Chapter 15
Around eight, Braydon asked Tank to call him a cab so he and Charlotte could get out of there.
“And where, might I ask, are you off to with the lovely woman?”
Braydon shrugged. “No idea, but I’m going to enjoy every minute of whatever we decide to do,” He glanced across the bar. Prudence and Helen were still talking with Teagan and Martin. They wouldn’t be going home alone tonight. “See where the night takes us.”
“Nice to see you settling down,” Tank said as he reached for the phone.
Braydon frowned. “What did you say?”
“What?”
“Don’t what me,” Braydon said, feeling the alcohol in his system. “Settling down? I’m not settling down.”
“No? Oh, sorry. You just seem so happy with her.”
“I am happy.”
“Well, alright then. What’s wrong with settling down, especially with a woman like that? Are you blind?”
Braydon blinked a few times. He wasn’t sure what he was supposed to think of that question. Charlotte was gorgeous, and he was having a great time with her, but settling down? Was he at that point in his life to have this type of conversation? He liked her—a hell of a lot more than he wanted to admit to himself—but he’d never had that conversation with any woman in his life. But then he heard her laugh and perked up, watching how her eyes sparkled with mirth. It made him smile, and he heard Tank chuckling behind him.
“I knew it. The second you brought her in here.”
“I don’t even know what she really thinks about me,” Braydon said. “There’s so much shit going on right now, it’s hard to figure out what we’re feeling.”
Tank shrugged and leaned forward. “So let the feelings take you where they may. Sometimes in life, the person you need most comes to you in a time of great distress.”
Braydon stared at the scruffy bartender as he glanced at Charlotte and sighed, eyes distant. “When did you become a romantic?”
“Believe it or not, I was married a long time ago. I’ll call you a car.” He busied himself on the phone, and Braydon went to let Charlotte know it would arrive soon, contemplating what woman would’ve had the patience to deal with a man like Tank.
Charlotte leaned back in a booth, and he slid in beside her. Her eyes were dreamy as she watched her friends, and Braydon wondered what she was thinking.
“What do you think will happen with them tonight?” she asked out of nowhere.
Braydon followed her gaze across the bar and shrugged. “Depends. Teagan and Martin are good guys. They’ll have a great night, if nothing else.”
“And is that it?” she asked. “No second great night, or third, or fourth?”
He had a feeling she wasn’t talking about her friends any more. “Never know. Sometimes you can’t worry about tomorrow until tomorrow comes.”
She stared at him, worry in her eyes even as she tried to smile. “What about us?”
“You tell me,” he asked her.
At first, he wasn’t sure she was going to answer, but then she reached out slowly and held his hand on the table. “Is it bad if I say I don’t know but I want to find out?”
He grinned and pulled her close, kissing her gently on the lips. “I was hoping you’d say that.”
A few minutes later, Charlotte called Milly to check on her mom, and Braydon told the cabbie his address. She seemed a bit tense when she got off the phone, but everything was still fine at the house. Her mother was sleeping again after eating dinner. She’d asked if she should head home, had told Milly she could, but she’d insisted Charlotte stay out. Braydon knew she didn’t want to pawn off her mother onto someone else, but it sounded as if Milly was the one doing the telling.
“She cares about your mother,” Braydon said and held her hand tightly. “Much more than the people who work in my mother’s household. They’d leave her to rot in a heartbeat.”
“Don’t say that about your mother.” She frowned.
“Why not? You know what she’s like… Hell, Charlie, you got into a fistfight with the woman.”
She opened her mouth to say something but closed it, biting back a laugh. “I was provoked into that fight.”
They spent the cab ride talking about how horrible Braydon’s mother was. He laughed so hard, tears came to his eyes as he tried to picture his mother and Charlotte fighting. If only he’d been there to see it. Still, it was one more thing to hold over his mother’s head for a very, very long time. She was crazy, plain and simple, and he was glad he did not have to officially deal with her bullshit.
When they reached his penthouse, Liam sat in front of the fire, reading a book and swirling a glass of amber liquid. He glanced up at Braydon and Charlotte, smiling. “Good evening.”
“Enjoying the whiskey, are you?” Braydon asked, raising a brow as Charlotte giggled behind him. They were still a little tipsy.
“No more than you enjoyed yours,” he replied. “Care for some coffee?”
“Coffee would be great,” Braydon said, but before Liam could get up from his seat, Charlotte bounded into the kitchen and started searching for the grounds. “What are you doing?”
“Making coffee. Liam’s comfortable. Besides, I’m a grown woman. I think I can make a pot of coffee.”
“That makes one of you,” Liam muttered, then grinned when Braydon shot him a look.
“I am not a woman.”
“Some days, you have me fooled,” Liam teased.
“You think you’re so funny sometimes,” Braydon mumbled and headed to the kitchen to help Charlotte, ignoring Liam’s laughter.
***
It was late when Liam bade them both goodnight, leaving Charlotte and Braydon snuggling close on the couch. The fire had nearly burnt out, and she shivered a bit from the lack of heat. Braydon wrapped his left arm tighter around her, grabbed a quilt from the back of the couch, and draped it over her.
“That better?”
She smiled in reply, then stretched her neck and kissed him, long and soft. Her hand slid up his chest and started to play with the buttons, undoing them one by one as the kiss deepened. When her fingers found bare skin, she felt him shift beneath her touch, wanting to get closer. As she smiled against his lips, he turned and hoisted her up so she was on his lap.
Heat grew between them as his hands slid up under her shirt, massaging her hips before moving higher. His fingers barely brushed the underside of her breasts when Charlotte pulled back with a mischievous glint in her eyes.
