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But with Daddy now holding me against his side as he lifted his glass of clear soda to toast me, his firstborn and his second angel, the tears won out. Not even Braxton’s soothing touch could stop them from flooding down my face or the sob that was already bubbling in my chest from escaping.
I turned my face into Daddy’s chest and inhaled deeply, memorizing his scent, what it felt like to have his arms around me, how safe and loved I was when he was this close, and I made a birthday wish for the first time since I was a little girl and still believed in wishes.
I wish for thirty, forty… No! I wish for fifty more years of this.
The sob finally escaped, and I amended my wish because I knew I was being too greedy.
Please. Just one more year of this. That’s all I want. Just one more birthday of getting my daddy’s hugs and him whispering how proud he is of me and how much he loves me. One. More. Year.
I felt his lips brushing over the top of my head and heard him begging me not to cry, and I quickly swallowed the rest of the sob trying to destroy this perfect night with him and the rest of my family. While I tried to control myself, I heard him whispering something to Braxton. Through my tears, I saw Brax nod.
The next thing I knew, I was outside, the cool air kissing my skin and making the tears on my cheeks feel like ice as Braxton carried me to Aunt Emmie’s SUV. I was deposited in the back seat while Barrick and Mia got into the front, and Barrick started the vehicle.
“I-I’m sorry,” I told them. “D-did I ruin the party?”
“No, Kitten,” Braxton said as he pressed his lips to my temple and stroked his fingers through my tangled hair. “Your dad just wanted you to get some fresh air.”
“But…” I glanced out the window of the SUV and felt my heart clench painfully as we drove away from my parents’ house. “Why are we leaving, then?”
“It was either leave or start hiding bodies,” Barrick said from the driver’s seat as he carefully drove through my old neighborhood and then past Uncle Shane’s and Uncle Axton’s houses.
I furrowed my brow, confused, and Mia, who was turned in the front passenger seat watching me with pained eyes, gave me a tiny smile. “Braxton was about to piss on you to mark his territory. Jagger and Cannon were being their normal selves, flirting with you. Nothing serious, but I feared for my brother’s life. Then Jordan was making comments about how hot you were now that you’re legal. And when you started crying, all three were trying to hug you. I
t was when Brax started literally growling that we figured it was time to put some distance between you and every other non-blood-related male in a fifty-mile radius. Momma agreed and threw Barrick the keys.”
“Oh,” I murmured, sniffling indelicately.
Even after our kiss earlier, it was hard to wrap my head around the change in Braxton’s and my relationship. I’d spent the past two years wanting him in a way I still didn’t fully understand, thinking he wouldn’t ever want me with the same desperation I felt. Now he was sitting in the back seat of a darkened SUV with me on his lap, his hands in my hair, and his nose pressed to my neck as he inhaled my scent like he’d been denied oxygen and I was the life-giving air he needed to survive.
I’d been so happy and lost in the feeling of having Braxton’s complete attention that I hadn’t given anyone else much mind. Jagger and Cannon flirting with me was nothing unusual. I was used to the two of them making asses of themselves over Arella and me. I took Jordan about as seriously as I did those two clowns, which was not at all.
Admittedly, I’d had a good time with Jordan that afternoon. He was funny, and when he wasn’t being a horndog, salivating over anything with a vagina and breasts, he was kind of sweet. He didn’t even blink when I bought an entire basket full of books in the bookstore, and he carried the three bags to his car like I hadn’t just made him spend three hundred dollars on books he would never have thought would make for enjoyable entertainment. But he didn’t call me a freak for liking to read things no one else would ever want to.
But even as I was laughing with him while we drank milk shakes near the beach not far from my house, I’d been missing Braxton.
“Where am I going, firecracker?” I heard Barrick ask Mia quietly.
“Nevaeh, honey, do you want to go anywhere?” Reaching back, she clasped my hand and gave it a gentle squeeze. “Or we could just drive around for a little while until you feel better and Brax has calmed down.”
My skin erupted in goose bumps when Braxton gave my shoulder an openmouthed kiss. I arched my neck, giving him better access. I wanted more of those kinds of kisses all over my body. “Just drive,” I told her, and she quickly turned around, telling Barrick which way to turn so we could get on PCH.
Pushing my hair out of his way, Braxton kissed a hot trail down my shoulder then over the part of my back that was exposed by my dress. I bit my lip, but it didn’t keep the mewling sounds I was helpless to hold in from escaping.
“You’re killing me, Kitten,” he murmured against the shell of my ear. “Feel what you do to me?”
I squirmed on his lap, feeling the hard evidence of his need for me pulsing against my thigh. I wrapped my arms around his neck and laid my head on his shoulder, looking up at him through my lashes, and I shifted my hips until he was nestled against my ass through his jeans.
“Fuck,” he groaned, and I watched his beautiful, masculine mouth form the word.
Suddenly, the music was turned on, the volume up as loud as it would go. The bass of the song vibrated through the entire vehicle, making the windows shake, but I was thankful for the loudness to drown out the sounds that came from my throat when Braxton turned me on his lap so I was straddling him. When I sat on his lap like that, my dress rode up, exposing my panties to him as he cupped my ass and pressed my core down onto his hard-on.
Neither of us moved, just stared at each other as I sat there, my panties soaked through as he let me feel his reaction to me. I should have been embarrassed, letting him look at me, feel how wet I was for him while Mia and Barrick sat so close. But it wasn’t like they’d never made out in front of me before.
His fingers clenched and released, massaging my flesh through my panties and making me so wet, my thighs became saturated with it.
I began to tremble with all the suppressed need that had been building deep inside me, and my fingers shook as I started unbuttoning his shirt, needing to touch his skin. He groaned when I had it undone and pulled free from his jeans, his chest and hard stomach on full display to my gaze. It was dark out and the moon was hiding behind a bank of clouds, but streetlights and oncoming cars’ headlights gave me plenty of light to see him.
I memorized the feel of his skin, the sharp ridges and angles of his tight abs. His body heat burned my fingertips. I’d seen the ink on his chest so often, I knew exactly where every piece of artwork was, and I traced each one with my fingernails.
