Page 58 of And Then There Was Us
“And Mack. Mack’s a special friend.” She shoved the pancake in her mouth.
“Yes, Mack is too. But Hugh is a little different kind of special friend,” Brianna explained. How on earth was she supposed to do this? She had no idea how to differentiate between one kind of special friend and another.
“Marissa’s mom has a special friend, and she said they kiss. Do you kiss Hugh?”
Brianna blew out a breath.I guess that’s how I differentiate.“Would it bother you if I did?”
Layla puckered her lips and wiggled her mouth from side to side. “Do you really like him? Because Grandma said girls should only kiss boys who they really, really like. And she said you have to kiss a lot of frogs to find a prince.”
“Grandma is right.”And she has a big mouth.“You should only kiss boys that you really, really like, and yes, I really, really like Hugh.”
Layla sat back on her heels and put her fork down. “I like him, too.”
“That’s good, Layla, because he likes you as well. He’d like to take us out Wednesday night. Would that be okay?”
She bobbed her head up and down with a toothy grin. “Where will we go?”
Brianna’s heart soared. “I’m not sure yet. Someplace special.”
Layla furrowed her brow. “Anywhere?”
“I think so. Where did you have in mind?” Brianna began clearing the table.
“I don’t know. You decide.” She jumped off her chair and ran to the table in the living room. “Do we have time to play Drama Queen?”
And just like that the conversation was over. She’d stewed all night over telling Layla about Hugh, and thirty seconds after hearing it, her child brain had already switched gears.If only it were that easy for adults.“Not before school, but you should know that Hugh is the one that bought that for you.” She checked her watch. In thirty minutes she’d be at Hugh’s house. In thirty-one minutes she’d be in his arms.
Layla bounced up and down. “Hugh bought this for me? How did he know I wanted it?”
Brianna smiled at her daughter’s enthusiasm. “I don’t know, but we’d better get your shoes on or we’ll be late.” She had decided to swing back by the apartment after dropping off Layla at school to change before going to see Hugh. Her stomach flipped and dipped.
In the foyer, Layla slid her blue-stockinged feet into her blue sneakers. “I know how he knew, Mommy. He’s magical. All princes are magical.”
He has magic hands, but I’m not sure he’s magical.“I think he’s just a really good guesser.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
HUGH PORED OVER the race schedule for the following year. He ran his hand through his hair, trying to figure out the best way to navigate a relationship with Brianna and still maintain his rigorous schedule. He’d been staring at the stinking thing for more than an hour, but no matter how much he tried, he couldn’t focus. It was a good thing he’d lessened his schedule. If he was having this much trouble with an abbreviated race schedule, there was no way he’d have been able to manipulate his way around the heavier competitions and fit in a relationship. The thought of Brianna working fifty hours in five days killed him. She needed more time with Layla, and certainly Layla needed more time with her mother. He pushed away from the table and paced.
The twisting in his gut told him it wasn’t just Layla he was worried about. How would he and Brianna find any time to be together? Racing took his entire focus. For three days of each race week he’d eat, breathe, and sleep racing. There would be press conferences before or after every race, sponsor shoots, dinners, award ceremonies. There was no way his girlfriend could work fifty hours each week and still attend events with him. If she were his—really his—she wouldn’t have to work a day in her life. She could get back into photography, have more time with Layla and with him. Hugh knew himself too well. He was an obsessive, competitive jerk, and the feelings he had toward Brianna weren’t that different from the ones he had toward racing. Since they’d met, he’d eaten, breathed, and slept with thoughts of her every second. He needed more time with her.
He walked to the glass doors in the living room and pulled them open, inhaling a deep, cleansing breath of the crisp morning air. It did nothing for him. He took another one, thinking about how women had always been like a new set of tires. He’d ride ’em hard and toss them away, never to think about them again. Brianna stuck in his mind like tar. Hot and present, impossible to shake off. And he loved her. He wantedmoretime with her, notless.
He wasn’t leaving town for another four days, and even then he’d be gone for only a night or two and it was already destroying him. He worried about Brianna working too many hours and he worried about Layla not spending enough time with her mother. He worried about the bearded man he’d had a talk with, even though he seemed to have listened. He worried about how he’d sleep the night before the race with all this mess running through his head. As it was, he was up half the night wishing she were beside him. How the heck did that happen so fast?
When his doorbell rang, he hadn’t even prepared breakfast, as he’d planned. He closed the glass doors and crossed the floor in his jeans and bare feet, then took a deep breath, trying to calm down. He reached for the doorknob, and only then did he realize his hands were fisted, the muscles in his arms and neck strung so tight he could play a tune off of them. The doorbell sounded again.
Brianna stood before him wearing a short coat that belted around the waist and stopped midthigh. Her legs were bare and shivering. Hugh’s eyes were on a downward scale, and the shivering should have stopped him, but the stiletto heels that she stood upon had him getting aroused despite his earlier frustration. She was a dream come true. He had no idea what she had on under that little coat of hers, but there was no way she was wearing that to work. Not today. Not ever, if he had anything to say about it. He forced his eyes back up her crazy, sexy outfit and lingered just above the belt, where his eyes caught on a swatch of skin. He followed the path of silky skin up between her breasts, clear to her succulent lips. Even through the fog of arousal, it registered that she wasn’t wearing a bra, and more likely wasn’t wearing anything beneath that coat. He pulled her inside and closed the door.
He backed her up against the wall. Adrenaline had already taken over his body before he opened the door. Now it mixed with testosterone, and he feared he might burst. He’d planned a lovely breakfast and a loving intimate interlude—until he’d received the revised race schedule when he’d checked his email, and he’d gotten lost in trying to reconfigure his life. Now Brianna’s scent assaulted him, and just knowing what she probably wasn’t wearing beneath that coat drove his mouth to hers.
“Well, hello to yo—”
He cut her short. All of the wanting of the last twenty-four hours and the emotions that made his chest ache and his groin yearn for Brianna exploded in a frenzy of erotic thoughts and carnal needs. He tangled his hands in her hair and tugged her head back, just enough to angle her mouth up so he could kiss her deeper, plundering every breath from her lungs. She made that sound that took him over the edge, a desperate, hungry moan that began somewhere deep inside her and vibrated through her chest. Hugh tugged at the belt on her jacket as she groped his body, fumbling with the button on his jeans and whimpering when she couldn’t set him free. He loved that sexy whimper.
With a grunt and a groan, he ripped the button off his jeans with one hand and managed to untie the belt of her coat with the other. Her lapels fell away, exposing a perfect path of skin down the center of her beautiful naked body. For a breath he was stunned. Frozen. He couldn’t think. The provocative look in her eye coalesced with the lust coursing through his body, and in that second he knew he’d never be able to be apart from her. She narrowed her eyes, and her lips parted for him.
“Oh,baby.” He wasn’t sure he actually said the words.
