Love Untouched (Unexpected) (19 page)

“I dream of going to an NBA All-Star game.”

~K.P., age 13, spinal muscular atrophy

“Do you think I look okay in this?” Brynn has changed three times since I got here. Initially, she had on a yellow dress, then a red one. Now, she was wearing a blue sleeveless blouse with black slacks. She was nervous, I could tell. A week ago, I had asked her if she wanted to meet my family, so here we were getting ready for dinner with my parents. She was bending over the bed to fix the pile of clothes that she had tossed earlier. I sat on the chair by her computer desk. There was no space for me on her bed. Her ass looked really good in those slacks. I walked behind her and gently pulled her body to stand flush against me. I gathered her tumble of golden locks and pushed them to the side, exposing her shoulder blades, and leaned in a few inches from her ears, and murmured, “Honey you look great. Everything’s going to be great. I bite, but they don’t.”

She giggled at my words. She was familiar with my bites. If we had time, I would have liked to do some biting right now.

“I just want to make a good impression on them, you know?” She said in a hopeful voice as I lightly massaged her shoulders.

“You’ll be fine.” I kissed the nape of her neck and she let out a sigh.

Her head flexed to glance at the digital wall clock on the side of her bed. “Oh my, Kieran, we have to go, traffic might be bad, and Luxe is almost half an hour away.”

I lowered my hands down to her arms, turned her around to face me, looked into her worried deep blue eyes, and replied, “They’ll like you.” I could not stop myself from wanting a taste of her lips, but she flung a hand between our mouths just as I was about to take a dip in hers.

“We have to go. You’re going to end up eating my lip gloss.”

She was hot when she was all business-like, slightly bossy, with me. I could not resist a grin when she added, “When we get home later...” A promise. I liked that. Brynn held up to her promises. One time she promised to bake me my favorite oatmeal cookies and serve them up to me,
naked
. I didn’t even get to three bites before I decided to let go of the cookie and eat her instead. Another instance, I had bought her five of Martha Stewart’s recipe books and some cookie cutters that she had been eyeing every time we stepped into Crate and Barrel, so then she promised me a blowjob because I was so sweet. I huffed because I didn’t think I was being sweet but I didn’t comment about the blowjob. Who was I to resist? Well, she made good on her promise. She gave me three that week. I was not counting, really, but next time, I would order an entire shipment of those cookie cutters, cookie pans, or whatever she wanted. Maybe she’d promise me one for each day of the year.

She went inside the bathroom to fix her hair that I might have slightly messed up with the hand and finger massage and when she came out, I was floored. Brynn was pretty, but now she had that extra glow. Her eyes were lit up, and the small amount of make-up that she was wearing enhanced their deep blue color. Her cheeks were pink-tinged and rosy, and her lips, God, her lips were even more dewy-looking and luscious. Her golden blonde hair was in some sort of clip that held a mass of it on top of her crown, and artfully arranged light curls flowed smoothly around her face. Wow. I saw her almost every day and I appreciated her quiet beauty, but when she dressed up and wore the smallest amount of make-up, it caught me off-guard and left me slightly breathless.

She smiled, and there it went, another catch in my throat. “You look so handsome, hon.” She started calling me ‘hon’ as a joke because I called her ‘honey’. Well, she tasted like honey so it fit her well. She also smelled like vanilla but she quickly admonished my suggestion of calling her ‘vhoney’ or ‘vanhon’ or ‘honeyvan’. When she asked why I couldn’t just call her Brynn, I admitted, “I like to give the special people in my life nicknames.” She grinned at that and conceded, “Honey it is.”

“Thanks,” I grinned, appreciating her compliment, as I wrapped an arm around her shoulder and we walked to my car.

“No really. You look delicious.” In my black suit, my dress pants got tighter around the middle when she acted as if she was licking her lips, avoiding contact with the skin because she didn’t want to mess her lip-gloss.

Now driving to the restaurant, I teased, “If you continue licking your lips like that, I’ll take it that you’re being naughty. I’m calling my parents right now and telling them that we’ll be delayed for another hour. Or maybe a day.”

Her musical laughter filled my car.

She reached for my hand and we settled into light conversation about her work. She always had some very interesting stories. I could tell she loved her job. It was in the way she spoke about it, like there was nothing else she could see herself doing.

We reached Luxe in twenty minutes. Traffic was light for a Saturday night. Before I handed the keys to the valet, I looked at her peeking over at me while re-applying powder on her face, and told her, “You’re the first girl I’ve brought to meet them. Well, aside from Ace. But technically, Ace is not a girl. She’s just Ace.” She leaned in to elbow me lightly. “Please be gentle with them. They’re newbies at this sort of thing. Don’t make them fall in love with you.”

As soon as the words came out of my mouth, I heard her small, quick gasp before she slowly went back to retouching her make-up.

I was about to say more but a burly, middle-aged guy was standing outside the driver’s side, asking, “Your keys, sir?”

Brynn removed her seatbelt, and I held her hand as I helped her out of the car and we walked inside. My statement hung in the air, abandoned for now because of the intrusion, but not forgotten.

“Mom, Dad, this is Brynn Tanner.” My parents were punctual people so I knew they would be already waiting for us, and began introductions as soon as we approached the table.

