Tied with Me (With Me in Seattle, #6)(8)

“Why did you think that?” I ask as I step closer to her.

“Because when you took that call, you asked if the girls were okay.”

I nudge her chin up with my fingertip, making her meet my eyes. That she’s been convinced for weeks that I am a married man who cheated on my wife with her pisses me off beyond words.

“Brynna was in a car accident that night, and she had the girls with her.”

She gasps, her eyes go even wider, and then she frowns, looking toward the house.

She obviously wants to go to Bryn, to check on her.

God, she’s amazing.

“So you see, I’m as single as they come, Nicole.”

“Nic,” she replies absently, then shakes herself and focuses back on me. “It doesn’t matter.” She pulls away.

My eyes travel down her petite little body, currently covered in a crisp white baker’s jacket and black slacks. A simple red bow is tied around her head. She’s beautiful in anything, whether it be a small skirt and barely there top, or this boxy jacket.

Fuck, she’d be beautiful in a burlap sack.

And I haven’t even seen her naked yet.

Yet.

“Why?” I ask calmly.

“Because I’m not your type, Matt.” She smirks and opens her car door, throws her bag into the back seat and turns back to me with sad eyes that contradict the stubborn set of her jaw.

“Why?” I ask again. “What type is that?”

“Submissive. I don’t have a submissive bone in my body.” She spreads her arms wide. “I have opinions, and I like to assert them. I don’t like being told what to do.”

She’s definitely not suitable to be a full-time sub. There’s no way in hell that she’s slave material. And I don’t give a f*ck about that anyway.

I’m no slave master.

But she was perfect in the bedroom, the way she communicated freely but let me push her limits, her fear of having her hands tied, and bringing her just to the edge of her pain threshold, gripping her hair in my hand and holding her up off the mattress.

Goddamn it, just thinking about her flushed cheeks and the way she looked back at me while I pounded inside her makes my dick throb.

Her breathing increases and her cheeks redden as she watches me, as though she can read my thoughts. She drops her arms and twists her hands together at her waist.

“I beg to differ.”

“I’m the one who’s supposed to beg, right?” She shakes her head and lowers herself into her car. “It’ll never happen. Leave it be, Matt.”

And with that she drives away.

Not a chance in f*cking hell am I going to leave it be.

***

“So, I know you’re ugly as f*ck, but you don’t usually scare the women off. What happened?” Will smirks at me as I join the others in my parents’ backyard.

“Fuck you,” I reply under my breath and yank a bottle of water out of a cooler, twist off the top and take a long pull.

“Seriously,” Will responds, his face sobering. “Is everything okay?”

“I don’t know,” I shake my head and turn to watch my family.

Caleb is dancing on the grass with Brynna. They’re grinning at each other and talking softly amongst themselves. Their daughters, Maddie and Josie, are dancing around them, their pretty white dresses flowing around their legs as they giggle and skip, their dog, Bix, joining in the fun.

Our parents all have their heads together at a long table. My mom is holding Liam, my oldest brother, Isaac’s baby boy, who is drooling profusely and chewing on his fist. My dad is listening to her tell a story to Luke’s parents, smiling at her as if she hung the moon.

And as far as we’re all concerned, she did.

Our family has grown by leaps and bounds in the past few years. Now that Caleb is married off, Dominic and I are the only ones who have managed to stay single, and I don’t plan to change my status any time soon.

Our baby sister, Jules, is rubbing her barely there belly and leaning on her husband of almost a year, Nate. They’re chatting with Natalie, Jules’ longtime friend and who we all consider to be our sister, and her husband, Luke Williams, along with Luke’s sister, Sam, and their younger brother, Mark.

At a nearby table, Will’s fiancée, Meg, is chatting with her brother, Leo, and our oldest brother, Isaac, with his wife, Stacy.

Dominic, a brother we recently discovered we had as a result of a brief affair on our father’s part more than thirty years ago, is talking quietly with Alecia, the event planner who pulled this wedding together at a moment’s notice.

“So you chased off the baker,” Caleb comments as he approaches Will and me. The song is over, and Brynna has returned to chat with Jules and Nat.

“I didn’t chase her off,” I growl.

“How do you know her?” Isaac asks as he also joins us.

“Jesus, don’t you all have anything better to do?”

“Than nose into your personal life?” Will asks and shakes his head as he stuffs some appetizers into his mouth. “No way.”

“She’s just someone I met a few weeks ago.”

“You like her,” Isaac comments.

“What are you, a girl?” I smirk and glance over at Brynna, who is laughing at something Jules just said. “Are we going to talk about our feelings now?”