I Pick You Read online

  Kit glared at me, tossing a pillow right at my head. “Get a condom, or I’m done.”

  “Okay, fine. Jesus.”

  Against my will, I rolled the stupid rubber over my cock, already hating it, but taking what I could get. I knew Kit wouldn’t touch me without it.

  “You’re disgusting. How many women have you put that thing in without wrapping it up?”

  I smirked as I moved toward her, eyes darting to the sexy landing strip right between her legs. With one hand around her ankle, I brought it to my shoulder and moved back in. Instant gratification. “You didn’t seem to mind before.”

  “I was drunk and stu—aahh.”

  That shut her up. I moved her other leg over my shoulder and watched her fists grasp the blanket on both her sides, pleasurable moans taking over her bitching. Jesus Criminy. Even through the condom she felt amazing, and I wasn’t sure how long I could take it. It wasn’t like I was getting it in every day. Florida girls were bitches. I wanted to tell her to suck my dick, but I didn’t want to cross lines that would have gotten me tossed out on my ass. Kit would have done that. There is no doubt in my mind she wouldn’t storm out if I pissed her off. Instead, I came to my knees for balance and circled her clit with my thumb. She expressed her acceptance through a moan and a writhing of her hips into mine.

  It was quick, yet it wasn’t. I guess for not having foreplay, it lasted fifteen minutes or so, anyway. Kit got off three times. One for every position I moved her in with the finale on her hands and knees. I had warned her before I did it, but in her defense, I did it at the top of her last orgasm.

  Actually, it was halfway off when I said it. “I’m going to take the rubber off and shoot it on your ass.” I slid back into her, bareback three times, deep and hard, with my hands on her hips, and then my dick in my hand. Spreading her ass cheeks apart, I pumped my fist, and shuddered, leaving three quick bouts between her cheeks.

  “You stupid idiot. I said no.”

  I could hear her words, but I couldn’t move yet. I was still riding it out, feeling euphoric endorphins flood my body. She tried to get away when I pushed the tip of my head into the pucker in her ass, but I didn’t let her. I kicked her legs out and fell on top of her.

  Kit tried to move, but her strength was no match to my weight. I held her there, moved her hair from her face, kissed her cheek and feigned ignorance. “You did?”

  “I’m not going.”

  Oh boy…I took a deep breath and moved to her side, tucking a strand of hair behind her ear, knowing we were back here. “Yes, you are.”

  “I can’t, Brantley. Who does this? What kind of mother leaves their child for work?”

  “Oh, I don’t know. Military moms do it all the time, actors, the Red Cross, politicians, truck drivers, flight attendants.”

  Kit rolled to her back with a heavy sigh, “Okay, I get it, but it’s an entire year. You don’t know how much she learns; how fast she’s growing. She learns something new every day.”

  My fingers brushed across her nipple as I rolled more to my side, resting my head on my free hand, and a leg over hers. “You’ll see that stuff. You’re going to Skype with her every night.”

  “I’m afraid you won’t love her like I do.”

  “I will, Kit. I already love her.”

  Kit moved my fingers from pinching her nipple, but didn’t make me move my hand. “Stop it. You don’t love her like I do. Nobody will ever love her that much.”

  “I don’t know her like you do, but I will. I’m not going to lie. I’m terrified of doing this. This scares the fuck out of me, but I get it. I know how much this means to you, and whether you want to believe it or not, Bay isn’t even going to remember this year. She’ll grow up and you’ll show her your first documentary, all the photos, and the little village that you helped transform. She’s not going to care that you left her to go do that. She’s going to be way too proud for that.”

  “Hmm, you think so?”

  “I know so. Can you tell me about your life when you were two? No, because you don’t remember,” I answered myself, matter-of-factly.

  “Thanks, Brantley. I needed that.”

  “Does that mean you’ll let me spank you?” Kit laughed and got up. “Wait, where are you going?”

  “I’m going to stand underneath your amazing shower because you’re an idiot.”

  I watched her ass walk away to my shower, calling to her back. “It’s not really my house. It’s my cousin’s.”

  “Yeah, I know. I read the lease.”

