Flawed (Triple Canopy Book 2) Read online

  He was good in bed.

  No, he was magnificent, and I had to remember that was what this was about.

  “I don’t have a bathtub,” I told him.

  “You don’t have a tub?”

  “Nope.”

  “Baby, how is that possible?”

  “This is a condo.”

  “And?”

  “The woman I rent from is ninety-two. She couldn’t get into the tub, not without being lifted in. She didn’t want to go into a nursing home and she didn’t want to impose on her daughter-in-law since she really didn’t want her son lifting her in and out and the aide that came in to help her couldn’t do it, so her son tore out the tub. Actually, he redid the whole bathroom so she could get into the shower with her walker and the chair she used to bathe would fit. He added extra spray heads as well.”

  “Where is she now?”

  “Mrs. Parker?”

  “If that’s the ninety-two-year-old woman you rent from, then yeah.”

  I smiled against his chest, not because of his smartass retort but because Trey’s hand had meandered from my hip and he was now rubbing my butt.

  “Sadly, after the bathroom remodel, she had a fall and she broke her hip. It freaked her son out and he put her in assisted living. But it’s one of those posh facilities that looks more like a resort than old folks’ home. She loves it there and says if she’d known her boy was gonna spring for such a nice place she would’ve given in years before.”

  I left out the part about her grandson, Bass, who was my kickboxing instructor, also having a freak-out, and it was him who’d talked his grandmother into moving into an assisted living facility. This was supposed to be short-term, until her hip healed, which was why I was offered the condo. In the beginning, it was basically me housesitting. I wanted my own space but didn’t have the money saved to set up a place, so it worked out great. Then Mrs. Parker loved her new surroundings, having friends, not having to cook for herself, and decided to stay. So now I rented the condo. But last week Bass told me they wanted to sell it and asked if I wanted to buy it. I was on the fence.

  The condo was in a great location, nice quiet neighborhood, nice neighbors, the price was doable, but I wanted a yard. My mom had a green thumb—growing up, our front yard was the best in the neighborhood—but it was the backyard that was the showstopper. Some of my best childhood memories were of my mom and me working on the flowerbeds. I wanted that again. I wanted a fresh canvas so I could invite my mom over and we could create something beautiful together.

  Trey’s body went stiff under mine, and all thoughts on flowers flew out of my head as he rolled to the side, swung his legs over the bed, and yanked the covers over my naked body.

  What in the world?

  “Trey?”

  “Shh.”

  He was standing next to my bed gloriously naked and reaching for his jeans when I heard it. I blame my delayed reaction on Trey’s mind-boggling, muscular body. My eyes were transfixed, my brain was muddled, so I missed what Trey obviously hadn’t. Only, he’d miscalculated the time it would take for Hadley to reach my bedroom door—which was open by the way, because, hello, we were alone in my house and there wasn’t a need to close it.

  That is, there wasn’t a freaking need to close it if you didn’t have a nosy twin with a key to your front door and wasn’t afraid to use it.

  “Oh my God!” Hadley shouted, and my gaze went from Trey’s semi-erect dick to my sister.

  She was stumbling back, her arms wheeling, trying to catch her balance.

  “Fuck,” Trey clipped while at the same time tried to untangle his jeans.

  In my quest to block Hadley’s view, I tossed the covers back, not caring I was naked, too. It wasn’t like my sister hadn’t seen me naked. But it was then and in the subsequent moments when I truly understood what the word ‘mortified’ meant.

  That was because the moment my feet touched the floor, Brady appeared—at my bedroom door—while I was naked.

  Naked.

  I was naked as a jaybird with nothing close to cover myself with, and my sister’s fiancé was standing in front of me.

  “Jesus Christ.”

  So what did Trey do?

  He dropped his useless jeans, straightened, and shoved me behind him. This I knew was a gallant effort to save my modesty. However, it left him fully exposed to my sister, who was now chanting “you’re naked” coupled with “he’s naked” and she added an “ohmigod” to that before Brady growled, “Close your eyes.”

