Brown Siblings - 01 Laid Bare (16 page)

Through sobs so hard she had to run to the bathroom to vomit again, she told him the rest. How her relationship with Jeremy had fallen apart because she’d distanced herself and he hadn’t known how to reach her. The horror of the trial and finally moving back to Seattle and trying to start over.

And when she’d told him everything, she did feel lighter. The pain was still there. She still had a hole in her heart Adele should have filled with laughter, but it wasn’t an ugly secret weighing on her heart every moment anymore.

Even if he hated her after the telling or couldn’t deal with her baggage or whatever, she’d unburdened herself and she could breathe.

Todd had of course read the newspaper accounts, but hearing her tell it, watching her sob at helplessly witnessing her daughter’s death as she nearly died herself—it tore him up.

“Erin, honey, I—There aren’t words. I’m sorry. Tomorrow is the anniversary?” She nodded as he helped her to sit again.

“Is she up here?”

Another nod.

“Let’s go then. Tomorrow we’ll take flowers and go. That is, if you’ll let me go along with you.” She touched his cheek. “Okay.”

“Your brothers are worried about you. I want you to know I did call Brody while you were sleeping. Would you call them now? So they can hear from you that you’re all right? Or as all right as you can be anyway?”

She blinked. “You did? You spoke to Brody?”

“I’m sorry if you think it’s interfering but . . .”

“No, it’s not that. I—well, thank you. It means a lot to me that you’d call him.” She briefly put her head on his shoulder before picking the phone up.

While she spoke to her brothers, he cleaned her kitchen and changed over the clothes from the washer to the dryer. Earlier, he’d watched her sleep and then gotten up to call Brody. While he was up, he’d cleaned up the clutter and done her laundry, before setting her coffeepot for some hours later. The circumstances were not so sexy, but, in truth, they meant a lot. Yes, he’d had to essentially break into her place, but she’d finally turned to him and let him help.

15

Erin looked up at the chiming of the bells over the door of her café and smiled. “I wasn’t expecting to see you until later tonight.”

“I thought I’d come by and see if you wanted help closing up.” He held up a small shopping bag.

“And to bring you this. I want you to wear everything in this bag tonight.” She raised a brow but took the bag.

“No peeking yet.”

“Hmpf. All right, joykiller. I’m fine, you know. I can close up without being scared. It’s still daylight, Brody is next door.” After placing the bag on the counter, she crossed her arms over her chest and glared at him.

He wore that grin of his and she couldn’t stop her body from responding.

“Stop being so defensive. I know you can close without being afraid. I just thought you’d like the company.”

“I need to do this stuff on my own. I appreciate this, I do.” She softened because she knew he did it out of concern for her. Out of love. In the weeks since she’d told him the whole story about Adele, they’d gotten much closer. “But I told you, I need to get my life back. These baby steps may not seem like a big deal to you, but they are to me. This place is concrete proof that I can have a life.”

He turned and locked the door, flipping the CLOSED sign, and then was on her in two steps.

“I love you.”

“I know.” She hadn’t told him she loved him yet, even though she knew she did. It wasn’t as if she held it back to punish or reward him. She just kept trying to find the perfect time. She realized there was no perfect time. None more perfect than simple, everyday stuff. “I love you too,” she said into the front of his T-shirt.

He froze and took a deep breath. She felt his lips press the top of her head before he leaned back and tipped her chin to look into her face. “You do? You’re not just saying it?” She laughed. “Yes, I do, and no, I’m not just saying it. I love you, Todd. But if you leave me, if you get hurt or dump me, I will kill you myself.” She held on to his belt loops and snuggled her body into his.

“I’m not leaving you. I told you that. The sex is really good and you’re a rockstar in the kitchen.

Oh, and in general.” He grinned.

“So go. I’ll see you at your house at seven. I suppose Ben and Cope will be there too?”

“Not Cope, but Ben. Does that bother you? He likes you. He likes to hang out with us, but he won’t stay super late. Now that Cope is seeing this new woman, I think Ben is sort of feeling odd man out.”

She did like Ben, a lot. Since he was around so often, she’d become friends with him as well as his brother. They clicked in a way she didn’t with most other people. He often cooked with her or hung around outside when she worked in Todd’s garden. She had the sense that he stayed out there if Todd wasn’t around, simply to make her feel safe. Which made her feel exactly that. He shared her intense love of music. She liked his easygoing manner, she liked his sense of humor and he’d taken on the gargantuan task of trying to teach her to play cards. She sucked at cards and most people just considered her a lost cause, but he kept at it and never lost patience with her.

He and Todd were close, really close, and they brought her into that bond they shared. There was this
something
between them sometimes. Nothing either would act on, but sometimes it felt like it was a relationship of the three of them because he was there so often and they’d all assumed such an intimate and close friendship. Todd never seemed bothered or uncomfortable and she always kept an appropriate distance.

“It’s fine. I like Ben. It’s not like I can complain about spending the evening with two very fine male specimens. I’m bringing the pizza, fully loaded, so don’t fill up on crap.”

“Speaking of you talking like my mother, don’t forget Saturday.” Saturday was Independence Day and they had plans to spend it with Todd’s family. Erin was nervous as hell. But she’d spoken to his mother on the phone twice now, and Lorie Keenan seemed like an incredibly nice woman who cared a lot about her children.

“I won’t. I’m even going to the hairdresser’s Friday morning.”

“Why? You getting a cut? I like it long.” He sort of pouted, and yet he still looked hot and menacing too.

“No, silly. I’m having the pink stripped out and going back to my natural color. I can’t meet your family of cops with pink hair, Todd.”

