Chapter 10 #2
She just looked up at him, her expression going soft. “I like you too, Pax. I always have.”
“Even when I was a bratty teenager who delighted in teasing you?” he asked, his voice dropping low.
She laughed and moved closer, putting her hands on his chest. She looked up at him and his hands went to her waist.
“Even then,” she said, her voice soft and gentle. Her gaze enchanted him and he lost his words.
Then she reached upward and kissed him, which was new. She’d let him lead before, and this was her choosing the moment, as his arms tightened around her.
He kissed her back without hesitation. He’d been wanting to kiss her again since the last time she’d been in his arms. His hands moved over her back and she pressed closer, her fingers curling into his shirt.
The warmth of the kitchen, the dark outside the windows, and the quiet of the apartment all gathered into this moment of intimacy, cocooning them in each other.
Even when she pulled back, she stayed close, leaning her forehead against his chest. His arms stayed around her, and they just stood like that for a long while.
“I missed you,” she said, softly, like it surprised her. “When you were gone all those years. I thought I’d gotten over it, but I missed you.”
Something tightened in his chest. “I’m sorry for that,” he said.
“Don’t be.” She tilted her head back to look at him. “Just don’t do it again.”
He brushed her hair back from her face. “I’ll do my best,” he said.
She searched his eyes, and whatever she found there seemed to satisfy her, because the last bit of guardedness went out of her expression. She took his hand.
“That’ll have to do for now. Come and sit with me,” she said, and led him to the couch in the living room.
They sat together and talked for a long time.
He told her more stuff that he hadn’t shared with anyone else.
She was so easy to talk to. She never judged, just accepted and commiserated with him when appropriate.
She had such a big heart, it impressed him all over again, though he’d known it since they were children.
She told him about her mother’s last months, the weight of watching someone fade away and being unable to stop it, and the deep grief that had come after. He told her about the first mission where he’d genuinely believed he and Ari might not come home, and what he’d thought about on that night.
“At first I thought about the Clan,” he said.
“My parents. Ari.” He paused, then went on.
“And this will probably sound strange, but I thought about you, Bree. This place. The store. Your dad.” His eyes stared out at the dark sky through the windows on the other side of the room.
“I thought about the summer Ari and I were seventeen and you brought us half a pie from the diner because we’d been helping you stock the back room all afternoon.
I don’t know why that was the memory I held onto in that dark time. ”
She was quiet. Then she whispered. “I remember that. It was peach pie.”
“It was very good peach pie,” he agreed, his tone dropping to match hers.
“It was.” Her voice had gone soft. “I’d forgotten that I used to bring you things.”
“I didn’t.” He shifted in his seat, his gaze finding hers. “I never forgot you, Bree.”
She leaned closer to him, her head against his shoulder, which settled something in him that he hadn’t known was restless. They stayed that way while the night went on around them, talking of their past and remembering the good times they’d shared.
And then the conversation slowed and the atmosphere between them changed. The atmosphere became intimate once again. Bree turned her face up to his and this time when he kissed her it was different from the other kisses. This was slower, deeper, with nowhere to be and no reason to hurry.
They stayed like that for a long time, the night completely still around them, until they were both breathing unsteadily and the self-control he was hanging onto was getting significantly harder to maintain. He finally pulled back. She made a little sound of protest that he felt in his bones.
“Bree.” His voice came out rougher than he intended.
She opened her eyes. The lamp from the kitchen threw just enough light into the room to show him the warmth in her expression and the color in her cheeks.
“I know,” she said softly.
“Your dad is just down the hall.”
“I know that too.”
He laughed a little, pressed his forehead to hers, and tried to remember why that mattered.
It wasn’t actually that difficult to remember.
He was not going to be that man. He wasn’t going to deepen their intimacy so quickly.
Not with her father fifty feet away, and certainly not in the house where Mr. Leeland had welcomed him to dinner and then trusted them both enough to say good night early, so they could have some time alone.
Bree mattered to him. She mattered enough to take his time and do this right.
He didn’t want rushed pleasure, stolen like a thief in the night, with the possibility of embarrassing her if her father discovered what they’d done.
No. He respected her too much for that kind of thing.
He would treat her right, even though it would probably kill him to leave her right now.
He tipped her chin up and kissed her once more, soft and deliberate. Then he made himself straighten. She sat back against the cushions and watched him stand.
“I should go,” he said.
“I guess you should,” she agreed, and the little smile at the corner of her mouth told him she wasn’t truly upset. She understood that he was respecting her and her father by leaving now.
He picked up his jacket from the chair where he’d left it.
She walked him down the stairs and to the back door.
He stopped at the threshold and turned to look at her.
The light behind her caught the loose strands of her hair, haloing her beauty.
He stood there for a moment longer than he needed to, just taking in the sight. She was so darn lovely. Inside and out.
“I’d like to take you somewhere. Just the two of us.”
She raised an eyebrow. “Are you asking me on a date?”
“I believe I am,” he said, chuckling at the teasing light in her eyes.
“Tell you what. I’ll think about it,” she said, grinning at him. How he loved to see her smile.
“You’ll say yes,” he replied, feeling confident that she wouldn’t deny him.
She laughed and pushed him gently out the door. “Good night, Pax.”
“Lock the door behind me, Breelee,” he said softly as he stepped outside.
She rolled her eyes, still grinning, then shut the door. He heard her lock the door, then headed out into the desert night. His inner jaguar was not particularly happy with leaving her, but his human side counseled patience. She was human. He had to court her the proper way.
He’d make dinner for her. They’d spend more time together. Go on a real date. There would be a time and a place. He was going to make sure of that.
He drove home with the desert air moving through his shaggy blond hair, and thought about what came next. He was mounting a campaign to capture Bree’s heart and he had every intention of winning.