Chapter 8
brIELLE
Ford is stirring so many emotions inside of me, more than average.
“I’m torturing you? Because of this morning?” he dares to ask, his hands hanging at his sides.
I throw my hands up in the air, completely helpless. “Tricking me, getting us alone, a ring. A ring, Ford? Who is their right mind does that? Then this morning, and I…” Didn’t want to hear what deep down I knew he probably thought long ago.
My head falls in sorrow.
He steps forward, but I’m quick to hold my hands up to stop him. “Do not step closer to me,” I warn.
His head dips down, and his sight tips up to grab my attention. “You feel it too.”
“I need you to look away with your luscious puppy eyes because they will not make me fall into your arms.”
A total lie.
He knows it too because he smirks. “We can’t change the past, but we can write the future, and I’ll be damned if it’s anything except waking up to you.”
My brow slides up. “You’re so sure of us.”
“Tell me I’m wrong. Tell me I’m imagining that you and I can’t let go of one another. Just tell me and I’ll give this up… but you can’t.”
“You didn’t give me a chance to tell you.” I tip my hip out with my hand on my waist.
He grins sheepishly. “Please, go ahead.” He doesn’t sound convinced.
“I…” Have no clue what I’m doing, that’s what. I look up at him and my heart is fully his, and it scares me. Ford has the key, and I know he’ll hide it so nobody will ever have it but him. “I’m so angry,” I admit softly.
“I gathered.” He doesn’t seem fazed.
The lids of my eyes slowly close then open but no calm hits me. Instead, a hurricane passes over my heart and moves through my throat on full windspeed because everything rolls off my tongue in a wave.
“I can’t tell you that you’re wrong. Okay?
Happy? Is that what you wanted to hear?” I raise my voice, my chest thumping with emotional fury.
“I couldn’t sleep last night because I’m stuck in this beautiful house on a lake that has some mystical powers to get me pregnant and engaged in the span of a decade.
I laid awake last night on a soft mattress wishing that for one night I had the ability to let go and be in the moment.
With you.” Ford looks at me, mute, that I’m at last breaking.
Our eyes lock in recognition. “Because yeah… you, Ford, I want more than anything, but we share a son who doesn’t deserve a clusterfuck of epic proportions if we get this wrong. ”
We both seem taken aback by my little monologue.
But before either one of us can say something, a spray of hard cold water comes up from the grass. I shriek from the sudden surprise, my mouth gaping open as I try to understand. Instantly I’m getting soaked through, and the shock has me frozen as I take in what is happening.
I don’t realize until Ford begins to laugh. It’s only then that I connect that it’s the sprinkler, and Ford by chance just missed the brunt of the water. I’m standing in front of him wet, and my dress is now a second skin.
“Are you kidding me?”
He tries to hide his laugh. “You’re standing on the grass. It’s on a timer.”
“Is this my luck? What other stunts will happen on this property?” My hair is now soaked, and I wipe away water from eyes that probably have mascara running.
“You’re cold.”
“It’s summer,” I reply.
“And you’re cold.” Ford steps into the stream of water, and I realize he is repeating what we said last night because my nipples are clearly peaked, and his eyes have noticed.
“It’s cold because you keep the air-conditioning high and get me trapped in sprinklers,” I argue back, one-toned and unsure what is happening.
The sound of the water becomes a backdrop or it’s my ears ringing as my heart beats fast. That’s the reason the world seems to be going silent around us. Ford is now drenched in water and so very close, his eyes hungry.
“You’re in the moment,” he highlights. “With me.”
A smile tugs on my lips, because this moment feels like relief and perfection rolled into one. The setting for a memory, and I know it will be one that I’ll smile about for years to come.
Because before I can say anything, his hand grabs the back of my neck, and he pulls me to his mouth.
His lips slam down onto mine, and I’m drowning not in the water but him.
My hands are quick to frame his face in hopes of finding balance, and luckily, his arms snake around my middle to yank me tight to him.
Ford swallows my breath as our mouths realign. Kissing him sets off an explosion inside of me, yet I’m struggling to register it, with my body in slight shock because it remembers his lips.
Only when his tongue slips into my mouth do I relax. Even though I knew where he was all along, this kiss is my lost treasure that I finally found.
I moan into his mouth, which only encourages Ford to kiss me harder. I offer more by slanting my chin up. I can’t get enough.
He holds me tighter and kisses me softer, then he growls as he brushes his lips along mine. “Finally,” he speaks against the corner of my mouth before giving me a quick peck as a parting.
We need to breathe actual air.
