Brandon’s jaw starts to grind and his eyes cut to me. “Can I use the car?” he grits out.
“Yes,” I say.
Brandon immediately stomps off down the stairs, slamming the front door behind him, and I flop back on the bed and cover my face.
“Babe.”
I just shake my head.
“He knows we’re together,” Mike says, and I know he knows, but it’s one thing to know and another to find your mom in bed with a man.
“I know, but maybe we shouldn’t have sleepovers anymore,” I say through my hands. I feel the bed move. Then my hands are being pried away from my face.
“First, I came over on a night when he was sleeping at a friend’s so that I could take care of you while you were sick,” he says softly, pushing my hair away from my face. “That being said, I have a feeling it wouldn’t matter if he came home from college and found me in your bed. He would still be pissed off.”
“I know,” I whisper, feeling tears fill my eyes.
Mike’s eyes go soft as he wipes my tears away with his thumbs. “He loves you, baby.”
“I know,” I repeat on a sob.
He rolls to his side pulling me with him. “What time does he normally get home?” he asks, and I try to bury my face deeper into his chest, not wanting to answer that. “Kat?”
I take a shaky breath before tilting my head back and looking at him. “I told him his curfew is ten on school nights and twelve on weekends.”
“Lemme guess. He doesn’t come home when he’s supposed to?”
“Sometimes.” I shrug.
“Babe, I understand that you’re trying to soften things up for him ‘cause his dad left, but I think you’re hurting more than you’re helping at this point.”
“You don’t understand.” I close my eyes, shaking my head. My son is so angry. He’s a good kid and I know that he loves me, but he has so much anger inside him that I can feel it when we’re in the same room.
“I do understand. I know how much trouble teenage boys can get into when left to do their own thing.”
“Mike.”
“He’s not my kid and I can’t tell you what to do or how to raise him, but he needs to have structure and discipline. He’s not too old for you to get on him.”
“I know,” I say because I do know. “I just don’t think he was expecting to see you here.”
“You told him we’re together, right?”
“Yes,” I say immediately. “He stormed off, but I didn’t think anything of it ‘cause he always storms off when I try to talk to him.”
“We’ll figure it out together,” he says, and my heart settles a little bit more. “How are you feeling?” he asks after a few minutes. His hand goes to my forehead and his eyes look me over.
“I feel a lot better.”
“Doesn’t feel like you have a temp anymore. That’s a good thing.”
“I actually feel really great. I haven’t slept that good in a long time.”
“Me neither.” He kisses me then pulls away before sitting on the side of the bed and raising his arms above his head.
I watch, fascinated, as his back muscles bunch and expand.
“How about a shower then breakfast?” he asks, looking over his shoulder at me.
I lick my bottom lip and nod when his eyes darken slightly. He stands to come around to my side of the bed. I lie back as his upper body cages me. One hand goes to my hair while the other makes a fist in the bed near my head as his face lowers toward mine.
“How much better are you feeling, exactly?” he asks, his nose running along mine.
“Much better.” I put my hands to his chest. Even while lying down, I feel like I need to steady myself.
“Hmmm,” he rumbles, his hand in the bed going under me then traveling down my ass to the back of my thigh.
When I feel his hand on my bare skin, I squirm. When his hand travels farther up and his hand grabs on to my bare ass cheek, I bite my lip.
“You don’t have on anything under your robe?”
I shake my head no and his eyes turn even darker as they travel down my body, landing on the tie of the robe.
Chapter 5
MIKE
I can’t imagine not having this, not having her. My eyes skim down her body to the robe, which is tied around her.
Last night, when Kat was in the shower, it almost killed me to go downstairs knowing that she was naked and soaking wet a few feet from me. I haven’t even jerked off since she told me that she wanted more and left me stunned, still in my towel, at my house while I watched her drive off. I had known that I love her before she broke down, but I hadn’t realized the extent of it or how much she had consumed me.
The night I saw her at the restaurant on her date, I was talking to Joe about her and working out with him what I needed to do. Things were not cut-and-dry. She has a teenage son. I didn’t know why that scared me more than anything else. I love kids, but he is not a kid. Brandon is practically a man.
I also had my own baggage, things I needed to deal with. It pisses me off how much November’s mother affected me, but she did. The things she did while she was pregnant and then when she took off with my kid have made me question every woman I’ve come into contact with. Was it fair to loop all women into the category of lying, conniving bitches? No, but it is what it is. Now, I have a woman who has been honest to a fault since day one under me and I am going to find a way to deal with my insecurities so that we can have a future together.
“You look like you’re running a fever,” I tell her, untying her robe.
She wiggles under me until her leg comes up to rest behind my thigh so she can pull me closer. I feel the heat of her pussy through the thin cotton of my boxers and groan, pulling her closer to me as I spread the robe open. My eyes travel down her body. She is really beautiful; everything about her appeals to me.
My head lowers and I kiss her, pulling her bottom lip into my mouth before releasing it, my mouth traveling down her jaw, to her neck, then down to her breast. I look up at her, our eyes meeting, as I pull one nipple into my mouth. I suck deep, and her whimper fills the room as I release it and kiss my way to her other breast. I pull it into my mouth, watching her eyes close and her back arch. Fuck, she’s perfect.
Her legs pull me tighter, and I know what she wants. I pull down my boxers with one hand and wrap my hand around myself before running the head from her entrance to her clit then back down again. I place one last kiss on each nipple before leaning back to look at her.
“Mike.”