Sliding (The Stone Series) (48 page)

“Your subconscious must have been playing tricks on you. Everyone came to
visit you and sat with you telling you stories, talking to you in hopes of
waking you. Your parents came as soon as they heard; Damian and Drea were here
too. My mother, Michael, Jeremy, Katrina and Bobby, Asia and Ted, Mac, Dominick
and Heidi. Lots of colleagues sent you flowers and gifts and I sat here and
read you every card and showed you each gift. Your dancers all came to see you
too.”

“It all felt so real. I thought it was real…you cheating on me, it seemed
real.”
 

“Baby, we lost our virginity to each other on my birthday, Valentine’s
Day. Do you remember? You have always been my first, last and only. See right
here. You still wear the necklace I gave you that night. You won’t let me buy
you a better one. You insist that you will wear this one forever even if it
turns your neck green.”

Brook remembers that night in Tate’s childhood bed. The candles and the
soft music, how gentle and tender he was. How he made her feel like the only
girl in the world for him.

Tate continues, “I have never touched another woman not since that first
time with you or before. I admit I’ve had many offers over the years, I’ve gone
to strip clubs and looked at porn but I’ve never needed or wanted anyone but
you.”

“I dreamt you cheated on me in high school and in college.”

“A playboy was I? Ha! Maybe when you’re feeling better you can tell me
all about it baby. It sounds interesting, like it has some potential for a fun
night of role playing for us but you know it was all just your mind playing
tricks on you. I would never betray your trust, baby. You are all I’ve ever
wanted” Tate says as his mouth reaches Brook’s again calming her nerves as only
his lips can do.

“In college I had no time at all. I had school and basketball and eight
hour car rides to see the only girl I wanted to be with. I hung out with my
friends so infrequently they used to forget to call me when I was on campus,
leaving me alone most nights. But I didn’t care; it gave me more time to talk
to you on the phone. We used to have great phone sex back then. Maybe I should
go out in the hall, call and remind you” Tate says with a smirk but Brook grabs
his arm and begs him not to leave her. He takes her in his arms and says,
“Leave you? Never.”

“I dreamt that you didn’t fight for me when I left you. You didn’t come
find me or fight to keep me when I filed for a divorce” Brook reports with
tears in her eyes. “I filed for a divorce because you were cheating on me with
Asia then I caught you with this young girl who was popping her gum over and
over again like a twelve year old.

Tate sighs then starts laughing. “Baby, you know that’s not what would
happen in real life. I would search to the end of the earth for you. And when I
found you nothing and no one would keep me from having you. You are mine,
always mine. I would never let you leave me and the gum popping twelve year old
is our niece.”

“What?” Brook asks.

“Your sister is here with the girls and I almost killed them both for the
annoying habit. They were sitting over there in the chair popping their gum
over and over; I thought I was going to rip it out of their mouths. When I told
them to stop I got the eye rolling routine. God, I hope our daughter doesn’t
learn how to do that.”

Brook asks her husband about her sister and learns that she and her
husband split up and she and Bobby seem to be getting very friendly. Brook
tells Tate that she thought she dreamt that too.

“It’s funny how the mind works, baby. The doctors kept telling us to talk
to you. They don’t know what people hear when they’re in a coma. I guess you
heard a lot and your mind was just confusing stuff.”

Tate and Brook sit for hours talking about everything. Tate tells her
what she’s missed at work…nothing much. Same old story, diva clients and
managers that are full of themselves. Brook tells Tate what she remembers about
her dreams. She tells him that she flashed back on their lives from the start
and Tate jokes with her about reliving sex with him when he was much younger
and able to go for three rounds without blinking an eye. Tate updates her on
her family and his mother. Brook’s parents have been worried sick. Her sister,
Katrina is at their house right now with her daughters but they’ll all be back
to visit tonight. Tate’s mom cut her world tour short to come and make sure she
was okay. Brook tells Tate more about dreaming of him having some kinky sex
affair with Asia, it makes Tate laugh out loud.

“You know what I think that’s about?
 