  To which my sister responded with, “Ohmigod, they were doing the nasty.”

  This was said with humor. Brady didn’t find the situation humorous and I knew this not because I could see him, but because there was no mistaking his tone when he repeated, “Woman, close your eyes.”

  Obviously, Trey didn’t find anything funny. After all, it was his pecker standing at half-mast—or maybe since the commotion had started it was now flaccid—either way Hadley had gotten an eyeful.

  “Shut the door,” Trey barked and I jumped.

  His hand went to my hip to stay my position.

  As if I would move.

  I heard the door slam and Trey’s back muscles relaxed a skoosh and he shook his head.

  “Did that just happen?”

  “Yeah, baby, it did.”

  “My sister and her fiancé just walked in and saw us?” I asked, seeking clarification. “I wasn’t hallucinating? Say, from an orgasm-induced haze where I imagined Brady standing in the doorway seeing my boobs and…other parts.”

  “Orgasm-induced haze?” He chuckled.

  “Well, I don’t know. I’ve never had an orgasm before. I was hoping that they came with side effects like: hallucinations, hot flashes, maybe paranoia, and delusions.”

  “Baby.”

  Trey started to turn and I pressed deeper into his back, not wanting to face him. Partly because I knew my face was flaming red. I was completely nude, and while we were in bed I didn’t seem to have an issue with this, but standing in front of him I was now shy.

  The other part was because I was enjoying the feel of his massive body shaking against mine.

  “Adalynn,” he called.

  “Hm?”

  “Baby, let go?”

  “No way.”

  “The door’s closed.”

  Too late. It was way too late to care about the door. Hadley had seen what she’d seen. Brady had seen what he’d seen. And they knew what they knew.

  “Oh my God, they know.”

  “Baby.” He laughed.

  Not chuckled. Not snickered. A straight-out, gut-busting rumble. Loud, gruff, and for a long time.

  When it finally died down, he said, “You’re killing me.”

  “I wish someone would kill me,” I muttered. “I don’t ever want to see Brady again. And I don’t care if that makes me sound like an immature idiot. He saw my boobs, Trey.”

  “And Hadley got a nice full frontal of my cock.”

  “Gawd!”

  “We need to get dressed,” he reminded me.

  We did, we totally needed to get dressed. Then I could crawl out my bedroom window and run away. Maybe Trey would go with me and we could hole up at a hotel or catch a flight to the Bahamas. Yes, the beach sounded wonderful. Sand and surf and fruity drinks on a beach full of strangers who had not seen me naked.

  I was so lost in my misery I missed Trey turning to face me. But I didn’t miss him slide his hands up the sides of my neck and thread his fingers into my hair.

  “You have nothing to be embarrassed about,” he told me.

  “Brady—”

  “Addy, your sister barged into your house uninvited and unannounced. Brady should’ve seriously known better. They saw what they saw. It’s done and over.”

  “Hadley’s always invited.” I defended my sister. “Never in her wildest dreams would she imagine she’d walk into…you know…what was going on.”

  “And what was going on?” He smirked.

/>   “Don’t be a jerk.”

  “I’m not, baby, I just like seeing your cheeks turn pink.”

  “That’s you being a jerk.”

  “No. That’s me being a man who loves knowing that when I get you in bed you burn hot, but out of it, you blush. You’re bashful and shy and sweet. That’s what everyone sees. But you’re also wild and sexy and you like when I pull your hair and talk dirty to you. That’s mine. That’s the part of you I get. So I’m not being a jerk. Smug, maybe. Grateful, definitely. Happy as fuck to be standing next to you—unquestionably yes.”

  Man, Trey really needed to stop saying stuff like that, or I’d get the wrong impression. It was hard enough for me to keep my emotions locked down when I’d been daydreaming about the man for months. I will admit, it was his looks that caught my attention, but probably not the same way they caught most women’s. It wasn’t the scars that marred his beauty—they made him more interesting, masculine, dangerous. It was his perpetual frown when no one was looking that had captured my heart. I wanted to know why he was pretending and what he was hiding. I also wanted to help him work it out.

