Love Restored (20 page)

Only, things never worked out as they should, and Blake was afraid if she didn’t keep trying, didn’t keep running, everything would fall apart around her once again.

Graham took her hand and squeezed as they made their way from the car to his house. “You’re thinking too hard again.”

She let out a shaky breath. “I’m scared.”

He let them inside before closing the door behind them and cupping her face. “What are you scared about?”

Him. The world. Her daughter.

Everything.

“What if they take Rowan away from me?” She blinked back tears, annoyed that yet again she’d let her emotions get away from her. “I don’t know what I’d do without her, but more importantly, Rowan doesn’t want to live with them. They’ve never even met her. They didn’t even
try
until they figured they could take her away from me to punish me. They don’t love her, they don’t even know her. They just blame me for their son’s death, and want to punish me. And this is the only way they can think to do it.”

Graham wiped away her tears and kissed her lips, one soft brush, then another. “Breathe, baby.”

She did, though it didn’t help.

“They have no leg to stand on. You’re a good mom. Your kid is doing phenomenal in school. You have a roof over your head, a job with benefits, and one that will allow you to take time off to care for your kid. You have a support system here, even if we’re new. We’re not going to let these people take Rowan. The courts will see that. Will see that you’re so fucking strong, and a fucking amazing mom. Now, kiss me, babe. Kiss me and let me kiss you. Just
be
for a bit. Just be with me tonight. Can you do that? Can you let me take care of you? Because seeing you like this kills me, and the only thing I can think of tonight is making sure you know, making sure you
feel
that you’re cared for, that you’re with me.”

She melted into his arms. “I think…I think that sounds wonderful.”

“Do you want it slow?” he asked, his hand trailing down her back to cup her ass. “Or fast? Maybe a little of both?”

Her head tilted back, and she sighed. “Yes, please.”

He smiled before he took her mouth. When she moaned into him, he gripped her ass with both hands and lifted her up into his arms as she wrapped her legs around his waist. His hands massaged her as they kissed, their tongues colliding, their breaths coming in pants.

Graham carried her to the couch and set her down on her feet so her heels were pressed to the back of the fabric and her butt rested right on top. When he tugged on her shirt, she lifted her arms, allowing him to slowly strip it from her body, their gazes never leaving each other. The coolness of the room sent shivers along her skin, goose bumps emerging.

“You’re so fucking beautiful,” he said softly, his voice gruff.

With his eyes still on her, she reached around and undid the clasp of her bra. It fell into her hands in front of her, baring herself fully to him. He reached out and tugged on one nipple almost casually, though his gaze was still on her eyes.

“I love your nipples. I can see them when you get excited or cold through your shirt. No matter how thick your bra is, I always know when your nipples are hard.” He lowered his head and took one into his mouth, flicking his tongue back and forth over the turgid peak.

“Jesus,” she groaned, her head falling back. He rolled her other nipple between his fingertips before switching sides and biting down. Her knees shook as he pulled away and pressed her breasts together with his hands, massaging and squeezing.

“I love fucking these,” he growled before licking each nipple and pulling away again. “They’re too big for my hands, but for my cock? Just the right size. And hell, I love watching you overfill my hands with these gorgeous tits of yours.”

“Are you going to wax poetic about my boobs for the rest of the night, or are you going to make me come?”

He grinned at her before holding one breast and slapping at her nipple. She let out a shocked gasp that ended on a moan as the sharp sensation shot from her nipple to her clit.

“Holy hell,” she gasped.

“Get mouthy with me again, babe. We’ll see how long you last before you’re coming on my hand, my face, my dick.” He moved quickly, his hand going up her skirt and around her panties as he speared her with two fingers. She screamed his name, her body shaking—though still only close to the edge, not falling over it. “You’re fucking drenched for me, Blake. Think you can come like this? With just my hands and your skirt still on? If you come right now, I’ll eat you out and lick up every sweet drop of your cream. What do you say?”

