Chapter Eighteen

**Rhett**

These trips to Pasadena were going to break me. I can’t believe—okay, I can believe, that Ryan left rehab and went on a bender. It had been too good to be true when I’d seen him completely sober on the family weekend. I hadn’t seen Ryan sober in…well, in years.

What I hadn’t planned on was having to come down here and go looking for him myself. The therapist I’d spoken to on the phone told me that there was nothing I could do—it was on Ryan’s shoulders not mine. That by stepping in and cleaning up his messes over and over, I was enabling him to continue down this fucked up path he was on. Most likely? True. But, he was still my brother and even though I say it’s the last time every damn time I know I’ll still go to him when I think he needs me. Needs me? Ry needs nothing but the fucking bottle just like our old man, maybe even more so.

My ears pop from the plane changing altitude as the pilot prepares for landing. Looking out the window, I wonder when I started seeing this place as home?

“Can I get you another seven & seven, sir?”

I notice immediately when the stewardess leaves her hand on my shoulder as she leans much farther down than necessary, giving me quite the view down her shirt. Wendy hasn’t been very coy since I boarded the flight leaving Pasadena. She’s flirted with me shamelessly and I know flirting without shame. I see it every day at work. The girls make it an art form at the club. The club. Thinking of going back to work tomorrow has my stomach turning—

“Can I get you anything, sir?” Wendy asks again.

I shake my head.

Nate told me that Skye works the same shift I do tomorrow. He’s also told me that she hasn’t been herself all week. I know I haven’t either. Ever since the threesome.

It’d started—rather I started it, because I wanted to prove to her that she was wanted. Crazy ass woman thought I’d taken my time with her because I wasn’t attracted to her? That couldn’t be the farthest thing from the truth. My way of thinking was that slow and steady wins the race, right? I wanted to win Skye for good. I’d known almost from the beginning that I wanted to be able to call her mine. I know it goes against her feminist attitude, but I’m just being truthful. Wanting Skye as mine for the long haul is what kept me from taking what I knew she’d given me so much sooner.

I thought I’d give her something Jaden hadn’t given her. A threesome. What I hadn’t expected was to want to kill the man when he had his hands on her skin. I’d hated him for knowing what it was like to be inside of my woman. I’d hated her for having her mouth on his cock even though I’d told her to do it. And most of all, I’d hated myself when I’d started fucking her with him there only to prove to Jaden exactly who Skye belonged to.

Jesus, it’s been over a week, and I haven’t reached out to her a single time. Nightly, I fought with myself when I wanted nothing more than to call her and tell her everything about Ryan, about how I missed her, and how I wanted to give us another try. Pride kept me from making that call though and maybe a little bit of fear. She’d cheated on me with that asshole—actually we never said we were exclusive, and we’d done nothing more than kissing. No wait, we’d done a shit ton more. We’d talked—really talked and I’d told her things I’d never shared with anyone before. That nothing was a whole lot of building a foundation for a relationship. Skye shook the hell outta that foundation, but I think we can move on and just keep building…if she’s willing to try. I’d swear on everything she’s worth it.

I’d pushed her into it that night with Jaden. Dickhead. Running my hand through my hair reminds me I really need to get it buzzed again. I’d given her an experience that she’d never forget. I wish I could forget. Not that I’d want to forget the way it felt to finally have her in my arms, being buried deep inside of her, or when she unraveled around me with my name falling from her lips. She’d told me that her pussy was mine because that’s what I’d demanded of her, but I wanted to hear that all of her was mine. We are so much more than the sex we’d had. We both deserved more than we’d given each other.

I’m positive Jaden’s gone. He’s no longer a threat; he never was—not really. He was nothing but some cheap thrills, a distraction. There’d be no more distractions.

“Are you okay, sir? You have this look—”

Annnnnd she ’ s back.

“I’m fine, just anxious to land already.” When I witness her eyes travel across my shoulders and down my chest before coming back up to meet mine, I add, “Missing my girlfriend.”

Her smile is as fake as her tits. “We’ll be on the ground in minutes.”

This time, when she walks down the aisle, there’s a little less sashay in her sway.

This is only the third time I’d referred to Skye as my girlfriend and the first time was in a red hued rage on Skye’s driveway in the pouring rain. The second? After I’d found Ryan passed out on a bench in Brookside Park, just a handful of miles from the rehab facility. He had no recollection of how he got there or how long he’d been there. Clothes filthy, the smell of cheap bourbon radiated off of him, and he was missing his shoes. His fucking shoes. My bet was while he was passed out, somebody helped themselves to his damn near new pair of Jordans. I’d taken him back to the hotel to clean up before I planned on dropping him back off at the clinic.

My clothes hung off his thin frame, but what the fuck would he care; he’d been comatose in a fucking park with no goddamn shoes earlier. I dropped him off once more and got on the next plane home, home to Skye. Ryan’s days started over, and all I could do was hope for more but expect less. On the drive back to rehab, I’d told Ry about Skye and how I’d like him to get his shit together so I could introduce my brother to her. My real brother, not the shell he’d become. When he’d asked me if I’d be making him wear a monkey suit anytime soon and or learn to change diapers? I didn’t freak like I had before. Panic had always set in when I thought a woman might be looking for something more or wanted to take the next step. With Skye? The thought didn’t scare me.

I’m more afraid that she’ll want nothing more to do with me. That I, too, was nothing more than a distraction. Like him. Maybe I’d pushed her too far with the three-way. I sure as shit had pushed myself too far. I’d never be in that situation again. It killed me to see another man’s hands on her body. I wasn’t built to share, nope; I wasn’t made that way. I wanted to be the one and only man to have free range of her curvy self, the only one to come inside of her. I’d never been inside of a woman without a condom, but I demanded it with Skye. I demanded a lot that night, but Skye never faltered when I’d shown her that side of me, and finding out she’d liked a man who took control in the bedroom was even more proof that woman in particular was made just for me.

**Skye**

“You’re going to swallow tonight, beautiful.” Looking up, I pull him back into my mouth. With my hands on his ass, I can pull him closer so I can practically swallow him whole. Feeling him shudder, it’s clear he hadn’t expected that.

“Jesus!”

When he starts bumping his groin against my face, I fight my gag reflex. Every time my eyes close tight and I gasp for breath, I get wetter. He starts thrusting in and out of my mouth, slowly pulling out then sliding back in, his eyes remain locked on mine below him.

“You can take me deeper, beautiful,” he says through clenched teeth.

“Mmmhmm,” is all I can say around his shaft.

Pulling all the way out of my mouth, he speaks with a controlled reverence. “I’m about to come and you’re going to swallow every drop, understood?” He may have said it like a question, but I see it for what it is…a command. His breathing is labored and his filthy words are hot as hell. “Then I’m going to eat you until you scream my name and then after some recovery time, I’m going to fill my pussy up.”