  Then I got to know him. He wasn’t pretending, he was straight-out lying to his friends. He smiled and joked with them. But with me, the real Trey came out. The anger, the guilt, the feelings of inadequacy. I wondered if he realized his vulnerability was what had endeared me to him. It was his raw honesty that made me overlook the times he’d behaved like a jerk. And I overlooked them, not because I was a spineless twit but because I knew I was the only person he showed his pain to. And deep down in a place I didn’t want to admit I had, I liked that.

  “Trey,” I started, but said no more and averted my gaze.

  “Need to ask you a favor.”

  “What’s that?” I asked his bare chest.

  “Ride this out with me.”

  “Huh?”

  His hands tightened and he tilted my head back until I was forced to look at him or close my eyes. Since I wasn’t actually as immature as I was behaving, I lifted my eyes and I froze.

  His green eyes were intense. Deeper, darker than they normally were. Even darker than they were when we’d been in bed. More intense than when we were arguing about his PT.

  “Take a chance and ride this out,” he repeated.

  “I still don’t understand.”

  “You and me, Adalynn.”

  “Like, be your girlfriend?”

  Trey’s brows pulled together and his jaw ticked. Seeing that, my gaze skidded over his shoulder, and embarrassment set in. Not as much as Brady seeing me naked but enough that I wished I could rewind time and not make myself sound like an idiot.

  “Haven’t had a girlfriend since the sixth grade.”

  Sixth grade. Cripes, Trey started young. If he had a girlfriend before he even hit middle school, God knows what he was doing in high school. Of course, that would explain his superior skills in bed.

  Since I was at a loss for words, I didn’t say anything. I just lamely bobbed my head and studied the large canvas print that hung over my bed. Which was now crooked to the side, probably due to my bed rocking against the wall.

  Sweet mother of God. Sweet, old Mrs. Landon next door must’ve thought there’d been an earthquake. She was older than Mrs. Parker and very rarely left her bedroom. A room that shared a wall with mine.

  “Addy, swear to God if you’re booking a flight to the Bahamas thinking you can crawl out your bedroom window so you don’t have to talk to me, I’ll hunt you down!” Hadley shouted and I closed my eyes.

  Damn.

  There were a great many things I loved about having a twin—Hadley knowing what was in my head at all times was not one of them. Being as she knew what was in mine, I knew what was in hers, and if I didn’t hurry up, she’d start talking to me about Trey through the closed door, not caring Trey was in the room with me.

  “I need to get dressed,” I told him.

  “Adalynn,” Trey called.

  I forced my gaze back to him.

  His was soft and gentle.

  Oh my.

  Soft and gentle on Trey was the very definition of male perfection. I’d seen Trey loads, I’d spent time with him at family gatherings, in the gym, and now in my bed. But right then, it was like I was seeing him for the first time. I thought he’d shown me the real him. I thought I’d seen him raw and vulnerable. I had not.

  God, he was handsome. He looked like he should’ve been a movie star.

  “Baby,” he whispered.

  Any lingering harshness softened and I shivered. Trey felt it and smiled. It lit his eyes and I knew it was the first genuine smile I’d seen.

  “Fuck,” he muttered, then went on as if talking to himself. “The whisper of a promise.”

  “What?”

  “We have a lot to talk about,” he returned instead of elaborating. “Before we get dressed and go out there, I need to know you understand me.”

  Crap.

  I didn’t understand but we didn’t have time to dally. Hadley was impatient. I was surprised she hadn’t barged back into my room and demanded an explanation. Hadley remaining in my living room reminded me that Brady was out there, too. She wasn’t being patient, her fiancé was likely containing her.

  Crap and crap.

  “Trust me, Trey, we have to hurry.”

  “You’re naked.” My shoulders tensed at his weird statement. “You’re standing in my arms completely naked and you’re comfortable doing it. Remember that.”

  “Why?”