In answer, she rocked her hips, gripping his forearm to keep her balance. The fact that his veins popped out on his very muscled forearm as the rest of his hand was hidden by her skirt just made her hotter. She rolled her hips, fucking herself on his hand as she inched closer and closer to the edge.

When he pressed his thumb to her clit, she came, her knees shaking and her body breaking out in a sweat. Graham lowered his head to her neck and sucked, keeping her orgasm going as long as possible, longer than she’d thought possible.

He slid his hand out from under her skirt and licked his fingers clean before groaning. “Fuck, I missed your taste. On your back. Spread your legs. Now.”

Because she wanted to come again, she did as he ordered. Next time, she’d order him on his knees to eat her out, but for now, she just wanted his head between her thighs, his beard scraping her skin, and his tongue on her cunt.

She spread her legs, and Graham quickly stripped off his shirt before kneeling down in front of her and burying his face between her knees. Her body bowed as he licked her, sucked, and bit. When his hands joined in, she shook, coming hard enough that she was sure she’d almost strangled him as she clamped around his head. He pressed down on her inner thighs with his hands, spreading her even more as he licked along one side of her cunt, then the other.

She tried to pull away, her body shaking, needing him, but he kept going. When the softness of his beard scraped her clit, she came. Again.

She’d freaking come from his
beard.

“In me,” she panted. “Now.”

He was naked with a condom on in the next blink. Where he’d found the damn thing, she didn’t know, but right then, all that mattered was that she was about to be fucked.

“You’re so fucking gorgeous when you come,” he growled as he slid his cock between her folds, teasing.

She reached between them and squeezed the base of his dick. “Less talking. More fucking.”

He thrust into her to the hilt, and they both shouted. When he leaned over her, gripped the back of her neck, and forced her gaze to his, she fell for him all over again.

“Just you and me, Blake. No one else. Nothing else except this, except what we have. You understand? It’s just you and me.”

She nodded, though she didn’t understand at all. And when he started to move, she fell into rhythm with him, her body and his becoming one, her soul breaking because she knew he might never be hers in truth.

But when he slowed, their eyes locked, her heart thudding and her mind whirling. They came together. This wasn’t just fucking, it was making love. She didn’t know what it meant, what it would mean in the future. When they fell into a pile of limbs on the couch, he tucked her close, and she closed her eyes, afraid he’d see too much.

He ran his hands down her body, and she burrowed into him, hiding her face.

She was in love with Graham Gallagher, and the idea that she’d have to let him walk away when the time came hurt more than she’d thought possible, more than she could bare. She shouldn’t have risked herself, but she’d never been good at making the right decisions.

So Blake would do what she did best: protect her daughter and try to do the same for her heart.

Again.

Graham checked the time on his phone for the eighth time in the past thirty minutes and called himself all kinds of fool. Blake and Rowan would be at the site any moment to pick up Graham for lunch. The fact that Blake would take her daughter anywhere near the place she’d grown up in spoke volumes. But, apparently, she wanted to ensure that Rowan knew as much as she could about where she’d come from.

In light of the custody papers being filed, Graham agreed. Though nothing had come from the other family’s claims as of yet, Graham knew it was only a matter of time until the other shoe dropped and things began rolling quickly. Things like this took time to come to fruition, and while they waited and let the lawyers handle things, Blake was doing her best to keep Rowan as comfortable and happy as possible.

And since Graham wanted Blake in his life, he was doing the same and getting to know her daughter, as well. It surprised the hell out of him that he was even going to spend time with Rowan when his thoughts and emotions were going in a thousand different directions, but he couldn’t change things now. He’d told Blake he cared for her, and that meant he had to get over the past.

Easier said than done, especially when he wasn’t sure what he wanted in the first place.

However, no matter what happened, he couldn’t let Rowan get hurt because of him. He didn’t know what he’d do if anything like this had happened to Cynthia, so he’d do his best to keep this other little girl safe.

“Hey, when do you knock off for the day?” Owen asked as he walked into the room Graham worked on, tablet in hand. “Do you have time to look at a few invoices with me?”

Graham pinched the bridge of his nose. “I never have time to look at invoices with you. Isn’t that why we have you?”