“The hell you can’t! You will
not
color your hair any which way unless you want to. My parents know about you. My brother and his wife are big fans I’ve recently come to find out. I love you and you’re a free spirit. If you want pink hair, you’ll have pink hair. I don’t want you thinking you have to change yourself.” His eyes darkened and she realized this was about more than just pink hair.

“I didn’t think they’d hate me. I just didn’t want to scare them or have them think I was wrong for you. I want them to like me.” Which was sort of scary for her. She hadn’t worried about Jeremy’s parents liking her, although they had. But Todd meant too much to her, and she knew he was close to his family so that was important. Being part of them was necessary. She’d gladly go back to dark blond if it meant easing the way.

He kissed her hard. Fiercely. “No one else in the universe makes me feel so at home with who and what I am. Do you know what a gift that is? I love you. I love your tattoos and your funky

hair and your artsy-fartsy clothes and attitude. I don’t want you to change who you are. I
love
who you are and I want you to be comfortable with that. If I ever thought I made you feel ashamed of that, I’d hate myself.”

Oh. That was so sweet. “You’re going to make me cry. Stop it.”

“Keep the hair?”

She nodded. “Okay.”

“See you at seven. Don’t wear panties.”

With that little missive, he let himself out and stood there while she locked up and turned on the alarm for the front of the shop. She looked at the bag but left it there. Obeying him was hard sometimes, but he always made it worth her while.

Todd opened his door to meet her as she walked up his front steps. He took the pizza from her and noted the flush on her face. “You wearing them?”

She nodded and he chuckled. “Good.”

Ben was there already, drinking a beer and watching television. His gaze went to Erin and the long expanse of leg she showed in the skirt she wore.

For some reason, it turned Todd on to see it, to see his best friend attracted to Erin and to know Erin was his. How could a man not look? She looked ridiculously sexy in what she wore. That Todd knew what she had on underneath made it all even more delicious.

“Be right back,” he called out after he put the pizza down on the table. The remote fit nicely in the pocket of the cargo pants he wore, and he gave the knob a pulse of power, smiling to himself as he imagined what her face must have looked like.

When he came back around the corner, she was bent over, putting plates on the table. Nothing indecent showed, but the fine, pale expanse of upper thigh made his fingers twitch.

“You’ve been very busy,” she said in an undertone as she moved to grab the red pepper flakes he liked so much.

“Not as busy as I’m gonna be, making your cunt nice and wet as I play with the vibrator all night long. I can’t wait to watch you squirm. Like now.” He turned it on, knowing the vibe was inserted deep in her cunt. With his free hand, he reached under her skirt and felt the rubber attachment that fit over her clit. The soft hum let him know it was working.

Her breath caught and her eyes cut to the doorway where Ben leaned. He probably heard and saw. Todd moved his hand away and turned off the vibration. The scent of her cunt filled his nose, made his heart beat all the harder. He wanted to fuck her right then and there.

“Dinner ready?” Ben asked in a slightly teasing tone. Yeah, he’d heard.

“Everything is ready,” Erin answered as she sat and took a pull of her beer. Automatically and with her own grace, she put two slices of the pie on a plate for Todd, even shaking on the red pepper just how he liked it. “Ben? Two slices?” she asked, holding another plate. It wasn’t the same as it had been for him, but she was being nice to his friend and Todd liked that. Liked that Ben and Erin got on so well.

Todd watched her, knowing she wore the weights on her nipple rings, wondering if they throbbed yet in just the right way. He toyed with the remote, watching her face flush as pleasure rolled through her cunt.

Her fingers flexed on the table’s edge; her eyes went glassy. There was no way Todd would be getting up from the table anytime soon; his cock threatened to burst through his jeans.

He eased back and she blinked. Her nipples stood hard against the soft material of her shirt, and he saw the shadow of the weights hanging from the rings. He’d gone a little retail crazy at a few places online. Then he’d finally gotten out of his truck and gone inside The Crypt, a sex toy store in Capitol Hill. The name made him sigh, he didn’t really envision himself as the kind of DOM

who spoke in all CAPS and made his sub call him MASTER and all that stuff. He supposed his mixed feelings about what he’d come to realize was a very wide variety of people involved in BDSM was one of the biggest things that had kept him from really investigating without shame.

But once inside the store, he’d begun to relax. There weren’t black candles and people in ball gags, although they certainly sold ball gags and enough porn to supply the entire state of Washington quite happily. The gear went from mild and silly to items that gave him pause and even a wince or two once he’d looked at them carefully.

In the end, he’d carried out a large bag of different items and was satisfied with the realization that he wasn’t a freak for liking what he liked.

Erin’s thighs trembled and her nipples throbbed. She needed to come and badly. Todd had used that damned remote on her, ramping her up and then pulling back over and over all through dinner.

Ben knew what was going on, watched her, slowly drinking his beer and talking with Todd. It should have embarrassed her, but instead it turned her on. Ben was incredibly hot and she’d be lying if she denied some attraction. She wondered though too about the way Ben looked at Todd sometimes. Todd never seemed to notice or comment on it. Ben oozed sexuality in a way that sometimes seemed to catch Todd in his radar. It was hot, she had to admit it, and
hello
, how could people not look at Todd and think he was gorgeous and fuckable?

“I’ll be right back.” She stood. She was going down the hall to get a bit of relief, damn it.

Todd looked at her as she walked by, taking her wrist as he did. “Don’t do anything I wouldn’t do.”

Did he just tell her not to make herself come? Without specific instructions, she couldn’t really read it that way and so fuck that.

She smiled at him. “I can’t pee standing up.”

Ben laughed, and when he looked at her, she wondered just what Ben got up to when the doors were closed and the curtains were drawn.

Todd raised a brow and stood up, weaving an arm around her waist. Without a word, he walked with her back toward the bathroom just off his bedroom.