Page 62 of Forbidden Dreams
“What?” The word barely leaves my mouth.
“Yeah.” He puts his hands on his hips. “I’m in fucking love with you,” he repeats. “I’ve never in my life said that to a woman before.” His voice goes soft. “You asked me tonight why I was single, and I told you I haven’t met the one who I want to do everyday life with, and I lied to you.” He takes a step to me. “I have met her. I’ve met her and her son, and I’ve gone and fallen completely and madly in love with both of them.” I don’t move from my spot; I don’t even think I take a breath. “You both consume me and all I can think of is the two of you. Keeping you both safe and making sure you are both okay. You walk into a room, and I swear to God, it’s like I’m complete. It’s like I wasn’t alive before you, and now I’m breathing, and it’s fucking amazing.” His thumb comes up to rub my cheek. “I love you, Harmony. I’m in love with you.”
I look down, not sure I can say what I need to say without sobbing. I breathe out through my mouth and in through my nose and look up at him. “I sort of love you too.”
He smirks at me. “Sort of?” he asks, and I sniffle, trying not to laugh.
“Yeah,” I confirm, and he bends his forehead to mine. “Sort of.”
“I’m sorry about Taylor showing up,” he says softly. “I wish that never happened.”
“It’s okay.”
“It’s not fucking okay,” he snaps, making me laugh. “It’s never going to be fucking okay.”
“How was she supposed to know?” I ask.
“Tomorrow, everyone knows,” he states, and I stare at him, not sure what he means by that. “We make it known we’re together.”
“Brady,” I murmur, and he bends and picks me up in his arms—one arm under my arms, the other under my knees. He takes a step and then bends to grab my purse before walking out of the house. Slamming the door behind us as he carries me back to his house. “I could have walked,” I mumble to him as he walks up the front steps, his door wide open.
“Is that why you were limping?” he asks me as he walks into the house and goes straight to the kitchen, setting me down on a stool. He picks up my foot, then turns his glare at me. “You have thorns in the bottom of your feet.” He turns and walks out of the room to the bathroom. I grab my foot, looking down and seeing four of them sticking out. That might have been the pain I felt as I walked back to the house. He walks into the room with a first-aid kit. “Are you happy with yourself?” He glares at me as he takes out the tweezers from the bag. “None of this would have happened if you would have stayed where you should have stayed.”
“I will have you know, Brady,” I hiss as he pulls one out of my foot, making it burn a bit more, “it’s not the first time I’ve opened the door to unwanted guests.” His eyes shoot up to mine so quickly, it takes my breath away. “Except this time, it hurt a lot more.”
He doesn’t say a word after that. Instead, he takes the three thorns out, walks over to the sink, wetting a cloth, and comes back to clean my feet. Only when he’s wiped them down, puts clear ointment on, and then covers them with Band-Aids does he turn to me. “I’m not Winston,” he declares. “Someone will never be showing up at my door because I’ve stepped out on you. Because that isn’t the man I am. It’s not the man my father raised and”—he zips up the first-aid kit bag—“that is not the man I want Wyatt to be.”
I put my hand on his bare chest. “Stop.”
“No.” He shakes his head, picking me up off the stool and placing me on the counter with my legs open so he can stand between them. “He was the second thing I thought of tonight after the shock of seeing her at my door. What if Wyatt was here? What would he think?”
“Well, he’s seven, so I’m not sure he would think anything.” I rub his cheek, as he looks into my eyes.
“Maybe not now,” Brady says, “but he’ll remember and then he’ll ask questions.”
“Good news is he wasn’t here, so we don’t have to cross that bridge when we get there.”
“I know you are going through a lot,” he says softly. “I know he’s going through a lot, and the past six months have not been easy. I want him to be free of all of this. I don’t want him to worry about when his father will come crashing into the house the next time. I want him to go to school and worry about if he’s going to make the football team and not have to worry about anything else.” He swallows, and my heart soars in my chest because this man is so in love with my kid, and it’s more than anything I could have ever wished for. “I want him to know how much you both mean to me. I want him to wake up feeling safe. I want him to wake up knowing his mother is safe. I want him—” I shush him by putting my fingers on his lips to stop him from talking.
“You know how I said I sort of loved you too?” I say with a smile. “I was kinda lying to you.” His hands rub the sides of my legs as he pulls me even closer to him, and my legs wrap around his waist. “I don’t sort of love you.” He gets a sly smile. “I really love you.”
CHAPTER 35
Brady
“I really love you,” she says, and my hand moves from her hip to her side and up to her neck, pulling her to me.
“That so?” I smile before my lips find hers, and my tongue finds her mouth. We spent an hour in that fucking tub, just making out, so I was already on the edge. I move my hand down her shirt and pull it off her, leaving her naked on the fucking counter. “Do you know how many times I’ve thought about fucking you on this counter?”
“No.” She shakes her head.
“The number of times I wanted to do this to you.” I put her foot on the counter and then put the other foot up, leaving her open for me. I lean in, take her nipple in my mouth, sucking it and then moving to her next one, before squatting down and coming eye to eye with her pussy. “This right here.” I lick her slit. “Fuck, I’ve been dying to eat you on this fucking counter.” My tongue flicks her clit.
“Brady,” she moans my name as she places one hand behind her to hold her up and the other hand in my hair. “No one but you.”
“You got that right,” I confirm, sliding my fingers into her. “No one but fucking me.” I suck her clit as I finger-fuck her on the island. Her breathing comes in pants as she moves her hips up to get more of me.
“I need more,” she finally confesses. “I need you in me.” She looks down at me. “Now, please.”