A Light in the Dark_Survival of the Fittest Read online

  “But, you’re not. You’re deliciously warm.” He bent his head down and kissed along her neck, the cold fingers on her back massaging along her spine until they were gripping her butt.

  She let out a soft moan. “This is more like it.”

  “Yeah, it is.”

  Brie’s eyes grew wide and Bailey followed her gaze toward where the cat he’d rescued and sort of adopted was sleeping in a heap on the top of the chair.

  “Who’s this?”

  “That’s Bowie. He’s kind of my unofficial roommate.”

  “Is he now?” She stopped beside where Bowie was snoozing and rubbed a gentle hand along his back. “And, how long has he been staying with you?”

  “Well, at first I was just leaving some food out for him, but since it’s so cold, I thought he’d be happier inside.”

  “So, just for a few days then?”

  Bailey shrugged. “Maybe a little longer than that.”

  Bowie rolled onto his back still half asleep and put his paws in the air so Brie could reach his tummy. “He’s really cute.” She left the cat to keep napping and moved back to Bailey, “And, so are you.” She kissed him and snuggled in close. “It was good of you to take him in.”

  “Ah, he needed a home.” And, he didn’t want to watch a person or an animal suffer. Not if he was able to help. Bailey shook off the thoughts of sickness and concentrated on the way Brie looked standing in front of him in her black bra, his favorite.

  He spun her around and walked her backwards until she fell onto the couch. When they landed, a loud squeak sounded and they both laughed.

  Bailey lifted his head and put his finger to his lips. “Shh, the guys next door will hear you giggling over here.”

  “Then, you better shut me up.”

  “Don’t mind if I do.” He kissed her then, long and hard, the stubble of his chin digging into hers. She brought her legs up and looped them around his waist, urging him closer. God, she feared she’d never get enough of him—his body, his mouth, his taste. Bailey was intoxicating.

  He ducked his head lower until his mouth was tracing the line of her bra across the tops of her breasts, teasing her with the softest flicks of his tongue. She dug her fingers into his back as he slid lower, the promise of what was to come heightening her desire. He sat up suddenly and flung one of her legs to the side so that they were close enough to tug her jeans off, his hands urgent and deft.

  She reached for him the minute her legs were free, but he stopped her and kept them to the side. The room was bright as the outside light glared off the snow. She moved to lower her hand so Bailey couldn’t see her so clearly, but he grabbed her hand and moved it back to her side while he slipped his jeans off.

  “You’re beautiful.” He moved his hips until she could feel him against her. “I want to see all of you like this.”

  She sucked in a breath as he slipped inside her. He gripped her thigh as he picked up the pace, while she turned her face sideways into the pillow. The scream that was building in her chest was going to be anything but quiet. Her muscles grew taught, eager for the sweet pleasure of release.

  “Not yet.” He gripped her ankle and pulled her leg back over until he was between her legs and they were face to face.

  Half-drunk with pleasure, she looked into his eyes and felt her heart swell. She’d never care for another man the way she did Bailey. He bent to kiss her, their chests pressing together as they cried out against each other’s mouths.

  ~ ~ ~

  Bailey traced circles across Brie’s back as they lay in his bed, spent from making love a second time. He bent his head and kissed the top of her hair, its silky texture soft to the touch. He wasn’t sure he’d ever get tired of touching her or looking at her. Her almond eyes which were full of wonder drinking in every detail around her or the smile she saved for her closest friends. There was so much about her he loved.

  “Bailey?”

  “Hmm.”

  “What were you thinking about?” She tilted her head back until their eyes met. “You seemed lost for a moment.”

  “No, I wasn’t lost.” He hooked a finger under her chin and raised her lips to meet his. “I’m exactly where I’m supposed to be.”

  “Yes, keeping me warm.” She snuggled in closer to his side as he chuckled.

  He quite enjoyed it when she wriggled against him, her breasts pressing against him with her leg hooked over his middle. He bent his elbow and tucked his arm behind his head as he let out a contented sigh. He was a lucky man.

