Deal Takers (Dealing with Love 2)

My ears perk up when her voicemail greeting plays.

“Hey, this is Rainey. Leave a message after the tone and I’ll get back to you as soon as possible.”

I go for it as soon as I hear the beep.

“Rainey, it’s me. Brody. God, hopefully you’d recognize my voice otherwise what I’m about to say is really fucked up. But I don’t think it is fucked up, because it feels right. Ya know? So hopefully you already knew it was me. Anyway...I’m not going to let you distract me with sex! Not that I don’t like the sex, because Christ, sex with you is out-of-this-world hot. There’s nothing better in existence than sinking into your warm, wet pussy. But that’s not what I called to say. Fuck, you’re even distracting me with sex without even being here because I’m thinking about it.

“Okay...back to the subject. I don’t want to be friends-with-benefits anymore. When I think about it, I never did. You’re not a fuck-and-chuck type of girl. You’re a take-back-home kind of girl. Like, I actually want you to meet my crazy family because I know they’d love you almost as much as I do. Yeah, you heard me right; I love you, Lorraine O’Neil. I’ve fucking loved you for years! I don’t want any other women. You’re the goddamn magic pussy! Don’t you get that? All I’m asking is for a—”

BEEP!

“Damn it! Her voicemail cut me off.”

“Call it back, man,” Drew suggests. “You’re doing good. Pure fucking poetry.”

I grin as I dial her again and wait for the tone. It was pretty great, wasn’t it?

BEEP!

“Okay, Rainey. It’s me again. Your stupid voicemail hung up on me. Anyway, where was I? Oh yeah, I got it. I’m just asking for you to give me a chance, baby. A real chance. I know Adam fucked with your head, but if you keep closing yourself off because you’re scared, then he wins. Don’t let him win, Rainey!

“You’re it for me. I want you and only you. And I know you feel the same. I know it...you understand this insane connection we have because you’re right there with me, baby. You just need to gather the courage to admit it. I want forever with you. You want babies? Well, I want to knock you up and see your giant belly carrying my child. Oh my God, your tits are going to be even more incredible when you’re pregnant. Fuck. Now I’m getting hard thinking about it. Shit, where was I?

“Oh, yeah...so our cover’s blown. Riley and Drew know all the details now, too. And I’m sorry about that, but I didn’t outright tell them—they figured it out. You know what? No, I’m not sorry. I fucking want them to know. I want everyone to know! Just please, give me a fucking chance. I know you think I’m an ass, but I promise I’ll fucking cherish you, Rainey. And I’ll keep the orgasms coming. See what I did there? Orgasms...coming? Getting off track again. Anyway, just hear me out. Just give me a chance. So...yeah. I guess that’s it. Call me back when you get off work.”

I press the END button and take a deep breath. It feels like an anvil has been lifted off my chest.

“Jesus, Brody. Not gonna lie, dude; I’m getting a chub. If Rainey won’t give you a shot, I might be willing to give it a try. But just a forewarning; you’d have to be the bottom.”

“Fuck you, man,” I slur. “I am so not a bottom. Also, we both like pussy. Remember?”

“Speaking of pussy...” he looks around and smiles when he spots something. “Now that you’ve fixed your problem, my best friend duty is done. The hot bartender has been eye-fucking me for the past few hours. I’m going to go see what time she gets off work so she can get off on my dick after. I’ll close out the tab while I’m up there.”

I wave him off. “Go for it, bud. I’m gonna get an Uber.”

The app says my driver is right down the road so I pull on my coat and head outside. I look at the time as I wait and calculate the number of hours before Rainey gets off work. I have just enough time to get a good nap in. I smile when I think about all the naked fun that we’re going to have after she listens to my voicemail.

Chapter Forty-Six

RAINEY

Ugh, what a night. We were at full capacity so every nurse on staff had three laboring ladies a piece. All three of mine gave birth during my twelve-hour shift so I had to stay an extra hour just to catch up on my charts. Don’t let anyone tell you otherwise; doctors get all the glory, but nurses are the ones that do most of the work. I grab my purse and head down to the parking garage, fantasizing about crawling into bed and crashing for at least ten hours. I remember my phone battery was low when I clocked in so I pull it out of my purse so I can charge it during the drive home. I was so busy that I never got a chance to pull it out during my shift, let alone plug a charger in.

I frown when I see two voicemails from Brody, timestamped early this morning. That damn man’s persistence makes avoiding him really difficult. The irony is that I don’t even want to avoid him. But I don’t want to dig into the heavy conversation that he’s been trying to have either. You probably think I’m a bitch for doing this to him—he certainly hasn’t done anything to deserve it—but self-preservation has a funny way of controlling your actions. Things with Brody got super intense, super fast, so I’m trying to deal with that. And after the other night, it just got that much worse. As strange as it sounds, considering all the butt stuff that occurred, Brody and I made love that night. It’s too much. He’s too much.

When I proposed this arrangement, I thought I was getting a really hot Peter Pan with a big dick. I truly didn’t think that I’d have any trouble keeping feelings out of it. In retrospect, I should’ve seen this coming. The truth of the matter, is that there’s a certain type of man that I’ve always gravitated toward. And Brody is that type: Charming, intelligent, playful, sex-on-a-stick. One thing I learned though, is that with those types of men, it never takes too long before their eyes, and their dicks, start to wander. I’ve been cheated on in every single relationship that I’ve ever been in. I actually went out with Adam because he was the exact opposite of my normal guy and look how well that turned out. As you can probably imagine, my past has made me cautious...and maybe a bit jaded.

/> I didn’t want anything serious with Brody. It was supposed to be fun for a while and that’s it. Who knew he could be so thoughtful, and attentive, and...perfect. I’ve seem glimpses of Brody’s serious side before, but I always assumed they were few and far in between. I have to keep reminding myself that all relationships are good in the beginning. That he’s just like the others and if I give him my heart, he’ll stomp all over it once the newness wears off.

I take a deep breath and press play on the first message. I smile when he begins to ramble—clearly he was a bit intoxicated. Oh, boy, this is going to be interesting. My smile quickly falls when he gets to the point and tells me that he loves me—that he doesn’t want anyone other than me. Goddamn him! I can’t believe he dropped the L-bomb over a drunken voicemail!

The first message runs so long he gets cut off mid-sentence but he picks up right where he left off with the second. I’m fucking terrified when he tells me that he wants me to have his babies. I get downright furious when he admits that we’ve been exposed. Who in the hell does he think he is? He can’t just leave me a fucking voicemail saying all this shit!

Fuck! Why did he have to do this? Why couldn’t he be happy with what we had? Why did he have to force the issue?

Why did he have to ruin this?

I don’t even think; I just drive until I’m pulling into the underground parking to Brody’s building. I have so many emotions running through me as I stomp up to his apartment, that I don’t even know what I came here to say. I wipe my tears away and pound on his door until I can hear him shuffling around inside.