Chapter Fifteen Brad #7
I let out a happy sigh and leaned my head back against the headrest. Thank God.
I hadn’t been looking forward to the trip.
Glad I hadn’t gotten far, I was about to pull a U-turn when movement caught my eye, and I noticed a woman who looked mighty familiar run up to a man and wrap her arms around him, then they started to kiss.
He grabbed her ass and whirled her around. I pulled in my chin and laughed.
“Well, shit, look at you, Sherry.” To think she’d been putting me through the ringer with Bree, and there she was with another man.
A newfound lightness came over me then, followed by a wave of clarity as I rewound the last few weeks of encounters with Bree.
I had to let the past go and make a new life for myself.
For years, my heart had whispered the truth I was too afraid to hear. But now, I was ready to listen.
I turned the car around and headed back the way I had come.
The lights were on in the cabin, and smoke piped out of the chimney. She was still up. I climbed the steps to her porch and knocked.
The door opened a crack, and she peeked out, and when she saw it was me, she opened it all the way.
“Brad? What are you doing here? Is everything all right?” She looked gorgeous in her silk pajamas. I loved those pajamas. I didn’t answer her.
“Bree.” I took a deep breath and went with the truth.
“I was lost after what we witnessed that day as teens. I panicked and used Sherry as a crutch. Then I ran our marriage into the ground because I never really got proper help for what happened. I still shut down and go dark, totally unsure how to dig my way out of it.” I took a breath as she stood there.
“But the difference is, now that you’re back, you’ve woken something inside me that I’d run from since the day we met. ”
She blinked. “Brad.”
“Let me get this out.” I shifted my weight to buy myself a moment.
“You’ve been trying to tell me that you have a life back in New York City, and at first I didn’t listen.
You were home, and that’s where I wanted you to be, but that’s not fair.
You left because you had to, and I stayed here because I thought I had to.
“But I want you to know that I hear you, and I want you to be where you feel the happiest and safest. I just need you to know that I’ve been in love with you forever.
I was just too scared to make a move, and now you’re back, and it’s like someone is giving us a second chance.
” I sucked in a deep breath. “I don’t know about you, but when we’re together, everything just feels elevated and right.
“Wherever you need to be, Bree, I’ll figure it out. I just want to be with you.”
A tear rolled down her cheek, so I grabbed her around the waist and pulled her in for a kiss with everything I had inside.
“Brad.” She struggled and pulled back a little as she studied my face.
“I want this too”—she smiled through her tears—“but if we’re doing this, we both need to get help.
” She wiped her eyes with the back of her hand.
“We need to take this slow. I can’t open myself up to you only to have you push me away again.
I almost didn’t survive the last time you did that. ”
“I promise.” I flexed my hands and slipped them under her silk top.
“All right, then.” She shivered. “Do you want to come in?” She looked at me with her head tilted to one side.
I pulled her in again, and she molded to me.
“I need you.” I walked her backward inside and kicked the door shut.
This woman was everything I needed in my life.
I pulled off my coat, and she clawed at the buttons of my shirt.
I stripped it off as hot desire built up inside me.
She found a way out of her silky top. I forced myself to slow down.
“I want to do this right, Bree, but just for tonight, can we—”
“Brad?” She huffed her exasperation. “Tomorrow’s for talking. Tonight, just take me.”
The morning sun beat through the windshield, offering nothing to help warm the chill in the air.
I started the car and glanced at Bree, who sat beside me, already eyeballs deep in some paperwork.
I smiled as I looped around and headed toward town.
We had gone a few rounds the night before, and, if I was being honest, I wished we had accepted Cap’s offer to take the day off.
He obviously didn’t know Bree. She’d insisted we show up at work.
We’d promised to take things slow and to keep whatever it was between us to ourselves.
The label Bree had put on it was “getting to know one another.” To me, we were in the early stages of dating, but I wasn’t going to point that out just yet.
When she reached for her water bottle, I snagged her hand and kissed the back of it while I relished in the fact that I could.
I thought I had gotten my fill of her through the night, but my body already was making plans.
I shifted and tugged at my crotch at the stoplight, and she grinned at me. Then looked down at her lap again.