Uninvited Guest

Blogger is refusing to save my Alex post, so you guys have to wait just a little bit longer.  I'm sorry!  I don't know what the deal is.  Instead, you get the next post in the main storyline, so at least you don't have to wait until Monday for the resolution of the cliffhanger!
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Brody's dad took his time stepping out, shutting the door of his SUV, and getting out of the way.  Brody opened his garage door and parked, glancing at me.  "This ought to be fun," he said, before we got out.

"Have a nice little family dinner?" Brian Adler asked condescendingly.  Brody stood silently in the garage, forcing his dad to approach us.  Brody's mom walked slowly up the driveway behind, looking confused.  "I see your...girlfriend is part of the family now.  That's nice."  He sniffed with disdain as he looked me over briefly, and I clenched my fists.  Brody put a hand firmly on my back.

"Yes, Liv is a part of this family," Brody said stiffly.  "Why are you here?"

"I wanted to visit my son," he replied with mock innocence.  "Is that not allowed?"

Brody's fingers curled briefly against my back before flattening again.  "Cut the shit.  You haven't talked to me since Thanksgiving.  Why are you here?"

"Oh, hello Thalia," Brian said, as if he had just noticed his ex-wife.  He turned back to Brody.  "You shouldn't keep your mother standing outside in the cold.  Let's go inside."  He and Brody stared at each other for a second before Brody turned and unlocked his door.  He pushed it open and motioned for me to go inside.  I did, and when Brian moved to follow me, Brody blocked him with an arm so Thalia could go before him.  Brody came in last.

"Olivia, dear, can you show me to the guest room?" Thalia asked me.  She turned to Brody.  "I'll be there if you need me."  Without giving anyone a chance to protest, she took my arm firmly and began walking in the direction of the room.  I was glad for the out, but threw a worried glance over my shoulder at Brody.  He nodded to me to go ahead.

Thalia and I walked straight for the guest room.  She clearly was getting me out of the situation because she had no need for me to show her where the room was.  I was thankful.

"Well," she said, turning to me, "that was unexpected."  I nodded.  "Give them a few minutes before you go back out," she advised, sitting down on the bed and motioning to the armchair in the corner.  I sat, kind of awkwardly.

"Thanks for getting me out of there," I said.

"Oh, you're welcome dear.  Brody told me how Thanksgiving went, and I have no idea why he's here, so you probably don't want to be involved.  We like you, we don't want him to scare you away."

I blushed.  "Thank you," I said again.  "I really like you guys too.  I'm glad we all got to go to dinner tonight."

Thalia smiled.  "I haven't seen my son so happy in a very long time," she reported.  "I'm sure we can't give you all the credit, but I'm willing to bet you're a very large portion of the reason."

I blushed deeper.  "I don't know how much credit I can take, but I'm happy too," I said, shyly.  Thalia beamed at me.  We both looked towards the door as we heard raised voices from down the hall.  I stood and walked to the door, cracking it open.

"Do you know how much it took for me to come up here and ask you for this?!" Brody's dad bellowed.  "After you deserted me, left me scrambling, embarrassed me in front of the entire company?"

"Left you scrambling?  Are you fucking kidding me?  I tried to tell you, it's not my fault you didn't listen!" Brody retorted loudly.  "And if you had treated me like a son and a valued employee instead of a pawn, then I wouldn't have left the way I did!  You can't manipulate people and expect them to just take it forever."

I heard, very faintly, my phone start to ring from the kitchen, where I had dropped my purse on the counter.  "Yours?" his dad asked.

"Liv's," Brody replied shortly.  A second after it stopped, it started again.

"Shit," I muttered.  I slipped out of the room and quietly walked out to get it.  I had hoped they would have moved out of the kitchen but they hadn't, and I had to walk right between them to get my phone and silence it.  Both Brody and Brian were red faced and looked furious.

"Sorry," I said meekly.  "I'll just--"

"Don't be," Brian interrupted.  "Tell me, Olivia, is it?"  He paused, clearly waiting for me to answer.  I nodded.  "Tell me, Olivia--if your father came to you and needed something, and you were perfectly able to provide it, would you do it?"  I froze, not wanting to be in the middle of this discussion.

Apparently Brody felt the same way.  "Leave her out of this," he snapped.  "This has nothing to do with her and I won't let you suck her into your dramatic production."

Unfazed, Brian continued.  "Because I'm in quite a bind, and your chivalrous boyfriend here is refusing to help me.  That's not terribly charitable of him, is it?"

"Your mismanagement and gambling debts aren't my problem!" Brody exploded.  "You're not getting a dime from me!"

"You wouldn't be where you are today if it wasn't for me," Brian snarled, taking his attention off of me and turning back to Brody.  I took the opportunity to try to get out of the crossfire, and walked quietly towards the hall.  From behind me, I heard, "Is there a word for a long-term whore?  Because yours is trying to sneak out."

"Get the fuck out of my house," Brody growled, his voice quiet but menacing.  I spun around, my mouth open in shock.  Even from 10 feet away, I could see every muscle in Brody's body was rigid, tense with fury.  He looked absolutely terrifying.   

Before I could stop myself, I was speaking.  "My biological dad got locked up two weeks after my mom found out she was pregnant.  I never met him.  He's a better father than you are."  Then I turned and stalked out.

