Dirty Country Love: A Step-Brother Romance Novella (5 page)

“I’d love that.”

“I was hopin’ you’d say that,” he said
with a burgeoning grin, and he leaned on down nearer to her height to
kiss her. It was a briefly lingering meeting of his lips to her
flesh, so near to the edge of her mouth, but technically just on the
cheek.

“Wear your finest babe, ‘cause it’s gonna be a
great night,” he said excitedly.

That was the Damien she’d known, the one who was a little
crude, but with how kind he’d been to her, it was different.
Instead of making her roll her eyes, she instead laughed softly, the
warmth of his mouth on her still lingering long after he pulled away.

“I don’t have much out here,” she admitted,
though she hoped she’d make due.

He paused and stared at her a moment before he spoke some more.

“Then come with me tomorrow mornin’. I’ll take
ya over to the shoppin’ mall. It’s a few hours’
drive, there and back, but we’ll find ya somethin’ real
nice. On me,” he said with a confident, pleased expression.

She had no idea what had happened to him to soften him to her, but
she wasn't going to spit on the good luck she had.

“That’d be great, Damien,” she said, her voice
excited. “I can’t wait.”

The next morning started off early as usual, but this time after
breakfast Damien smiled and went to his bike to wait for her.

“It’s a long drive, so don’t let your arms grow
tired,” he cautioned her as he started up and began the long
ride off to the shopping mall.

It’d been a long time since Britney had found an opportunity
to make it there. It was the biggest and last shopping opportunity
short of the big city itself. But Damien seemed to have a solid idea
of where to go, because he brought her to one of the newer stores
she’d never been to before. Some French soundin’ name
that made it seem like it’d be expensive.

“I want you to pick out the prettiest damn dress you can
find,” he declared as they came to a halt and parked.

She was never very good at things like that. She always just
picked out what was most practical other than her fine dresses for
special occasions, and she never really cared for those. Simple white
cotton filled most of her wardrobe, so she couldn’t help but be
excited and a little nervous.

They made their way in and immediately she felt out of place. The
music was loud and thrummed through her veins, and everything seemed
so flashy and high class. The sales associates were whip thin, and
both wore a strained smile for her and a more lustful gaze for
Damien.

She ignored the pang of jealousy as she went to the wall, flipping
idly through, not sure what she was really lookin’ for.
Something that would wow Damien, show him she wasn’t just some
simple farm girl or diner waitress. She wanted to look special.

She bypassed the simple black dresses, finding more comfort in the
softer colours, but that was what she was tryin’ to get away
from, so she walked to another rack. Too neon. Too skimpy. Too
childish.

Sighing, she glanced back at him.

Much to her relief, Damien wasn’t paying the clerks much
mind. He looked a little bored of the whole shopping thing, but he
offered her a smile of encouragement before he spoke up.

“Nothin’ catching your eye, Britney?” he asked
curiously, taking a look around the racks before he called out to the
sales clerks.

“Yes, sir? How may we help you?” they asked, their
voices fawning in that way Britney knew from when one of her
coworkers was overtly flirtin’ with a customer.

“My girl here needs the prettiest damn dress you can fish up
for her. I’m taking her out on a special excursion tonight, and
I need you to go find a few choice ones for her to try on. Sky’s
the limit,” he said firmly, meeting eyes with Britney the whole
time.

But she couldn’t hold his gaze for long, and quickly she was
hiding her expression beneath blonde hair. Her smile could brighten
up the night’s sky, but she was still too shy to share that
with him, to share what his compliments and words truly meant to her.

It touched her in a place she didn’t know she could be
touched.

“I’ll give you a moment’s peace to sort it out,”
he said to Britney as he began to back up. “I’ll just
take a smoke break then come back. No pressure, take your time, hun.
And remember:
anythin’
you want. Anything!” he said
with a grin before he turned and left the store.

She had to admit that with him gone, she felt a little less
pressure, at least, and when one of the sales women came back with a
handful of options, her excitement flared up again. In the change
room, trying on one after another, she didn’t know what one to
pick. It was so hard to tell in her bobby socks and her helmet
tousled hair, how she’d really look in the dress.

