Misty Reigenborn Romance Boxed Set (46 page)

“Okay.  Goodnight Gabe.”

“Goodnight my beautiful Brandy.”

She fell asleep shortly after.

Chapter 2

When Brady awoke the next morning, she found that Gabe was lying on the bed staring at her.  She found it to be rather creepy and turned to the nightstand to reach for a cigarette.  He stopped her and leaned over and gave her a kiss.  It disgusted her a little that he stuck his tongue in her mouth when she had morning breath, but it didn’t seem to bother him. 

“Good morning beautiful.  Did you sleep well?”

“Yeah.” 

She reached over a grabbed a cigarette and lit it, taking it with her to the bathroom. She used the toilet, washed her hands and rinsed her mouth with mouthwash. 

When she returned to the bedroom, Gabe was dressed.  “Where would you like to eat breakfast Brandy?”

She yawned and stretched.  “I don’t usually eat breakfast.  Chad and I usually only ate one meal a day.  Of course, we didn’t usually have a lot of money.  I wanted to go to work a long time ago but he said no.  I think he wanted me to sit there and look cute when guys came to buy drugs.  He’s not a very good drug dealer.”

Gabe frowned.  “That’s not really a bad thing is it?”

“I guess not.  He didn’t sell to kids or anything like that.  When you’re a drug dealer at least you’re honest.  Well, I mean not all the time obviously.  But I always kinda thought it was better than some jobs.  Jobs where you tell someone one thing to their face and then stab them in the back.  There was this social worker that came to talk to me when I was pregnant with Joey.  Man was she a two faced bitch.  I told her some stuff in confidence.  Then she went and told my parents all this stuff and she blew it out of proportion too.  She even lied about some stuff.  She was trying to tell her supervisor that I had sex for the first time when I was fourteen because my dad had molested me and I was confused.  I never told her anything like that.  He believed her too. Of course I think he would have believed anything she said.  You could tell that he wanted to screw her.  I was afraid they were gonna shove me in a foster home until my mom called up this lawyer that runs these ads that say he eats Child Protective Services workers for breakfast.  They never came back after that.”

“I wouldn’t call drug dealing a noble profession, but I believe you’re right.  There are many careers where you’re not always loved by the general public.  Are you sure you’re not hungry?  We can go anywhere you’d like.  There’s a wonderful diner that serves breakfast, lunch and dinner all day back in town.  Then we can go shopping.”

“Um, sure.”

Gabe reached for his shoes.  “Get dressed.”

Brandy dressed and then she followed him out the door.  He handed her the keys when they got to the truck.  She unlocked the doors and got behind the wheel.  Gabe gave her directions to the diner that he was talking about.  She had eaten there with Chad on the morning that they’d pulled into town.  She was really getting tired of the memories of him that seemed to bite her in the ass wherever she looked in Brunton, but she figured it was better not to mention it to Gabe.

Gabe greeted the waitress that had a nametag that read “Shellene”.  They were seated at a booth in the back.  Gabe insisted on sitting next to her, and wouldn’t stop trying to move his hand into her lap.  Brandy slapped him after he did it the third time and gave him a dirty look.

  “Stop it.  How can you be so horny after what we did last night?”

Gabe chuckled.  “You are so beautiful.  So mouthwatering.  I should have made love to you before we left.”

Brandy rolled her eyes.  “I’m really horny sometimes, but I’m not that horny.  Keep your hands to yourself.  We’re not fourteen and exploring our sexuality in the back seat of your big brother’s car while he’s up front going at it with his nasty girlfriend.”

“I assume that’s how you lost your virginity?”

“Yeah.  It was disgusting.  This chick smelled like rotten fish and he. . .  Oh, it makes me want to throw up just thinking about it.”

“Not a pleasant situation.”

“Not at all.”  The waitress returned with their drinks and took their food orders.  Once the waitress had walked away again, she said “How did you lose your virginity?”

“It was not a nice situation either I’m afraid.”

“Tell me.  I already told you my nasty no longer a virgin story.”