  Brie reached up and touched his chin. “Where’d you get this?”

  He smiled, his eyes remaining closed. “That little scar happened when I tried ice skating for the first time while we were up in Canada for a show. I caught an ice skate to the chin.”

  “Ouch.”

  “Right? I had to get six stitches.”

  “I bet you were very brave.” She pushed up on her elbow and grinned at him before she kissed him.

  “I really was.” He kissed her back and then she snuggled back down in the covers. “Can I ask you something else?”

  Caught somewhere between satisfaction and the faint pull of sleep, he mumbled, “Sure. Ask away.”

  “Were you scared when you got sick?”

  Bailey’s eyes snapped open. His illness was the furthest thing from his mind and the last thing he wanted to talk about. But, it was Brie asking, not some reporter or radio DJ.

  He sighed again. “Yes, maybe not at first, but the longer I was in the hospital . . . you see things, hear things. It gets hard not to start thinking about the worst possible outcome.”

  He stared at the ceiling, their breathing the only sound in the room. “I used to make lists of all the things I’d miss: my guitar, my brother, my mom, playing our music for a crowd, Game of Thrones. I mean can you imagine not getting to see the end after all this buildup? I need to know who’s going to end up on that damn thing.”

  They laughed, breaking the seriousness of the moment. “It’s good to know you had your priorities straight.”

  “Isn’t it?” Their laughter subsided and then Brie’s hand slid up his chest.

  “And, this,” she traced her finger over his port scar near his collarbone. “It’s from your time in the hospital, isn’t it?”

  “Yes. It’s the place they used to pump poison into my body.” He rubbed a finger idly over the scar and tried to push away the memory of sitting hooked up to the machines for hours on end. “I didn’t look like the man I am today or feel like me. That’s what they don’t tell you. The medicine destroys you while it’s trying to save you. And, it’s so much worse than they show you in movies, so isolating.”

  Bailey rubbed a hand over his face. He hadn’t said this much about how he’d truly felt to anyone. Oliver and Lexie assumed and knew parts, but he’d never wanted to burden them, never wanted to say it aloud.

  “Brie, I didn’t feel like myself again for years. Not until this place, and you, actually.”

  Her fingers froze and her eyes found his. “That’s quite a line, Bailey.”

  “It’s no line. You’re the lightening that jolted me back to life. I’d been living like a dead man for three years. Seeing your passion for art and getting to know you made me want to begin again, to start really living and not just exist.”

  The same brown eyes he dreamt of bored into his own and then her mouth crashed down on his. With a fresh wave of passion, they tore at each other. Her fingers clawed at his chest and his dug into her ass while he shifted her until she was on top of him. At the feel of her, his body surged to life and he sat up stroking fingers down her back while he pressed his face into her chest.

  “There’s never been anyone like you, Brie Freeman.” She smiled and tossed her head back as he moved inside her.

&
nbsp; Her hands gripped his shoulders as she moved. Coiled and ready to burst, he bore down, his fingers gripping hips as she found her rhythm and rocked them both over the edge.

  ~ ~ ~

  “Woman,” Bailey mumbled into Brie’s shoulder a little while later, “Must. Have. Food.”

  She giggled, but didn’t move.

  “Okay, that’s it.” He threw the covers off both of them.

  The shock of the cold air across her naked body sent Brie scrambling for one of his shirts. “That was mean.”

  “You haven’t seen mean. I have to stay fed or . . .” He put his hands out in front of him and growled.

  Brie squealed when he got close and ran for the kitchen. By the time he slipped on some jeans and joined her, she had already started a pot of coffee. He found her with her head in the fridge and her perfect ass hanging out of his shirt while she leaned in further. Mental note, place all food as far back as possible.

  “I’ve never seen you have so much food at once.”

  “My sister-in-law took care of that for me, but I have to say she was bummed by the lack of bagels here.”

