“Forever.”
I swallowed. “Forever,” I whispered.
Only my agreement seemed to calm him enough that he loosened his hold on me. Loosened but didn’t let me go entirely. Not even when he pulled back, lifting my hips so that his cock fully expelled from my body on a loud “pop.” He kept his hands at my waist, directing me to the bathroom and setting me down on the toilet. He went to turn on the shower for us to clean up before going to bed. I drifted off to sleep that night, completely satiated, wrapped in Aaron’s arms.
****
Aaron
Taking another sip of the aged bourbon, I let the burn on its way down soothe my nerves. My eyes narrowed as I heard footsteps moving toward my office. I wasn’t alarmed. Only a handful of people in the world had the access to get up to the office this late in the evening. Therefore, I wasn’t surprised when a few seconds later, my office door was pushed open and standing on the other end was my younger brother, Joshua.
His eyes scanned my face before narrowing when they landed on the glass on my desk. He sighed, stepping inside of my office and shutting the door behind him. Moving to my desk, he sat down across from me.
“The only other time I’ve seen you drink was about six years ago…” He paused, waiting for me to saying something.
I remained silent, opting to take another sip from my glass.
Joshua nodded. “Yeah, you were tight lipped then, too. But now that I think about it, it was right around the time all that shit was going down with that Japanese company. You and Alicia were freshly broken up. One could’ve assumed it was the break up with her that drove you to drink, but we both know you didn’t give a shit about your fiancée.” He rested his chin on his fingertips, peering at me with his dark, brown eyes.
“You have something to say, say it,” I stated dryly.
“Kyle and Kennedy are five, add nine months for pregnancy and that’s almost six years.”
I rolled my eyes. Joshua loved beating around the fucking bush. He knew as well as I did the reason I touched alcohol that night six years ago was the same reason I was drinking yet again that night. One woman. Patience.
“It must be bad. You’re drinking a fourteen-thousand dollar brand of bourbon.” He looked toward the twenty-five year old Rip Van Winkle bottle.
“I told my wife I love her,” I confessed.
Josh raised an eyebrow.
“She didn’t say it back.” I sighed, and ran a hand through my hair, feeling foolish. I was never this goddamn insecure.
I stood, peering at Joshua at the same time he let out a low whistle.
He shrugged. “What’d you expect?”
I shook my head and moved to the window. He was right but I wasn’t in the mood to admit it out loud. What had I expected? For her to open her heart to me again after it was crushed the first time? Yes. Selfishly, that’s exactly what I’d expected.
“She’s the puzzle piece I never knew was missing until it arrived,” I stated, staring out of the window, my back to Joshua. “She calms me and makes me feel invincible, all at the same time. Do you have any idea what that’s like?” It was a rhetorical question. I didn’t expect my brother to answer. He surprised me when he returned with…
“Yeah, I might have an idea of what that’s like.”
I turned, gaze narrowed, and stared at him. His brows were knitted, eyes staring at the floor in front of him, a frown marring his features. I’d seen that look in the mirror many a night after Patience and I separated, and in the intervening years. It was the look of a man missing his other half. My heartstrings tugged.
Joshua lifted his head, noticing me staring at him. He schooled his face just before rising from his chair.
“But you have her here, now. You’re married and you two have two beautiful children…don’t fuck it up by rushing her,” he warned, his voice deepening.
I actually felt the left side of my face kick up into a semi-grin. By all accounts, Joshua may appear to be rather lighthearted and easy going, but that’s because most people don’t get to see this side of Joshua. Save for the boardroom, he rarely showed his ruthless side to outsiders. But he is a Townsend through and through. We all have our less-than-innocent streak. Joshua was no different.
“Don’t tell me how to handle my fucking wife,” I growled for good measure. Dark side or not, Joshua could go fuck himself if he thought he could tell me how to handle Patience.
A smirk creased the hard lines of his face. “Just a little friendly advice.” By then he’d moved past the desk, to pat me on the shoulder.
“Fuck off,” I grunted.
Josh chuckled. “I’ll just take this off your hands.”
