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I bit down on my bottom lip, abruptly cutting off the song that had been flowing from my mouth. Despite my sudden unease, I couldn’t stop my smile as my fiancé’s lips ghosted along my neck.
“Don’t stop,” he pled just as gently.
My smile slipped even as a hum of appreciation slid up my throat from the feel of Kyle’s teasing lips on me, but I didn’t continue singing. He knew I wouldn’t.
When seconds ticked by with nothing, he laughed against my shoulder. “You’re so confusing, Briar Rose.”
My body stilled, already knowing what he would say next.
“Never heard a voice like yours, but you won’t let anyone hear it.”
“That’s not true.” I turned in his arms when another breath of a laugh left him and worried my bottom lip as he studied me with a challenging expression. “I just . . .” I lifted one shoulder when I couldn’t find the words to explain it.
“Won’t let anyone hear you,” he provided, echoing his previous statement.
“You’ve heard me . . .” I blinked quickly as I tried to think back, then sputtered out, “countless times.”
“And you stop singing every time you realize I’m listening. Is there anyone you don’t stop for when you realize they’re close enough to hear you?”
Not anymore I thought as stabs of pain and betrayal sliced through my anxiousness.
My nanny’s face flashed through my mind, and I heard her words as clearly as if she were whispering them to me. “Every fear and every worry fades to nothing when you sing, Briar Rose. Your voice is your comfort and your security . . . don’t let anyone take it from you.”
My parents had attempted to do exactly that years later. It was the first time I could remember them paying attention to me, pretending to be the loving parents they always should’ve been.
It took a few years too long to realize their love was conditional.
Ever since, I’d been leery of anyone who pushed me to further my future with my voice, and eventually anyone who wanted me to sing for them.
I tried to ignore conversations with Kyle when he asked instead of pushed, and kept telling myself one day he would understand. But that day had still yet to come.
“What could you be afraid of with a voice like yours?” he asked when I didn’t respond. “People would crawl over each other to be able to listen to you. Others would fight to represent you if that’s what you wanted.”
My lips curved at the corners in the faintest of smiles, and I reached up to wrap my arms around his neck. “I’m not scared,” I said, soft enough so he wouldn’t detect the tremble in my voice. “I grew up in a world where nothing was my own. I want my voice to remain mine. Not something on display . .
. not something my parents try to control.”
“This? Where we are? It’s no one’s world but ours, Briar.” Kyle’s head dipped low so his mouth could brush across mine. “Confuse me. Just don’t stop singing around me.”
After four years, he still couldn’t understand, and I was beginning to doubt he ever would.
I forced a smile when I pulled away from the kiss and tried to change the direction of his thoughts and the conversation. “Technically this house is only yours for two more weeks.”
“My ring is on your finger, your clothes are in the closet, and I came out to find you making coffee, wearing nothing but my shirt. Ours.”
“And what would the governor say if she found out about that?” I asked with a wry smile and raised brow. He lifted me onto the granite island countertop—his hands slipping under the shirt I was wearing.
“I’d like to see her try to say anything.”
I inhaled sharply when Kyle’s fingers moved over my breasts as he pushed the shirt up, up, up—
And exhaled just as fast when his phone began ringing.
His light eyes flashed with annoyance, but he and I both knew who was calling at this time on a Sunday, just as we knew he had to answer her call.
“Speak of the devil,” he muttered under his breath as he released the shirt and grabbed the phone from his jeans pocket. Irritation leaked through his tone when he answered. “We’ve never forgotten a brunch before, Mom, we’re not going to forget today— Because you aren’t calling at the best time.” Kyle’s grin was slow and mischievous. “Yeah, she’s here— Yes— I’m sure you’re extremely surprised.” His free hand traced up one of my thighs and forced them apart when I tried to squeeze them shut.
“You are on the phone with your mother,” I hissed, low enough that my voice wouldn’t carry through the phone.
