Chapter 25
TWENTY-FIVE
brOOKS
She’s so fucking cute, I want to kiss her.
But I need to know her answer to my question.
She lifts a hand and though part of me despises that it’s trembling, I don’t take my question back.
I just walk toward her.
And stay silent.
She nibbles at the corner of her mouth and looks away.
Which…pours icy cold water on the desire rippling through me, on my plans to kiss her senseless, to pin her against the wall and fuck her mouth with my tongue…to fuck other parts.
But her reply comes even as that frost is skating down my spine.
“No,” she murmurs. “No.” Her head comes up, eyes connecting with mine. “I tried to—so damned hard. And I hated what you did. Hated what you made me feel. Hated what you took away.” She sighs, her gaze skating away. “But no, I don’t think I ever truly hated you.”
I exhale.
“And now—” She shakes her head.
“Now what?”
She’s quiet for a long time, but I don’t move, don’t push.
“Now, I guess…I understand. What it’s like to be under that pressure, the way the fear grips you, how you never feel safe because the moment you let your guard down or think you’ve figured out a way to get clear of it…
they’ll make it obvious they’re in charge. That they can get you anywhere.”
“Not here,” I rasp.
But I can’t help the niggle forming in the back of my mind.
Because five years ago, they managed to get through every single roadblock I put in place.
Because even the nuclear option had resulted in—
Fuck.
I stumble back a step.
“Brooks.” Her hand settles on my chest.
I shake my head, step back again. “Not here. I need to call Pascal, make sure that—”
“Brooks.”
“—he’s taking the proper—”
Her arms come around me and before I can pull away, her body comes flush to mine and she hugs me. Hard.
“Shh,” she whispers. “Just…breathe. We’re here. We’re safe. We’re together.”
And she’s been through hell.
“How can I possibly fix what I did—what they did?”
Her arms band tighter, her forehead falling to my chest. She exhales and the warmth of her breath settles over me. “There’s nothing for you to fix.”
“Baby—”
She leans back. “There’s nothing for you to fix.”
“Bullshit.”
“Does this mean you’re going to brood instead of kiss me?”
I blink.
“Because I like all of your kisses, and earlier you reminded me exactly how much.” Her lips tick up. “But I wasn’t lying when I said I wanted another of your pin-me-in-place-and-fuck-my-mouth-with-your-tongue kisses.”
I blink again.
“Though I’d also take a kiss-me-senseless-because-you’re-so-intense-you-can’t-help-it or a slow-sip-me-up-until-my-bones-turn-to-goo.” She shrugs and I can’t help it.
Even with all the shit that’s happened, that’s hanging over us, she still reaches a part of me that no one else ever has.
“You are so fucking beautiful,” I whisper.
“You’ve told me that already.” A lilting laugh. “And I’m not buying it.” She tugs at the ends of her hair—which, admittedly—is a little rough around the edges. “Especially with this hack job.”
“You’d be beautiful even if you were bald.”
“And you’re still too charming for your own good.”
Something inside me untwists and a memory drifts to the front of my mind. “I seem to remember a certain someone who wouldn’t give me the time of day when we first met.”
“Well, okay, you were less than charming that day.”
Laughter bubbles up. “You mean you didn’t see me knocking your groceries out of your hands as the greatest form of flirting?”
“I really needed those eggs.”
My smile fades. She had.
“Luckily you made it up to me.” She steps close, lifts up on tiptoe, her eyes connecting with mine, searching mine. “So…are you going to make it up to me now?” A brush of her mouth over mine, her nails biting lightly into my shoulders. “Tonight?”
“We should—”
She kisses me.
And I stop thinking about all the mistakes I made, about all the ways everything went wrong.
All I can do is feel.
The softness of her lips against mine. The gentle curves of her body. The way her moan drifts through the air as I kiss my way along her jaw, down her throat.
Touching her earlier hadn’t been nearly enough.
I need more. I need everything.
Lifting her into my arms, I carry her down the hall. But even as I’m walking, I can’t stop kissing her, can’t stop touching her.
Silky skin. Plump lips. Sleek tongue.
Her legs are around my waist and I can feel the heat of her even through the layers of our clothes. I know she’ll be wet and hot, slick and tight.
Know she’ll be mine.
Even with everything that’s happened between us, all that still remains to be solved, that isn’t going to change.
I won’t let her go.
Not ever again.
She nips at my throat and I growl, dumping her on the mattress as heat arrows straight for my cock.
“Behave,” I order.
Her mouth twitches. “But you really like it when I don’t behave.”
She’s right.
I fell in love with the sweet girl with a spine of steel.
And then again with the woman who found joy in the journey, who never gave up, and who made it her life’s mission to find out every single part of me—good or bad or in between…
And that included what I liked—and really liked—in bed.
Of course there wasn’t anything I didn’t like, not when it came to Briar’s body and hands and mouth and mind.
She puts that gorgeous mind of hers to use, shoving me to my back and clambering on top of me.
I don’t fight it—why would I when she’s exactly where I want her to be…and when her hands are pushing my shirt up and she’s bending, her lips coming to my skin?
Especially since I know she’ll get distracted—okay, I’ll distract her—and then she’ll be misbehaving, but she’ll be doing it with her pussy on my face and—
“Fuck!” I growl, so distracted by the thought of her sitting on my face that I missed her hand sliding down, dipping into my pants.
Wrapping around my cock and squeezing hard.
She just grins at me as she strokes.
And I know that Briar has done what she always does.
Turned the tables…
And I’m left just trying to keep up.