Page 34 of At First Smile

CHAPTER EIGHTEEN

Brunch

Rowan

I t’s been four nights since I first found my way into Pen’s bed.

I haven’t spent every night here… Well, almost. Friday after she and JoJo came to Axels, GB and I headed back here.

It only made sense as I would be joining her at Bread again for Saturday breakfast. Only this time I didn’t need to rent the entire bakery for the day.

Breakfast turned into a morning spent with hands clasped, walking along the beach with Pen and GB.

Then an afternoon curled up together on the couch listening to an audiobook between kisses, while GB sprawled on the floor chewing the new toy Pen bought him.

That soon turned into an evening claiming each other’s bodies throughout the house.

Against the wall in the foyer, Pen’s legs atop my shoulder, and me worshipping her like the queen she is.

My legs splayed as I sit on the couch, gripping her round ass while she rides me, slowly undoing me.

Her bent over the kitchen table, flesh slapping with each thrust, and screams muffled against her own hand.

Those wild-honey eyes peering up at me while her full lips wrap around my cock, the shower’s spray cascading down her naked body, as my hands slip against the slick tile with the way she brings me to my knees.

After, she’d stood at the stove flipping a cheese toasty, “This is JoJo’s dream. All she wants is a man that will properly sex her up and make her a grilled cheese after.”

Right then, I vowed to work on my cheese toasty game, even contemplated asking Gillian for advice…but think better of it.

Between bites of the single sandwich we’d shared, we lose ourselves in each other, delving more and more into the pages of each other’s stories. Not just the important chapters but the small passages that seem so insignificant but make us who we are.

All the little things that make me fall a little deeper for this woman.

Like how the simple act of making a cheese toasty pulls out story-after-story, learning to cook with Aunt Bea or the time she and Trina celebrated with hot chocolate and toasted cheese after digging a maze between their houses in the snow drifts from a two-day long blizzard that blanketed Buffalo when they were girls.

The little ticks that make up Pen, such as the way she unthinkingly plays with her hair when she’s lost in thought or is nervous.

How she constantly surprises me with her blend of sweet sassiness.

“Someone’s awake,” she rasps, brushing her backside against my rigid length.

“Do you blame me?” Nuzzling into the crook of her neck, my hand roams beneath her silky camisole. “Looks like someone else is also awake.” I tweak her already taut nipples.

She arches into my touch. “Do you blame me?”

My chuckle is hoarse. “How long do you need to get ready for brunch?” I nip at the shell of her ear.

Taking my hand, she guides it into her sleep shorts. “We can be late.”

“And how will that help me win over Trina?” My fingers slide through her slick folds.

“Alexa, what time is it?”

A deep Australian accent comes from the device on the nightstand. “The time is eight-thirty-two a.m.”

I lift an eyebrow. "Your Alexa is an Aussie man?”

"It is the sexiest of all accents,” she teases with a bat of her lashes.

“Are you sure about that, luv?” I murmur into her ear, deepening my Irish lilt as I slip my hand beneath her top. With each whimper she makes as I tweak her taut nipples, my cock gets impossibly harder.

“Alexa, set an alarm for ten a.m.” Once Alexa confirms the alarm’s been set, Pen flips onto her back and tugs me on top of her. “We have time.”

Flipping onto my back, I yank her to sit astride my hard cock. “Good. Now take these off–” I pull at her shorts’ lacey hem. “—and sit on my face.”

“Yes sir.” She flashes a wicked grin. “As long as you take these off. After all it’s only fair if you’re getting a pre-brunch meal, that I do too.”

“Christ.” This woman.

We used every goddamn minute that Alexa gave us and stole a few extra before getting ready for brunch.

Men aren’t generally invited to the ladies’ brunch, but I’m the exception, more like Wes and my brother are the exceptions.

In my attempt to win over Pen’s people, mainly Trina since JoJo is one hundred percent Team Row-Pen, as she dubbed us Friday night, I’ve enlisted reinforcements to soften this trio’s big sister.

Wes, who hit it off with both Pen and JoJo, will be attending brunch in-person. My brother Finn and Trina are joining remotely. I am not above using Trina’s favorite author and audiobook narrator to win her over.

Pen explained that Trina’s overprotective nature is a result of losing her younger sister Lauren.

Two years before Pen, who is the same age as Trina’s sister, moved next door Lauren was hit by a car.

She and Trina had been playing in the front yard.

