Blain

“Stop moon gazing and pay attention! This is important, Blay. The inspector is a bug up my ass and without his clearance tomorrow we can’t proceed with the next phase of this project.”

Gray’s being an ass today, grumbling and sniping at everyone for no good freaking reason and while I myself am not in the best of moods because blue is not my colour of choice, especially not for my balls, his attitude is driving me crazy.

“I already called the idiot and scheduled a meet so calm the fuck down already. Christ Grayson, you’ve been tripping ever since you walked in here and I’m about ready to beat the hell out of you,” I mutter, throwing my pen down onto the desk and leaning back with a frown. “What’s up?”

Work on a Thursday isn’t usually this stressful but it’s been three days since I saw Tink and I’m about ready to kidnap the woman and tie her to my bed to fuck the stubborn out of her.

To make matters worse I haven’t taken her yet and for some reason that knowledge has me on edge worse than the fact that Ian called me last night and let me know that Tink ended up at Joseph’s house for a family dinner.

I’m not worried per se, I mean it’s not as if she’s attracted to the boy. She wants me. I know. I remember eating her out until she juiced so much I was drinking her down. She’s mine, I know it but that doesn’t mean that she’s all mine yet and from the gleam in Lizzie’s eye the other night I still stand a chance at losing my Tink.

You think I’m being ridiculous? One thing you need to know about my girl is that she’s a pleaser. She likes other people to be happy and she goes out of her way to do it. And she loves her family, as much as she wishes she didn’t.

I’d bet the company right now that while she drives Lizzie nuts with her stubbornness, she also never denies her a thing, not my obedient little Catholic girl with the soft eyes.

Nah. If that old she devil pushes hard enough I bet Tink will walk down the aisle and be gagging through hair hugs for the next sixty years.

“She’s driving me crazy! The woman is a stubborn, Blay. She works ten hour days and still manages to find time to go clubbing and drag some asshole home!” he yells, shoving a hand through his blonde hair in frustration.

I should hold onto the laughter, I think, schooling my features into a compassionate expression that I don’t feel. I love Gray but the guy is a whore, plain and simple. Not that I have room to judge but he’s…extreme.

I’ve caught him in bed with more than one female body and you know what he did when I walked in? He grinned victoriously and just kept thrusting while bimbo number two did her best to lick every inch of his skin while waiting her turn.

I know this because I distinctly remember hearing him say ‘wait your turn baby. Yeah, lick my nuts’.

Sickening. Because I saw his big nuts and I did not need that swimming around in my head.

“I assume you’re referring to the oh so sweet Mari?”

Gray snorts and gives me a look. I get it. He practically mauled her on Saturday during that soccer game, even after she tried to knee him in the balls. He’s starstruck. Lovestruck. Obsessed.

“Of course Mari, who the hell else would I be talking about?”

“Gray, how do you know all this stuff?” I ask slowly, fighting a laugh.

The guy is so transparent when he blushes and avoids my eyes that I almost want to cut him some slack. Almost. But I’m amused and besides, misery loves company and right now I am miserably horny and lonely without my baby.

Stubborn woman.

He mumbles something beneath his breath, turning bright red and I feel my mouth tremble violently.

“Sorry, didn’t quite catch that.”

“I sat outside her apartment like a fucking creep okay!” he grates and I can’t hold myself together anymore.

By the time I’m able to draw in a calming breath my eyes are streaming and Gray is grinding his teeth, his fists curled against the chair arms.

“You’re so fucked man.” I murmur, wiping at my eyes.

“You think I don’t know that? I freaking dream about that woman and wake up humping my sheets.”

“I do not need to know that.”

He smirks and raises an eyebrow.

“Like you’re any better? Tell me cousin, after you had your way with little Tink in your childhood bedroom, has she given you the time of day? Word on the street, and by that I mean Ing adds us all to her chat circle and keeps sending updates, Tink went to see Sweet Joe and his family. I bet she got his calf eyed stare all night and he rubbed that meat of his all up against her.” He taunts.

If this continues Ian will be right, I will need dental at this rate because I’m grinding my teeth down to bloody nubs.

“I’ll kill you.”

“Not me. Sweet, sweet little Joey. And the worst part of this whole situation is that it’s your doing man.”

I hate my cousin. It’s official. I should relieve his mother of the burden of embarrassment and just kill. Spare myself years of aggravation.

“My doing? I freaking begged her to stay with me man.” I thunder, coming up out of my chair.

The sound of my secretary dropping something in the outer office is the only sound I hear before Gray booms out his laughter, the braying jackass and tsks me sanctimoniously.

