Page 45 of Reckless

“Me either.” She clinked her spoon to his and then he, the cad, sucked all her ice cream off! “Cheeky!”

That made him laugh. “My mum uses cheeky all the time.”

“Enough about my fucked up family. Tell me something aboutyourlife.”

He snorted as he held up a spoonful of ice cream for her. “In exchange for what I swiped from you earlier.”

That made her laugh but that didn’t stop her from eating his ice cream.

“My family is fucked up in its own way. Like most families. I didn’t know who my dad was for many years. Neither did my mum, who is biologically my aunt, but she adopted me when I was born. Anyway, I had a birth mother who avoided me, but my mum shielded me from it and loved me so fiercely and filled my life with other people who cared about me that I never noticed. It was when my birth mother died that we finally found out who my father was. My mother braved so much to go to Adrian to tell him about me. And she did it for me. Not for herself and not even for my dad.

“And suddenly my life was full of Browns. My dad made it absolutely clear from the start that he wanted to be an active part of my life. My aunt, Erin, and uncle, Brody, their kids, and partners all opened their lives to me and made a spot I’d be comfortable in. I used to be shy and quiet.”

That made her laugh.

“Truly I was. And they respected that too even though they were loud and brash and full of music and art. The longer I was around them, the more I came out of my shell. It’s still a little anxious before a show and I do like my privacy very much. But I’m a far more outgoing personality than I was then.”

Who wasn’t?

But she got his point. And liked very much that he had this large family unit who had done nothing but love him with all their hearts.

It was on the tip of her tongue to ask him about other girlfriends or boyfriends in his past. She’d gotten a quick overview when she’d looked him up online. But so much of that stuff was half true or basically all rumor and it had felt sort of yucky to dig deeper rather than just ask him.

Harlow gathered all their dishes and put them and the tray out in the hall before returning to the bedroom. She paused in the doorway, just watching him clear off the bed and straighten everything.

He was beautifully masculine. Tall with long legs and delightfully muscled thighs. Wide shoulders. The line of his jaw covered by his beard was still sharp, his arms covered in the same dark hair as his chest. His ink was a work in progress, she’d noted, but it managed to cover so much of his back and shoulders without being too heavy. A Celtic dragon in black and gray with a tiny bit of white shading here and there. Quietly powerful. Sort of how Miles was.

When he had clothes on, he was absurdly gorgeous. Naked? He was magnificent. Either way, Harlow had to take a moment extra to appreciate the way he made her feel. He took care of things to make her life easier. He listened. He walked in front of her to part the crowd when they were backstage. She could do things for herself. Did so every day and would continue that. She liked being independent and self-reliant.

But she also liked being able to lean on someone. Had gotten used to it even as she remained grateful for him.

CHAPTERFOURTEEN

“You should take your clothes off,” she said, leaning her hip against the nearby desk.

“I should? Do you have dirty plans for me? Because that’d be great.” He grinned.

“The day I don’t have dirty plans for you is the day I’m unconscious. And even then.” She pulled her t-shirt off and folded it before laying it over the back of a chair.

He matched her by disposing of his shirt and unceremoniously shoving his sleep pants down, stepping out of them and tossing them to the chair where her clothes had landed too.

And then he was utterly naked as he came toward her, stealing her breath because he was so much. It might have been too much for her even six months earlier, but where she was in her life right then? She looked upon just what and who Miles was to her and though she was anxious about it, about fucking it up, she welcomed it. Wanted the enormity of this person in her life. And she wasn’t just thinking of his lovely dick with that delightful, thick hoop with those beads that hit everything worth stroking every time he thrust into her pussy.

He watched her through slumbrous eyes and she met that with a smile that told him what she was thinking,

Then he crooked his finger in her direction with a c’mere motion and she probably should have made him do the moving but why the fuck not move there to him so she could get her hands on the man?

The way he looked at her was nearly as much as a caress. It left her feeling beautiful and desired. Powerful that someone like him would want her this way.

He opened his arms as she neared and she walked into his embrace, pausing to bury her face in the curve of his shoulder, taking a deep breath of his skin. Of that scent that she believed she’d know in the dark. Just like she’d know the feel of his body against hers, the muscles in his forearm and biceps bunching as he moved.

“What you do to me, Harlow Martin, what you do to me,” Miles murmured against her hair.

Whatshedid tohim? What about the way he waltzed right into her life and had her telling him things she’d only told less than three people before he came along?

All thoughts skittered away like a leaf in a breeze when he reached up and cupped her throat, holding her in place as he moved, kissing along her shoulder and then to her mouth.

The frantic beat of her pulse against his fingers as he cupped her throat called to him. Miles held her that way and she melted into him. It quieted everything outside, allowing him to focus on her. On Harlow and her pleasure.

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