Closer Than A Brother Read online

* * * *

  “Pizza is on the way,” he said entering his room.

  She lay on her stomach her face turned toward the doorway. Her eyes were closed. She fell asleep. A smile crept across his face. She looked gorgeous in his bed.

  He ran fingers down his face and ambled across the room toward her. Sitting on the edge of the bed, he tried to resist the urge to open the bedside table drawer, where he had hidden the small black box for the last year. He had tried not to think about the ring he spent a month’s salary on, or the women he bought it for. He looked over his shoulder at her, still peacefully sleeping next to him. He quietly opened his bedside table drawer and fished out the black box tucked in the back. He flipped it opened and looked at the sparkling, two carat marquise diamond, and round diamond side stones.

  The three diamonds represent the past, present, and the future he wanted with Danielle. He should have tried to push things with her. He wasn’t hesitant at all about how he felt for her. He didn’t know what else to say or do to prove that to her. She knew how he felt. He clicked the box shut on a sigh and slid it back in the drawer. He checked over his shoulder once again to see if Danielle was still sleep. The sound of the doorbell down stairs indicated that the pizza had arrived. He slid off the bed silently and slipped from the room clicking the door shut behind him.

  * * * *

  She waited for the door to shut before she opened her eyes. She had been lightly sleeping when he entered the room, but when he sat down on the edge of the bed and started rooting around in his bedside table drawer she’d stirred from her sleep and decided to stay quiet to see what he was up to. He hadn’t noticed she was awake because he had been too engrossed in whatever it was in his hand. She caught sight of the black box before he slid it back in the drawer. Everything in her wanted to roll over and throw open that drawer. Will he propose?

  She sat up in bed pulling her knees against her naked chest. If he did, she thought she knew what her answer would be. She just had to wait and see what his intentions were. She slid from his bed and disappeared in his bathroom before the temptation to open that drawer consumed her.

  Chapter Nineteen

  The night of pizza and love making finally ended with them in a tangled mess of limbs. Skin to skin, they fell asleep in each other’s arms.

  The sound of Shane’s cell phone ringing on his dresser across the room woke her with and abrupt start. “Shane,” she whispered nudging at his arm.

  “Hmm?” he groaned.

  “You’re phone.”

  “Let it ring,” he growled pulling her closer to him.

  “What time is it?” she asked trying to pull her body into a sitting position. He stopped her efforts kissing the side of her neck. “Honestly, who cares?” he mumbled against her neck.

  “Don’t you have to work?” She laughed.

  “I’m on the night shift.”

  “Which night?” she said hitting his arm. “You haven’t worked a shift since I came home.”

  “I have personal time. Why do you ask?” She noted his hand slip beneath the covers as he begun a tickling assault on her stomach. “Stop it!” she yelped.

  “Are you trying to get rid of me?”

  “No, not at all. I just didn’t want you skipping out on work because of me.”

  “I would do anything for you,” he said bringing his full attention to her. His hand stilled lying flat against her abdomen. “You know that, right?” he asked again.

  She stared into his bright eyes, raw with unhidden emotion. She brought a hand to his hard-set jaw, directing his face to hers. She answered him with a soft kiss. She felt the butterflies in her stomach as he deepened the kiss.

  She couldn’t remember the last time a man caused her to feel like this. In the last year and a half since she had first seen him again, Shane had given her so many tear-jerking emotions. No one had ever made her feel desire and denial, fear and love, loneliness and sadness being without him, and this feeling now, warm and safe, contentment to be here in his arms. She welcomed the feel of his hands on her body. She was already feeling her body responding to his caresses. Never had she spent a whole afternoon and evening, and night and morning like this with any man, and now here she was intertwined with Shane Matthews—of all people—enjoying and wanting more with each passing minute. She wanted and needed to feel him inside of her again and again. Not just sexually, but emotionally. She was in love with him. She needed to tell him. He needed to know how she felt. As he entered her warm center, she signed his name.

  “Shane, mmm.”

  “Tell me baby, what is it?” he asked, pumping her slowly. She lay on her back enjoying the feel of his weight on her body.

  “I love…the way that feels,” she breathed closing her eyes from his probing stare.

  “Danielle,” he said with a sound of pleading in his tone. She knew it was lame, and it wasn’t what she had meant to say. Why am I making this more difficult than it has to be? She wrapped her legs around his waist allowing him to work in and out of her, his rhythm picking up speed.

  “Tell me!” he demanded, thrusting quicker, deeper.

  “Oh yes, please keep going, don’t stop,” she panted, her hand reaching up to grab the rails on his head board. He grabbed at her legs, unwrapping them from his waist. He let one fall to the bed and gently lifted the other so that her heel was facing the ceiling. He slowed his rhythm.

  “What are you doing?” She opened her eyes, her breaths shallow. He pulled his length from her until the mushroomed head was at her entrance.

  “Tell me, Danielle.” He bore a hole into her, his eyes a turbulent gray-blue.

  “What!” she exclaimed, turning her gaze from him.

