@brookebanks: LBD and new shoes for our annual holiday party!
The strappy black heels sparkled with some sort of metallic thread. Her toenails were painted red. Her lipstick matched it. So did the rubies in her ears.
The perfect outfit for tonight. And she looked damn good in it.
Though he’d like to see her out of it, wearing just those heels and that I-look-sexy-as-hell smirk.
He sent her an appreciative reply.
@youseeme: Gorgeous! Wish I was your plus-one. That dress…
He added three fire emojis and sent the message.
She didn’t have her phone on her. Where would she put it? That dress hugged her body, showcasing every curve. He’d like to map them with his hands, his tongue, his lips.
Fuck, he was hard and aching.
He hoped his two buddies didn’t notice as they closed in and stood beside him, finishing up a conversation about which show they liked better,Supernaturalor some new version ofStar Trekthat recently released.
You couldn’t compare one to the other in his opinion. They were too different. So he kept his mouth shut and his gaze glued to his favorite person.
Brooke understood him. She was probably the only one who did.
She wound her way around the room. It seemed everyone wanted to be near her tonight. Him especially.
As she spoke to someone across the room, her gaze collided with his and a bright, beautiful smile bloomed on her red lips as she acknowledged him with a nod and held up a finger for him to wait. She’d be over soon.
His heart fluttered. Who knew he had one anymore? Any soft, happy, loving thoughts or feelings had been stamped outas a child with his parents’ continued lack of interest and indifference.
Toe the line. Get with the program. Play your part.
That’s all his parents wanted from him. They didn’t care how he felt about any of it. He’d locked his uncontrollable feelings away until he didn’t feel anything.
And then he met Brooke and something inside him sparked to life.
The spark grew to a flame, knowing she understood him, was interested in him. Not his father and what he could do for her. People often tried to use him for an introduction or to plead their case for whatever they wanted, thinking him an easy way into the inner circle.
They didn’t know his father barely tolerated the prop that he’d brought to life but that didn’t live up to family expectations. His parents expected him to put on a fake but convincingly genuine smile on his face in public to show the world they were a happy family, though they preferred to have him quietly tucked away at school, out of sight, out of mind.
No matter how much he tried to get their attention, another meeting, dinner party, or function they must attend always came first. Either their needs or someone else’s had always come before his, leaving him forever in the background.
They refused to see or acknowledge how he struggled with loneliness and depression.We don’t talk about thatshould be the family motto.
Brooke’s sympathy and understanding this summer had comforted him, where in others he found it maddening. She sawintohim, to the person shrouded inside the shell everyone saw on the outside—one that was the opposite of his larger-than-life father.
He’d always had a deeply entrenched feeling that something significant would happen to break him out of his supportingrole, that someone would see him as important and worth loving.
It was her.
He knew it.
He felt it to his soul.
She was his. And he belonged to her.
Finally she broke away from the couple she’d been speaking with and headed his way, her steps determined, like she couldn’t wait to be close to him, the way he wanted to be close to her.
One of his friends saw her coming. “Do you think she’ll be mad about Marco breaking up with Mindy Sue and not want to speak to us?”
