Page 323 of Branded
A nod, remembering what he’d told Ethan in the park. “You have two sisters.”
“Yup,” he said on a beleaguered sigh. “Both younger.” His lips twitched. “Needless to say, I’ve waded through my fair share of drama and tears.”
“I always wanted a big family,” I whispered.
“It’s great,” he said, the truth in the frankness of his tone. “Even with a pesky annoying younger brother and two baby sisters who spent their formative years hogging the bathroom.”
I felt my eyes go wide. “You’re one of four?”
A grin that made me want to taste his smile.
“Trust me when I say it’s both fun and torture and”—he wrinkled his nose and that might have been the cutest thing I’d ever seen—“maybe a little more on the torturous side because my parents are in love.” Humor twinkling in those green eyes. “And by in love, I mean in love. They hold hands and make out and I swear to God, I’ve seen them sneak off in the middle of a party to go find a closet.”
My mouth dropped open.
Cas ran his thumb along my bottom lip. “Yeah. I know.”
I giggled. “That’s amazing.”
“It is,” he said softly. “But it’s a bit of a curse.”
That was…weird. “Um…why?”
“Because they set this standard for me. They showed me what I want to find in a relationship, and it’s so fucking great and perfect and”—a sigh—“it’s also been impossible to find.” Another brush of his thumb over my bottom lip. “At least, until I walked into CeCe’s and saw you.”
I sucked in a breath, decided that I couldn’t touch that, not if I didn’t want to end up in tears again. “So, you want to settle down?”
Which wasn’t much better to ask.
Because—with his fingers on my skin, with his body close—it implied too fucking much.
“Yeah, gorgeous,” he said. “I want to settle down.”
And the undertones in that…fuck. They hit hard and heavy and deep and fuck, they made me want all the things I shouldn’t. Again. Which was why I was standing with my body pressed to his from chest to thighs, Cas’s arm around me, his other hand on my face, stroking my skin. All that wanting. All that buried need.
All that stupidity.
Step away. I should step away.
It was late and cold, and I was wrapped in a pair of masculine arms when I should be in my car, driving away from the temptation of Cas.
A brush of his fingers across my cheek, sliding up toward my temple, tucking a loose strand of hair behind my ear.
An ear he bent toward.
An ear he whispered in.
“You, gorgeous. I want to settle down with you.” His tongue flicked out, grazed my earlobe, making me shiver. “Just in case that wasn’t clear before.”
My chin dropped to my chest.
“Fuck it,” I whispered.
Fingers tracing the shell of my ear. “What’s that, sweetheart?”
“Fuck it,” I whispered again.
“Jules?” he asked, concern entering his tone.