She discarded one after another into the maybe pile until she got
to a pale dress with colourful flowers adorning the fabric. When she
slid into it, it just... clicked. The bottom flared out as she spun
before gathering loosely around her legs.

Her hand went to her chest, though, hiding the newfound cleavage
that popped out of it. The V-neck was severe, the halter gathering
around her neck, and she had no idea if she’d even make it out
of the dressing room let alone into the dance.

She fastened the belt around her waist, though, and when she
looked at herself, she looked like a different person. Someone fun
and happy and sexy all at once.

“How’s it going?” asked one of the sales
associates and she was jarred back to reality.

“I think this one’s good!” Britney said.

“Come on out and we’ll have a look?”

She was nervous, but she peeked out, and the sales woman looked...
it was hard to say. Britney knew her outfit had done the job, though.

“You’ll need a different bra,” she pointed out,
and Britney felt another wave of embarrassment before nodding. “And
do you have shoes? We have some really cute pin-up style heels.”

“Uhm, yea, I need shoes.”

By the time the sales woman came back and Britney found herself
with a complete outfit, she could barely contain herself.

Damien strolled on in, so casually confident as he looked her up
and down. With a pointed whistle he showed his obvious approval.

“Damn girl, that’s the one alright,” he said,
one thumb hooked into his belt, dragging his waistline a little lower
as he tongued the seam of his lower lip. “Now there won’t
be no denyin’ that I’ve got the hottest damn date at the
dance. Not that they could before.”

Crass as ever, he let slip a few things there. The fact that he
was billing it as a date first and foremost.

It made her feel like flying. She couldn’t believe what he
was saying, and his look of appreciation that hinted at something
darker...

Her stomach clenched with excitement, and she ran back to the
dressing room, stripping out of it all. Did he actually like her? Is
that what he was getting at this whole time? She wanted so
desperately to believe that was true, but was terrified of it not
being real.

She got dressed once more, handing the various boxes to the woman
and smiling at Damien shyly.

“I forgot to check the price,” she admitted softly.

“Ain’t nothin’ but a thing,” he said with
a wink, touching his hand to the small of her back as he pulled out a
fat stack of bills and let them drop to the counter. The kind of
casual presentation of money she was not used to.

The wide-eyed clerks hurried to wrap and package the items, then
sort out the change.

Damien put his arm back around Britney and walked her on out of
the store. But it was then somethin’ real peculiar happened.

“Big D?” came some man’s hoarse, cracked voice,
and Britney saw a rather rough lookin’ man in a leather vest
come headin’ on over. “Fuckin’ hell! It
is
you!” he cried and laughed.

It was nobody Britney recognized, but the leather and his
addressing Damien made it clear it was an acquaintance at least.

Damien didn’t say a word but gave a long hard stare at the
man as he held her close by his side.

“Damien?” Britney said softly, her head tilted to the
side as she clutched her gifts a little closer to her body. She
didn’t know why the man gave her the creeps, but he did.

Maybe it was the scabs on his arms. Or the busted up look he had,
scars both old and new. He looked like he’d been into more
fights than she could count, and if he won ‘em, he certainly
never won ‘em unscathed.

“Shit, I expected you’d be back in the city by now!”
exclaimed the man, slow to notice Damien’s icy stare. “I
guess you’re on the way there now huh, big night tonight and
all,” he said with a grin, before his gaze went towards her,
and a leer crossed his face.

With a shrill whistle the rough lookin’ man made no effort
to act respectable towards her.

“Knew it had to be some pussy that pulled you away from the
club, and damn it’s a fine one,” he said before Damien
immediately untangled his arm about Britney and stepped forward.

“Don’t you fuckin’ talk that way about her,”
Damien growled in a voice she’d never heard from the man. A
voice darker and more ominous than she even imagined her brooding
Damien could conjure. The fact he punctuated it with a shove to the
other guy’s shoulder only made it all the worse.