Gabe sighed.  “I had a terrible crush on this girl.  She wasn’t popular, but she was smart and very beautiful.  Of course I wasn’t even in her league.  My family was dirt poor, and I never had new clothes.  Everything was patched or homemade.  My mother wasn’t much of a seamstress.  I took so much crap from other guys in my class until I beat the shit out of a couple of them for saying things that were ridiculous about my stepfather and my sister.  I found out they were true later on, and beat the shit out of him too, but that’s another story.  So as I was saying, I had such a thing for this girl.  Her name was Kara.  I’d asked her out many times, but she’d always turned me down.  Finally, towards the end of our junior year, she said she’d go out with me but that we had to keep it quiet.  She had an older brother who was a senior at our school. But he was popular and she knew that he would spread terrible rumors if he knew we were going out.  We spent much of our time together at my house.  No one seemed to know about our relationship.  My mother had taken my sister out shopping with her.  It was the first time that we had really been alone together other than in the backseat of my car.  And when we were alone then it was only in my driveway because I rarely had money for gas.  Kara offered to pay for it so that we could at least go to the local make out spot, but I didn’t want to take her money.  So, we were alone in my bedroom and we had gotten to the heavy petting stage.  She had let me make her come with my hand once, but I’d never let her bring me to orgasm.  It seemed so cheap to me at the time.  Silly I know, but it’s the way I felt as a seventeen year old boy.  I had a condom other than the one that’s in my wallet right now.  She found it and told me that she wanted to make love.  I was thrilled, but I was so nervous that I didn’t think that there was any way I’d be able to perform, especially since I had no idea how long my mother and sister were going to be gone.  Kara finally convinced me, but it was only a few minutes after I had entered her when there was a flash of light outside my window.  We lived in a beat up trailer at the time.  My window was open and the curtains were too, since it was a warm night.  Kara told me to ignore it and keep on going because she liked the way it felt.  Of
course I did too, so I didn’t stop.  I was almost at orgasm when the flash of light got brighter and right in my face.  I came because I was so startled, but Kara screamed.  It was her brother who had made the flash of light.  He’d been taking pictures of us.  The last time he’d stuck the camera right through the open window and into my house.  He’d found out we were dating by chance, and had been waiting for a chance to humiliate us both.  Their parents favored Kara because she was smart and sweet and kind.  Seth was a jerk who had already gotten two women pregnant.  One of them was a married woman that lived in their neighborhood.  He was barely able to graduate with his grades.  Kara had already been offered the chance to graduate early.” 

Gabe shook his head.  “Sibling rivalry.”  He paused again when the waitress returned with their food.  He thanked her and gave her a bright smile and a wink.  Brandy was almost positive that the woman put a little extra shake in her walk when she went back to the kitchen.  She fought an eye roll as she waited for Gabe to continue.  “Kara was humiliated.  She never talked to me again, and went to live with her aunt and finish school there.  I beat the shit out of Seth and took all the pictures that he’d taken, but it was already too late.  He’d shown them to everyone that would look.  I was even more of a laughingstock.  I didn’t bother to ask another girl out until after I had finished high school and was the hell away from that town.  Then I met Leslie.   And the rest as they say is history.”

Brandy took a bite of her pancakes, swallowed and then said “You seemed to have some anger issues in high school.  You told me that you beat up three guys and your stepdad.  How many more were there Gabe?”

Gabe chuckled.  “A few.  And some in elementary school and middle school as well.”

“Huh.  Do you have your anger managed now?”

“Mostly.”

“Well, you’d better not try to take your anger out on me.  ‘Cause I will fight back.  I may not look like much, but the one time that Chad thought he was going to hit me, I beat him to it and hit him first.  My dad used to smack my mom around until one day she got tired of it and beat the crap out of him.  I don’t think he’s thought twice about hitting her since.”

Gabe raised an eyebrow.  “You seem to have some anger issues yourself.”

“Oh, I’ve got all kinds of issues.  I’m just not afraid to admit them.”  Brandy shrugged and went back to eating her breakfast.

“For someone who doesn’t eat breakfast, you seem to be putting those pancakes away pretty quickly.  Do you want something else?  A slice of pie maybe?  They have delicious chocolate cream pie.”