“Tink doesn’t need a man who walks around on eggshells around her and gives in to everything her heart desires and frankly it’s pathetic watching you try to lick her heels. Be a man for God sakes. Be Blay George the boss, not a whimp who chases his own tail trying to figure out how to catch a butterfly without a net.”

I hate that he’s right and hate even more that I have to admit to being a pussy ever since I met Tink. Not that she doesn’t deserve my patience and devotion, but this just isn’t me. Not all of me. I’m a take charge kind of guy usually and with her it’s been nothing but slavering after her.

“She won’t commit to me unless that hoyden she calls a mother accepts me Gray, no matter what I do. I also sat outside her apartment like an ass the night before, watching her window like a loser just to catch sight of her but I couldn’t even go up because I’m terrified of pushing too hard too fast and losing her.”

And giving Lizzie what she wants. No wonder she just smiled at me the other night when Tink got wasted. She knows her daughter and she knows exactly how screwed I am.

“So get her to like you. You’re a semi tolerable guy.” He muses.

Bastard. I’m adorable and he knows it. I have yet to meet a woman, mother or grandma alike who don’t adore me and that’s not counting the young beauties I used to screw.

Until Medusa, concubine to Lucifer.

“What do you suggest?”

“Well she’s a good Catholic mama right?” Gray grins, making my own mouth twitch.

“Yes, Grayson. Yes, she is.”

 

Ginny

Friday night is supposed to be a good time. The end of a work week. The beginning of the weekend. Time to let loose, go out and have some fun. Instead I’m trudging up the steps to my parents’ house carrying two pies I got over at Sheila’s because my mother has no idea what it means to be a twenty four year old woman with needs.

Not those kinds of needs though, if I have to go another day without seeing or talking to Blay I will go nuts and probably give my clit friction burn.

Darn the man, he ruined a good thing when he took my body and now I can’t find release no matter how long or hard I masturbate.

“Well come on and give me those pies girl, Joey’s already here and that Aunt of yours decided to drop by without an invitation. That woman has no etiquette.” She mumbles.

It’s a strain to keep my laughter in because I can’t exactly laugh at the old bat and tell her that she’s done the exact same thing on many occasions, going so far once as to turn up on her own sister’s doorstep at ten at night because one of her friends called and told her that Aunt Ro had installed a new piano.

My family has no boundaries. At all. And I think my mother is the original bronze cast that that tragedy stemmed from. I am also not too cheered at the thought of having dinner with Joseph again because let me tell you, it took me two showers and a lot of lotion to get the smell of cabbage and offal out of my skin.

“What in God’s name are you wearing Ginny!” mama suddenly barks and I look down at my pink gypsy skirt and the silky pearly pink cami I found at goodwill while beating the pavement to go on interviews.

I am now the proud owner of yet another great ensemble and I got a job answering phones at this little accounting firm two blocks from my apartment. I’ll have to eat a little less on the salary I’m being paid buy it’s been fun so far as today was my first day and I only dropped like six calls total.

Not bad for a beginner. And Mr. Floret likes my style! He asked me to talk to his wife who’s into colour blocking-I got no idea what that is but didn’t have the heart to admit it-and the woman also likes flip flops.

Yucky.

“I know right! I was so depressed when I thought I wouldn’t get that job I fell into the bin at goodwill and just let God take me. He sent me this rocking outfit and I found a whole dollar on the sidewalk.”

That I gave to a guy sitting beside the dumpster outside the bakery, but I won’t tell this penny pincher. For a church goer mama has a hard attitude towards charity and she’d probably put out posters to find the man so I can take it back.

“It’s horrible. Have you brushed your hair?” she asks as we get inside and close the door, the pies going onto the side table as she looks me over.

I’m disgusted when she licks both palms and starts fixing me up, my skin crawling at the feel of the amount of saliva she can produce.

“Mama, no! Ew. Papa! She’s doing the spit palms again,” I yell, hearing the old fart laugh and tell me to deal with it.

She then takes those hands, grabs my cheeks and smooches them, pulling my face close to hers.

“I just want what’s best for you my Ginny and the boy isn’t going to want you if you look terrible all the time.”

Stop! Ahem, first off, have you seen that boy? He’s a walking toupee and second, Blay likes me just fine, even without a hairbrush. He even wanted to kiss me when I smelled like vomit, dog breath and bad choices.

“I don’t think Joseph will mind a few stray hairs seeing as he’s settling in for winter mama.” I mumble through my scrunched lips, earning a cheek tap for my impertinence.

“Baggage! He’s a man. Men have hair.”

“Blay is smooooth. Smooth everywhere, mama,” I say suggestively, ducking her fist and running for the living room.