Owen flipped him off, and the crew chuckled, including the new guy they’d hired to replace Gary. Thankfully, their former subcontractor would be back in the fold in a few weeks, but until then, they needed another set of hands, and this new guy, Sean, seemed to know what he was doing. Graham hated the fact that anyone had been hurt to begin with, and because of the accident itself, they had a whole lot more paperwork to deal with.

Most of that had fallen onto Owen’s lap, and as much as Graham teased his brother about it, he knew he had to help with his share. He’d been in charge of the site that day, and he took his responsibilities seriously.

“Shut it. When do your woman and her kid get here?” Owen asked, and Graham rolled his eyes.

“In a bit. What’s up? What do you need?” Graham asked.

“An assistant and a beer, but right now, I just need your signature on a few things.” Owen flipped through the papers until he landed on the right one. “We have our custom historical floor guy coming in next week, but I still don’t think it’ll be what we need.”

Graham ran his hand through his beard. “We’ve already had this argument. If you don’t like him, why did we hire him?”

“Because he’s worked with us before and won the bid, but I don’t know.”

“Owen.” Graham didn’t have time for this shit today, not with Rowan and Blake showing up at any minute.

“I think this job is going to be too big for him. We took a chance on him because he’s worked with us in the past, but he’s also on the other bids with Murphy’s site, and he fucked up there. Remember.”

Graham let out a little growl. “Yeah, he brought the wrong planks, said the other shit was on the wrong truck or some crap.” He ran a hand over his face and went through options. “Okay, he shows up next week to finalize the bid and show us what he has. If there’s something off, then he’s out. We don’t need to work with him if it’s going to fuck things up. It’s not in the contract that we have to keep up with this if he’s not meeting his end of the deal. We gave him a pass on Murphy’s site, but we can’t on this one.”

Owen scribbled things down and worked on his tablet at the same time. “I still don’t like the sound of that, not when we don’t have a backup.”

Graham snapped his fingers as he thought of something. “There’s the other guy, Samuel something. He was eager to work with us. He’s a small company but organized. You like organized. If our normal guy flakes like it’s looking he might, then we get the new guy.”

“That’s going to fuck up our projections,” Owen complained.

“Yeah, well, they’re looking fucked up as it is, and you’re the one that brought it up. If our current guy makes nice, then we’re good. If not, we need a backup. I’m not going to go over-budget or screw up our timeline because of one guy who can’t get his act together. Plus, the historical society is riding my ass over something that I need Murphy for. So if our brother can’t get back here to
this
site and finish up the other, then we have an issue. And frankly, the only reason Murphy isn’t here now is because of the floor guy. So we’ll fix this.”

Owen went through the numbers with him while they walked back to the office trailer on-site, and Graham nodded along. It used to be easier when they weren’t the bosses and could just work with their hands. But now, everything relied on their decisions, and it was hard as hell to make sure they didn’t constantly fuck up.

But Graham would do what he did best while his brothers did their best, as well. In the end, they’d make this place shine.

They just had to get dirty along the way to get it done.

When they reached the door to the trailer, he saw Blake’s car pull up and he patted Owen on the shoulder. “Meet you inside?” he asked.

Owen followed Graham’s gaze and smiled. “Take your time. It’s good to see you guys together.”

He heard something in Owen’s voice that worried him. “We’re taking it slow. Just feeling each other out.”

“You’re spending time with her kid, she’s coming to visit you at work,
and
she’s coming to a place that has deep and personal memories for her. Because of you. I think you’re beyond serious, Graham.”

Graham ignored Owen and the way his brother’s words made more sense than he’d like them to and jogged toward Blake. Before he could reach out and hug her hello, Rowan ran up to him and threw her arms around his waist.

He took a step back at the impact but wrapped his arms around her small shoulders. The lump that usually made its way into his throat didn’t come this time. When he saw her, he no longer thought of the daughter he’d lost who wouldn’t grow up; instead, he saw a little girl who brightened his day and deserved far more than a custody dispute and any feelings of being unwanted.