7 Months (Time for Love 8)

So, suffice it to say I’d been uncomfortable at my own party and just biding my time until I could slip out the back.

I’d been about to do just that when Ming had found me in the kitchen.

“Congratulations,” she’d said softly. I’d never heard her speak softly before. Ming usually spoke in sharp tones with sarcasm. I hadn’t been around her much, but I knew she was the strong one in her group, and that she didn’t suffer fools.

She was a no nonsense kind of woman. Both of my sisters-in-law were strong women and I loved them unconditionally, but that was not the kind of woman I went for. I was more of a provider, a protector … I didn’t want a woman to wear the pants, so to speak.

I needed a woman more like Nat, someone I could help. Someone who would need me and appreciate what I had to offer.

Still, there was something there, so I went home with Ming that night, and we’d been having sex ever since.

For seven months.

We met a few times a week. We didn’t date. She’d never been to my house, and no one knew about us.

It was just sex.

Primal. Raw. Unbelievable.

Sex.

Chapter Two ~ Ming

I felt the pain slash through my heart as Brady closed his eyes and lost himself in the music.

I’d seen him watching Natalie. He was always watching Natalie.

I got it, I did … He was the kind of guy who needed someone to save. He was drawn to vulnerability, and liked feeling needed, and Natalie was married to a douchebag who liked to use her as his verbal punching bag. I didn’t blame Natalie … I didn’t even blame Brady.

He’d always been a hundred percent up front about what we shared. He wasn’t a player, a jerk, or a liar.

It wasn’t his fault that I was in love with him. That I’d been in love with him for the past seven months. He didn’t even know, and I sure as hell wasn’t going to tell him, or anyone for that matter. If I did, he might end what we had. He’d want to protect me from the pain he’d inevitably cause, the pain he’d unintentionally been causing me for the past seven months.

Every time he left.

Every time we didn’t talk, didn’t share, didn’t learn more about each other.

Every time I saw him looking at her…

It was like a knife to the gut, but it was better than the alternative.

I’d rather have Brady in my bed, in secret, than not have him at all.

Did I want more? Absolutely. Was I going to try and push him into something that I knew he didn’t want? Hell no!

So, I ignored the pain and watched Whiskey Heat, enjoying the music and spending time with my friends. I knew he’d be warming my bed later that night, and I’d continue trying to convince myself that it was enough.

“You okay?” Bronagh shouted over the sound of her husband’s voice.

I turned to my friend, plastering on the same smile I’d been giving her for the last seven months. I hated lying to her, and to Cass, but I knew they’d try and talk me out of what I was doing … having a non-relationship with Bronagh’s brother-in-law, who kept to himself and liked it that way.

They’d tell me that I deserved more, deserved better. That I should be with someone who wanted a relationship, a future with me. The same things that my parents had been drilling in my head since I’d graduated law school.

The thing was, I didn’t want anyone else. I wanted Brady, I had since the moment I first saw him, and if I had to keep my non-relationship with him a secret from my friends, well, I was willing to do so.

“Yeah, I’m good. Just working a tough case right now,” I answered, telling half of the truth.

“You work too hard,” she replied, and I watched as her hands moved gently over her swollen belly. “I’m glad you were able to break away tonight. I’ve missed you.”