“You hussy.”

I ignore her muttering and the fake smile she throws at Joseph and go over to hug papa while dodging a greeting to my brothers and Joseph altogether.

“She at ya again, baby?” papa asks softly when I fall into his lap and lay my head on his shoulder.

“It’s getting worse, papa. At first I thought I’d dodge her plans by just ignoring them but she’s getting worse and the more I see Blay, the worse she gets.”

“So let me guess, you haven’t seen the boy again since that party,” he says, giving me a pointed look of disappointment.

“Papa.”

“He loves you, you know.”

“He can’t,” I whisper, avoiding Joseph’s moony eyed stare and attempts to eavesdrop. “He doesn’t know me.”

It’s an excuse. I think Blay knows me better than anyone else, besides papa and my friends. He knows how I take my coffee and that I just like all foods because in my house you take what you can get your paws on or starve and that taught me to appreciate all food.

Besides cabbage and offal. I’d rather starve thanks.

“I knew Lizzie was mine the first time I saw her. Did I ever tell you that? No? Well it’s true. I saw, I wanted and I pursued. I was so determined that I had your mama a week after that first contentious meeting and then married her a week after that.”

“What? No, that can’t be true. Mama always tells that story. You met at church and spent two months courting her and had a three month engagement.” I say, my eyes rounding.

Papa chuckles and shakes his head, his little beer gut shaking against my thigh as he sighs and gives me a smirk.

“Your mama was a wild one Ginny. She used to go down to the dance halls and smoke and party till the night was over. I saw her across the way when she tried to do the jitterbug. It was the saddest, sexiest thing I ever saw. That woman cannot dance and her boobs are way too big to be jumping around that way.”

Why that lying old cow! She’s been telling me for years how she was in bed by eight and never so much as touched a drop of alcohol besides the church wine. I bet she carries a bottle around in that ugly apron of hers and takes a nip every now and then just because she can.

It would certainly explain the rotten state of her brain and soul.

“Noooo.”

I breathe the word but inside I am screaming yes! Yes! Dear God thank you so much. I need this.

“Yes. It’s true. We got married fast and forewent the traditional wedding because your gran found out we’d been shaking the sheets.”

“No.”

“Oh yes, sweetie. That woman is a passionate creature for all her bark and well just look at me, Ginny, your papa’s a good looking devil. How could she resist?”

Looking down at his socks and boots, I kinda have an idea but like I said, I think she drinks on the sly.

“So, whatcha gonna do about that boy of yours?”

“Papa. He wants like commitment and he’s basically booked the church and everything already,” I whine, hoping that my little girl whine can evince something other than the indulgent disappointment I see in his eyes.

“Do you love him?”

“I can’t. I shouldn’t. Darn it, we just met,” I huff.

“So? When you know you know and honestly, Ginny I don’t see that you have much choice. He’s survived your ma, he tolerates that ugly mutt of yours and he looks at you like you hang the moon girlie. Tell me true Ginny, do you think you can do better? I love you girl but you dress like a discount store threw you up, you hardly brush your hair, for God alone knows what reason, you talk to a dog in public and you say and do the most outrageous things at the worst times. The worst part is you don’t even know what you’re saying wrong. I love that about you though, adore how different you are but you ain’t perfect girl.”

My lip trembles a little and I feel my eyes burn as he looks me dead on and sighs.

“I always knew it was a special man who’d see you and love you for who you are Gin, but it’s become clear to me that you’ve allowed that nonsense your ma’s filled your head with to lead your life.” He says sadly.

“What? No. That’s not true.”

“Isn’t it? You don’t date.”

“Because all guys want sex papa. I’d think you’d be okay with me not doing that stuff.” I argue, lowering my voice when Joe and the idiots look over in interest.

“Pish! You’re afraid. You don’t want to be found lacking and I get that. Mama loves you but that woman is a trial sometimes and you know it. She’s wrong too. You’re not a bad person for trying to have fun, live or find happiness. Sometimes you have to test drive the cars love, how else will you know if it’s a good one or a clunker?”

I sputter and rear back, suddenly very annoyed at the turn this conversation is taking because I’ve been trying to ignore myself whenever I think the same thing. And I know why. I don’t want to risk test driving Blay because he’s a keeper ad I know it.

“She’ll kill me. He’s not Catholic, he doesn’t live in the neighbourhood and he doesn’t wear anything that includes polyester. Her list is specific.”

Papa groans and I giggle a little because he’s seen the list. It’s on the freaking fridge.

“I expect more from you, Ginny girl, than to lead a man on and stomp all over his heart. Now get up and answer the door girl, I got you a present.”