Chapter Eleven
She felt his presence before she saw him. A silent tug that had her turn toward the shadows of the cellar. “You’re not supposed to be here.” Her voice was barely a whisper. “You told me last time—”
“I told you I’d stay away, that I’d let you live in peace.”
Her breath caught in her throat as her eyes met the glowing green of his. “Exactly.” His fingers brushed against her cheek, sending a rush of desire through her body. “Why are you here, then?”
“Because I’ve lived a hundred and fifty years and none of that matters now. The rest of my life is meaningless without you. I need you. I need to be inside you. I need to hear you screaming my name.”
I shifted, my thighs tingling. My eyes jumped to Brady as he walked toward the maintenance closet. He’d pushed his sleeves up over his forearms, revealing his tattoos. My tongue darted out, swiping across my bottom lip. He might not have been in his vampire costume, but flannel worked just as well.
“How’s it going?” he asked, and I fumbled my Kindle. I managed to catch it before it flew from my hands onto the Italian tile.
“Fine. How’s it going with you?” I adjusted on the stool and placed the Kindle on the bar. I turned toward where the bottle had fallen, and the area was spotless. Even the single drop I had spotted on the cabinet had been wiped clean. He was thorough. I’d give him that.
“You almost done?” He nodded toward my Kindle.
“Um. Yup.”
“Want to read some of it out loud?”
Was he out of his damn mind? “I’m good.”
“You’re looking a little hot and bothered. Figured it must be a fascinating scene.”
“Did you get a lot of trick-or-treaters this year?” I asked, desperate to change the subject.
A rough chuckle slipped from his lips. “I live in the middle of nowhere. I had none, which is how I like it.”
Only Brady would find a plot of land that required a half a mile of dirt road between the front door and civilization.
“Don’t you like seeing the costumes? It’s the best part of the holiday.”
“Not the Reese's peanut butter cups?”
They had always been my favorite, and I still bought extra, so once the knocks stopped, I could indulge myself with a little treat. “They’re up there on the list.”
“I met up with Franc and walked with him and Quinn for a couple of blocks while Gio ran from door to door,” he said. “Then I went home.”
I had seen Gio earlier in the day when Quinn brought him by the winery. “I didn’t know you went trick-or-treating with them.”
“I’ve done it every year since Gio was born.”
How did I not know this? “That’s incredibly kind of you.”
“Gio might not be blood, but he’s still my nephew, and I will go out of my way to make sure he has people in his corner. Even if his mother abandoned him, it doesn’t define who he is. I don’t want him to think he wasn’t wanted. He’s the best damn thing to happen to Franc.”
I nodded my agreement. “I’d say he was the best damn thing to happen to our entire family. To you, too. It’s kind of hard to not smile when that kid’s around, huh?”
“He asked every person what their favorite dinosaur is then continued to give them no less than five facts about each one.”
“Of course he did. I swear I know more about dinosaurs than I ever thought I would.”
The wind howled outside, slamming against the windows and doors, reminding me there was a massive storm.
“Could you have imagined twenty years ago that Franc would be the first one with a kid and that kid would be all of our worlds?” I asked.
“No.”
“Me neither.” I let out a slow breath, the thought still baffling me after all these years, but not as much as another thought. “I couldn’t imagine that we’d hate each other, either.”
“I don’t hate you,” he said.
“Could have fooled me.”
He glared, deep and raw, and I waited for him to say any thing. Tell me what the hell happened. What changed? He once talked to me, and now he was so closed off. Maybe it was being locked in here with nowhere to go. Maybe it was the vampire sex novels that made me think if a century old vampire could bare his heart and tell his truth, Brady could, too.
I just needed him to say something.
He shook his head, and I could see him shutting down. I wanted to grab him by the shirt collar and shake him. Force him to talk.
“I’m going to check on—”
“Check on what?” I cut him off. “There’s nothing to check on. We’re snowed in. We can’t go outside, and everything we need is right here. So why don’t you just be honest?”
“What are you rattling on about?”
“Forget it.” I pulled the blanket tight around my shoulders, grabbed the bottle of wine—fuck the glass—and Kindle, and stomped away. I should have known better than to expect him to have a genuine conversation.
