Page 34 of Inked Devotion

I frowned. “You’re not having a kid because you want to prove to other people that you can, right?” I asked, and could have rightly hit myself.

“You know I’m not even going to take that as a bad thing just now because I can see why you would think that, but no. I want a child for myself.”

“I want to be a family,” Brenna whispered. “I want that joy. I don’t necessarily want all the complications that come with sharing that joy with someone else.” She winced when she looked at me. “Is that a bitchy thing for me to say?”

I shook my head. “Not in the slightest. You’re allowed to want what you want,” I ignored the feeling bubbling up inside of me.

I didn’t want Brenna like that. Right? We weren’t each other’s futures. We were just friends. And yet, why did I have to continually tell myself that?

We were in the kitchen now, ignoring the shouts and screams of happiness and competition outside. The cake would be served soon, and others seemed just to be enjoying themselves. Now all I could do was be near Brenna and wonder what the hell was I doing here.

“Thank you for coming,” she whispered, and I looked over at her.

“What do you mean?”

“For coming here. I appreciate it. I know my family can be a lot, but then again, so can yours,” she teased.

“That’s true.”

“I’m glad I don’t have to deal with my cousins alone. My siblings are a lot on their own, and I could see from the outside how it could seem that they are too much, but I love them. They’re just all in a baby-haze right now.”

“I don’t appreciate the way that they treat you,” I said, out of the blue.

She shrugged. “They don’t mean anything by it.”

I shook my head, anger coming back harder than before. “What if you didn’t want children? What if you tried and it wasn’t happening? What if you had other issues that people deal with quietly? How is it any of their business?”

I hadn’t even realized I was saying the words until they were already out of my mouth. And while her siblings treated her kindly, they still poked at her when it came to settling down and having a future, at least the future they thought was deemed acceptable. I didn’t like it. My family might joke around, but anything that could cause pain? They stayed clear of.

“I think if it hurt me, they wouldn’t do it.”

“Are you sure about that?”

“Maybe. Maybe not. All I know is that I’m doing what I want to do with my life and my business. The others can’t hurt me. They can try, but I’m my own person. I always have been.”

We were so close then I could feel the heat of her, and I did my best to ignore it, but it wasn’t easy.

I looked at her then and swallowed hard. “I should get back out there, go hang out with your dad or something.”

She was so close, her mouth even closer. She was so tiny compared to me, but I could lean down and brush my lips along hers as long as she tilted her head up. But why would I do that? I shouldn’t do that.

Before I could say anything, my lips were on hers, and she was groaning into me. She tasted of sugar and sweetness, and all I could do is remember what she had felt like underneath me the first time we kissed.

I needed to stop. We needed to stop.

I wanted to spread her out over this counter and show her exactly what she meant to me, not that I knew what that was at all.

“Oops, sorry,” a voice said from the doorway, and I cursed before I looked back over at one of her cousins standing there.

“I didn’t realize that you two were an item. So much for being just friends,” she said as she waved before she scurried off to tell the entire family what she had just seen.

“Damn it,” Brenna muttered.

I took a step back, willed my cock to settle down, and shoved my hand through my hair. “I’m sorry.”

“Stop saying sorry every time you kiss me.”

“How about I say sorry for the time and the place?” I growled, angry at myself, but was lashing out at her instead.

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