Page 75 of And Then There Was Us
“Bree, I’m not a halfway guy.”
“I know, and I’m not a halfway girl.”
She moved closer to him, and he pulled her onto his lap. He needed to feel her close, to know he wasn’t losing her.
“I guess my father’s leaving did have a profound effect on me. I worry about it. I worry that no matter how much someone loves me, how much you love me, you might find someone better along the way and Layla and I would get really hurt. But it’s not just you. I think I’d be that way with any man, which is probably why I wasn’t so upset about Layla’s father not wanting to be involved from the beginning. It was easier to be alone than to worry about being abandoned.”
He felt his heart come back together. If Hugh had learned one thing about himself over the past few days, it was that he was capable of love. He knew he was loyal and honest and, without hesitation, he loved Brianna. He’d never abandon her. Before he could reassure her, she continued.
“I was afraid I’d run if I saw women all over you, because running away would be so much easier than being left behind. But then I saw you with those women tonight, and you didn’t give them a second glance. Your entire focus was on our safety. Our feelings.”
“Of course,” he whispered.
“Maybe to normal people it would be aduhmoment. Anof coursemoment. To me, it was an awakening.”
She touched his cheek. “You love me,” she said. It wasn’t a question. It was a confirmation.
He closed his eyes for a beat, relishing in the feel of her. “I do. Very much.” Relief eased his shoulders down a little lower.
“And you love Layla.”
“Very much.”
She nodded and pressed her hands against his chest. “Does that happen a lot?”
Her hands stirred a different type of warmth in him. “What?”
“Autographs, cameras.”
“Yes. Sometimes. Someone from the theater must have leaked that I was there. I’m sorry you had to experience that.” He laid his hand on her bare knee.
“I’m not. It helped me realize how silly I was being. I worried so much about Layla getting hurt—about me getting hurt—that I was ready to hide for eighteen years. I can’t hide from what we have, Hugh. Tonight I realized that I don’t want to. And the next time I fall into awhat-ifstage—and trust me, I will—will you please remind me that I’m being an idiot?”
He felt his cheeks lift with a smile. “No.” He laughed under his breath. “I know better than to do that. If you’re anything like you were tonight, it wouldn’t have mattered if I had carried you behind the curtains and made sweet love to you.” Great, now he had that image in his head. “You were in a place all your own. Untouchable.” Mack’s words came rushing back to him.She doesn’t love easily.“Teach me how. I’ll do anything for you.”
She leaned forward and pressed her lips to his.
“That wouldn’t have worked. You were too upset. You would have smacked me. Help me help you, Bree. I’m being sincere. How can I break through next time without upsetting you further?”
She unbuttoned his shirt and slid her hand across his chest. Now he was aroused again. She was seriously messing with his equilibrium.
“Next time I do that…” She leaned in close and took his neck in her mouth, sucking lightly. “We need a code word.”
He was still stuck on her tongue on his neck. “Code…”
“Mm-hmm,” she said. “If I get the what-ifs, you say—”
“Sidecar.”
She wrinkled her nose. “Sidecar?”
“Yes. It will remind you of the night we first met.” He pulled her mouth back down to his neck.
“Sidecar,” she whispered before taking his neck in her mouth again.
His broken heart reassembled and slammed against his chest. Her tongue stroked his neck. She came away from his neck with her lips parted, curling into a coy smile as he lowered his mouth to them, filling her with all the love he had. Their mouths fit together perfectly, and their bodies melded together. She looked at him hungrily, and he knew they were once again in sync.
“Bree?”
