The Home-wrecker (The Goode Brothers)
The Home-wrecker: Chapter 16

Briar is sitting on a chair at my desk in my bedroom, holding an index card with the word chiaroscuro scribbled on the front. I let my eyes narrow as I stare at the word, biting my bottom lip.

“Come on, Caleb,” she says with an eye roll. “We’ve gone over this one.”

“It’s something about paint, right?”

She drops the card in her lap with an exasperated sigh. “You’re doing this on purpose.”

“Why would I act like an idiot on purpose?”

She’s grinning to herself as she looks down at her lap, and I love the way it creates little dimples in her cheeks. She curls her wavy hair behind her ear like she always does when she has something to say, and I wait patiently for her to say it.

“I don’t know,” she replies. “To get me to stay and help you study.”

I feign offense as I place my hand on my chest. “You think I’m that clever?”

With a giggle, she shakes her head. “You are smarter than you let people believe.”

I give a shrug, trying to appear innocent. “I don’t know what you’re talking about.”

We have our semester midterms next week, and it’s true that I’ve been using them as an excuse to spend more time with Briar. We’ve been meeting outside of class alone, and I’m running out of reasons to need her help. I’m dreading the end of the semester when I know I’ll see her so much less.

But I’m not trying to be manipulative. Briar and I have fun together, and I swear she looks forward to these study sessions as much as I do. She just seems to relax more when that dickhead boyfriend of hers isn’t around.

“You know what?” I ask without answering the question on her flash card. “I’m getting hungry. You hungry?’

“Caleb!” she shouts at me while hiding a grin. “Answer the question!”

“I’m gonna order a pizza. You like pizza?”

Laughing, she picks up the calculator on my desk and flings it at me. I catch it in my hand as I climb off my bed, ruffling her hair before I set the calculator back on my desk.

“You get mean when you’re hungry,” I tease her.

Biting her bottom lip like she is right now drives me absolutely crazy. She’s trying not to flirt with me, but she can’t help it.

When I pick up my phone from the desk, she moves to snatch it from my hand, but I hold it out of her reach. She’s pressed against my chest as we start to wrestle over control of the phone.

My free hand rests on her lower back, and she doesn’t move away. Not even when I use it to press her body against mine. She’s giggling and standing on her tiptoes, although she’s nowhere near being able to reach my phone as I hold it over my head.

“You’re such a jerk,” she teases, shining those pearly whites at me.

“Come on,” I mumble softly. “Let’s get some food, and then we’ll get back to studying.”

Her struggle starts to die down, but my hand remains on her lower back, and her body is still flush against me. When her gaze lands briefly on my lips, my heart rate starts to pick up. The air in the room grows thick, and I find myself gazing down at her perfect pink lips with that little Cupid’s bow between her nose and top lip.

I want to make those lips mine.

It’s wrong of me to want Briar to cheat on her boyfriend with me. I know that, but I can’t find it in myself to feel bad about it. They’re not married, so it’s hardly adultery. She doesn’t belong to him. And besides that, he’s not good enough for her.

Her reaching arm starts to lower, and the space between us grows more charged and electric. Her lips are only inches from mine, and I’m desperate to close the distance, but I don’t want to make the first move. I want it to be her choice.

In a soft whisper, she says, “Tell me what chiaroscuro is, and I’ll let you order a pizza.”

I can’t help but smile. Leaning in until our mouths are only a breath apart, I reply, “The use of contrast to create light in drawings and paintings.”

The corner of her mouth tugs into a grin. “See, I knew you weren’t an idiot.”

Then she presses her hands to my chest and shoves me away. “Now, go order that pizza.”

As I stumble away from her with a feeling of victory, I move toward the door. There’s no denying this chemistry between us now. And though I didn’t get that kiss, I still got something. And that something is hope.

“I’m gonna see if Isaac and his friend want some, too,” I say as I pull open the door and walk down the hall toward my brother’s room. Our parents are at the church tonight, so it’s just us here.

My mind is still reeling from that almost kiss with Briar, so I’m not even thinking as I barge right into my little brother’s bedroom.

