Page 149 of I Choose You

“And what, he balked and said it was dumb?”

I nodded.

She turned her hand over to stroke her fingertips over my knuckles. “Did Kody ever tell you about when he apologized after prom?”

“No.” What the hell is she talking about? “Never.”

“Kody came up to me the Monday after the dance. He told me that he wasn’t the one who’d asked me to the dance. He said it was you, posing as him, that you’d done it just to get a laugh.”

My jaw dropped. I froze, horrified he’d do such a thing.

“Kody never told me that,” I said, fisting my hands. “I can’t believe he’d throw me under the bus like that.”

She uncurled my fingers and rubbed her flattened hands over them. “I wondered if it was all a game of switcheroo. But in the end, I knew that one of you had screwed with me in such a hurtful, humiliating way. I assumed you were both in on it.”

“He’s such an asshole!”

My temper flared, and I didn’t want to sit still any longer. I wanted to yell. To punch something. To lash out at the jerk of a brother I had to put up with.

I didn’t do any of those things.

Brooke stood and crawled into my lap. The high-top seats that tucked under the island’s counter weren’t ideal for holding someone with you. She crawled up and sat on the edge of the marble, draping her legs on either side of me.

“Hey.” She set her hand on my chest and smoothed it down. “Look at me.”

I raised my gaze to her, clenching my jaw.

She rubbed along my face, coaxing me to relax. “I’m over it.”

I closed my eyes and shook my head.

“Hey!” She tugged my shirt. “I said I’m over it. Not over you.”

Gazing up at her, I considered the confidence behind her words. Are you, really? I didn’t want our past to ruin our future.

“For the first time ever, I can truly say that and mean it. I’m so over it.”

I rubbed my hands up her thighs, caressing her.

“I don’t care what Kody did.” She lifted her shoulder and let it fall, and the loose-necked sweatshirt drooped lower, baring her shoulder. “I don’t even care what Kody thinks of me now.” Her hands cupped my face. “Because everything that happened led me right here to this moment with you.”

As I leaned in to kiss her, she slid her hands back until her arms draped over my shoulders. I covered her lips with mine and breathed in her scent. I licked and nipped, quickly sliding into the spiral of desire that she always stoked in me. I tasted her, caressing her tongue, and relished her sweet moan.

“And that’s all that matters to me. That I have you.”

I kissed her again. Standing up, I leaned in to her to drown in her sweet taste and even sweeter promise.

“You do,” I told her. “You do have me. All of me.”

She grinned, slipping her fingers through my hair to tug it and hold me close for another kiss. We remained like that, sucking and nipping at each other’s lips. The intense, hurried frenzy wasn’t driving us now. A slower, sweeter intimacy ruled us. Taking my time, I relished every gentle warm touch of her lips against mine. She mewled and crawled closer to me, hooking her arms around my neck, and I kept my hands off her tits. I didn’t reach under her clothes to seek her warmth and to see how wet she was for me.

This was a delicate connection, fanned with easing sparks instead of racing to be consumed at once.

Sex could come later. This lulling sense of comfort and security was all I needed right now. To know she was mine. In my arms, under my lips, and in my hands.

Her ass. It was my kryptonite, and I held it.

“Whoa!”