“What are you thinking?” Braydon whispered.
She didn’t answer; she rose slowly and, laughing, disappeared into his bedroom. He heard the loud faucets in his shower turn on, and Charlotte poked her head back out and raised her eyebrows. “Well? Are you coming?”
Laughing, Braydon pushed himself to his feet and hurried in after her. He leaned in the bathroom doorway as she tested the water with her hand. The shower was large, nearly five feet by five feet, with two different showerheads that let the water come down like rain. Charlotte grinned; a man who knew how to shower was a man she wanted to be with. It was perfect.
She reached for her shirt and grabbed the ends. Braydon stiffened as he watched her lift it up over her head before she tossed it in his face. He pulled it away quickly, watching as she unbuttoned her jeans and started to push them down her hips. She hadn’t been too sure about letting this relationship go any further before, but after what she’d learned about him and what he’d said to her in the cab, this felt right. And she wasn’t about to pass it up because of some high societal standards that she no longer wanted in her life. Her or her mother. Neither of them needed their so-called friends. Her mother only needed her daughter.
And Charlotte only needed Braydon.
With her jeans off, she reached up to unclasp her bra. Braydon had stepped into the bathroom, his hands curling and uncurling at his sides.
“Oh, I’m sorry,” she said, “did you want to do this?”
He didn’t say a word, only grinned wolfishly and hurried towards her. His fingers didn’t just unclasp her bra. His hands started at her shoulders, lowering one strap, then the other, kissing where his hands left her skin. She sighed as he pulled her back to lean on his chest. His lips were gentle as they moved up her neck before he gently moved her enough so he could slip her bra completely free. She stepped away from his touch, slipped off her panties with a laugh, and hopped into the spray of the water.
“Now this is a shower,” she said. “You really went all-out, didn’t you?”
He didn’t speak, just admired the view through the glass as the water ran down her skin. Charlotte felt his eyes on her and turned towards him.
“Well, are you getting in or just standing there all night?”
“It’s hard to choose,” he said, smiling. “Watching you is quite enjoyable.”
She shot him a look, he laughed as he quickly undressed, and Charlotte’s breath caught in her throat. His chest was handsome with perfectly sculpted muscles and just a sprinkling of red hair to match that on his head. A few small, hidden tattoos on the inside of his arm were revealed. She couldn’t tell what they were before he was in the shower with her, pulling her close beneath the warm water’s spray as steam billowed around them.
“I was thinking,” he said as Charlotte enjoyed the feeling of his arms around her.
“Hmm. I’m not sure if that’s a good thing, from what Liam’s told me,” she teased.
“And what exactly has he been telling you?”
“Nothing, nothing at all,” she said, then winked. “Tank, on the other hand… He said some interesting things about you today.”
“I thought our date with questions was tomorrow,” he said.
“Right, right, I’m sorry. Please continue. You were thinking…”
“Yes, I was, that maybe this weekend, if you have no plans, you might want to spend it away with me.”
She glanced up at his green eyes. “Away where?”
“Oh no, you won’t get the answer out of me that easily,” he said, nuzzling her neck. She pulled him closer, her fingers running through his flattened, wet curls. “I think it would be good to get away from everything. And I can have Liam help with your mother if you need it.”
Her mother. This weekend. Suddenly, the water didn’t feel so warm. Her buzz of good feelings from the day started to slip away one by one as her mind returned to everything that was at stake. She didn’t feel she was anywhere near prepared to deal with her mother’s illness. Then there was the matter of the orphanages and the money. And Quin.
She’d almost forgotten about Quin.
Braydon felt the slight shift in her body. His kisses stopped and he leaned back, staring at her, confused. “Charlie? What’s wrong?”
“Nothing,” she replied quietly. The hot sting of tears hurt her eyes. She was not going to stand there and cry in the shower, naked, with the man she was pretty sure she was in love with. “Everything’s fine. I’m just… Nothing. It’s nothing.”
“No, it’s not.” He took her hands in his, holding them tightly. “Look at me. You can tell me anything. I want you to know that.”
“I know. I only… This has been so perfect.”
“Really?” he said with a frown. “Our meeting, your engagement party, the fight with my mother, and me bailing you out of jail,” he said, laughing when she started to grin. “I wouldn’t call that perfect dating.”
“No, but it felt perfect for us, and I don’t know what to do.”
“About what?”
“Everything,” she whispered. “My mother is going through something I can never hope to understand. The issue with the money… My entire life is about to change, and life for those children as well. If we can’t get the money from your company, I’ve let them all down. And there’s Quin,” she said before she could stop herself.
Braydon’s face didn’t change at the mention of his stepbrother. He simply pulled her close and kissed the top of her head. “You don’t need to worry about any of that right this second.”
But now that she’d started, the thoughts and worries wouldn’t stop. “I’m sorry,” she whispered against his chest. “I think I need to go home. There’s still so much to sort through and the presentation is so soon. I’m sorry, Braydon. I didn’t mean to ruin your night.”
As she pulled away, she expected to see disappointment or anger in his eyes, but there was neither. Just concern. “You didn’t. Let me call you a cab. Are you sure you don’t want to crash here for the night?”
It was tempting. Everything was tempting about this man, but she shouldn’t. The crazy roller coaster she’d been on lately was coming to a screeching halt, and she was stuck at the top of a very long drop. She was so torn about what to do, she couldn’t even think straight. Braydon pulled her and kissed her lips gently, holding her face in his hands.
“I’m right here if you need me,” he whispered as he reached around her to turn off the water.
A few minutes later, Charlotte was in a cab, headed home, hoping she hadn’t left behind the man who would change her life forever.