—she stopped believing in happily ever after and wanted to lose her virginity to someone she cared about. I’d had way too much to drink that night; she’d been drinking at the party with her brother, us and about thirty other of our closest friends at the time. No big deal since it was a private party here at the ranch, and somehow, by the end of the night I thought having sex with her was a good idea.”

Felicia had partied with them at the ranch often. From the time right before she graduated high school up until she went away to college and then when she had returned home. Brady sighed
. All of them, he and Mickey and her brother should have been more responsible, but someone once said, hindsight is twenty-twenty. He shook his head and stared at the floor. Finally, he looked up and stared at the man who he shared everything with.

Mickey’s
expression revealed he was in silent debate. “I’m not sorry I did it—it was the best, most intense sex I’d ever had with a woman. Probably because my feelings for her ran deep. If you want me to say I’m sorry, that apology will never come. I probably should have told you, but we didn’t tell anyone and after tonight’s episode…” A thin tight smile crossed his lips. “I must say it was very enlightening.”

He’s kidding right?

“Enlightening? That is the best word you can come up with.” The reality of Felicia’s words hit Brady full force. She was attracted to them both. He’d overheard the conversation with Jen earlier, but he didn’t realize Felicia had actually thought and fantasized about having sex with them—sex, marriage and Jesus! What the hell?

“
I am sorry, though, that I kept that incident from you, but the last thing I needed was for Collin to find out.” Again his hand shoved through his hair, spiking the dark strands. “Not to mention, you’ve always been so protective of her that I—”

“I love her.” The words hit
Brady’s brain and fell off his tongue before he could think. 

The other man’s eyes widened and disbelief fell like a mask over his features.
“Come again?”

Christ!

He’d opened his mouth to the man he loved and confessed the deepest darkest secret of his heart. There was no option, he had to follow through. “I do. I think I always have and I still don’t regret being with you but I do regret…” he didn’t even know how to finish that sentence, what to think or even what to feel at this point. “I might even be in love with her.”

“It’s okay,”
Mickey replied quietly, then stepped toward him with another indescribable look on his face. He raised an arm then cupped Brady’s neck. “I love you.”

“I love you too, I just—”

His friend grinned. “I love her as much as you do. I’m sorry for the past, but remember who her brother is.” The smile vanished from his face as quickly as it had appeared. Pain blinked in Mickey’s dark gaze. Collin was a sore subject with him as it was with Brady.

“I’m always reminded of that.” Brady confessed
with bitterness and silently admitted to himself for what seemed like the millionth time, if she wasn’t Collin’s sister he would have explored things with her further. However the fact remained, he was loyal to Collin and their friendship.

Mickey
’s hand slipped down Brady’s chest then lowered, caressing his abs before descending to the zipper of his jeans. Beneath the denim, Brady’s cock had already started to stiffen, it hadn’t officially died down from holding and touching Felicia despite the ache and feelings of betrayal he’d experienced.

Mickey cleared his throat.
“I had a choice, kill the friendship with Collin or break her heart. Unfortunately, the latter happened and in a lot of ways I betrayed my own heart and soul.” When Mickey’s hand cupped him and started stroking him through the fabric Brady closed his eyes and groaned.

His friend leaned in and rubbed his five-o-clock shadow across the skin
of Brady’s neck while his fingers continued rubbing him to a full-fledged hard on. “I know you want her.”

Brady’s
cock ached and though his heart and mind were a mess, Mickey’s touch felt so good while fantasies of taking Felicia eight ways from Sunday filled his mind. He reached a hand down and undid the buckle of Mickey’s jeans before parting the denim opening and sliding his hand inside.“I do, but—”