  “We have beigels down near Brick Lane where they do the open market.”

  “My dear sweet, Brie, those are not bagels.”

  “Oh my, and right when I was starting to think you weren’t a snob.” Hands full of sausage and eggs, she bumped the fridge closed with her hip.

  “Only when it comes to my bagels, oh and my pizza. This is why I can’t wait for you to move to New York.” Bailey poured them each a mug of coffee and offered her one. “That city has the best there is of both.”

  She accepted the mug and grinned at him. “Does that mean you’ll come visit me?”

  “If you keep walking around in that shirt, I may have to move in with you. It makes sense seeing as how I love you.” He set his own mug down two seconds before Brie launched herself into his arms and kissed him. “Wait a minute, if you start that again, we’ll never eat.”

  She kissed him hard and then lowered herself off him. “You’re probably right.” She grinned and then pulled out a pan. “Hey, since you’re so crazy about me,” she winked at him over her shoulder, “does that mean you’re going to be my date for Jessica’s art show?”

  “I wouldn’t miss it.” He slipped up behind her while she broke an egg and let his fingers brush across her butt, making her giggle again. “But, only if you wear this.”

  “I think it’s more of a dress thing.”

  “Oh, well in that case, I may not be able to make it after all.”

  She wiggled against his cock and leaned her head back on his shoulder. “What if I promise not to wear anything under the dress?”

  “Then, you have yourself a date.”

  Chapter 24

  As Brie climbed the stairs of the Ruskin building, student voices echoed throughout the hallways. With classes back in session, both undergrads and graduate students were hard at work on assigned projects. Though her own final project loomed on the horizon, Brie was less stressed than she’d been in years. There was no more Theo, no more having the threat of losing her job hanging over her head, minus a serious screw up on her end, and she had a man in her life who loved her.

  She paused at the top of the stairs as a flutter moved through her at the idea. Bailey loved her and though she hadn’t told him as much in so many words, she loved him. And, he knew it. As sure as she knew art was her calling, Bailey knew how she felt about him.

  “Hey,” she called out when she entered the studio where Jessica was working on her final piece for the show. The rest of her clay sculptures were set up on white staging cubes around the edge of the room in varying sizes and shapes. “Jess,” Brie tried again when she didn’t turn around.

  Jess spun around and pulled an earbud out of her ear, leaving it to dangle from the side of her head. “Hey.”

  Brie smiled and then her mouth fell open. The piece was beautiful. Standing at least five feet tall was a girl standing barefoot in a puddle of tears, but as Brie moved closer and studied the face more closely she realized the girl was only crying out of one of her eyes. One half of the face was downtrodden, brimming with sadness as tiny clay tears sat perched on her cheeks, but on the right side, the girl was staring out at the onlooker with a fierce determination.

  “Do you hate it? Brie, say something. I’m dying over here.’

  “Shhh,” She continued on closer and then circled the sculpture in its entirety. The waves of the dress were perfect, so much so, the clay could almost be mistaken for fabric. The puddle surrounding the girl’s feet was made up of thousands of individual tears blending into a larger more singular piece.

  Brie stopped and then turned to Jessica, speechless. “You’ve always shown talent, Jess, but this . . .” She shook her head. “This is beyond anything you’ve ever done before. I’m so damn proud of you.”

  Jessica’s eyes welled up. “Really?”

  “It’s brilliant.”

  “It’s you.”

  Brie’s eyes widened. “Me?”

  “Not you exactly,” Jessica eyed her sculpture again, bearing down on it with severe scrutiny. “But, the idea of her is based on you. How you’ve emerged and persevered.”

  Brie swiped at a surprising tear. “I’m honored.”

  Jessica stepped back and they stood side by side admiring her work one more time. “I think we should go out and celebrate. You don’t have any more classes today, do you? Want to grab a coffee?”

  “Yes, lets.”

