Page 51 of A Touch of Heaven

“Nothing as bad as you. Don’t worry. You still hold the title of being the biggest jackass in the Anderson family.” She sighs when I look at her. Little brat is testing me now, even though I know I deserve it.

“He said that I’m just like every other girl. Always falling for the wrong guy when the right guy is in front of me.”

“And the wrong guy is…” I ask. I’m hoping it’s still me.

“It doesn’t matter, does it? Not anymore,” she says quietly. She avoids my eyes, playing with the straw in her drink, stabbing the ice cubes with it.

I grab her chin, pulling her face up to look at me. “Me?” I ask her bluntly. I need to hear it. “I’m that guy, right?”

She sighs a little dramatically, and it’s cute.

“He thinks that the reason I won’t give him and me a chance is because of how I feel about you.” I watch her face flush a little, but her eyes are upon me this time. She’s not looking away, but directly into my eyes.

“And how does he think you feel about me, Brooke?”

She rolls her eyes at that one.

“Fine. We can put that one to the side for now. Let me try a different one. What does he think I feel for you?”

She pulls her face from my hand, physically distancing herself from me, and I know I’ve pushed a button.

“He doesn’t know what you said to me on the beach if that’s what you’re saying. But he kept bringing you up, so I’m assuming he thinks you like me. Like something could happen between us. You’ve made it perfectly clear what you think of me.”

I’m also a few drinks in at this point and feeling a buzz myself. The good kind, the one where I finally want to be honest with her. I look down at her. The worry makes her nose crinkle, her breathing a little irregular from the nerves of coming clean to me about why they argued. I reach down and touch her chin, tipping it slightly, making her look up at me.

“What if he’s right? What if I am crazy about you? What if I want you more than anything in this world?”

I gaze into her gorgeous pale green eyes for a few moments longer, feeling like I’m drowning in them. I’ve always been drowning in them since the day I met her. She just never knew. “Because that’s all true,” I whisper quietly, just loud enough for her to hear me.

I watch her lips softly part to say something, and I lean down, hesitating for a fraction of a second before claiming them with mine. There’s no hesitation in my kiss. I run my tongue along her lips before I feel hers parting more for me before I slip my tongue into her mouth, taking hers with mine. Pouring out every feeling I have for her. Showing her that everything I said before was a lie.

I hear her moan into the kiss, and my hand finds her waist, pulling her closer. Her delicate hand trails up to my chest and around my neck as my hand cups her face and weaves into her hair. God, her gorgeous silky hair, I’ve wanted in between my fingers like this for so long.

I finally pull away slowly as I see her swollen lips, her chest heaving as she gasps for breath, and I can’t help but grin down at her. My beautiful princess is breathless for me.

“That was…” she trails off, and I pull her back into another kiss. The kiss is even more passionate this time, and I show her how much I need her. How she’s always been my light in the dark. I slowly run my hand up her inner thigh, and she moans into the kiss.

God, how much I have missed that noise. I’ve craved it since the moment I elicited it from her lips the first night here. I want more. I need more, but it isn’t appropriate for me to do this to her where we are.

Not yet.

I pull back. “Incredible,” she says, finishing her last words, and I can’t help but chuckle at her reaction.

“Better than I ever imagined it would be, Brooke.” I watch her fingers trail over her lips as if she’s imagining it still happening.

“You’re beautiful, you know. I hated Nate saying that to you. It should have been me every single time.”

Her nose crinkles again as she disappears into her head.

“But you said I was nothing to you. Just a little virgin,” her voice catches, and I hate she remembers that night.

“I’ll spend every day of my life making that up to you, Brooke, if you’ll let me. I knew Nate liked you. I knew he was telling you this summer. He never told me, but it was obvious. And you know the stuff I do with Asher and Jax now.” I run my hand through my hair, pushing it back as I sigh. “I didn’t want to pull you into that, but the truth is, Brooke, the day I met you, you changed my life. You wormed yourself into my heart with your giggle and pigtails, and I’ve been in love with you ever since.”

CHAPTERTWENTY-EIGHT

BROOKE

The first kiss takes me off guard, the second one even more so, and my head starts spinning as he comes clean to me. I don’t know what to do, what to say. All I can focus on is him telling me he’s in love with me. All the pain and hurt from the last few days start fading away. His fingers slowly stroke over my inner thigh, sending me into a tizzy.

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