Although, how Cameron knew this was anybody’s guess.
It’s because he knows you as well as you know yourself.
Yeah, that was true.
Which was why he’d kept his thoughts about Stella to himself. As well as his fears. His abandonment issues. And, okay, he was man enough to admit he had those demons floating around. How could he not when everyone he’d ever loved had left? Except for Matt.
But he’s leaving too.
Brandon shoved that thought away because he wasn’t ready to come to terms with that yet.
“Dad, can I go to the batting cages with Tyler?” Matt asked, yanking Brandon from his thoughts.
He turned to his son, ignoring the knowledge in Cameron’s eyes. “I’m taking you to Ms. Davenport’s studio after this.”
Cam leaned forward. “Are you trying to kill the kid?” he muttered near Brandon’s ear.
“Just shut up and take your turn,” Matt told him.
Cameron wisely kept his mouth shut and sent bullets into the last two bottles, earning him another win.
The sound of the rifle echoed off the snowy peaks of the mountains, bouncing from one direction to the next.
Sort of like his heart did when he was around Stella.
Nine
Can Adrienne come over for dinner tomorrow night?” Matt asked.
As Brandon drove through town toward Stella’s studio, his ESSP—Extra Sensory Stella Perception—surged through his system and woke his dick up like someone had Tased his ass.
Damn thing had a mind of its own.
And he supposed it would after being neglected for far longer than was healthy for a man his age.
“I told her you make really good steaks,” Matt went on. “And she asked if she could bring something. I told her to bring potato salad.”
And what would Stella be wearing this time?
No doubt that sorry excuse for a ballet outfit. Not that Brandon had known a lot of ballerinas, but weren’t they supposed to wear like tutus and shit? Pink tights?
Not teensy little bike shorts that barely covered the bottom of those perfectly round ass cheeks. And certainly not a skintight tank top that revealed just how in shape the woman was. How high and round her breasts were. No ballerina he’d ever seen dressed like that.
“Dad, are you listening?” Matt asked after the kid had been carrying on a conversation with himself. While his father thought about Stella’s breasts and tried to adjust his hard-on.
He cleared his throat and tightened his grip on the steering wheel. “Yeah, dinner,” he stated. Like the caveman he was.
“What did I say about dinner?” Matt questioned.
Yeah, what had he said?
That Stella has a nice ass. One you want to run your tongue over.
Except no. That wasn’t what Matt had said. That’s what the devil on Brandon’s shoulder said.
The devil that needed to shut the hell up.
Hadn’t he said something about Adrienne? Yeah, that was it.
“Yeah, invite Adrienne over for dinner,” Brandon answered. “I’ll make some steaks.”
Matt kept looking at him like he didn’t believe a word of it. “Is Cameron right? Is there some woman you’re interested in?”
Define interested.
Brandon shot Matt a glance. “Of course not.” Yeah, because that was convincing.
Apparently Matt didn’t accept Brandon’s denial because dark suspicion clouded his brown eyes. “Really? Because it would be okay if you were. You don’t have to, like, sneak around and stuff.”
He pulled the truck alongside the curb in front of Stella’s studio. “I’m not sneaking,” he told his son. “There’s no one.” At least no one that existed outside of his fantasies.
And why wouldn’t it be okay to jump into something with Stella?
That question had bounced around in his mind for the past few months. Even after she tossed her cookies all over his brand-new shoes, he was still intrigued by her. Turned on as hell. And maybe that was the problem. It was his hormones talking and not his head. Those babies had gotten him into too much trouble in the past, and he needed to keep a level head.
Pretty hard to do when the woman was always shaking that firm rear end at him.
And he’d tried not to notice. Really he had. But he was a red-blooded heterosexual male who’d gone way too long without a woman. Especially a woman like that. Between building his business and raising a son, his dating life had all but expired. Grown moldy. Evaporated.
Then along came Stella Davenport, with her mischievous blue eyes, sassy sense of humor, and too much sex appeal, and that dormant side had jolted awake like he’d been doused with smelling salts. And yeah, he liked what he saw.
“Dad?” Matt said as they still sat in the idling truck. “Are we going to get out?”
Brandon blinked himself out of his thoughts and unbuckled. “Yeah, sorry.” He shut the vehicle off, just as his phone beeped. He picked the thing up and touched the screen just as Matt paused before exiting the truck. “You know you don’t have to come in with me,” Matt announced. “I can walk in by myself.”
Brandon glanced at Matt. “I have to talk to Stella for a minute.”
Yeah, that was a good excuse. Totally believable.
Matt shrugged his whatever the way all teenagers did in their odd universal language he’d yet to figure out. Even though it was the same language he’d used.
He shut the truck door just as his phone buzzed.
Booster meeting at four-thirty, Blake said.
Booster meeting? On a Saturday?
Thanks for the heads-up, he responded.
Sorry, Blake answered. Forgot. Just be here.
I’ll be there, he responded to his cousin, then pocketed the phone.
He and Matt entered the studio with piano music echoing across the empty space. There wasn’t a class, but the sight of the woman in the room stopped him short.
“How does she do that?” Matt whispered to himself.
Brandon wanted to know how Stella did a lot of things, mostly how she managed to turn him on by simply being. But yeah, he’d like to know how in the world she could contort her body in a way that would have left most people being air lifted to the nearest emergency room. She had one leg resting on a wooden bar, while she was bent over backward, head dipped back and right arm reaching over her head to brush the floor. Her neck, long and slender, was arched in a way that perfectly exposed places meant for kissing and teasing.
“I would, like, break my back or something if I did that,” Matt commented, completely unaware of Brandon’s tenting action in his jeans.
Honestly, was there anything worse than a hard-on in front of one’s kid? Especially when he’d been preaching to Matt about taking things easy with his girlfriend.
Some example.
Matt cleared his throat to announce their arrival.