Free Seduced by Audra Cole, Bella Love-Wins Page B

that she seems to think I’m so naïve that I wouldn’t be able to figure things out on my own if I had to.
    “I may not know what’ll happen next, but I do know that I am not talking to you about this anymore. So unless you have something else to say, I am going to hang up now.” I struggle to keep my voice level.
    “I guess there’s just no reasoning with you,” she harrumphs. “All I can say is that I tried to warn you.”
    I disconnect the call and fight the urge to slam my phone onto the concrete steps in front of me. I stuff it into my pocket and turn to go inside the house. Brandon is in the living room, packing. I cross the room and collapse into his arms before bursting into tears.
    “I don’t get it,” Brandon says, smoothing my hair back.
    After the tears subsided I gave him the playback of the conversation with my mom.
    “I don’t know either,” I answer. “I don’t know what it is she thinks I should be doing. Maybe she’s mad because I broke up with James. Then she would have had two daughters married to successful businessmen with stable jobs and lives. Living the cookie-cutter dream, I guess.”
    “Well not to toot my own horn or anything, but I do make a pretty decent living,” he says with a smile. “It’s not like I’m taking you away to live under a bridge with me somewhere.”
    I laugh. “I know. She just doesn’t see it that way I guess.”
    “Is there anything I can do?” he asks.
    “No. We will just do our best to prove her wrong, I guess.”
    “Oh, I plan to. I’m not making the same mistake twice,” he says, before kissing me in a way that makes me forget all about the phone call.
     

Chapter Thirteen
    The next few days are a blur, and before I know it, it’s the night before Brandon is set to fly back to LA.
    My living room looks like something from an episode of Storage Wars . There are half-packed boxes, clothes, and clutter everywhere. It’s hard to tell where it all begins and ends. Brandon assures me that it’s a “controlled chaos” but I have my doubts.
    The whole mess is making me twitchy.
    We decide to order Chinese for dinner and tackle the rest of the packing.
    “What’s the first thing you’re going to do when you get home?” I ask casually, as we fold Brandon’s extra clothes and pack them into one of the moving boxes he originally sent up from California.
    “Promise you won’t laugh?” he asks with a smile.
    “Okay?” I answer, my eyebrow rising with curiosity.
    “I’m gonna take a long, hot bath,” he says.
    “Really?” I ask, laughing.
    “Hey now! What did I say about the laughing?” He tries for a moment to keep a straight face but ends up laughing too. “Keep that up and you won’t be invited to join me!”
    “Oh, really?” I pout. “I’m pretty sure I could find a way to convince you.” To demonstrate, I ran my fingers down his chest and snuck them past the waist on his basketball shorts and toyed with the band on his boxer briefs. His cock shifted and I felt his arousal as I teased him with my fingertips.
    “Hmmm. Yeah, you’re right, that would probably work,” he says, his voice was low and sexy.
    I laughed and pulled my hand away. “I guess I’m just surprised. I didn’t figure you as a bath person.”
    He shrugs. “It’s not like I light candles or put in bubbles and crap.”
    “Oh, I see, it’s a manly bath,” I suggest.
    “Very.” He laughs and chucks a pair of balled up socks at me.
    I make a dramatic free throw, and the socks land in a box across the room.
    “Nice throw,” he says. “What about you? What’s the first thing you’re gonna do once I’m out of your hair?”
    “Well, besides get all of this out of here….” I gesture around the room. “I’m not sure. I’m going to try to hang with Ashley as much as possible. She wants to go shopping at some point. She insists that I need a new wardrobe for my new LA lifestyle.”
    “She might be right,” he says.
    “What?” I say, slightly