Staring at one another, we’re both panting and soaked. Ridiculous smiles are displayed on our faces, and I lean my forehead in so he can kiss my temple.
“I’m staying. This week, I mean,” I confirm.
Ford blinks at me, with water running down his face. “I wouldn’t have let you leave anyway, and you know we are more than a week.”
I don’t argue. “Kiss me again,” I request.
At the speed of light, he fulfills my request, a kiss full of longing and hope. Tender yet firm because we are working against external forces, and water is as powerful as waiting ten years.
We stay this way for what feels like minutes until we break apart, and without warning, he throws me over his shoulder fireman style and walks us out of the sprinklers.
I giggle and admire his flexed muscles beneath wet clothes that can carry me with ease. He twirls me around before he walks to the side yard.
“What are you doing?” I wonder.
“As much as making out with you on my lawn is a dream come true, we need to get out of these wet clothes.”
My stomach flips, possibly with nerves, but mostly excitement. Today, nothing else matters except us.
Ford gets us to the back sliding door and walks us in until he plops me down in the hall by the stairs.
Then I’m on him again. This time I kiss him, short, fast, and over and over. He begins to unbutton his shirt, and I’m quick to assist, peeling the shirt off his arms until it’s on the floor, our mouths never parting.
I hop onto him and wrap my legs around his waist before he takes the first step on the stairs. Halfway up, we fall to a step, and I straddle him as our tongues continue to fuse together.
Now that water is no longer working against us, I feel more. My body is more attuned to what is happening. I’m sensitive in all the right places, and Ford has the key to every single spot.
“We need to get you out of this.” Ford’s voice is a sexy raspy tone as he assesses me from the waist up and back down.
“Likewise,” I counter, and my fingers begin to fumble with the belt of his jeans. The sound of the buckle loosening is mixed with our labored breaths as our lips run wild on our mouths and necks.
He uses his weight to lift us up, and we continue our journey upstairs. Ford walks us straight to his bedroom where he lays me down gently on his bed.
I bring my finger to my mouth to nibble as I watch Ford tower over me and step out of his pants.
Ford in dark boxer briefs and nothing else is a view I could stare out for hours, days, and years. I’m not into muscular overload on guys, but Ford is toned. I could take a marker—or my tongue—and trace every line.
A cocky smirk spreads on his mouth. “Better than the Ford in your fantasies?”
“Debating,” I quip.
Slowly, he steps forward, his knees hitting the edge of the mattress. My feet plant on the duvet with my knees up. All he would have to do is lift the skirt of my dress and I’m his for the taking.
His eyes shoot me a warning; pure sin is on his mind.
I gasp slightly when he touches my knees, and he glides the pads of his fingers up my thighs. Every inch higher causes the ache between my legs to intensify.
Ford leans down to delicately kiss my inner knee. “So damn beautiful.”
The feeling of my cheeks blushing doesn’t faze me; I’m far too familiar that this man electrifies my body.
In a swift movement, he hooks his fingers under the waistband of my panties without moving my skirt up, and it wouldn’t matter, as his eyes stay fixed on me. Ford yanks the wet material down my legs, and my feet move to slide them off easily. He throws the wet fabric to the side.
My heart races for what comes next.
Ford holds his finger up, indicating for me to wait a second.
“Now you want to wait?” I tease.
He ruefully shakes his head and walks to his closet on the side, leaving me splayed out on his bed. I can’t see from my angle, but he disappears into the closet and remerges with clothes.
Coming to the bed, he throws a hoodie and boxers at me.
“We need to get you warm.”
My jaw drops, completely shocked by this change. “W-what?” I stutter.
Ford crawls onto the bed and cages me underneath him. I hate when he has a look that informs the world that he won.
“Oh, trust me, I’m ready to break this mattress and rip every sheet in this house for the way we need to seal this reunion.”
“Then what’s the damn problem?” I’m stunned.
He leans down to breathe near my ear before placing a kiss in that sensitive spot above my neck. “I have to wine and dine you first.”
“No. No, you don’t,” I answer blankly. “I volunteer as tribute. Take me. Now. Here. Any way you want.”
Ford blows out a breath, clearly trying to contain himself.
“Good to know for future reference.” He propels himself off the bed, and he has a glimmer in his eye, that victorious smirk never fading.
“Babe, get dressed,” he orders before he disappears again into his closet. “I’ll meet you downstairs.”
I prop myself up on my elbows. “What?”
He ducks out of the door mid shirt coming on. “Trust me.”
I fall back on the bed, defeated.
He leaves me there, completely frustrated yet curious and amused as to what the hell wine and dine means.