In the single instant that Trina bent to tie her shoe, Lauren ran into the street to get the soccer ball she’d kicked.

“It’s not that Trina doesn’t like you, it’s just that she doesn’t trust herself to relax,” Pen offers, as we stand in the kitchen slicing pineapple and berries for a fruit salad. “She’s scared if she looks away something will happen.”

I nod, thinking of Gillian. His assessing green eyes, the same as mine, and face always drawn into a stern expression.

“I promise she will warm up.”

“Did she with Alex?”

Her lips purse. “I think he’s part of her hesitancy. Alex was my first real boyfriend. As I told you, I was a bit of a late bloomer.”

I nod. Wednesday night as we sat snuggled together on the chair, she’d opened up more about her dating history.

Besides Alex and her friend from undergrad who she’d had sex with a few times, I am only the third man that she’s slept with.

Of course, I don’t care about how many men came before me.

My intent is to be the last. Still, I don’t like how these men failed to cherish Pen the way she should be.

Alex gaslit and emotionally abused her. Her friend from college, while kind to her, didn’t take care of her needs sexually, something I intend to ensure never happens again, as long as I’m the current and, hopefully, last man, to be with her.

“Alex had this way of pulling me in. A way of spinning every situation to his advantage. JoJo was the only one whose hackles were up when it came to Alex.”

“JoJo?” My right brow lifts.

“As open and friendly as she is, she’s able to read people in a single instant. She was a little standoffish with Alex. I liked Alex and so did Trina. I think Trina blames herself for not seeing who he truly was.”

Leaning in, I kiss her cheek. “I like that you have protective people in your life. Even if Trina may scare me more than any rival defenseman I’ve faced on the ice.”

She bumps my hip with hers. “It’s funny. I should be more nervous. I’m the one who will be meeting your brother in ten minutes.”

“He’s going to adore you. He already does.”

I’d told Finn about Pen earlier this week.

One doesn’t have a brother who writes romance novels and not tap into his knowledge.

Despite his bad luck with finding the right woman for himself, my big-hearted brother is open to all things love.

It’s why he immediately agreed to join us for brunch.

“She must be special if you’re calling in the troops,” he joked when I spoke to him Saturday morning while Pen showered.

That she is.

As much as Pen protested “too soon” about flying to Toronto with me to attend the fundraiser, the one I’m now officially locked into, and meeting my family, she’s comfortable with this.

Perhaps Finn being one of her favorite authors makes it less intimidating and more like dipping her toe in the deeper waters of a relationship.

I won’t push, no matter how much I want her to be mine as much as I’m already hers.

“I’m not just nervous about impressing Trina. You’re the first woman, I’ve introduced to my family.”

Her head tilts. “They didn’t meet Emma? Didn’t you date for like a year?”

“We did…and no, she did not meet my family.” Our stares lock.

“But you said he already adores me. Why are you nervous, then?”

“He does.” Leaning in, I rub my nose against hers. “Trina isn’t the only one a little hesitant about this. I know we both have our fears, and this is a big step for you. Thank you for trusting me…trusting yourself to do this.”

“I’m trusting in us,” she murmurs, closing the inches between us and pressing a gentle kiss on my mouth. At the chime of the doorbell, she jumps back and squeals, “They’re here!”

Game on.

Brunch is less interrogation of me like my first meeting of the bicoastal besties and more fawning over Wes and Finn. Even Trina’s stern expression washes away as JoJo joins Wes reading aloud a swoony scene from each woman’s favorite one of my brother’s novels.

“Go on without me…” Draped over the two stools set in front of the kitchen table as a makeshift stage set, Wes coughs.”

“There’s no going on without you,” JoJo says dramatically, her poor attempt at a posh New England accent makes her sound like a member of the Wahlberg family.

Vibrating with laughter, Pen covers her face and leans against my shoulder. I loop my arm around her, keeping her close and join in the laughter filtering through the room from the in-person and online spectators.

“JoJo, stop!” Trina howls, wiping tears from her eyes.

Undeterred, JoJo continues. Using a wooden spoon she plucked from the utensil crock, speckled with tiny seashells, she positions herself and points it as if holding a rifle.

Her brown eyes narrow and blonde curls tumble over her face.

“Let them come. If I faced my disapproving parents, those debutantes, and everyone who’s told me I can’t my entire life… I can face these wolves.”

“Shit—” Finn pinches his nose. “—did I really write that line?”