I got to the stairs, and the lights flickered, halting me in place.
“Still afraid of the dark?” he asked my retreating back. “Thought you would have grown out of that by now.”
He couldn’t talk to me about anything, yet he could remember things from when we were kids. Things that no one other than him and my siblings knew. I wouldn’t give him the satisfaction. He thought he still knew me. He didn’t.
“I’m not afraid. I’m just in heels and there are a lot of stairs. I want to be able to see where I’m going.”
“Don’t want to miss a step and fall.”
“Exactly. I could break a bone, and I’d have no way to get to the hospital.”
“I’d get you there.” His words were a grumble, and I wasn’t sure I heard him right.
“What?”
“Nothing. The lights are still on. You can continue.” He turned from me.
I pivoted, ready to go up the stairs and lock myself in my office, but I was so tired of storming off. Tired of acting like he didn’t jab me every chance he got but then would drop subtle niceties that had me questioning my own sanity.
I put my Kindle and the bottle of wine on the stairs and threw the blanket off me. He said he didn’t hate me, so why the hell did he act like he did? He’d been a dick to me for years, making me question what the heck it was that I did, especially because I once thought he didn’t hate me at all.
“I thought at one point you might have… liked me. Foolish. I know.” Heat crept up my neck and into my cheeks, but it had to be said. I’d been holding that in for damn near twenty years.
“I did.” Low and deep, but clear as day.
My head snapped up, meeting his gaze. “What?”
“I had a huge crush on you.”
I knew it! After all this time, I got the confirmation I had always known to be true. But the victory of the confirmation quickly died. If he had a crush on me then… “Then what the hell happened?” It was like a switch had been flipped, and I had no idea why. It had clawed at me for years after until I just accepted that we would forever be enemies.
“Why does it matter?”
It mattered. More than he realized. “Because after your dad kicked you out, you became such an asshole to me.” The nice boy who would walk me to homeroom, carry my books if I had too many, and would ask me about my day had vanished, leaving behind someone I didn’t even recognize. He was mean and argumentative. Always picking on me and starting fights.
“He put me to the curb just like the trash I am.”
Pain seared my heart, hearing him speak so horribly of himself. His dad was trash for the way he had treated him, but Brady never belonged in that category. He had to know that. “What are you talking about? You’re not trash.”
“I heard you.” His voice boomed through the tasting room, and I stumbled back. “Talking to Jocelyn that morning at school. You told her I was trash.”
Realization slammed into me. My heart stuttered in my chest, and every regret I ever had was nothing in comparison to how I felt in this moment. “Oh God, Brady. I am so sorry.” He wasn’t supposed to hear that conversation. If I had known he was there, I wouldn’t have said anything. I would have kept my mouth shut.
“It’s fine. I was trash, thanks to my old man.”
“No!” I grabbed his hand and squeezed it tight, needing him to focus on me, needing him to understand. “Damn it. I fucked that up so bad.” I blinked and caught his piercing green eyes. “Jocelyn was trash, and she told me she wanted to try to get with you. I couldn’t let that happen. I had to protect you from her. So I made her think you were the trash, because at the end of the day, all Jocelyn cared about was her image.”
Brady’s brows pulled together, skepticism flickering in his green eyes, but there was something else beneath it—something almost hopeful. “You were protecting me?”
“Yeah, I was. Or at least… I thought I was. If I’d known it would have turned into you hating my guts for the next twenty years, I would have just let her sink her fake nails into you.” I would have been insanely jealous, but Jocelyn would have eventually moved on. I could have been there to pick up the pieces of the aftermath. But I was too afraid to see him with someone else. Too afraid she would use him and hurt him like she had so many others. He’d already gone through so much at such a young age. He deserved someone better than Jocelyn.
“All this time,” he said under his breath, catching my gaze with an intensity that had me backing up and swallowing.
“What?” I muttered.
He grabbed my face, and before I could say another word, form another thought, his lips were on mine. I’d thought about this moment many times. Brady had been a constant curiosity in my mind since we were kids.
His lips demanded my surrender, and for once, I didn’t want to fight for control. I wanted to submit. I wanted to submit to him.
Or at least try.