Always and Forever (16 page)

“You’re rotten,” I mumble as I bend to break again. I turn my head to look at him.
“Be quiet.” Then I hit the cue ball which sends the multicolored balls spinning across
the table. When I stand, I add. “And you’re supposed to bet something I don’t want
to do. Stripes,” I tell him and line my stick up to hit a striped ball in and miss.

“What fun is there in that?” he responds as he bends toward the table to take his
shot, his eyes moving over it as he decides which ball he wants to hit. And it’s silly,
I know, but he looks so sexy doing that, all focused and into it, his eyes narrowing
on different places on the table and without meaning to, I let out an audible moan.
Jeez.

He stands upright and glances over at me then leans his stick against the table and
walks my way, his hazel eyes glittery-green with desire. Gah. When he reaches me,
he takes my stick and rests it against the wall behind me then picks me up, placing
me on the edge of the table and steps between my legs.

He puts his hands on the table at either side of me and looks me in the face. “You
look at me like that again and this game is over.”

I move forward and skim my lips over his jaw. “That a threat or a promise?” I mumble.

I hear him growl deep in his throat as he leans in to me, making me lie back on the
table. He bites my hipbone through my jeans then his hand pushes my sweater up at
my belly and he kisses me there making me moan and lace my fingers into his hair to
hold him there.

We hear someone clearing their throat and he stands straight just before I pop up
then hop off the table. John, our waiter from yesterday, is standing there looking
uncomfortable as all get out, his face as red as one of the firetrucks Brody rides
in. “S-sorry. I, uh, just wanted to see if you guys needed another pitcher of beer.”

Brody snorts and knocks into me playfully. “Whaddya think, Pipe. We need another pitcher
of beer?”

I look at John. “That would be a no, but thank you,” I tell him and he nods then turns
and practically runs out of there.

Brody walks over and picks up his cue stick leaning down at the table taking another
look. “You’re so bad.”

I frown as I grab my own stick from the wall. “Me?”

He takes the shot knocking a solid into the side pocket then moves around the table
to take his next shot. “You gave the poor kid a boner.”

I gasp. “I did not!”

He nods as he pushes the stick to hit the cue ball. “You did.” He knocks another solid
ball in and repositions for his next shot. “He’s probably in the bathroom jacking
off to visions of you sprawled out on this table.”

“At least I turned someone on,” I mutter. And that’s it. Game over.

I squeal as Brody stalks toward me and I back up to the wall. When he reaches me,
he bends sticking his shoulder in my stomach and picks me up.

“I win,” he says as he carries me out of there.

“We didn’t finish!” I say through my laughter kicking my legs.

“Game called on account of rain,” he says as he walks through the lobby toward the
stairs.

“It’s not raining,” I say through my giggles.

“Oh, someone’s getting ready to be wet,” he answers and I groan.

“That was bad. Worst pick-up line ever,” I point out.

He reaches the stairs and starts climbing. “Picked you up, didn’t I?” he says smugly.

And, yep, I guess he had.

~~~

“Don’t stop…” I beg breathily, my hands locked in Brody’s hair holding his mouth against
me between my legs as his tongue flicks over my clit. “Oh, God, please…”

I’m so close.
So close!
And then he’s gone and I cry out his name.

“Wanna be in you when you come,” he states and pulls me up by my waist to him where
he’s sitting on his knees on the bed. He then holds his cock and slides me down on
it slowly which makes me gasp.

He won the bet and now I’m “paying” up in the most fabulous way.

I wrap my legs and arms around him as he holds my bottom and starts thrusting up inside
me. He kisses me softly but still deep and wet then pulls back, his eyes burning green
on mine. “Fucking missed you,” he grinds out, his voice gruff. “Didn’t know if I’d
ever get you back.” He surges up hard, grinding himself into me making me moan. He
continues moving in me, his hips pumping up into mine. “Got you now… never letting
you go.” His mouth now comes down hard on mine as he wraps an arm around me, the other
going down where his fingers hit the right spot and I shatter to pieces, crying out
as I pulse around his cock. “That’s my girl…” he says on a groan and powers up inside
harder, faster, deeper.

He falls forward on a hand, his arm around me laying me gently on the bed. I keep
my legs wrapped around his waist as he drives inside more slowly gazing down at me,
the look on his face one of reverence.

God, I love this man.

I wrap my arm behind his neck and pull him down for a kiss, then whisper how I feel
about him against his lips.

As he moves inside me, he clasps his hand with my other hand and pulls it to his lips
kissing the top of it before stretching it out above my head, his fingers still sealed
with mine.

He continues making love to me so slowly, so sweetly, his eyes never leaving mine,
and right before he comes, his lips cover mine and his whisper against them echoes
mine.

