Page 70 of Fighting for Brielle
Brielle smiled. “So…it’s official then. We’ve been parent-approved.”
Justice’s eyes turned dark with longing. “Not yet.” He cupped her face and molded his mouth to hers, holding back the full force of his passion by not using his tongue. Pressing her against him, he murmured, “Now, we’re official. I’ve missed making love to you, but tonight I just want to hold you in my arms. Nothing more.”
“What if I want more?” she asked, challenging him.
It killed him to deny her. “Not tonight. You just got out of the hospital, and right now you’re looking pale.” He scooped her with care into his arms and carried her into the master bedroom.
“I’m not an invalid,” Brielle complained.
“No. I just love having you in my arms like this.”
While he stripped down to his boxers, Brielle slipped into a sheer lavender nightgown with a lacy bodice and spaghetti straps. When Justice saw her in it, he groaned as his body reacted with a will of its own, making it difficult for him to keep his hands off her.
“Damn, woman. You’re killing me. I’ve never seen you in that piece of sexy lingerie before.”
Brielle smiled as she rubbed her hands and arms with moisturizer. “That’s because I’m always naked when we’re in bed.”
“Point taken. But imagining what’s underneath your nightgown is driving me crazy.” He bent and kissed her, teasing her nipples with his thumbs through the lacy bodice of the nightgown.
She broke the kiss and playfully chided him. “Justice, need I remind you that you said no sex tonight?”
He groaned again. “Dumb.”
Brielle chuckled as she pulled back the bed linens, slipped between the sheets and lay on her right side to avoid putting pressure on her left arm and leg. Justice crawled on the bed and wrapped his arms protectively around her.
He pushed aside her hair and whispered in her ear, “I really love you, Bri. You’re the most incredible woman I’ve ever met.”
She shivered in his arms as his breath caressed her neck. Turning her head, her mouth met his in a warm, searing kiss. Her tongue slid between his lips, causing him to moan low in his throat.
“I love it when you kiss me like that, Tiger Eyes.”
Brielle shifted a little more toward him so she could look into his eyes. “I love you, Justice. Without question.”
He kissed her deeply for long moments, savoring the taste of her lips beneath his, his heart full of love, his soul at peace.
* * *
Brielle recuperated quickly under Justice’s tender loving care. Every morning he cooked breakfast for her after working out with Dooley on the beach. While he was on duty, he sent his officers to her house to check on her. Sometimes they brought her lunch, stayed for a cup of coffee and a piece of cake, and even ran errands for her. By the time she was cleared to return to the job two weeks later she swore she had met every cop on the Laguna Beach police force!
At night members of both her and Justice’s teams stopped by with dinner and to hang out with them. They played cards and board games and watched the Oakland A’s on ESPN. Sometimes they went down to the beach where they built a fire, made s’mores, and sang songs as River strummed his guitar.
One evening when Finnigan and Tawny happened to be at Brielle’s house at the same time, which she suspected one or the other deliberately maneuvered, sparks flew.
“So, Red, what’d you bring for dinner tonight?” Finnigan asked. She uncovered a casserole dish filled with chicken and yellow rice and…peas. He made a face. “I can’t stand peas.”
“Well, Finnicky Finny, you can just pick them out if you don’t want to eat them,” Tawny suggested as she shot daggers at him.
Throughout dinner and the card game afterward, Tawny’s constant insults thrown at Finnigan took their toll on him. When he could no longer bear them, he muttered, “You know, I can think of a better way for you to use that tongue, Red.”
That shut her up. But she glared at him the rest of the night. Even so, he asked her for a date.
“Wanna go out with me, Red? Practice using your tongue on me?” he tossed, a smirk on his face.
“Drop dead, Finnicky Finny.”
“I might, if you keep cutting me down.”
Brielle just shook her head as she and Justice exchanged a look.
