On Dublin Street

~26~





“Now, you’re sure you’re going to be okay?”

Ellie crossed her arms over her chest and blew air out between her lips. “If you ask me that again, don’t bother coming back.”

I shot Braden a look and he shook his head slightly. “Don’t look at me. She didn’t have attitude until you moved in with her.”

That was fair.

Ellie giggled at my faux wounded look and threw up her hands. “Guys, come on. It’s been a month. I’m fine. Adam’s practically living here and you have a plane to catch.”

Braden kissed his sister’s cheek before turning to open the front door with our suitcase in hand. In the end it had been a good thing Braden ripped up my plane ticket, because inviting him to come to Virginia with me meant rearranging his schedule and changing the flight dates. And well to be honest, we wanted to make sure Ellie was back on her feet before we left.

After a month of being mothered by me, Adam, Braden and her actual mother, Ellie was probably glad to be rid of us. She was still trying to get her energy levels back, and was still exhausted, and still very much shaken by the experience. I’d suggested she start seeing Dr. Pritchard and Ellie had her first appointment in a few days. Hopefully the good doctor would help her out. I wondered if the good doctor would help me out. I was feeling a little separation anxiety.

“Joss, the taxi is waiting.” Ellie shooed me towards to the door.

“Fine,” I grumbled. “But if you let anything happen to yourself while we’re gone, I will kill you.”

“Noted.”

“Tell Adam the same goes for him.”

“I will warn him. Now will you go and do this very important thing.” She hugged me tight. “I wish I could come with you.”

I gave her a squeeze and pulled back. “I’ll be fine. I’ve got a bossy businessman watching my back.”

“I heard that,” Braden called from the other side of the door. Damn. I thought he was already in the cab.

“I better go before I end up taking this flight alone.”

“Call me when you land.”

“Will do.”

We said goodbye and I let Braden bundle me into the cab. It had been a long month, worrying about Ellie and we were still worrying, but the lots of make-up sex Braden and I were having definitely took a load off.

Pun intended.

We were still finding our way back after the whole break-up mess but this new ‘us’ was kind of hot. Oh and this new ‘us’ involved no Isla. Braden ‘fired’ her and got her a job at a nightclub he did not own. I think she could have gotten another job by herself, she was annoyingly beautiful, but Braden felt guilty. Technically his manager had come onto him so he had nothing to feel guilty about, but Braden wasn’t comfortable with the idea that his manager had somehow tried to take advantage of him. That didn’t go down well in ‘caveman world’.

I, for one, was still feeling guilty for the emotional mess I had turned into. In an effort to make up for it, I cleared out one of my bedside cabinets and two drawers in my dresser, for Braden’s own use. I still couldn’t get the image of his stupid grin out of my head when I told him that. He’d jumped out of bed—mid make-out I might add—to unpack his overnight bag into the drawers.

He was like an excited little kid on Christmas morning.

Braden had to one-up me though and gave me a key to his apartment the next day. I’d give him a key to ours, but he already had one.

I was pretty quiet on the way to the airport and pretty quiet when we got there. My head was already in Virginia with my family. We were flying into Richmond and staying at the Hilton. The storage facility where the lawyers had put all of my family’s belongings for me until I inherited it was in the city. Rather than taking it all out, I’d continued to pay rent to keep it there. Once I’d sorted through everything and decided what to do with it, Braden and I were heading out to the small town I grew up in, in Surry County. It was just a little over an hour outside Richmond and driving would be an experience for both of us since neither of us had driven in a really long time. And Braden had never driven on the right-hand side of the road before.

I mused over this as Braden guided us through check-in and security.

“I know you’ve got a lot on your mind,” he said as he took a seat outside our gate. “But if you start to freak out you have to tell me, okay?”

“Okay.” I nodded.

“Promise?”

I sat down beside him, pressing a soft kiss to his lips as I did. “Promise.”

We were quiet a moment, the silence between us nice.

And then…

“You fancy joining the mile high club?” I turned my narrow-eyed gaze on him and he gave me that slow, sexy smile that got me here in the first place. “It could be fun.”

I shook my head at him, smiling despite myself. “Baby… with you it’s always fun.”

“Mmm,” he dipped his head towards mine and whispered across my lips before giving me a searing kiss, “Good answer.”





Richmond, Virginia

Three Days Later…





“Oh, baby, don’t stop,” I begged, my hands curling into the sheets in front of me.

Braden gently squeezed my breast before pinching my nipple between finger and thumb. He did that at the same time he circled his hips as he thrust into me and I panted harder.

I’d woken up that morning on my side to feel his heat at my back, his arm around my waist and his cock already buried deep inside of me.

“Come for me, babe,” he demanded breathlessly, his strokes growing faster. “Come for me.” he slid his hand down my nightie and between my legs, his finger slipping through my sex to circle my *.

Oh….Goooodddd!

I threw my head back, crying out his name as I came around him.

Braden slammed inside me one last time, burying his shout in my neck as his body shuddered against me as he climaxed.

I fell limpid against him. “Good morning.”

His mouth smiled against my skin. “Morning.”

“If you wake me up like that at least once a week, I will be a very happy girl.”

“Good to know.” He eased out of me gently and I turned around to face him, my hand reaching to cup his cheek so I could pull him down for a deliciously soft kiss.

When Braden pulled back, he was frowning. “No more stalling. Today we do this.”

I swallowed but nodded. We’d arrived in Richmond two and a half days ago and I’d not been able to leave the hotel room, insisting on having sex constantly with my boyfriend. Now this was difficult for Braden because he really, really didn’t mind the constant sex, but was worried that I kept putting what we were here to do off.

Obviously, my time was up.





***





The self-storage facility was just over twenty minutes out from the hotel on a street not too far from Three Lakes Park. I saw Braden taking in the city as we got a cab out—we’d rent a car for the drive to my hometown later—to the facility, but I wasn’t really in the mood to reminisce about the State I’d grown up in. I was about to do plenty of that, and I was pretty scared if I was being honest with myself.

The guy was friendly at the storage place. I gave him my I.D. and storage number and he took us around what looked like normal car garages with bright red doors. He stopped in front of one of them abruptly. “Here you go.” He smiled and left us to it.

Braden rubbed my shoulder sensing my hesitation. “You can do this.”

I can do this. I keyed in the code on the keypad next to the door and the metal doors started to rise. When they’d finally rotated up along the ceiling, I let my eyes take in the sight before me. There were boxes and boxes of stuff. Suitcases. A jewelry box. Trembling, I took a step inside and tried to calm my heart before it rocketed me into a panic attack.

I felt Braden’s cool, large hand slip into mine and he squeezed. “Breathe, babe. Just breathe.”

I smiled up at him, a wobbly kind of smile.

I could definitely do this.