  “Damn it! You know what I’m talking about you…you weren’t going to tell me that you love…this,” he said, letting his bulbous head enter her before he pulled it from her again.

  “Stop teasing, Shane. This is not funny,” she said, hating that he had her at the point of begging. She almost moved her pussy toward his dick.

  “Then don’t you play with me.” His voice was sharp with warning.

  She closed her eyes, knowing what he wanted to hear. Knowing that she felt for him what he wanted her to feel, but she didn’t know how to say it.

  “Look at me.” His words softened. She opened her eyes and looked at him through tear brimmed eyes.

  “This should not be this hard,” he whispered. “I’m in love with you.”

  She blinked and the tears escaped her eyes. Her lips trembled as he released her ankle letting her leg fall back to the bed. He rested between her legs taking her trembling lips with his. “I. Am. In. Love. With. You,” he said again each word breaking through her heart as her body responded to his gentle kisses applied to various parts of her face, neck, and collarbone and hot caresses to her stomach and thighs.

  He reclaimed her mouth before entering her in one swift movement causing her body to arch against his. A strong arm moved under her body, supporting her weight as he worked her hard and slow. She closed her eyes at the sheer pleasure of his body. The workings of a fine orgasm moved over her as her body started to vibrate and the stars burst behind her eyes and she caught her breath. “Ahhh! Shane!”

  “Tell me, baby,” he said, between gritted teeth. She opened her eyes to look at him she could tell he was ready to release with her. “Danielle,” he moaned her name—the one word plea for her love. She placed both hands on the sides of his face, as he continued to work her body. “Shane, baby…I love you.”

  He closed his eyes, leaning his forehead against hers as she captured his mouth for a sensual kiss as they climaxed together.

  Chapter Twenty

  She woke alone. She immediately missed the feeling of his body—the warm, safe feel of his embrace. The way he kissed at her neck and ear as she dozed. She missed him and everything that came with him. She cleared her throat and called out to him.

  “Shane!” She waited for him to reply. Hmm, what the hell?

&nbs
p; She sat up bringing his sheets and comforter with her. She looked at the bedside table, three o’clock in the afternoon. I have to get to Brandi and Jason’s house sometime this week. What they must think of her. She slid from his bed and reached for a red T-shirt he had thrown across a chair. Sliding it over her naked body she quickly used the restroom and went in search of Shane.

  * * * *

  He stood in the kitchen, on the phone. “Look, I don’t know what to tell you, Ellen, I’m just not interested in that type of relationship with you.” He rolled his eyes and let out and exasperated sigh. He would prefer to be upstairs next to Danielle, the woman he truly loved. “You have to stop calling me.”

  “This is about her, isn’t it? You cannot be serious about that!”

  “Yes, this is about Danielle. I’m in love with her.”

  “You are a fool. The same way you feel about me is how she feels about you. She doesn’t love you!”

  “Then I guess I’ll be a fool waiting for her to care as deeply for me as I do for her. She is worth it to me. You deserve to find someone that cares about you the same way.”

  “Trust me, Shane. I know I’m worth more than this shit. Good luck wasting your life chasing after someone that isn’t into you. Trust me, I’ve been there and it doesn’t work!” She hung up on him—the bitter words still ringing in his ear. He placed the phone on the counter in front of him, and lowered his head. “Damn it,” he mumbled. “I can’t blame her for being angry. I know how it feels to love someone and they not return the feelings.” He ran his fingers through his hair with frustration. “I want to make her my wife, and I could barely get her to say she loves me.” He hit the countertop. “This is crazy!”

  “Do you talk to yourself often?”

  He jumped at the sound of her voice and turned around embarrassed she had caught him having a full-fledged monologue about her in his kitchen. He perched his butt back against the counter and took in the sight of her standing in his kitchen, her hair a bit of a mess from their time in bed, barefoot, and wearing only his T-shirt. He felt his cock stir, and he tried to think of anything but sexy thoughts of her. They had been making love for almost two days straight he was sure she was exhausted from his pounding.

  “I tend to talk to myself when I’m frustrated. It helps me work it out in my head.” She moved into the room closer to him. His heart started to pound as she got closer. He cleared his throat, trying to get himself together. “How much of that did you hear?”

  “Pretty much all of it,” she said continuing her trek toward him.

  Shit. “You weren’t supposed to hear any of that.”

  “Why not, it was about me?” She stopped short of him. “It was all so sweet—everything you said.”

  “You shouldn’t have to hear about my feelings for you while I’m arguing with an ex.”

  “I’ve heard it all Shane, it doesn’t matter how you say it. I know you feel it and that you love me.” She reached out and took his hand, pulling her to him. She reached up and ran a thumb over his bottom lip. He kissed it lightly and she smiled. He couldn’t help but love her. He wrapped his arms around her waist pressing their middles together. He looked down at her and she smiled. “What?” he asked smiling back at her.

  “This feels so right.” She laid her head on his chest, allowing him to hold her.

  “Mmm, yes it does,” he said to the top of her head.