  As they settled in for a coffee at a nearby shop surrounded by fellow students and staff who were doing their best to get out of the cold, Jessica leaned back in her chair and stretched. “I am so ready for this show to happen. I’ve barely slept in weeks.”

  “I know.”

  “Sorry about the pacing.”

  Brie waved a hand as though she hadn’t lain awake at night listening to her friend pace back and forth across the squeaky floor in her room. Like most artists, she was her own harshest critic. “It’s fine, but you shouldn’t worry so much. Everything looks great. And, I’m your friend. I’d tell you if it was shit.”

  “Gee, thanks for that.”

  They laughed and accepted their coffees from a girl who used to be one of Brie’s students.

  “Do you want to hear something crazy?” Brie sipped her drink and then kept her eyes down. “Bailey told me he loved me.”

  “What?” Several people at surrounding tables turned in their direction. “Sorry.” Jessica dipped her head and leaned in closer, “That’s amazing. Did you tell him you love him, too?”

  “Not in so many words.”

  “Well done.” Jessica hit the table. “If I’d known about this, we would’ve gone out for proper drinks.”

  “How about we do that after your show?”

  “That’s an excellent idea, but I may have to get sloppy before the show so I can get through it.” Jessica made the sign of the Father, Son, and Holy Spirit over her chest and reached for her coffee again. “So, back to this Bailey thing, what does this mean for New York?”

  Brie toyed with the handle on her mug sporting a llama. “I don’t know. He said he’d go to New York, but I don’t know if he was serious. I mean his life is in L.A. and his family, the band. What would he do in New York?” Brie shrugged. “I don’t know. Plans change. Maybe I’ll end up in L.A., too.”

  Jessica fell back against her seat at stared at Brie until Brie rolled her eyes. “Okay, what? What is the look?”

  “Wow. I’ve never known you to be so . . . flexible.”

  “Oh, come on now. That’s not true.”

  Jessica’s eyes widened and her braids swung around like dancing vines. “You’re kidding. Brie, you always have a plan and you always stick to it. T
he fact you’re even considering a different path . . . just wow. You really do love him.”

  Suddenly panicked and little defensive, Brie bolted upright in her seat. “I wouldn’t give up on working in the art world or anything. I don’t want to live off Bailey and make him support me.”

  “Of course not. But, Brie this isn’t a bad thing. And, of course you wouldn’t abandon art entirely. It’s what brings you joy and Bailey isn’t the kind of guy who would want you to walk away from what makes you happy or what you’ve worked so hard for.” Jessica reached across the table and laid her hand over Brie’s fist. “It’s a good thing and that’s what love is all about, right? Merging two worlds?”

  “I’m sorry.” Brie relaxed and shook off her defensive mood. “It’s all so new and strange. If you’d asked me in the past if I’d ever loved someone, I would’ve said yes or at least that I thought I had, but now, feeling the way I do about Bailey, I don’t think I’ve ever loved anyone until now.”

  “And, I’m happy to see it. Cheers,” Jessica picked up her mug and held it up for Brie to tap with her own.

  “Cheers.”

  “Now you and that hot boyfriend of yours get your asses to my show and then we’ll really go out and celebrate.”

  ~ ~ ~

  Bailey set his guitar to the side and took his phone off Facetime. He’d been talking with his brother for the better part of an hour trying to work out a few of the lyrics on one of the songs he’d given him. And, for the first time in ages, he was enjoying the process.

  “That’s it.” Bailey laughed when Oliver let out a whoop in his ear.

  “This is the best song you’ve written since, hell man, I don’t know when. The other guys agreed. We just kind of fell into step with it as soon as we got going.”

  Bailey could picture them in the studio together, the one Oliver had put in at his house when they’d made their first real money. It was small and littered with a hodgepodge of every instrument under the sun, some old, some new. Posters for some of the greats hung in the recoding area, The Beatles, The Doors, Guns N’ Roses, Jimi Hendrix, Metallica. It was the group’s sanctuary. “That’s great, man.”