“The fuck, man?!” the guy cried out, looking so
terribly offended by that, as if his words and actions were
completely out of nowhere. As if disrespectin’ a lady to her
face weren’t a thing worthy of mention let alone offense.

Britney felt frozen in place, too afraid to even move. All she
could do was cling to her goods as if they’d somehow shield her
from the terrifying man, and the fear of what was to come. She’d
never felt so afraid of someone before, especially not just seconds
after meeting them.

“Damien, let’s go,” she said, her voice still
meek.

Her words were lost amid the testosterone fueled confrontation
though, and as rough as this new guy looked, Damien weren’t
cowed and certainly weren’t backin’ down.

“I don’t fuckin’ repeat myself,” Damien
growled, shoulders wide as he edged closer to the man. He had a nice
bit of height on the rough fella, but as big and strong as Damien
was, this scarred man was bulky and built himself.

“You need to fuckin’ calm yourself down, man,”
the guy said through clenched teeth. “You wanna be nice to the
guys who might have a gun at your back someday. And it’s just
pussy after all,” he said, jabbing a finger at Damien’s
chest.

But Damien was havin’ none of it. He grabbed the man’s
finger before he could jab twice and a loud, bone-breaking sound
filled the air. It was enough to make Britney squeak in empathetic
pain. But soon after, the new guy cried out and then punched Damien
back in retaliation.

It was too late then, it was on.

“Nobody talks about her that fuckin’ way, you hear
me?!” Damien bellowed, unfazed by the punch to the face he just
took, still holdin’ the man’s broken finger.

Damien head-butted the man, and another sick crunch filled the
air. Another punch came at him, but Damien was quicker, jabbing his
fist into the other guy’s kidney. It wasn’t enough to
stop him from punching Damien, but it was enough to distract the
blow.

Britney had never seen anythin’ like it. Not even when that
out-of-towner started a fight in the parking lot. These were two
huge, ripped men, pounding into each other, and Damien never even
flinched from the blows despite how much they must’ve hurt.

She didn’t know what to do. Even if there were a sheriff or
deputy around, she didn’t wanna get Damien in any trouble.

“Damien!” she cried out, moving towards the scuffle,
hoping that maybe she could break it up or at least distract them
from their powerful punches.

There was little she could do though but cry out for a return to
reason once the two were slugging each other. Though she noticed
across the parking lot a couple other big, brawny bikers were making
their way over towards them.

They didn’t intervene though, they watched as if the fight
was something not meant to be interrupted. It only stopped when
Damien beat the other guy down to his hands and knees, bloody and
battered.

“What the fuck you two fightin’ about?” asked
one of the other two bikers in the lull.

“That bitch of hi—” the beaten man’s words
were cut off as Damien grabbed the back of his hair and slugged him
once more, right across the jaw. The man’s body went limp after
that and he hit the pavement before coughing and sputtering.

Damien cracked his blood spattered fist and gave a deathly glare
to the other two bikers.

“Shit man, you made your point,” said one of the
bikers as he knelt down to help the beaten guy up.

“Lousy shit doesn’t know when to clam up,” said
the other, as Damien kept a steady look at the others, asserting a
quiet control over happenings after what he’d just done.

It was a side of him Britney had never seen before, never even
imagined. It was terrifying, yet at the same time, it was all to
defend her against that crass creep’s words. Damien was
sticking up for her, so why did she feel so shaken up?

She reached out, tugging Damien’s coat like she was a kid
trying to get their parent’s attention, her blue eyes wide and
saucer like.

“I wanna go,” she said, and her voice quivered.

But Damien still wouldn’t budge. It wasn’t until the
other three guys slunk away back to their bikes that he finally
loosened up and turned with her back towards his own motorcycle.

“Let’s get outta here,” he said in a low gruff
voice, looking about the area, as if expecting further trouble.

She was only too eager to comply. Her head was rushing and she
thought she might faint at any second. She needed to sit down, to let
what just happened sink in.