  “I’m sorry, Shane,” she said quietly. His heart sped up. He was not sure where she was going with this.

  “For—for what, Dani?”

  She moved her head slightly, still in his arms but able to look up at him. “For being so stubborn. I don’t know what I was thinking. I don’t know what the issues were and whatever it may have been none of it really matters when I’m with you like this. Everyday I’m with you, I love you more and more. I think something about that scared me, loving you intimately, when you’ve always been like a brother to me.” She laughed.

  “What we’ve been doing the last day and half has been far from a sibling-type relationship, Dani.”

  “I would say so.” She smiled and looked at him. “It’s been good, Shane—really good.”

  “Did you mean it when you said it, Danielle?” He had to know if she meant the words and it hadn’t just been said in the heat of moment.

  “I love you, Shane. I meant it then, I mean it now. If you will have me, I will mean it forever.”

  He couldn’t help the giddy grin crawling across his face. He had waited for Danielle to say this to him his whole life. “You know how I feel about you, Danielle. I have been in love with you for a long time. Forever with you is all I want.” He dipped his head to claim her mouth with his. Loving the way she responded to his kisses. He slowed the kiss, thinking now was the time. He had to ask. He moved his mouth from hers smiling when she moaned her disappointment.

  “Shane,” she whispered. “Why’d you stop?” She tried to kiss him again, but he ducked his head. Putting his forehead to hers he looked into her light chocolate eyes. “Marry me, Danielle,” he said the words before he lost the courage.

  * * * *

  The words she knew he wanted to say, even expecting them, still surprised her. She stood still in his arms. Soaking in the moment—the feel of being in his arms. The way her lips still tingled from the way he made love to her mouth. There was no need for her to hesitate, but when she did she saw the rejection in his face. He lowered his gaze from her and even loosened the grip on her waist. She hated that she put that look in his eyes.

  “Hey,” she said placing two fingers under his chin to lift his beautiful, gray-blue eyes back at her. “You don’t have to wait for me anymore, Shane. I will marry you.” She kissed his lips lightly and allowed her answer to register for them both. The smile that lit his face warmed her heart.

  “You’re saying yes?” he asked.

  She laughed at the excitement in his voice. “I’m saying yes.”

  He let out a whoop and lifted her up so that her legs wrapped around his waist. She giggled like a girl as he kissed at her face. “Shane, you are crazy. Put me down.” She loved the way he made her feel.

  “Come upstairs with me,” he said depositing her back on her feet. “Oh no you don’t, we have to shower and get out of here. Brandi and Jason are going to send out a search party after us.” He gave her a devilish grin. “You heard what I said Shane.” She started to back away slowly from him. He followed. She turned and made a mad dash for the stairs, with Shane hot on her heels.

  Chapter Twenty-One

  After a shower, more sensuous than she originally had in mind, they emerged from the master bathroom wrapped in plush bath sheets. “You are so bad.” She wagged a finger at him. He feigned shock and winked at her. “You need to leave the room. If I remove this towel to get dressed and you attack me again, we are never getting out of this damn house.” She laughed.

  “I don’t see the problem.” He joked from across the room.

  “Shane!” She warned, turning her back to him. When she turned back to him he was on one knee in the middle of the room with the black box in his hand. A nervous hand floated to her mouth as she took the steps to close the distance between them. The ring box in his nightstand drawer had slipped her mind.

  “You already said yes, but the ring was up here,” he said as she stood above him her eyes brimming with tears. “Don’t cry, baby,” he said softly. “You are my past, present, and future, Danielle.” The simple words were beautiful. She nodded her head yes to agree with him and to answer his proposal, again, too choked up to speak.

  He opened the box and she let out a small gasp. “Oh my God, Shane, it’s beautiful,” she whispered.

  “So are you,” he said taking the ring from the box and putting it on her finger. He stood back up taking her in his arms. “Do you like it?” he asked holding her tight.

  She sighed. “Absolutely, it’s the perfect fit.” She could feel him smiling against her.

  “The ring or us
?”

  “Both.”

  The End

  About the Author

  Hadley Raydeen lives in a suburb outside of Pittsburgh, Pennsylvania with her husband, two children, and one dog. By day she works as a Human Resources professional. In her spare time she loves to edit and write. Hadley has been editing for almost five years as a content and line editor for three different publishing houses. She recently is trying her hand as an interracial romance and erotica author.

  http://hadleyraydeen.webs.com/

  https://www.facebook.com/Hadleywrites

  https://twitter.com/HadleyRaydeen

  Table of Contents

  Dedication

  Chapter One

  Chapter Two

  Chapter Three

  Chapter Four

  Chapter Five

  Chapter Six

  Chapter Seven

  Chapter Eight

  Chapter Nine

  Chapter Ten

  Chapter Eleven

  Chapter Twelve

  Chapter Thirteen

  Chapter Fourteen

  Chapter Fifteen

  Chapter Sixteen

  Chapter Seventeen

  Chapter Eighteen

  Chapter Nineteen

  Chapter Twenty

  Chapter Twenty-One

  About the Author