Page 19 of Snowed in with My Protector

“I am too,” she whispers. She clears her throat, and it feels like she’s shaking off missing her mom. “One of the strongest memories of my mom, something I never forgot even when I couldn’t imagine her face or remember what her laugh sounded like, is the perfume she wore. She wore it every day.” She shrugs. “The scent of roses has always reminded me of Mom and taught me how powerful scent can be. That’s why I wanted to become a fragrance chemist.”

I’m stunned into silence for a moment, the intelligence of my woman slamming into me and humbling me. She’s brilliant and driven. “You’re pretty amazing.” I chuckle softly. “You smell like roses.”

She looks up at me and shoots me a shy smile. “Because one of the first things I worked on at Luxe Notes was a modern version of the perfume she used to wear.”

I can’t help but smile at how fucking adorable she is right now. “Good girl,” my voice is husky, and she preens under the praise. “What’s a memory you have of her?”

“I used to sit at her feet while she was putting her make up on. She’d style her hair and then do her make up. The last thing she’d do was spritz on some of her perfume.” Something dreamy crosses her face as if she’s right back there sitting at her mom’s feet. “Sometimes she would lean down and put some blush on my cheeks and when I asked, she’d spray some perfume and tell me walk through it.”

“That’s a sweet memory, Beautiful,” I rasp.

The depth of the emotion and love for her mom is written all over Fallon’s face. Those little moments, short as they may have been, helped to shape the woman I’ve been falling in love with since the moment she showed up on my mountain.

“Don’t get me wrong, I missed Mom, but still had a good childhood. Dad is an amazing man, and I was lucky to have him and my brother growing up. Even though there wasn’t anything to be done about feeling Mom’s loss, Dad never missed an event or an opportunity to support me.”

“Did your dad ever remarry?”

“No,” she sighs, “while I don’t know if I could have handled it when I was younger, I do wish he had someone at his side now that I’m an adult. I hate the thought of him being lonely. When I asked him about it a few years ago, he said,” she shakes his head and her voice drops into a lower octave like she’s impersonating him, “’There’s only one woman for me and I married her. A love like we had is a once in a lifetime thing. Now it’s my pleasure to go through this life with her memory while watching the piecesof her she left behind in you and Bodhi find happiness in your lives.’”

“Damn,” I grunt, “that has to be rough.”

“Yeah,” her mouth turns down in a frown. “I didn’t understand why he couldn’t open himself up to love again. I wasn’t sure if he was telling me the truth or if he just didn’t want me to feel like he was replacing Mom. I’m an adult now and would never think that.”

“I understand what he means.”

She rears back slightly, her eyes going round as her eyebrows pull together. She sounds shocked, “You do?”

I nod slowly. The thought of another woman sitting next to me right now and curled up with me makes my skin crawl. And that’s only after a few days around Fallon and falling for her. How would it be after years of being with her?

No. I can’t imagine trying to move on.

“When you’ve experienced perfection, you can’t settle. It wouldn’t be fair to someone else to try and live beside the memory of your mom,” I point out to her.

“Maybe you’re right,” she admits.

I can practically hear the wheels of her mind turning as she thinks about her parents. It doesn’t feel awkward at all and I’m more than willing to give her some time to process. I wonder if she realizes that I can only understand her dad now because I’ve met her.

If she doesn’t, she will soon enough.

My hand glides over her hip, my fingers making idle shapes on her body. The longer I touch her, the more my cock tries toescape my jeans. No, now is not the right time, not after the heavy conversation we’ve been having.

Yeah, tell that to my dick.

“Yeah,” she breathes out, “I can understand it more now. I remember one time when I was in the kitchen making cookies with Mom. I think it was around Christmas?” Her eyebrows pull together like she can’t quite get the memory right and I reach down to smooth out her brow. She shakes her head. “Whenever it was, Dad came in and walked right up to Mom, wrapped his arms around her and kissed her neck. Then the next thing I knew, they were dancing in the kitchen, the cookies forgotten and Mom’s laughter filling the room.”

I run my fingers through the soft strands of my woman’s hair. It hurts my heart that she lost her mom so early on her life, but I’m glad she got to see what love looks like. I wasn’t so lucky. Instead of seeing the kind of love I wanted for myself, I got to see what I never wanted in my life.

“I always told myself that I wanted the same kind of love,” her voice is thick with emotion.

“I’m glad you have that memory, Fallon.” There must be something in my voice because she looks up at me. I get lost in the blue grey of her eyes, trying to map them and understand the beauty in them, but I swear the color shifts slightly every time I look in her eyes. It all depends on her mood. “I didn’t learn from my parents about the kind of love I wanted, I got the opposite lesson.”

She winces, “Divorced?”

“Yup,” I pop the p. “Dad couldn’t keep it in his pants. I think he’s on wife number four at this point, maybe five.” I shrug one shoulder like it’s no big deal and, now, it really isn’t. “Ihaven’t really talked to him in years. Mom’s a good woman, she had much better luck in the love department when she met my stepfather.”

“I’m glad she found him then.”

“Me too.” I squeeze her against me tighter and then lean down to press my lips against hers.

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