Brent Sinatra: All of Me (9 page)

Charles stared at him.
 
“Marriage?
 
You asked her to marry
you?”

“Yes.”

Charles continued to stare at his son.

“Why are you looking at me like that?
 
Men ask women to marry them every day of the
week.”

Charles smiled a smile of relief.
 
“I thought it wasn’t going to happen.
 
I thought you and that girl were destined to
be one of those couples who stayed together for years and years, eight, nine,
twenty years, and then went their separate ways.
 
But you’re going to marry her.
 
She accepted?”

“Of course she accepted!
 
Why wouldn’t she?”

“Because I thought she was a career woman who cared about her
career more than anything else, that’s why!
 
I’m pleasantly surprised.”

“She never put her career ahead of our relationship,” Brent
felt a need to explain.
 
“But her career
was important to her.
 
Just as mine is
important to me.”

“I’ll admit she’s been showing some signs lately.
 
When she moved back to Maine and took that
pay cut, that was encouraging.
 
And when
you told me she was moving to Jericho, even more encouragement.
 
But Jenay came to be with me right away.
 
It didn’t take her four years.
 
And she had a job offer too.”

But Brent was not going to let even his father get away with
putting that false label on Makayla.
 
“Jenay had a job offer as an assistant manager at a Motel 6, or whatever
motel it was,” he said.
 
“And I’m not
knocking assistant motel managers.
 
But
comparing that to turning down a chance to work as a supervising attorney in
the Justice Department isn’t fair, and you know it.
 
Mal works hard for everything she has.
 
She had just met me when she was asked to
move to Washington.
 
She had to take the
career move she took.”

“Okay, I’ll give her that,” Charles said.
 
“She had to take that career move.
 
But did she have to take it for so long?
 
Four years is a long-ass time, son.”

“We weren’t ready to get married.
 
That’s the bottom line.”

“Then say that,” Charles said.
 
And then he smiled, and squeezed his son’s
considerable bicep.
 
“But I’m happy for
you, Brent.
 
She’s a good woman.
 
She’s smart.
 
She’s certainly gorgeous. You could do worse.”

Brent smiled.
 
Only his
father would consider a comment like that a compliment.

“So when is she coming to town?” Charles asked.

“In a couple weeks.
 
She’s given her notice.”

“She’s going to shack up with you in the meantime?”

“Why not?
 
We’ll be
married soon.”

“People in this town love to talk.
 
You may not want them talking about her that
way.”

Brent looked at his father.
 
“Since when did you start caring about people talking?”

“I don’t care.
 
Do
you?”

“Hell no,” Brent said in what Charles saw as a flash of that
inward rage he carried.
 
Even as a kid, it
would come from out of nowhere.
 
Brent
would be fine, going along with your nonsense, and then he would strike.
 
And mighty would be his strike.

“So that’s why you’re considering my offer,” Charles
said.
 
“For your lady’s sake?”

Brent nodded.
 
“Having
a dangerous job may not be the wisest move I can make.”

Charles nodded too.
 
“Now you’re talking like a man with family responsibilities.
 
And you’re right.”
 
Charles smiled.
 
“I knew I would eventually learn to love
Makayla.
 
She’s a tough gal,
Brenton.
 
Tough as nails.
 
But if anybody can tame her, it’s you.”

“Tame her?
 
She doesn’t
need taming.”

Charles snorted.
 
“That’s what you think!
 
Every
woman needs taming.”

Even as he said that, Jenay Sinatra, Brent’s stepmother and
Charles’ second wife, drove up in the Mercedes-Benz Charles had purchased for
her.
 
Brent smiled.
 
“Including Ma?” he asked.

But Charles didn’t skip a beat.
 
“Especially Ma,” he said, as he watched his
gorgeous African-American wife step out in her gorgeous sunset-wine pantsuit.

“Hey guys,” Jenay said as she made her way up the steps.

“The queen is here,” Brent said with a smile, and rose to
greet her.
 
They were close in age, and
in their relationship.
 
“Hey, Ma.”

“Why didn’t you answer your cell phone?”

“I was running,” Brent responded as he moved to hug his
youthful stepmother.

“Not too close,” Charles warned his wife.
 
“He’s sweating like a pig.”

Jenay and Brent smiled.
 
“That man treats you like a baby,” Brent said, shaking his head.
 
“He acts as if he runs your entire life.”

“When in truth,” Jenay said, hugging her oldest stepson, “I’m
the one who runs his.”

Even Charles had to smile at that.
 
When Jenay stopped hugging Brent, she walked
over to her husband.
 
“What are you doing
here?”

He pulled her down onto his lap.
 
“Having a heart-to-heart with my stubborn
son.”

“About running the Roulette?” Jenay asked, as she sat on his
lap.
 
She looked at Brent.
 
“I take it he told you that he now owns the
Roulette.”

“He told me.”

“As if he doesn’t already own the whole town.
 
Now he owns a nightclub on top of everything
else.”

“That’s what I said,” Brent said.
 
“It’s crazy.
 
And even crazier?
 
He wants me to
run that club.”

“I told him who would be perfect for the job,” Jenay said.

“Who?” Brent wanted to know.

“Carly.”