I’m frozen in shock as I take in the sight of Dean quickly scrambling from the bed. Isaac jumps up from a lying position. They’re both fully clothed, but judging by the way they were both horizontal a moment ago, they were definitely up to something.

“Holy shit,” I stammer as I quickly turn away.

“Ever heard of knocking?” my brother shouts.

“What the fuck?” I reply with my back to them.

“Get out, Caleb!” Isaac bellows.

I don’t know what to do, so I quickly slam the door closed again. And maybe shutting two horny teenagers back in a closed room isn’t the greatest idea, but until this very moment, I thought Isaac and Dean were just friends.

I had my suspicions about Isaac, but I guess I just assumed this was a bridge we’d cross later when he’s an adult, has moved out, and can do what he wants. Not now, under my father’s roof.

My mind is reeling as I stand in the hallway, unsure of what to do now. I should send Dean home, right? I can’t let this go on. My parents will be home at any minute. I can’t let my father find out about Isaac.

Under absolutely no circumstance can I let my father find out about Isaac. There’s no telling what he’ll do.

Which means his friend has to go—for good.

Present Day

I can’t sleep again. Briar is slumbering peacefully next to me in the bed, but I’m sitting here at three in the morning, staring at Isaac’s picture on my phone.

He’s on a mini tour right now, promoting an LP he put out, and I can’t stop staring at the event listed in town, which is only half an hour away.

I won’t go. It would be wrong of me to show up at his show and disrupt what he has going on, but at the same time…that’s my brother.

Theo Virgil is chasing his dreams right now. He’s free. What kind of monster would pull him back down to the depths of hell for his own selfish gain?

I’m sure he’s seen the news. He knows by now that our father is about to go on trial for attempted murder, and I hope it makes him happy. But it feels strange that we aren’t talking about this. He’s not here to experience this with us.

Isaac deserves to live in peace, free from this family that hurt him so badly, but I also hate to feel as if he’s missing the best part. The part he deserves to witness firsthand. The reckoning.

“Hey,” Briar whispers from the pillow next to me.

I swipe to close the app on my phone and turn to face her. She looks so beautiful and peaceful, with her face on the pillow and her soft hair strewn around her head like a halo.

“What’s wrong?” she asks.

“I can’t sleep,” I reply.

“Come here.” The soft cadence of her voice is like a siren song, and I find myself melting into the mattress, falling helplessly into her embrace. Instead of holding her in my arms like I normally do, I cover her body with my own and press my cheek against her chest. She wraps her thin arms around me.

“Thinking about your father’s case?” she asks.

“Among other things,” I reply, not mentioning my argument with Dean tonight. Or my estranged brother’s new tour schedule.

She rubs my back. “You don’t have to do anything, Caleb.”

I lift onto my elbows and stare down at her. “I know,” I reply softly, trying to breathe in her comfort. When our eyes meet, it feels as if it’s the first time we’ve stared at each other in months. “I don’t think I have it in me to defend that man.”

“Then don’t,” she whispers, touching my face.

“Deep down,” I continue, “I know that I could help him, though. I could get his charges lessened.”

She nods knowingly. “And you worry that you won’t be doing your job if you don’t help him?”

“He doesn’t deserve my help,” I add.

“I agree,” she says with a furrow in her brow.

“But when you have the power to help someone, and you don’t do it…” My voice trails as I let that thought drift off my lips.

“You are still a good man, Caleb.”

Am I? I want to ask. Am I a good man? It feels as if, down every road of my life, I’ve fucked over others for my own selfish goals. I stole Briar from another man. I drove away my brother’s friend.

For fuck’s sake, I made a wager with a man tonight over my wife, treating her like the spoils of war.

Am I truly a good man? Do I even deserve her?

Do I care?

I have what I want, and maybe I’ve gotten complacent. Somewhere along the way, I stopped appreciating what I had worked so hard to get. She is my wife. I won her because I fought for her.

And now I’m being challenged again. I didn’t lose her before, and I sure as fuck don’t plan to lose her now.

“Say that again,” I murmur, lowering my lips to hers.