  I blew out a puff of air while dropping to my back. My eyes closed as I tossed the sheet over my waist and relaxed enough to sleep. I heard the water start, but that’s about it.

  “Hey.”

  My eyes opened to Bay, staring at me like Chuckie. “Aahhh! Jesus, Bay. You almost gave me a heart attack.”

  Unfortunately, my sudden jolt and panicked yell scared her, too. Bay’s eyes filled with tears and she cried a way over dramatized cry.

  I quickly slid on a pair of basketball shorts behind the sheet and picked her up. “Come here. I’m sorry. It’s okay. Shhh,” I comforted, as she continued to cry.

  “My ma, ma, ma, ma. My ma, ma, ma, ma,” she cried repeatedly, her arms reaching away from me.

  It didn’t take a translator to know her words were a cry for her mom and not me. I knew I couldn’t let Kit hear her. Not if I expected her to go through with this nonsense. I did the only thing I knew how to do without fucking up. I sat her on the bed and picked up my guitar, wiping a tear with my thumb.

  Bay quieted as my fingers slid down the strings, a quiet calming strum. “Shhh, it’s okay, Bay. Do you want me to sing you a song? Would you like that?” I questioned, while she held tight to Phil and stared at me without a sound. Jerking eye movements followed my fingers as I went from note to note.

  “Hush little Bay Berry don’t you cry, Daddy is scary and Mommy is preferred.” I softly sang, feeling something unexplainable. Something happened inside of me as her little eyes looked up to mine. I may have been in love for the first time in my life. Bay Berry Jandt swept in without notice and knocked me clean off my feet. Who would have thought? I stopped long enough to pick up Kit’s shirt from the floor and wipe snot from her nose and went right back to it.

  Bay let out a deep breath, exhaling with a long sniff. Her body language completely changed while she sat there on my bed, listening to me sing a song that I didn’t even know. I knew the tune, just not the words, but neither did Bay. She didn’t care if I made them up as I went. She was infatuated.

  I smiled at her with the last note, hearing the water shut off behind me. “All better now? Can I carry you back to bed?”

  “Ian Aberry hush,” she said, with a crooked little finger pointing at the fingers holding the pick.

  Kit was right. She was so smart and I was already starting to notice it. Again, I didn’t need an interpreter to tell me she wanted to me to do it again. “Okay, but you have to lay down.”

  I laughed at her, strumming all five strings when she dropped to the pillow like she’d just been gunned down. She rolled to her side so she could see me and hugged Phil in her arms as I sang, “Hush little Bay Berry, don’t say a word.”

  Kit and I exchanged a glance when she walked out with a towel wrapped around her, a contented smile on her face.

  I stopped long enough to pull the shirt from her hands, nodding toward my dresser. “I wiped snot with that one.”

  Kit dug deep to find a shirt. She didn’t take one of my everyday tee-shirts. She chose the one all the way on the bottom right. My signed Hank Jr. shirt. I didn’t even wear that shirt. She smiled at me again as she slid in behind Bay, wrapping her little body in her arms while pulling her tight to her body, a loud kiss to her head.

  It took three more made up verses before Bay’s eyes started to get heavy again. I watched her fall asleep for the first time in her life to the sound of my voice and the music coming from my guitar. When I stopped a deep, dark
haze fell upon me and I didn’t feel so good.

  “What’s wrong?”

  I couldn’t blink. My eyes stayed fixated on my daughter, sound asleep in my bed. “I missed a lot.”

  “You did.”

  “You should have made me see her.”

  “I am.”

  The small smile that followed was from a ton of guilt, suddenly hitting me for the first time since she’d been born. Kit tried to get me to see her so many times. She even showed up uninvited once, but I didn’t spend much time with her. I blamed it on a concert I had to perform at the fairgrounds, but that was just an excuse. I took them out to eat once. That’s it, and I didn’t even hold Bay. She was so little and wiggly. I was afraid of dropping her. Or…maybe that was an excuse, too. Maybe I didn’t want to feel this new thing that consumed me like nothing I had ever felt before.

  “Thanks, Kit.”

  “No, thank you.”

  My lips turned into a smile and my eyes shifted to Bay, sound asleep in my bed. I scratched my head, took a deep breath, and got up. “You can sleep here. I think I’m going to go for a walk.”

