AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“I didn’t lie to you.”
“Omitted information,” I whispered and looked away. “I made a fool of myself with you.” That was another thing that’d streamed through my mind consistently over the past few months. “I trusted someone I barely knew, told you private thoughts, stuff about myself that I didn’t even tell my best friend, and yeah, you told me nothing and I went with it. I just wanted to please.”
“Hazel.”
“Well, that’s not me anymore,” I thundered. I rose from my seat. “I’m not here to please anyone. I’m not –”
He stood and faced me, looked down that slightly crooked nose. “Stop,” he said and took me by the forearms.
I wriggled a little bit.
“Stop,” he repeated. “I didn’t lie to you. And we didn’t know each other.”
“Don’t,” I said.
“Don’t.” He nodded. “But that’s going to change, now. Hazel, I haven’t stopped thinking about you since you ran out of that hotel room.”
“Oh, yeah? Then why didn’t you come for me?” I asked.
He shook his head. “Out of some stupid belief that I owed my brother anything. That he was anything more than an asshole. And I did call,” he said. “You never answered.”
My brow wrinkled. I’d gotten a couple calls from withheld numbers, but I never answered those. It was just plain creepy. “You called, so what? Look, this doesn’t have to be something it’s not. It was all a mistake.”
“No,” he growled, then dragged me against his chest. “It wasn’t a mistake. The only mistake was on my part. I should’ve found you sooner.” He pressed his lips to mine, then kissed me hard.
I melted on the spot, dissolved into a puddle, and looped my arms around his neck. This couldn’t be real. It couldn’t be happening. I hardly knew a thing about him – apart from the furious Google search I’d done one night stuffing my face with Twinkies.
Bain didn’t let go. He held me to his chest and our hearts beat in time, kiss deepening, heat shuttling through my arms, my legs, my core.
Chapter 10
Bain
This was the woman. I couldn’t deny it, anymore. Whatever connection we’d forged in Hawaii hadn’t faded a damn bit, and now I had her in my arms, and she had my baby in her womb.
I kissed her, gently at first, then deepened it, tasting her again for the first time in months, tightening up all over. It wasn’t just my dick that throbbed. It was every cell in my fucking body.
I’m done trying to work this out.
I broke the kiss and looked at her. “I get it. We don’t know each other. I don’t know your favorite food or color, or what you look like when you wake up in the morning. And if it makes you feel better, you can pretend that what we did out there was nothing but physical. But deep down, you know that’s not true, Hazel.”
Her bottom lip trembled, so full, succulent, begging to be kissed all over again. I ran my thumb along it.
“This was meant to happen.” I cleared my throat. Fuck, am I really going to do this? Yeah, I had to. I wanted her to see that I was committed to the baby, and to showing her that I was responsible.
There had been too much confusion since we’d met. It was past time to clear the fucking air.
“My name is Bain Mitchell,” I said. “You know that much. But you don’t know what my life’s really been like. I was adopted, and my brother, well, he was my parents’ first biological kid. They favored him, and god knew, I loved the little fucker, but things were tough at home.” I rolled my neck. Fuck, I hated this emo crap. “My parents pretty much ignored me; it was that or cracking the whip.”
Her silvery eyes glinted with unshed tears. It wasn’t pity, but empathy. “I was in the foster system, too,” she whispered. “I – after my mom died. Car crash.”
My heart thudded.
Meant to be. God damn.
“Eventually, it got to me. I acted out. I started boosting cars, coming home late. They gave me final warnings, but I was an asshole. The night I was arrested, I stole a Mustang GT. Christ, it was a thing of beauty, that car, but it was my downfall. I ended up in juvie. It was a slap on the wrist, but it was enough for me. After that, I moved out. A friend I’d made got me a job working at one of these resorts and the rest is history.”
“Wow,” she said.
“Yeah,’ I replied. “You told me your sob story; now I’ve told you mine. And you know what else?”
“What?” Hazel asked, pure as snow.
“You can’t do this on your own.”
She stiffened and her blond eyebrows wrinkled toward each other. “Excuse me?”
“You can’t because I won’t let you.” I kissed her again, silencing a complaint. Our bodies melded together, her softness against my hard planes of muscle, and it took every ounce of my resolve not to rip her clothes off and take her on the sofa.