“You’re a good man, Caleb,” she replies.

“You really believe that?” I ask as I press my mouth to hers.

She mumbles against the kiss. “Yes.”

Tugging her bottom lip between my teeth, I bite down, making her yelp in pain. After releasing it, I take her mouth in a brutal, possessive kiss. Her fingers scratch at my back as I tangle my tongue with hers, owning her mouth as my hips grind between her legs.

As I skate my teeth along her jawline, she gasps quietly. Reaching the side of her throat, I mutter, “What if I’m not, Briar? What if I’m not a good man? Would you still love me?”

“Of course,” she answers without hesitation.

“I don’t deserve you.” My lips trail lower, claiming every inch of her skin as I sink down between her breasts and over the softness of her belly.

“Yes, you do,” she replies with a hum.

When I reach her hips, I kiss a line above the hem of her panties, causing her skin to break out in goose bumps as she writhes on the bed.

Slipping my fingers under the elastic band, I pull her underwear down in a quick swipe.

“Caleb,” she whispers.

“Don’t you dare stop me, Briar.” Pausing with my mouth hovering over her sex, I stare up into her eyes. She’s biting her bottom lip as her fingers comb through my hair.

“I’m not stopping you,” she mumbles delicately.

“Good. Because this is mine, right?”

“Of course,” she breathes.

“Then say it,” I command in a way I’ve never done before.

Her eyes widen slightly in surprise, but she answers without hesitation. “It’s yours.”

With my arms hooked around her thighs, I spread her legs farther, and I bury my nose against her wet, pink cunt, inhaling her scent like the animal I am. She gasps again, and I feel her thighs try to press back together as if she’s self-conscious about herself. But I only press them wider, running my tongue through her folds. I growl deeply as my lips latch around her clit.

Her back arches as she lets out a quiet, breathless moan. “Don’t stop,” she whispers.

I wouldn’t dream of stopping. I need to feel her pleasure on my tongue. I need to taste this victory. It might have been over twelve years since I made Briar mine for the first time, but it’s become clear to me tonight that I can never stop fighting for her.

I know her body because I’ve spent the last decade memorizing it. I know how to make her come because I am the only man on earth with the right to do so.

Ravenously, I suck her clit. Sliding my middle finger into the heat of her pussy, I feel the way her body trembles with pleasure.

Pride flows through me as she convulses through her climax. Dean thinks he can challenge me. I wish he were here right now to see how she comes for me.

My hips grind into the mattress at the thought. I imagine him in the chair by the window, watching as I prove him wrong. Briar is mine and no one else’s.

“Caleb, come here.”

Her gentle call pulls me from my thoughts. Moving with urgency, I climb up her body, tugging my boxers down only enough to release my cock. And as I plunge inside her, she hums with gratitude against my ear.

“Yes,” she whispers.

My hands find hers, and I interlace our fingers, pressing them both into the mattress above her head as I thrust inside her. Her expression softens when I have her at my mercy, unable to move as I fuck her.

Our hips grind together in sync, and the faster I pound into her, the shallower her breathing becomes. My gaze lifts to the empty chair in the corner. In my mind, he’s sitting there, watching me claim what’s mine.

There is no competition. There’s not a single doubt in my mind that Briar is mine and will always be mine.

My orgasm comes crashing through me like a tidal wave. Resting my forehead against hers, I shudder through the sensation. Her legs wrap around my hips as if she wants to keep me inside her.

When I finally pull out, she doesn’t bother keeping her legs up to keep my seed inside. She climbs from the bed, and I see in the glint of moonlight the way it drips down her thighs.

This wasn’t about making a baby. We needed this. For a moment, I feel a hint of relief that we’ve mended a crack between us. Is it enough to save our marriage? I don’t know, but I have to believe every little moment is enough.

Before going to the bathroom to clean up, she leans over and presses her lips to my cheek.

“I don’t care what you say, Caleb Goode. You’re a good man to me.”

My lips pull into a smile as I watch her walk away. It helps to know that because, if I’m honest, her opinion is the only one that matters anyway.