Page 129 of Legally Ours

He sighed, rubbing a finger over his lips. He wanted a cigarette, I could tell. I was definitely going to have to make sure he got that patch like he said.

"It's about leverage," he continued. "Jared and his family won't think again about messing with me or mine. Not as long as I own them." He shrugged. "In the end, it's about business and family. And he's not allowed to fuck with either."

I gazed at him with a bit of shock. This ruthless side of Brandon wasn't one I'd seen often, even if the rational side of me had known he couldn't have achieved everything he had without some cutthroat instincts. It just wasn't a side of him he usually showed to me. Until now.

He turned his gaze toward the path beyond us.

"Do you remember the first time I followed you in here?"

As if I could ever forget. I had been so awestruck by the man I'd done everything that, as a child of the most urban of urban environments, I knew not to do: run alone into a city park in the middle of the night. Oh yeah, and during a freaking blizzard.

But even then, with a snowstorm whirling around us, I barely remembered anything other than his kind, curious face, the way his blue eyes had sparkled through the storm. The desire and intensity that had emanated through the gusts. I hadn't even known his name, but I'd known I wanted him. More than anything.

And he had wanted me. The truth of that hit me––he had never been someone who would let others stand in the way of what he thought was right. And from the beginning, he had known we were right, even when I didn't.

"I couldn't see anything but you," he said quietly as he slid his hand down the railing of the bridge so that our pinky fingers just barely touched.

Suddenly it was like we were the only people in the park.

"Skylar," he spoke slowly, searching for words. "What these people––Jared, Messina, your mom, Miranda––what they all did to us...there's a part of me that wants to...serve them all the same kind of justice."

His eyes sparked, with a strange mix of love and the same danger I had seen in the alley. But I didn't pull away.

"And if it had been twenty years ago, Skylar, maybe even just ten...I wouldn't have thought twice about it. Now..." He raised a hand and pushed a few strands of hair out of my face. "I want to be a better man. For you. For us. But baby, you can't just expect me to sit like an idiot while people attack me and mine. You have to let me use the weapons I have."

I exhaled a breath I hadn't known I'd been holding. Brandon was such a loose cannon right now, but I knew in part it was because of the lack of control he felt over our lives. And if I was being honest, I didn't want to be a victim either. And there was a part of me that took satisfaction in knowing that he could and would do what needed to be done to protect us.

"Okay," I breathed

He was casual, leaning against the rail. The only thing touching was our fingertips, but his face was like fire. Involuntarily, I brought my other hand to my mouth.

"Don't do that," Brandon said softly, pulling my hand down. "If I can't kiss those beautiful lips, at least you can let me look at them."

"Brandon..." I said, my breath drawing close. He was playing with fire.

He turned my palm over and started to trace circles over the lines on it. Over the soft pads of my fingers, down over the sensitive interior, over the mound of Venus at the base of my thumb.

"I want to so badly right now," he said as he traced the lines, over and over again, causing goose bumps to rise up my arm. "But you said...plus, you know, there's them."

He nodded toward a row of bushes, and it was then I caught the glint of light bouncing off camera lenses. I sighed and looked back at him.

"Politicians aren't supposed to get wrapped up in bouts of passion," I murmured, utterly mesmerized by the movements of his fingers as they stroked over my palms.

Every cell of my body stood to attention, and Brandon could sense it. A month ago, I would have already been cornered under the shelter of a nearby tree, or dragged off to the nearest alleyway. Would we ever be able to act on that again?

Brandon lifted his blue gaze up to meet mine, then dropped it again to my lips and briefly to my chest before he took another sharp inhale.

"Fuck," he muttered. "I don't know if it's because now I'm not supposed to, but I swear to God, Skylar, I'm about ten seconds from bending you over this railing."

I adjusted my stance, arching my back slightly to relieve the sudden ache between my legs. Brandon caught the movement, and his eyes dilated.

"Fuck," he muttered again.

And yet neither of us made any move away from the bridge or from each other. It gave me a moment to take him in and all the indications of the struggle that mirrored mine. The way his tensed forearms tested the limits of his rolled-up shirtsleeves. The way the muscles of his neck pressed against his collar. The way his broad chest rose and fell with heavy breaths.

He wasn't kidding when he said he wanted me, and as his searing blue eyes scanned my body too, I was pretty sure he could see the same in me.

Brandon darted a quick glance around the park.