Change of Heart (Fostering Love 2)

“Yeah, you’re the best I’ve ever had. Now get the fuck up. I was supposed to be at Trev’s twenty minutes ago.” He sat next to me on the bed and started pulling his socks and boots on.

“Really, the best?” I sang, clasping my hands together under my chin as I tiredly batted my eyelashes at him.

“You’re such a fucking pain in the ass,” he laughed, shaking his head.

He pulled me out of the room and down the stairs, and I was kind of disappointed that he’d already been up for a while by the time he’d woken me up. I wanted to see sleepy, stumbly Bram again. That Bram was my favorite.

“Ah, there they are,” I said to myself as Bram opened up the door to the garage and I saw my flip-flops discarded carelessly on the cement step right outside.

We climbed in the truck, and I shimmied into my jeans as he pulled out onto the highway.

“I left my tank top and my underoos at your house,” I said as we got closer to Dan and Liz’s house to pick up my car.

“You can just grab ’em the next time you’re over,” he said easily, turning down the long gravel driveway.

“Ooh, I get another ride?” I said sweetly, turning my head to look at him. “When?” I clapped my hands in front of my chest.

“When I call you.”

“You’re so dominant,” I murmured breathlessly. “Are you going to spank me if I call first?”

“I fucked you all night, and you’re still busting my balls?” he asked incredulously, coming to a stop next to my Toyota.

“It’s cute that you thought anything would change,” I mocked, reaching out to tap his cheek with my fingers, then pulling away quickly as he snapped his teeth at me.

“Thanks for the ride!” I sang as I climbed out of the truck.

“Which one?” he asked as I slammed the door closed behind me.

I jogged around to the driver’s seat of my car as Bram turned the truck around, and just as I’d started up the car, Dan opened up the front door of the house and took a step outside.

I pretended I didn’t hear him call my name as I quickly backed up and turned around. I didn’t want to deal with that shit yet. Not yet. Not until I could look him in the eye without feeling like a bug under the microscope.

And not until I was dressed in my own clothes and not braless and commando under one of Bram’s favorite flannels.

Bram. I sighed and smiled as I pulled out onto the road, and for a few minutes, I was almost giddy at the tenderness between my legs. Then, without warning, I thought about the night before, and my smile turned to a scowl. I pulled over to the side of the road and pulled out my phone to text him.

If we’re having sex without a condom, you’re not fucking anyone else.

I wanted to write a long-winded text about how I didn’t care if he wanted to see other people but I wasn’t going to take the chance of him giving me some STD, but I didn’t want to give the impression that I was protesting too much. Even though the thought of Bram with anyone else made my stomach churn. I stared at my phone for a full five minutes, periodically glancing at the empty road ahead and behind me, then finally saw that he was typing a response. I braced.

You aren’t either.

Well.

My lips curled up as I pulled back onto the road.

* * *

“Hey, asshole!” I yelled, answering my phone the next day. I was covered in paint and sweaty as all hell, but I’d finally gotten all the trim painted in my living room, and it looked magnificent.

Good word. Magnificent.

“How’s it going, Anita Bonita?” Henry’s voice came through the speaker as I set my phone down on a stool and started stripping off my paint-splattered clothes.

“It’s going. Just working on the house today. What about you? Anything new?”

“Nah, not much. Same shit, different day. I’m doing some training in a couple months though—that should be pretty badass.”

“Oh, yeah?” I asked, rolling the clothes into a ball and stuffing them into a garbage bag. They weren’t even worth keeping.

“Yeah. I’m thinking about heading up with Shane and Katie when they come up in two weeks. I’ve got the leave—I just need to get it approved.”

“Sweet!” I yelled, doing a little dance.

I loved it when everyone came to visit. We were all so spread out that it didn’t happen often. The last time we’d all been together was Katie’s thirtieth birthday party in San Diego almost a year before. This time, the only person missing would be Alex.

“Can I stay with you? I think Katie and Shane are staying at Aunt Liz and Uncle Mike’s, but I don’t want to stay with the ’rents.”