Page 108 of The Runaway Bride of Blossom Branch

She laughed softly. “You read minds now? I was just imagining you as the big bad wolf.”

“Ready to gobble you up?”

“Something like that.”

In the bathroom, he set her on her feet. “Don’t move,” he said. He turned on the water, adjusting the temperature until he was satisfied. The walls and floor were done in travertine tile complemented with brushed brass fixtures. Large, fluffy amber towels—soft and luxurious—hung nearby.

“All that tile looks awfully slippery,” Cate said. “I hope you aren’t considering anything too acrobatic.”

Harry’s quick grin warmed her to her toes. “No Cirque du Soleil, I promise.” He held out his hand. “Join me.”

Her hands were ice-cold. Her veins pulsed with a combination of eagerness and anxiety. Harry continued to ask for more trust, more intimacy. She wouldn’t have minded if he hadn’t made his stance on permanence so painfully clear. He was adamantly opposed to bringing a woman into his family, giving her the Harrington name. Was there any hope of changing his mind?

She lifted her chin and unfastened the knot at her waist. Then she let the robe slide to the floor in a pool of inky silk.

Harry sucked in an audible breath.

They had been intimate multiple times. She knew so much about his body and so little about the secrets hidden inside him.

Carefully, she stepped over the small ledge and into the shower enclosure. There was no door. The shower was large. The water simply drained to the center and disappeared, not impacting the bathroom at all except for the cloud of steam.

Cate winced when the water hit her shoulder.

“Too hot?” Harry asked.

“Maybe a little.”

He adjusted the faucet one more time and pulled her close. “Wet is a good look on you,” he said, the words hoarse.

When she felt his hands settle on her ass, she nestled closer, resting her cheek on his chest. “How many women have you entertained here?” she asked. As soon as the words left her mouth, she stiffened, mortified. “Sorry. I didn’t mean to ask that.”

He tipped up her chin and stared into her eyes. Drops of water lingered on his dark lashes. Gray eyes blazed with emotion. “But you want to know?”

“Yes.”

“You’re the first.” His self-mocking smile confused her. “And you’re the first person I’ve invited to move in with me.”

What was he saying?“No other runaway brides?”

“Only you, Cate.”

Twenty-Seven

The oddest mix of feelings clogged Cate’s chest. Could she believe him? And did it really matter?

Because she didn’t know if it mattered or not, she shoved away the confusion and concentrated on the way he felt in her arms. Harry was a rock, a port in a storm, an anchor. All those clichés.

When she fled the church on the day of the wedding, Harry was the only person who showed up outside to help her. At least in that moment. And he had kept showing up...mostly. She couldn’t forget about those two weeks when he disappeared.

Had he fled because the two of them hadalmostkissed in the upstairs hallway? Or because he had admitted to being jealous once upon a time?

Why did the man have to be so mysterious?

Harry pinched her butt. Hard.

“Hello in there,” he said. “Where did you go, Cate?”

Apparently, her troubling thoughts had lasted long enough to be notable.Dumb mistake.Why was shethinkingat all right now when the man she wanted was naked and available?

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