  “It’s late.”

  “Um, it’s ten o’clock.”

  “I’m just going to close my eyes on that note.”

  I slid into my jeans, a quick eye jerk and a frown toward her. “Why? What’s that supposed to mean?”

  “You’ll be ready for sleep by ten after a full day with Bay.”

  Buttoning a wrinkled shirt and sliding into my boots, I shook my head. “Why do you have to go and say stuff like that? It’s not like I’m not freaked out enough.”

  “I’m being straight forward and honest, Brantley. She’s—.”

  “Yes, I know. She’s busy. Night.”

  The door closed behind me, a light click, and then silence collided with emotions that I didn’t understand. Instead of going out the back door toward the beach, I went out the side toward the garage, and to my car. It wasn’t like I would have been able to sleep anyway. A few drinks would help, and if I was lucky, Rydell would be there.

  I twisted the knob on the radio, hoping Reba McEntire could help drown out how messed up I was. I literally just got done fucking Kit and I had Rydell on the brain, a sad attempt to keep from thinking about my new life with Bay. When that failed, I turned to my good old friend, Jim Beam.

  Rydell’s truck wasn’t there, but the parking lot was full. That made me second-guess my decision to go there. Nonetheless, I walked into a crowded roomful of rowdy drunks. Every girl in the joint sang in loud screams, including Rydell. Carrie Underwood, but who was I to judge anyone singing about not knowing his last name? An instant smile crossed my face when I saw her. Short jean shorts, a tight, white cutoff, and fucking cowboy boots. I was in love.

  Rydell and two other girls danced choreographed moves to the upbeat song, her hair flipping sexily behind her back as she moved. Holy shit, did she move. A quick vision of me licking tequila from her abs crossed my mind as I made my way to the bar. Of course, it was at the end where she danced, right above my head.

  “What can I get for you?” a female voice asked, pulling my attention from two little ass cheeks, peering out from short, shorts.

  “Can I get a draft and a shot of Beam?”

  Rydell never did see me. She performed for me, I mean for the crowd, pervading a fun whimsical side of herself that she refused to show me.

  “Your shits must be all better.”

  I turned into Wendi screaming louder than she needed to in my ear, alcohol scent smelled through every word. “What?”

  “You had to leave early yesterday.”

  “Oh, that. Yes, much better, thank you.”

  “It wasn’t a compliment. What are you doing here?”

  “What is your problem? You act like you own this place and Rydell.”

  “I do own this place, and I care about Rydell.”

  “You do?”

  “Well, I mean I care about Rydell, and this place would probably go out of business without me; same thing.”

  “I’m not into Rydell, Jesus. Do you really think I couldn’t go pick up some hot chick in here tonight if I wanted to? Hell, I’ll bet you I wouldn’t even have to tell her my last name.”

  “I see the way you look at her.”

  I took a swig of my draft, shot-glass in hand. “Whatever.”

  “And…I see the way she looks at you. I don’t want her to get hurt again.”

  She just had to go and say that as I downed my shot. I beat my chest hard with my fist, trying to get the burn to calm. “She hates me.”

  “Yes, that’s what she tells me, too. Yet, every day this week she has done nothing but talk about how stupid you are, dumb things you said, and stories about her awful week with you. And she can’t be anywhere near you without watching you, smiling at your dumbass, and she sure as hell wouldn’t be sending me pics of your ass if she hated you.”

  “She took a picture of my ass?”

  “Lots of them. Oh, fuck. I’m drunk. Rydell’s going to kill me.”

  I laughed and toasted her with my beer, boasting with something new. Another flame I wanted to fuel a little.

  “Ahhh,” I yelled when Rydell jumped from the bar, pointed cowboy boots smashing three of my fingers with a twist of her toes.

  “Sorry, didn’t see you.”

  “You liar. You did that on purpose.”

  “And you came back in here on purpose.”

  My angry glare toward her matched the same one she gave me, and then we both turned to Wendi. “Gotta go.”

  “Get over yourself,” I replied in a haughty tone, eyes moving over her breasts, her bare stomach, and those legs. Wow. Those legs. They were enough to forget about the pain at the tips of my fingers.