Asia was here every day reading to you from
this new hot book. All the women are reading it; I heard some parts that Asia
read to you and again if you want to act any of them out, I’m your guy” Tate
jokes with her. “Or maybe it’s that you want to have kinky sex with me and you
were projecting it onto Asia. Either way I’ll be more than happy to oblige when
you’re out of here. Maybe a little handcuff action and a good spanking for
making me worry about you like I’ve been. I’m sure Dominick or Mac can get me a
good strong pair of handcuffs. I know Damian would loan us his room at the
Society.”

At Mac’s name the images come back and Brook blushes and can’t look at
Tate. When Tate notices Brook’s reaction he asks what’s wrong. She debates if
she should tell him or not but after all those dreams she decides honesty is
the best policy. She tells Tate about the part of her dream where she was with
Mac at a beach house. Tate laughs and says it was probably because she somehow knew
he saved her and was just trying to work it all out in her head.

“Mac spent a lot of time in here with you, talking. He and Drea seemed
pretty friendly; you didn’t actually hook them up before the accident did you?”

“I may have mentioned my idea to each of them but I can’t take any
responsibility for it, I truly don’t remember if I did or didn’t. It’s just
this thing with Mac felt so real too, you know?”

“I’m sure it was just because he saved your life, you must have known
that. But just in case I think I’ll keep my eye on him. As you know, I don’t
share well, I’m an only child, never learned the skill especially not when it
comes to you. Speaking of Mac, Damian just hired his company to do his security
on my recommendation. He was waiting for you to be in the clear before he
started with him. His partner, Jonesie has been covering for him. Mac is going
to be moving into Damian’s penthouse. And if he’s sleeping with Drea and going
to be living there with her and Damian I can’t wait for the fireworks. Damian
is bound to find out and he’s going to flip. I can’t wait to see it” Tate
laughs. Brook hugs her husband and they share a gentle kiss.

“I love you, baby” Tate whispers to his wife.

“I love you too, Taters.”

“You are my first, last and only Brooklynn Taylor.”

“And you are mine, Tate Taylor.”

Tate and Brook fall asleep in each other’s arms in her hospital bed and
dream of their days together when they were kids. When Brook awakes in the
middle of the night and looks at her husband sleeping contently next to her with
his hand resting over her heart where she has always held him, she can’t help
but think about the life decisions that people make every day that shape who
they are as a person today and in their future. How every choice is a parallel
tracking of many different destinies, essentially the what-if scenario. Everyone
has those little moments in time, times that are impossible to go back and
change when they question which decision is right and which is wrong, both can
change your life forever, leading you down different avenues.
 
How do we ever know if we have made the right
decision?

One can never be totally sure but as she sleeps in her husband’s arms
with her family close by Brooklynn Taylor knows she’s made the right choice.

If you want to watch as Brook and
Tate’s relationship continues look for the second novel in The Stone Series. In
Stoned
we will meet the
charming Damian Stone, the quintessentially intense urban male,
sexual Dominant and Tate’s younger cousin
.
He is wealthy, powerful, successful and painfully gorgeous; Damian dominates
over everyone and everything both in his work and in his pleasures. Each
semester for the past seven years he’s trained a young college girl to submit
to his every sexual desire at the sex club he owns. Damian can have any woman
he wants and for seven years that is what he has had. But the sexy, confident,
and commanding Dominant is growing tired of the same old game. Shortly after
telling his best friend that he is done with the life of submissives, Sydney
Cooper falls at his feet. She is a strong, young interior designer despite her
traumatic sexual past but Damian immediately senses her submissive tendencies.
After meeting Sydney, Damian realizes that he only thought he had everything he
wanted; now that he’s met Sydney he realizes that what he wants, what he needs
is her.
Damian seduces Sydney into a life of
BDSM and finds himself falling in love for the first time. However, Sydney’s
past is not all that stands in the way of their happiness, Damian’s past
connects them in a way that may destroy them forever.

About the Author

Kitty
Berry resides in the suburbs of Fairfield County, Connecticut with her husband
and three sons. She is the only woman in a house of sports fanatic men! She is
an only child who never wished for a sibling and openly admits to being a
spoiled brat. This is Kitty’s first self-published novel.

She
loves dark chocolate, music inspires her writing and the theater is a place she
wishes she could go to each and every night. She plans on enjoying all of those
things as soon as she’s done driving carpools, attending basketball games and
coordinating the social life of her three adolescent children who have way
better social lives than she does.

Visit Kitty’s website at
kittyberryauthor.com

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