“Oh, yeah,” Brent agreed.
 
Carly Sinatra was his adopted sister.
 
“She would be perfect!
 
And
besides, she’s Pop’s favorite.
 
She’d be
perfect.”

“No, she wouldn’t,” Charles said.
 
“I don’t want to saddle her with all of that
responsibility.
 
She’s young and free and
in California trying to make a life for herself.
 
We’re going to keep it that way.”

Jenay and Brent glanced at each other with knowing
looks.
 
Charles was heartbroken when
Carly decided to move West after graduation.
 
He had a special bond with Carly.

“Anyway, I can’t stay,” Jenay said.
 
“I’m here because I need you to supply me
with some cops, Brent.”

“For what?”

“A Biker’s convention next week.
 
They just reserved the Inn for their weekend
stay.
 
We’re going to need the extra
security.”

“My officers will be out in force,” Brent assured her.
 
“Don’t worry.”

“Can you assign a few to specifically cover the Inn,
though?
 
I don’t want any drunks
destroying my hotel.”

Brent laughed.
 
“Don’t
worry, Ma.
 
I’ve got you covered.”

Jenay felt better.
 
“Thanks.
 
We’re thrilled that they
chose Jericho Inn for their convention, although they could have given us more
notice.
 
But I want to make sure I cover
my bases.”

“Understood,” Brent said.

And then she moved to stand up, but Charles held her back
down.
 
She suddenly realized he had a
boner.
 
And she suddenly loved the feel
of him pressed into her that way.

She looked back at Charles.
 
He looked at her.
 
“Guess who’s
getting married?” he asked her.

Jenay was at first confused by the question, and then she
couldn’t believe it.
 
She looked at
Brent, a smile already on her face.
 
“Is
it true?
 
Our child is getting married?”

The idea of Jenay, who wasn’t even a dozen years older than
he was, calling him her child, made Brent smile.
 
“Yes, Ma,” he said.
 
“Looks like I’m getting married.”

Jenay jumped from her husband and gave her stepson a big,
bear hug.
 
“Oh, Brent!
 
I’m so happy for you and Mal!
 
When’s the big day?
 
Is it going to be a big wedding?
 
Surely the reception will be at the house?”

“My goodness, Jenay,” Charles said, “you’re acting as if
you’ve been waiting for this moment your entire life.”

In a way, she had.
 
Ever since she was twenty years old and married to Carly and Ashley’s
father, before she met Charles and long before she and Charles adopted
them.
 
“I’m just happy for Brent.”

“Makayla will be moving to Jericho in a couple weeks,” Brent
said.
 
“You guys can set a date and plan
the wedding then.”

Jenay’s smile could not have been any grander.
  
“I can’t wait,” she said.
 
“This is going to be so wonderful!”

“And what’s more,” Charles said, “Brent is seriously
considering coming to work for me.”

But Jenay looked hard at Brent.
 
“Make sure it’s what you want,” she
said.
 
“Don’t do it if that’s not what
you want to do.”

Brent nodded.
 
He
appreciated how Jenay understood what being a cop meant to him.
 
“I’ll be sure,” he said.

“Anyway, I’ve got to go. I’ll call Mal later.”
 
She hugged Brent again and kissed Charles on
the lips, a kiss that Charles wouldn’t release as a peck. He looked down the
length of her gorgeous body as she began to head down the steps.
 
It was too much.
 
He was getting a serious erection.
 
He stood up, hurried to her, and took her by
the hand.
 
“I need to discuss something
with you,” he said, and began moving her toward Brent’s front door.
 
“Give us a minute, Brent,” he said.

Brent smiled.
 
“Sure
thing,” he responded, as they entered his house.
 
He and his siblings often joked about their
father and how he always had a noticeable hard-on whenever Jenay came
around.
 
It was like clockwork.
 
Brent never met a man more virile than his
father.
 
Unfortunately he, and all of the
Sinatra boys, took after him.

Inside, Charles knew his time was limited.
 
He took his wife into the first bedroom they
came to, one of Brent’s guestrooms.
 
He
closed the door and turned her until her back was against the door. They were
already kissing, and he had his hand down her pants and was fingering her, as
she unbuckled and unzipped his pants, and he unbuttoned and unzipped hers.
 
She kicked off one of her heels, and he slid
down her pants and panties, sliding one pant leg off of her foot, to give him
the access he needed.
 
And then he slid
his already fully aroused penis inside of her.
 

And they made love.

“You run me alright,” Charles said as he fucked her.
 
“You run me crazy the way you do me.
 
Oh,
Jenay
.”

They were both so into it that they didn’t realize it would
be nearly twenty minutes later, after several hundred strokes and more than a
dozen on-the-verge of near-cums, before they came.

Charles leaned against her and strained his every vein as he
poured into her, and she held on and squirmed with delight as he pulsated and
pushed even deeper into her.
 
Until the
sensations rolled around like sweet jelly in their bellies, and finally
subsided.
 
They held onto each other,
breathing heavily and feeling so satisfied that they felt giddy.

Until Jenay saw the clock on the wall and realized how long
they had been at it.
 
“It can’t be that
late!” She pushed Charles away from her, and began putting back on her
clothes.