CHAPTER 30 #2
“If there’s a tie on the elevator, don’t bother coming up,” Bryce called after him.
Beth gasped, scandalized. “You did not just say that! Now he’s going to think we’re... you know...” she trailed off, mortified.
“Lizzy,” Bryce said, chuckling, “as far as he knows, we’re newlyweds. He’s going to think ‘you know’ no matter what.”
Searching for a safer topic, Beth spotted the flowers on the counter. “Those are pretty. Thank you.”
“I’d say you’re welcome, but…” Bryce followed her gaze. “They’re not from me. Brock brought them. Said you should have something decent to look at, since you’re stuck living with me.” He paused. “He’s always been the charmer of the family.”
Beth smiled, heart loosening a little. “So, you got the looks, and he got the charm?”
Her voice carried a flirty tone—unfamiliar on her tongue. It might’ve been the first real flirt she’d ever pulled off.
Bryce’s brow lifted, but his voice came low, hesitant. “You really think I’m better looking?”
She caught something beneath the question—something that didn’t belong to vanity. Longing. Insecurity. Like he needed the answer to be more than surface-level.
She kept it light, though her chest ached with the weight of all the unspoken things between them. She arched a brow. “Fishing for a compliment, Doctor Handsome?”
He didn’t reply, but his eyes… they said everything. A flicker of something raw and unguarded.
Beth stepped closer, her fingers tracing the prominent vein on his forearm—unaware that she was leaving a trail of fire behind.
She wasn’t used to this. She didn’t know where this courage came from, only that it was here, pulsing beneath her skin like something new and delicate and beautiful.
Maybe she was tired of being afraid. Maybe she wanted to know what it felt like to touch him first.
She laced her fingers through his and tugged him gently down to her. Then, with a breathless kind of certainty, rose onto her toes and pressed a soft kiss to the corner of his mouth.
Bryce inhaled sharply, like her touch had knocked the air right out of him.
“Yes,” she whispered. “You’re more attractive than your brother. And after a month of being married to you? I know you’re the whole package—looks and charm…”
Her gaze dipped, sliding slowly down his chest and back up again, deliberate and teasing. “The whole package.”
She leaned in, close enough he could probably taste her breath, her fingers toying with the buttons on his shirt.
Rising onto her toes again, she brushed a kiss just below his earlobe, lips barely grazing skin as she whispered, voice thick with playful heat, “Do you know what I want more than anything right now…”
He made some half-formed sound in response—maybe her name, maybe a question.
Beth grinned against his jaw, her palms flattening over his chest. And then—abruptly—she shoved him backward.
Bryce stumbled a step.
She stood tall, arms crossed, hip popped to the side like she was strutting a red carpet in couture—not barefoot in his sweats.
“I wanna know who this Mallory girl is,” she said, hands on her hips. “And how she caused you to take a vow of celibacy.”
Bryce stared at her, dumbfounded.
Beth broke into a fit of laughter.
His expression—somewhere between desire, disbelief, and total confusion—was priceless.
Giddiness took over. She started doing a ridiculous little victory dance. “I did it!” she crowed, spinning in place. “I got you! I got you with one of your double entendre things!”
“WOOOOMMMMANNN,” Bryce roared, grabbing the counter to steady himself, eyes wide like she’d short-circuited his brain.
When he looked at her again, something in his gaze shifted.
Beth froze.
The dancing stopped. Her eyes widened. She raised both hands in surrender. “Now, Bryce…”
He started toward her slowly, the kind of slow that made her pulse jump. “How could you do that?” he asked, voice low, steps deliberate.
“It’s only fair,” she said, backing away. “You do it to me all the time—!”
She squealed as he lunged. She bolted around the couch, giggling like she was fifteen again. He caught her, spinning her down into his lap as they collapsed onto the cushions in a tangle of limbs and laughter.
“Double entendre, huh?” Bryce said, fingers sneaking under the hem of the sweatshirt she wore—his sweatshirt—to tickle her waist.
“Yeah—Lynn told me what they’re called,” Beth managed between gasps. “I asked her for help. With flirting.”
“You asked Lynn?” Bryce paused, eyes locked on hers.
In the stillness, her boldness lingered.
Her fingers reached up and cupped his jaw, her touch slow, reverent. She took her time, studying his face—his eyes, the lines of worry that hadn’t quite smoothed out since their day at the hospital.
“Yeah,” she whispered. “I wanted to do a grand gesture. Something fun. For the first time I told you I loved you.”
His eyes lit with heated desire.
“Did it work?” she asked, her voice suddenly small. Hopeful.
“I don’t know,” he murmured, drawing her closer. “You haven’t said it yet.”
Beth rested her forehead against his, their breath shared in the inches between them. Her fingers slid into the hair at the nape of his neck, pulling him close. She kissed him—longer this time, surer. Not just affection, but something whole and sacred.
When she pulled back, her lips still brushed his as she spoke.
“I love you, Bryce,” she whispered. “You’re the one that I want.”
The last thing she saw before her eyes fluttered shut was Bryce’s smirk—his eyes warm, teasing—as he murmured against her lips “Tell me more, tell me more…”
Beth laughed softly against his mouth, giddy and breathless.
“And you thought watching Grease was a waste of a Sunday,” she whispered.
Bryce groaned, but his smile gave him away.