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“Oh, baby,” he whispers, kissing a line down my spine, across my waist, “I was so rough. Look at me,” he grunts, tipping my head back roughly so he can check to see that I am okay, “God, you’re so beautiful like this. I love you so much. Come here, let me take care of you.” Before I can protest that he was good to me, like he always is when we’re intimate, he scoops me up and carries me to the bathroom.
Setting me on the counter, he starts a bath in his huge soaking tub—something I know he put in this house that I love knowing I would adore it. Bran watches me cautiously, something close to fear in his eyes. I won’t let doubts ruin this moment. I give him a smile and a jerk of my head, urging him closer. Sighing, he comes and steps between my knees, wrapping thick arms around me to lift me against him.
“Come here,” I whisper, wrapping my limbs around him and pressing my brow against his, “stop it. You were not rough. You needed something and I wanted to give it to you. I love you, Bran,” I repeat firmly, staring up into his dark eyes, “I could not wait to tell you today. I don’t want to hide or pretend anymore that I love you.”
“Fuck, I can’t hide it anymore either. I can’t even stand the idea of losing you again. I love you so fucking much, Paisley. All I want to do is be with you. We can get it right. I know we can. Whatever it takes, whatever you want from me, whatever you need. I will do it. I swear to you. I love you,” he rushes his words out, his chest rising and falling fast, his eyes earnest.
Smiling against his mouth, I nod before he kisses me deeply, the force of it driven by all the holding back we’ve both done. It’s been weeks since we’ve been back together but neither of us had the guts to call it that. When I came back home, I told myself I would avoid him no matter what. I would stay away from him. Because I was afraid this is just what would happen.
But the truth is, we are inevitable. He said it once and I know now as we hold each other in the steam filled bathroom, he was so right. We might not get it right this time, or the next, but we will get it right. Or keep trying until we do. No matter how hard it is or how much we hurt each other, we will always come back to this.
“I love you,” he whispers sweetly, his face lighting up as his eyes soften. He grins big and bold and my heart flutters in my chest. God, I love him so much. How did I ever go without him? How did I ever tell myself I did not need him?
“Come on, stud, take care of your woman,” I tease him, nodding at the waiting tub, “spoil me for a little bit, huh?”
“Oh, babe,” he grins wolfishly, looking so sexy my thighs quiver at his hips, “you deserve more than a little bit. Come here beautiful,” he growls, gripping me beneath my ass and lifting me against him as I shriek and grab hold of him.
Laughing, we fall into the tub, neither of us caring when it splashes out as we sink into the sudsy waters. He does spoil me. He washes my hair and soaps up my body. With his mouth fused to mine as I lay back in his arms, he makes me come with slow, skillful strokes of his thick fingers between my legs. I will take that kind of spoiling any time he wants to give it.
We decide not to go out just yet. We don’t want to share this with anyone else tonight. We climb into bed, smiling at each other like fools in love. Because we are. He orders my favorite takeout from the Tapas place I have become obsessed with, feeding me as we cuddle together watching old scary movies. It feels like old times but so much different at the same time.
Lying in the dark, we talk until we can’t keep our eyes open. About all the years we missed but also about the years we had together. About the years we can have together now. When he kisses me sweetly and draws me close, whispering more ‘I love You's’ than I can count, I decide he really does know how to spoil me.
I want to spoil him too—by fighting for us as hard this time as he always fought for us before. Harder, if we need it.
CHAPTER 10
Bran
* * *
Sometimes love is not enough—until it is.
Having Paisley back home has been like starting over. Getting a second chance to get the most important thing in my life right after getting it so wrong before. We complicated things when we were together before. Every single thing felt huge, important, even overwhelming and we let it tear us apart over and over.
Never again—nothing is taking her from me this time.
“I want to marry her,” I tell Connor as we sit watching our girls swimming with the kids, “hell, I should have married her a long time ago. Should have never let her leave Harmony Hollow. Or gone with her if that was what she needed me to do. I can’t be without her again, I won’t make it through that a second time,” I say with a shake of my head as I empty my beer and smile as my girl laughs with Milo and Millie.
I want this. This life that I have secretly longed for the moment my best friend started living it. He got drafted to the NFL like we knew he would and maybe I should have taken his offer to go with. Maybe I would have had the guts to chase after the woman I loved if I had not shackled myself to this town and what I thought I owed my family.
Whatever debts I thought I owed have been paid. I did what I needed to do for my family. They area happy and taken care of and I have been alone and miserable since I lost Paisley. I mean it when I say I can’t survive that again—truth is, I barely made it through it the first time.
“Good. Good,” Connor says, winking at his wife before he turns back to me, “I would pay for a wedding for you two tomorrow if that is what you wanted. You two were both a fucking mess without each other. You belong together, just the way Hails and I do.”
Nodding at him as I watch Paisley pull Millie on her little floaty, I can’t argue. We should have two little ones by now. Cousins for Connor and Hails little ones. Suddenly all I want is to see Paisley pregnant. See her playing in the pool with our son or daughter.
“We do belong together. I was a fucking fool for not telling her last time I saw her that I didn’t want her to go.”
“No, you were a fucking idiot for bringing a date to a birthday party, knowing the love of your life was going to be there. Did you two....” he asks, shooting me a dark look.
“What? Did we...what? No! No fucking way! That whole thing was a mistake. I uh,” I clear my throat before I go on, “I have not been with anyone else but Paisley, except that first time. It...it was always her for me,” I admit, smiling at her when she climbs out of the water and sashays her sexy ass my way.
Before we headed off to a local D-10 college, we celebrated finishing high school as champions. Paisley was there with us but so was half the town. Cheerleaders, sorority girls, and fraternity bros who were riding Connor’s jock before we had even gotten to college. All those girls were willing to give us a good time and we took it. It was both our first times, but it haunted us for years after.
People labeled him a man whore who partied with whatever girl wanted a piece of him. It could not have been further from the truth—they treated him like a sideshow attraction, and he regretted that night. Paisley walked in on me balls deep in her former best friend—something she hated us both for. It was not until Hailee came around and was able to forgive Connor for his mistakes that Paisley even spoke to me again.
Why I let that girl lead me off to after drinking too much, I still don’t know. Well, I do know—it was her best girlfriend at the time, who suspected how I felt about Paisley. She sold it to me that I could get my first time out of the way with her, so I could be good for Paisley. The second my dick came out, I knew it was a mistake. I did not care about that girl and all I could think about was it should have been Paisley with me.
