Page 60 of Forbidden Dreams
He pulls me by my hand up the stairs and walks right past the bed toward the bathroom. He lets my hand go when he walks in and turns on the lights before making his way to the bathtub. He turns the water on, touches the stream to see if it’s warm enough, and adjusts it before looking at me. “Get undressed and take a bath,” he orders me. “I’m going to go grab you something to eat.” He kisses my neck before walking out of the room, but comes right back in. “Do you need me to undress you?” He winks, making me laugh. “I’ll be back.” I stop him from leaving the bathroom by holding his hand.
“How about you take a bath with me and then we can both get something to eat?” I want this moment with him. I stand in front of him. “We can take a bath together and then”—I get up on my tippy-toes to kiss his neck—“we can eat.” His eyes shine with mischief. “Food, we can eat food.” I move away, peeling the shirt off me and getting naked in front of him before stepping one foot into the water and then sitting down. I pin my hair on top of my head and look over at him. “Do you not want to take a bath with me?”
He quickly gets naked, giving me a chance to take him all in as he steps into the tub and turns to sit between my legs. His back is to my chest as he crouches down while my legs wrap around his hips. “Why are you still single?” I close my eyes and want to drown myself in the bathtub when I hear the question that just came out of my mouth.
“I guess I just haven’t met the one I want to do everyday life with,” he answers. “I want to be married just once. I want a love like my parents’, a love that is around even if she isn’t. I want it to consume me, and all I can think about is nothing else but that person.” He rubs my legs, and I feel the golf ball-sized lump forming in my throat. This man, who every time I get quiet, makes sure I sleep or nap. He makes sure I’ve eaten. He’s the most thoughtful man I’ve ever known. “What about you?” he asks me. “Do you ever think of falling in love again?”
“I do.” I clear my throat. “I know what I want and what I need. But it’s not only about me this time. It’s about the man accepting another man’s child. Even if Winston and I are not together, he’s going to be forever in Wyatt’s life until Wyatt tells me he doesn’t want him in his life. So, whoever it is has to be okay with that.” He turns his head to look at me. “When that time comes, I’ll know.”
He turns in my arms and pulls me into his, making me straddle him. “Kiss me,” he urges in a whisper, and here in the middle of the bath, this man asks for me to kiss him. It takes a full five seconds for the kiss to become more, and we end up making out until the water is ice cold.
I get out of the tub before him. “I’m going to go see what we can make for a snack.” I dry off, grabbing the shirt he wore today and putting it on. “Meet me downstairs.”
“Yeah, baby,” he agrees as he gets out of the tub and reaches for a towel, my stomach and vagina fluttering from the sight of his naked body.
I’m halfway down the steps when the knock on the door comes. I look out and see a woman, so I open it, never expecting it to be who it is. Pulling it open, I see a woman who is taller than me with long red hair. The smile on her face falls when she sees me. “Sorry,” she says, “I was looking for Brady.”
CHAPTER 33
Brady
I slip on a pair of shorts and walk out of the bedroom, listening to the front door being opened. “Sorry,” I hear the voice and stop halfway down the steps. “I was looking for Brady.” My heart sinks in my stomach as I watch Harmony’s back go straight.
“Um, yeah,” she says, her voice low and tight. “He’s—” She looks like she’s about to turn around and call me, but she sees me, and the look in her eyes is one I haven’t seen before. It’s also a look I never want to see again in my whole life. “There is someone—” She turns back.
“Taylor,” she says her name, and I walk to the door, seeing Taylor standing there with a frozen look on her face. “Hey.”
“Hey,” I reply when I’m standing behind Harmony, who I can feel shaking in front of me. She turns and walks over to her purse, grabbing it to her chest.
“I’m sorry, I didn’t think you had company,” Taylor says as Harmony moves to the door.
“No company.” She looks straight at Taylor. “I’m his neighbor, and he was helping me.” She downplays it, and I ball my hands into fists beside me. She moves to the door before I can even grab her hand. “I’m going to go,” she murmurs, avoiding looking at me as she heads to the door wearing nothing but my T-shirt. “Have a nice evening,” she says, rushing out of the house without her fucking shoes on.
“Harmony,” I call her name, and she only turns when she’s at the bottom of the steps.
“It’s fine, Brady.” I can see her bottom lip quivering. “See you tomorrow.”
Like fuck, I want to snap at her, but I’m not doing this in front of Taylor. I’m getting rid of her and then we’re finally going to fucking get things straight. She rushes through the fucking weeds with no shoes, going to her house.
“Brady,” Taylor says, and I finally look over at her, “I’ve been texting you, and you haven’t gotten back to me. I was?—”
“I did get back to you and told you I was busy.”
“Well.” She smiles at me. “You’re always busy. I was hoping we could be busy together.”
“Taylor,” I growl her name with my jaw almost wired shut, “I’m with someone now.”
“Wait, what?” she asks, confused, looking at me like Harmony didn’t storm out of here a couple of minutes ago.
“I’m with someone,” I repeat myself.
“But you said you would never be exclusive,” she reminds me of the talk we had about a year ago after she wanted to take things to the next step, and I did not. “You stood in my kitchen and told me that you didn’t see yourself with anyone.”
“Taylor,” I say.
“No!” Her tone goes from soft to angry. “You specifically said you couldn’t give me what I wanted.”
“I can’t,” I confirm. “The two of us, it just didn’t work.”