~~~

When we go down the next morning for breakfast, the place is actually all a-bustle
with people walking around the lobby and a few at the counter checking in. I glance
toward the front and see the snow has stopped. Hm. Guess with all the great sex I
was having I hadn’t noticed.

Brody and I are seated at a table and after we order our food, I take a sip of coffee
then announce as I look across at him, “Maybe we can go out snowmobiling today.”

He grimaces with a shake of his head takes a sip of coffee then sets his cup down.
“My plane flies out in a couple hours.”

I blink at him.

“Babe. Gotta get back to work.”

“What?” I’m stunned and I just stare at him. I know it’s dumb, but it’s been so nice
being in our own little world, all our problems out of sight that this work thing
never even entered my mind.

He reaches a hand over and cups my jaw. “Baby. You know I’m two on and four off. Go
back in tomorrow.” He drops his hand when the waiter brings our plates.

We eat in silence for a few minutes before I look up at him. “I’ve still got two days
left and just thought… I mean… this has just been so…” I’m at a loss for words and
shake my head as I stare at him.

“Nice?” he offers. “It has. I’ve loved having this time with you and can’t wait for
you to get back so we can be ‘us’ again.” He shoves a big bite of pancakes in his
mouth. What he says makes me frown. Through his chewing he asks, “What?”

I put my fork down and look at him. I know it’s not right but it’s what’s in my head
right now. “I don’t know if I can do that.”

His brow comes down. “Do what?” He picks up a piece of bacon and chomps on it.

I suck in a breath. “Be… ‘us,’”

He stops chewing and looks back at me, confused. “What do you mean?”

I shake my head again. “I’m not sure what I mean. I mean, I do, but I don’t know how
to put it.”

He takes a drink from his water glass and sets it down, his eyes narrowing on me.
“Explain,” he says and it comes out sounding a little dangerous.

I throw up my hands. “We’ve been apart for over a year, Brody! We just can’t waltz
right back into town and pick things up as if nothing happened!”

His eyes go cold. “Why not?”

“I don’t know why not, we just can’t!”

I know it doesn’t sound right, but it makes perfect sense to me. It’s like if we were
to just be back together all of a sudden it’d almost be embarrassing. Yep. That’s
what’s going through my head.

“You saying we’re not together then?” He’s glaring now. Ugh.

I drop my eyes to the table. “I—I don’t know.”

He stands so quickly his chair almost falls over and my eyes dart up at him as I gasp.
He glares down at me, which makes me swallow roughly then in the name of propriety
(ugh) I look around with an apologetic smile at the people around us who’ve turned
to see what the commotion is. Brody pulls his wallet from his back pocket, yanks out
two twenties and throws them on the table then leans down putting his hands on it
and looks me in the eye. “Fucking came up here to beg you to forgive me. Told you
how I feel, how goddamned miserable I’ve been without you.” His hazel eyes have flashed
to a dark golden brown and are steely on mine. “You wanna take that away from me now,
you fucking go for it. But don’t expect me to be around when you get back.” Then he
turns and leaves.

Well, that went great.

I sit there embarrassed because I know people are looking at me but decide it’d be
even more humiliating to get up and leave at this point, so taking a breath I pick
up my coffee mug, have a drink then finish my breakfast acting as if everything’s
fine and dandy.

While I eat, I think about what just happened and how what I’d said had actually made
sense to me when it came out of my mouth. It’s not like I was saying we couldn’t be
together; I was simply suggesting that we needed to ease back into it. I mean, here
at the resort where there were no prying eyes and nobody knew about our past it was
easy. At home everyone was well-versed in pretty much everything about us, another
amazing advantage of living in a small town, and I think what I really meant was that
I wanted it just for us without all of Serenity Point’s prying eyes on us.

