Page 42 of A Brother's Secret

“Yes, please do. I wouldn’t have it any otherway.”

“Your fucking junk is bigger than my poor pussy can handle.”

I froze, and then couldn’t help myself, I burst out laughing. Mali growled again and that only made me laugh harder. She turned around and splashed me, irritated and I threw up my hands to fend off her onslaught.

“I’m sorry! I’m sorry! It’s not funny, but oh man, it’s really funny!”

She was smiling to belay any notion that she was really irritated and I wiped tears from the corners of my eyes. I must be a little out of it with fatigue or something for this to be that funny, but I couldn’t help it. It just struck me as hilarious for some reason.

“Why do you think I was sayin’ I’d blow you?” she asked defensively, and the laughter died, right then and there, and I pulled her to me and kissed her soundly.

“You don’t need to go there with me,” I whispered against her lips and she broke eye contact and stared fixedly at the side of thetub.

“I want to,” she said and I studied her face. Everything about it said she did but that she was scared or nervous. Mali had been handed a shit hand in life, and a set of the cards she’d been dealt was that she’d been bullied hardcore in school. I usually was there to diffuse some of the situation. I mean, no one, for some reason, really had a problem with me… but Mali, being poorer, being from the proverbial wrong side of the tracks… She’d been stubborn, had fought back time and again. She’d faced suspensions, had even whooped some ass in some real scrapes but that hadn’t stopped the three ringleaders of her little bully squad from sexually assaultingher.

The twisted fucks hadn’t thought it was rape, I mean, they wouldn’t dare stick their dick in Mali’s crazy… at least not in her vagina. They’d beat her to within an inch of her life during homecoming of Junior year and had forced her to fellate every last one of them. She’d spent a few days in the hospital and as far as her dad knew, it’d stopped with the beating… but like most secrets, Mali had told me all ofit.

I’d gotten my cold hard revenge. I’d hacked into the public records department and set some nuclear time bombs in her three assailant’s lives. I’d set death certificates to issue for all three of them around their early twenties. It was sure to cause them no end of headaches, proving to various companies and government agencies that no, they were indeed still alive. Probably would fuck them out of graduating college on time, and I know, in at least one case, it was a years-long nightmare.

Still, it wasn’t enough. I was super disturbed that it still affected her this deeply, but sadly, not really surprised.

“You don’t have to do anything with me that makes you uncomfortable. You tell me to stop, I stop. It’s as simple asthat.”

“I know that,” she said, rolling her eyes, but she stopped when I gripped her upper arms intently. Her gaze lasered in on mine but cooled the instant it met my stare’s intensity.

“You tell me to stop, I stop, Mali.”

“Okay,” she murmured and swallowed uncertainly. I didn’t mean to rattle her, but her knowing I valued her was important to me. I don’t think she’d probably had many lovers who did. I didn’t know. It wasn’t something we had talked about much, yet… the in-between time. So much about each other was left a mystery and I hated that, but if there was something I knew about Mali, she didn’t let people get close. Not like me, not like us… I didn’t know why I was the special one, but I thanked whatever powers that be that she had chosen me. I held myself to a lofty standard, and I knew she could trust me. Which is why the separation that was to come was killing me inside.

“I love you,” I whispered, the approaching rumble of thunder nearly drowning itout.

“I trust you,” she said and twisted fully to straddle my lap. “I don’t offer things like that up unless I do…” She rested her forehead against mine and cradled my face with one hand. Slowly she lowered her lips to mine and kissed me, a gentle contact of lips. I kissed her back, but let her go at herpace.

“I don’t like thinking about it too much,” she confessed and I nodded.

“Consider the subject dropped.”

“Can we not bring it up again?”

“For now, but I’m not going to let it go back into the dark completely,” I said honestly. “Eventually we’ve got to drag some of these demons into the light and let the light killthem.”

“Therapy?” she asked, and she made it sound like a dirtyword.

“No, just you and me, like we’ve faced everything else. We just didn’t really get the time back then to deal with this particular monster under yourbed.”

Her gaze flicked down to the shimmery water of our bath and fixed there. She sighed and it was heavy and asked, “One thing at a time, yeah?”

“We’ve got the rest of our lives to figure it out, baby. I promise.”

Her hands came up from beneath the water and fixed one on top of the other over my mouth. She frowned at me as I let out a surprised and muffled “Mmph!” and she glared at me accusingly.

“Don’t you dare jinx us, Kyle Cochran,” she hissed and I smiled slightly against her palm. I was wondering when my superstitious gypsy girl was going to show up to the party. I put my arms around her waist and raised an eyebrow, her hands slowly lowering from my mouth.

I resisted the urge to wipe the water dripping down my chin away and said honestly, “I have the ultimate good luck charm this run, baby.”

She rolled her eyes, “Better be one big fucking rabbit’sfoot.”

I grinned, “Try about a dozen badass motherfuckers. It’s going to befine.”

“Yeah,” she said, drawing in a shuddering breath, “Famous last words.”

“Don’t do that,” I said sharply and she looked atme.

“What?”

“Quit trusting menow.”

She stopped, jerked back as if she’d never considered the notion then said after a peal of closer thunder, “Metal building, metal tub, let’s get you washed up and get out of this thing before we become fricassee.”

I laughed, “Sounds all right tome.”

---