My parents both stood up from their seats as they each greeted Brynn. Mom looked relaxed. She was wearing one of her signature outfits—gray blazer and slacks. Her dark hair cut shorter than I remembered, the length just sitting right on top of her shoulder. Her light green eyes smiled when she saw Brynn and me. She hugged me as soon as I reached her. I had missed her. Her and Dad were always going on short trips for getaways. I talked to them over the phone constantly but I still missed her. Seeing the happiness in my mom’s eyes, I felt relief. Relief that my father was finally giving her the attention and love that she needed. She deserved all of it. When we were growing up, my dad was busy working and the job of caring for us, four boys, was solely on my mother. She had to quit her beloved job as a pediatrician so she could spend time with us. There were many times when I felt that she was unhappy with my father, many times I had heard their screaming matches when he came home, but not once did she cry in front of us. To me, those unshed tears were much more painful, much harder for her to bear. So, every time I got into the pool, I made sure I won. I realized that the more I won, the more my father was there to attend my meets, and that brought the smile back on my mom’s face. My brothers might have had the same feeling too because we all tried to become stars in our chosen sports.

My mom hugged Brynn and gave her a small kiss on the cheek. “Nice to meet you Brynn. You can call me Jen.” Jen was short for Jennifer and my mom reserved that nickname for people that she liked.

“What a lovely young lady you are. Steve, at your service,” my dad said, as he shook Brynn’s hand. He was the same height as me, and in his black suit and white dress shirt, he looked the same as always - formidable and authoritative. I’d heard that in order to conduct the types of transactions and handle the clients at the level that my dad did, you had to have an ego that made you feel like God. My dad certainly had no shortage of that ego, he had it in spades. You could say that it was hard to grow up in his shadow, and I would tell you that I didn’t want to be in that shadow. I made my own path, carved the road for my own future.

We all sat on our seats as the server stopped by to take our orders. Mom and Brynn ordered champagne, I asked for water, and my dad requested scotch on the rocks.

“How’s training going son?” My dad asked, his green eyes assessing.

I leaned in to Brynn, watching as she smiled at my parents, and replied, “Going good. We’ve made a couple of changes in my workout and I think it’s paying off.”

“Your shoulder?” My mom inquired, worriedly.

“Still the same, but not much pain. Physio’s helping a lot, and I just have to maintain my form in the water, minimize strokes, and not overexert myself.”

“The last time I talked to John, he said that they had to change the weights you use during your streamline exercises, and the amount of time you do weightlifting,” my dad stated, sipping on the scotch that the server had brought. Of course, he would have called John Freehand to ask about my progress. It didn’t matter how much I told him to let my team do their job, he always had to put his two cents in. John was the team physician and my dad knew him from Phi Kappa Chi, their fraternity in college. My parents met at one of the college parties that the fraternity sponsored. John was the one who introduced my parents to each other since he had known my mom in high school.

“Dad you have to stop calling John,” I stated, a touch irritated. “I’m not the only athlete he’s taking care of. I’m fine. You want to ask about me? Ask me. Don’t call him.”

He replied, dismissively, “I know you’re not the only athlete under his belt. But you’re my son. And I wanted to catch up with him.”

Mom touched my dad’s shoulder lightly. “Steve, let them do their job.”

Before my dad could answer, I saw my brothers Zach and Matthieu, since I was facing the door of the restaurant, walking towards our table. They didn’t say they were coming. I didn’t know they were even in town. Who told them?

My gaze flitted to my mom’s and she smiled. “They both wanted to see your girl. Jonas wanted to come too, but he’s busy cramming for the bar.” Jonas, the only one who followed our dad’s footsteps, recently graduated from law school and was in New York for the bar exam.

Brynn’s hand reached for mine, which was sitting on top of the table. My mom saw the movement and with her mouth quirked slightly and her gaze knowing, she said, “My sons are nice Brynn. They might not be as well-behaved as I want them to be, but they behave when it counts.”

That must have relieved the added pressure that Brynn felt because she laughed.

As soon as my brothers reached our table, Brynn stood up since she was at the farthest edge, probably wanting to make room so my brothers could join us. Next thing I saw, she was being hugged like a bear by Zach, who let go after a quick squeeze, only to be mauled into another one by Matthieu. She looked like she was suffocating because her face had lost some color.

“Matthieu, let go of her, you moron.” I stood up and shoulder punched my brother, calling him by his full name, which he hated so much. His friends called him Matt, but I preferred Matthieu so he could just deal with it.

Brynn let out a huge exhale of breath and then she started laughing. “Whoa, so that’s how a football player hugs. I could only imagine how they tackle.” She winced slightly.

I pulled her into my arms, pushing my brothers to the side, and asked, “You okay honey?”

She nodded and grinned, her dimple visible.
Gorgeous
. That’s what she was. I lightly caressed her hair, and for a moment, it felt like it was just the two of us.

Forced, pretend coughs invaded our single moment of privacy, and when Brynn and I sat back, making room for my brothers, my mom and dad’s eyes honed in on us, almost in shock. The first time I brought a girl to meet my parents, now my family, and I was showing how protective I was of her. I didn’t think my parents expected that of me, I was not one to show my emotions or any type of affection well. Sports magazines usually described me as closed off, and they were right. I was closed off to the world but to Brynn, I found myself opening up. I couldn’t help it. Mom was the first one to speak. “Okay, I think we can order now.”