“Sounds yummy.  I’ll let you know after I finish with these.  I don’t want to get fat.”

“I don’t think there’s a danger of that Brandy.”

“My stomach isn’t as flat as it used to be.  I still have stretch marks from when I had Joey.  I miss my boobs from when I was pregnant though.  They looked really hot.”

Gabe laughed.  “I can hardly imagine your body being any hotter.”

“My boobs looked so good. Especially after I had Joey until all the milk dried up and went away.  But I was totally fat when I was pregnant.  My parents always said I was going to eat them right into the poor house.  Then they’d ask me why I couldn’t be like my sister.  Your girlfriend’s brother wasn’t the only one who’s ever had a bad case of sibling rivalry.  If I have to hear my mother tell me one more time that my sister is so damned perfect because she supposedly waited to have sex until she got married, I swear I’ll scream.  My sister did it with her boyfriend and his best friend on the night of their senior prom.  She told me so.  Sounds kinda gross to me, but I guess they all got into it.  Went at it all night long.  To each his or her own I guess.”

They were silent as they finished the rest of their meals.  Brandy did decide that she wanted a slice of pie and so did Gabe.  It was so good that Brandy almost wanted to ask for another one, but she didn’t want to push it.  Her stomach was already starting to hurt a little since she’d eaten so much more than usual in the past twelve hours.

Gabe paid the check and then told her to drive to a local clothing store.  Brandy was kind of excited at the thought because she didn’t have many clothes anymore.  He told her to buy whatever she wanted.  To put him to the test, she picked out several shirts that would show what cleavage she did have.  She also picked out several new pairs of jeans that she knew were probably going to be too tight.  Gabe didn’t say anything, just followed her around patiently as she made her selections.

His arms were full of clothing by the time she was done shopping.  Even though Brandy secretly thought that half of the clothes she picked out would probably end up making her look trashy, Gabe said that he couldn’t wait for her to try on her new outfits for him.  He didn’t blink when the total came to several hundred dollars and winked at the sales girl.  She blushed and Brandy wanted to give her a dirty look.  Then she felt stupid and wandered back over to take one last look at the shoes.

Gabe came up behind her and put his arms around her.  “See something you like?”

“I really like those boots, but they’re over $200 and that’s on sale.  I’ve always wanted a pair, but Mom always called them hooker boots when I showed her pictures when I was in high school.  Of course Jayla wore combat boots in high school.  My sister’s kinda weird.  Or at least she was back then.  Now she’s the perfect wife and the perfect mother.  She’s not really perfect though.  I think she still sleeps with Dill’s best friend sometimes.  My brother in law is named Dill.  Isn’t that funny?  Not Dylan or Dillard or anything kinda normal, but Dill.”

Gabe chuckled.  “Definitely an interesting name.  Get the boots if you want them.  Though I think it’s better if you wait to put them on until later, since we still have a lot of shopping to do.  Do you want a new pair of tennis shoes as well?  Yours are starting to look rather beat up.”

Brandy looked at her shoes and a blush crept up her cheeks.  She and Chad had barely had money to pay the bills, let alone buy things like clothes or shoes.  Or for her anyway.  He’d always had nice things.  She wondered again why she hadn’t seen him for what he was.

“Really?  I don’t want to spend too much of your money.”

“Darling, I don’t worry about money.  I have credit cards with no limits and fat bank accounts.  I want to spoil you.  Besides, I’m sure you’ll be more than willing to show me your appreciation when we get back to the hotel.”  Gabe winked at her.

“Um sure.”

Brandy found a pair of the boots in her size.  She handed the box to Gabe and debated on what tennis shoes she liked the best.  There were two pairs she liked, and she couldn’t decide which one she really wanted.  Gabe followed her eyes and pulled a pair of both off of the shelf.

“Decision made.  You can have both.  Anything else before we head out?  Speak now or forever hold your peace, or at least until our next shopping trip.”

“No thank you.  You’ve done too much for me already.”

“Hardly.”  Gabe followed her back to the register where he handed the sales girl the shoes with an indulgent smile.  “She wasn’t done.”