  “Ha, that’s funny. You should practice what you preach.”

  “I’m not the one going around taking pictures of your ass.”

  Her strong voice changed just a little, and her glare weakened, not much, but I noticed. “I have no idea what you’re talking about.”

  “Your friend is a little drunk, and I think maybe her mouth gets a little loose in this state.”

  Rydell gave me a once over the same way I did her and stormed off. “I’m not playing games with you.”

  “Hey, Rydell,” I called after her. She turned on the tips of her toes with squinted eyes and duck lips. “I might have taken one picture of your tits, and one of your ass, or maybe five.”

  Her head shook as her eyes rolled and she stomped away. Just like Wendi had affirmed, Rydell watched me, but I already knew that. I caught her staring at me when she thought I wasn’t looking all the time, or did she catch me? The only bad part about it was the fact that I wasn’t the only one she saw. I watched her eyes land on a guy, walking into the bar and then to me. Wendi said something to her, and Rydell countered with a strained expression. The way they went back and forth was enough for me to figure out they were having a disagreement, and it didn’t take me long to figure out about what.

  The tall guy with a neatly trimmed beard, thinly wrapping around his jaw, drank one beer at the bar, eyes moving to Rydell’s and the argument she was in the middle of with her friend. I watched him walk out the door first, a nod to her and then to the door, wanting her to follow. She did.

  Chapter Eleven

  Once again, my automobile had to stay parked and I called a cab. One-thirty in the morning and I still didn’t want to sleep. I couldn’t sleep. All I could think about were those long legs and cowboy boots wrapped around my waist. I acted on it, but not with Rydell.

  “Hey, wake up,” I whispered, careful not to wake Bay. My lips touched her neck and my hand moved to her tits below the covers.

  “What are you doing? Stop it. Oh, my God. Are you drunk?”

  “Shhh, you’re going to wake Bay,” I slurred.

  “Nothing wakes that girl when she’s out. I thought you were going for a walk.”

  “I went to a bar. Let’s fuck again.”

&
nbsp; “You’re an idiot. Get out of here.”

  “Come on, please. I’ll lick your pussy for thirty minutes.”

  I am one hundred percent sure I saw her eyebrows lift through the dark. “Brantley, get the fuck out of here.”

  I didn’t listen, because she didn’t make me listen. I slid my hand further down and dipped my middle finger deep inside her. “Go to my couch and spread your legs,” I ordered, while planting a soft kiss on her lips.

  “No, I don’t want to.”

  “Yes, you do,” I assured her while three fingers circled her clit.

  “Carry Bay to her bed.”

  “No, I’m drunk. I’d probably drop her.”

  “This wasn’t supposed to turn into this. I don’t want to have sex with you.”

  My middle finger mimicked what I wanted to do to her, a taste of what my tongue would feel like on her swollen nub. “Fine, we won’t have sex. Just let me lick your pussy.”

  “Why can’t you just focus on Bay?”

  “She’s asleep, and that’s not what I want to focus on. I’m drunk. You remember what that’s like. I don’t think I heard you complain once.”

  “This wasn’t supposed to be about us, Brantley.”

  “Says the girl opening her legs for me.”

  “You’re such an ass.”

  I was an ass. I didn’t mean to say that out loud, but it was true. Her legs opened more and more for me, all while her words lied, saying she didn’t want it. “Take your daughter to her own bed,” I urged, as my tongue traced her bottom lip.

  “She’s your daughter, too,” Kit assured me as she rolled away, scooping Bay into her arms.

  I hurried out of my clothes and lay flat on my back, my dick in hand. Hard and ready to go. My intentions were to switch the cards, shove her head toward my cock and tell her to suck it when she came back.

  Her shirt and panties fell to the floor as she neared me, only she didn’t give me a chance to direct her anywhere. She mumbled something about hating me again, and moved right up my body, making herself right at home on my face. Of course, as soon as that scent touched my nose, I was more than okay with it and so was she. Moan after moan, and the way her hips twisted above me kept me going. I took that job like a man, bringing her to two orgasms before she flipped backwards, panting with her eyes still rolled to the back of her head.