When I finish, I sit at the table for as long as I feel is necessary before I can
get up and leave with a bit of dignity, not knowing why I give a shit about what these
people think but whatever. I finally get up and walk out and at the top of the stairs,
go to Brody’s door and knock but he doesn’t answer.

“Brody?” I call. “I’m sorry. I didn’t mean it. What I meant was that we’d be together
but we’d have to ease into it gradually so we wouldn’t look like we’re jumping into
things.”

I stand there waiting for him to open the door, again wondering why the fuck I care
what anyone thinks, then knock again and holler, “Brody?”

When he still doesn’t answer, I sigh and give up then walk the six feet to my door
pulling out my card to unlock it.

“Were you looking for the gentleman who was in this room?” a woman asks.

I look over to see the tall, middle-aged woman who’d been at the desk checking people
in earlier. “Yes.”

“Oh, he checked out about ten minutes ago. You just missed him.” She smiles then swipes
a card in the slot and goes inside as I stand staring as the door closes behind her.

He left? Shit!

I turn and sprint down the stairs, through the lobby and out the front doors to see
if I can catch him. There are tons of SUVs in the parking lot so it takes me a while
but when I don’t see the one he rented I choke out a sob. I call him but he doesn’t
answer. I text him telling him I’m sorry and ask if he’ll come back so I can explain.
As I wait for him to answer, I dance back and forth from foot to foot because it’s
freakin’ cold outside. But after several minutes when he doesn’t respond, I turn and
go inside. When I get in my room, I crawl into my favorite chair and stare at the
fireplace.

Then I cry myself to sleep.

Chapter 14

“I know I’m an idiot!” I hiss into my phone. “You don’t think I think that already?”

After I’d woken up in the chair an hour later, I’d tried calling Brody again but got
sent straight to voicemail. I’d left what I thought was a heartfelt, apologetic and
explanatory message hoping he’d understand and now I’m talking to Greer.

“Let me get this straight. He takes the time to find out where you are, books a resort
that costs four-hundred dollars a night, probably more since he hadn’t booked in advance
and they always jack up the price in such cases, flies six and a half hours just to
see you, in the middle of a blizzard, no less, and you tell him you can’t be with
him? What the hell were you thinking, Piper?” she semi-screams at me.

Jeez.

“I didn’t tell him we
couldn’t
be together. I just said we couldn’t be together
right now
. And this place costs four-hundred dollars a night? Oh, my God!”

“Yes, but he probably had to pay at least six hundred.”

“Jesus. I need to marry an optometrist,” I throw out there.

“Piper,” she warns.

“I know, I know. Like I said, I’m an idiot, but can you at least see a little what
I meant?”

I hear her sigh. “I do, but, sweetie, it’s Brody. It’s not like it’d be some big scandal
if you guys were back together. And since when did you start giving a shit about what
people think anyway? Huh?”

I shake my head. “I don’t know. I guess I’ve heard so much bullshit about us over
the past year, all the gossip and speculation, I just didn’t want to have to deal
with more of it.”

“That
bullshit
applies only to Peyton and her idiot clique. As far as I know, everyone else in town
has been sad for you two and would probably throw a friggin’ party if they knew you
got back together.”

I rub a hand over my forehead suddenly exhausted even though I just woke up. “You’re
right. I’m so dumb.”

“You’re not dumb but what you said to him was dumb.”

“There’s a difference?” I tuck my knees closer to my chest and rest my chin on the
top. “You think he’ll take me back?”

Talk about turnabout being fair play. He’d risked a lot coming up here and trying
to make amends with me. Now I was going to have to do the same with him. I just didn’t
know if he’d be as amenable to my pleas as I’d been to his. Well, I hadn’t been on
board at first, but throw not having sex for over a year into the mix and it’d led
to my listening and giving him a chance to explain. I just hoped he’d do the same
for me. Listen, that is. And be horny. Being horny helped, too.