"Get. The fuck. Out," Brody repeated.  "Or I'll call the police and have you escorted out.  Don't you ever come here again."  I heard the door slam and a few seconds later, a car started.  Then I heard the door slam again.  And again.  3 more times.  And then what I assumed was Brody's foot connecting with it, once, twice, three times.  It was accompanied by a muttered, "Goddamned mother fucking sonofabitch."  Then there was silence for several seconds.

"Liv?" I looked up.  Brody was standing in front of me.  "I'm so sorry."

I smiled weakly.  "Me too," I replied.  "Are you okay?"

He shook his head.  "I don't want to talk about it right now.  Can we just go to bed?"  I nodded.  He stopped in and checked on his mom as I walked upstairs to his room his room.

I had brushed my teeth and washed my face and was sitting on his bed, listening to the voicemail I had gotten from Lauren.  I was worried until I heard her recorded voice say that she had accidentally hung up even though she meant to leave a message, which is why she called twice.  She just wanted to hang out on Friday.  I'd call her back tomorrow.

Brody went into the bathroom, and came out a couple minutes later.  I looked at him when he sat down next to me, and his expression was still stormy.  I contemplated whether I should ask him if he wanted to talk, or distract him.  Remembering that he had already said he didn't want to talk, I went with distraction.

I turned towards him and kissed him lightly on the cheek, testing the waters.  He turned his head towards me and pressed his lips hard against mine.  I pushed him back on the bed and straddled him, still kissing him.  He grabbed me and flipped us over so he was on top of me.  He paused briefly and looked at me, almost as though he was silently asking permission to be in control.  I just kissed him again.  He grabbed at my shirt and pants, pulling them roughly off me.  His mouth moved along my neck and my shoulder, nipping insistently at the skin there.  I reached for his shorts but he pushed my hand back down to the bed and held it there.  His teeth grazed over my breast and he sucked my nipple hard into his mouth.  I pressed my face against his arm to muffle my gasp as he slid two fingers into me.  Finally, he pulled his shorts off and pushed hard into me, which caused a low moan to escape my lips. 

When we were finished, Brody collapsed half on top of me, gently stroking my neck, my shoulder, then my arm.  It was in stark contrast to the rough, intense sex we'd just had.  As quiet as I'd tried to be, I was reasonably certain that if Thalia was still awake, she was completely aware of what we had been doing.  I wiggled one arm free and massaged the back of Brody's neck.  He groaned against my neck.

"Sorry," he muttered, his breath tickling my skin.  "That was..." he trailed off.

"Amazing?" I finished.  "Yeah, it was."

He lifted his head to look at me, his eyes studying my face.  "Okay," he said finally.  "Good."  He dropped his head back down to my shoulder and I resumed kneading the tense, knotted muscles in his neck.  We fell asleep like that, and when I woke up a couple hours later, I couldn't feel my hand.  I tugged my arm out from under Brody's body and he stirred and rolled over.  I pulled up the blanket and fell back asleep.

When my alarm went off in the morning, I had no desire to get out of bed.  Brody was already up and as I sat up, his bathroom door opened and he came out with a towel around his waist.  "Are you going to shower here?" he asked me, pulling open his closet door.  I nodded, still not quite fully awake.  "You'd better get up then!" he said, tossing his damp towel at me with a laugh.  I was glad to see he was in a better mood this morning.  I threw it back towards him but didn't get anywhere close.

As I walked past him to get to the bathroom, he stopped me.  "Hey, I just wanted to say, about last night...I would have stopped if--"

I cut him off.  "It would have been highly unfortunate if you had."

"I just wanted to make sure.  It makes me nervous to be rough with you, because of everything that happened with Jordan," he explained.

I nodded.  "But the difference is that I trust you, and you don't want to hurt me.  And as far as 'rough' goes, that was still way at the mild end of the spectrum."

He studied my face for several seconds before he nodded.  "Okay.  I just wanted to make sure," he repeated.   He pulled me to him and kissed me before letting me continue into the bathroom.

Once I was out of the shower I felt way more awake and was able to finish getting ready quickly.  When I went downstairs, I saw that Thalia was up and making breakfast.  My face flushed, remembering the night before and wondering again if she'd heard.  She didn't give any indication that she had as she greeted me and offered me breakfast.

"Thank you," I said gratefully as I grabbed a plate.  "This is awesome."

"After dealing with Brian last night, I thought you guys might need a good breakfast before going to work," she replied, smiling kindly.

I joined Brody at the table where he was finishing a cup of coffee.  "We have about 15 minutes," he informed me.  I nodded and ate quickly.

When I stood up and began to take my plate to the sink, Thalia jumped up and grabbed it, along with Brody's.  "You guys need to go.  I'll clean up."  She looked at Brody and said, "I'll lock up and leave when I'm done."

"I can clean up later, mom," he protested.  But she wasn't having it, and finally shooed us out the door.

"My entire house is going to be spotless when I get home," Brody predicted.

"I should have given her a key to my place too, then," I joked.

"She would gladly go over and clean it.  That woman lives to cook and clean.  You can thank her for my cooking and cleaning skills."

I laughed.  "I think I have a lot of things to thank her for."