  “I’m a lot of things, Addy. Stupid isn’t one of them. I know the second you’re dressed and out of this room, you’ll find a hundred excuses to push me away. You’ll tell yourself what we shared was all about sex. You’ll tell yourself that you should keep your distance. So, I’m telling you straight out, what we shared was not about sex but intimacy. I’m telling you, I want more. More in every sense of the word. I’m telling you I want the opportunity to explore what we have and I want to do that in a real way. Not hiding from each other and not hiding it from our friends and your family.”

  “Trey, that’s—”

  “Baby, you are not a secret. I will not keep us in the shadows. Hadley and Brady knew what was going on in your bed before they showed up. I will not lie to them—not about you. I will not brush it off or pretend me being in your bed doesn’t mean what it means.”

  “And what does it mean?” I asked even though I was scared to know.

  “Being as I’m not stupid, I know that Adalynn Walker is not the type of woman you fuck and leave. And that isn’t because essentially you’re my boss’s daughter, and everything to do with the woman you are. I wouldn’t have come here, and I sure as shit wouldn’t have taken you to your bed unless I was sure I was ready to give you what you deserve.”

  “Addy,” my sister snapped.

  “Hadley,” Brady snapped back. “Shut it.”

  “Don’t tell me to shut it. They’ve been in there forever. How long does it take to get on clothes?”

  “It’s gonna take longer you keep interrupting them.”

  I needed to move. Not to the Bahamas, Hadley would find me there. Finland. Yeah, she’d never think to look in Finland. I was wondering if Finns were welcoming to Americans, when Trey’s body started to shake. Then I stopped wondering about Finland and started wondering if I could handle more with Trey.

  The answer was—no.

  I absolutely couldn’t handle a man like Trey. His experience alone put me at a disadvantage. But it wasn’t him having a girlfriend in sixth grade and how he’d gained the vast skill he’d learned between then and now that worried me. I already had feelings for him, feelings that ran deep. Meaning, it wouldn’t take but a gentle nudge to turn ‘like’ into ‘love.’

  The whisper of a promise.

  Darn it all to hell.

  “We’ll talk later,” I told him and watched him smile.

  Crap. I’d been wrong again. That smile lit his eyes.

  8

/>   “Trey.”

  “Don’t,” I warned and tore my gaze from Addy and Hadley to Brady.

  We were standing outside on a slab of concrete that couldn’t have been more than a ten-foot by ten-foot square. The women were in Addy’s living room and I’d been watching Hadley animatedly flail her arms and pace. Contrary to her twin, Addy was standing still with her arms crossed over her chest.

  I wasn’t big on Addy's posture. I also knew I couldn’t get between the sisters, and not because it wasn’t my place or they’d work it out. I had to deal with Brady, which didn’t make me happy. But out of all the men closest to Addy, I was thanking all things holy it had been Brady who had walked in on us.

  “You hafta know we’re gonna talk about this,” Brady retorted.

  “I’ll tell you two things and I’m gonna do it once. After that, you have a problem with me being with Adalynn, then it will be just that, your problem.”

  “Being with Adalynn?”

  “You think I’d fuck Addy?” I asked, unable to keep the irritation from my tone.

  “Brother, I am not dumb. You were in there—”

  “I was,” I confirmed. “You saw what you saw, and, Brady, I cannot say I’m pleased you walked in and saw my woman naked. The same as I don’t reckon you’re too happy Hadley saw what she saw. But I want you to think about what I’m asking you. Do you really believe I’d fuck Adalynn?”

  “Your woman?” he pushed out.

  Jesus, he was pissing me off.

  “Now you’re just ticking me off.”

  “Christ, Trey. The last I saw, you two were circling each other, snarling. I wasn’t sure which one of you was itching for a showdown more—you or her. What the hell am I supposed to think?”

  He wasn’t wrong. But Brady didn’t understand why I’d been circling, trying to keep my distance, and he certainly hadn’t known the showdown I’d been itching for was the horizontal and naked kind.

  “I had some shit I had to work out,” I told him.

  “And you’ve done that?”

  “Wouldn’t be in her home and absolutely wouldn’t have been in her bed if I hadn’t.”