Page 96 of My Rose

I lightly backhanded his chest. “Stop. They like you. They said you seemed like a nice guy.”

He chuckled. “They think I’m nice?”

“Is that so hard to believe?”

“Kind of.” He pulled into the driveway and put the car in park, then leaned over and whispered in my ear, “Am I beingnicewhen I tie you up and fuck you like my little slut?” A hot flush crawled over me. I pressed my hands between my thighs as they snapped together, trying to ease the building ache. His nose grazed my neck as he chuckled darkly. “Thought so.”

He pulled back, and in seconds he was out of the car, opening my door and holding out his hand for me like he didn’t just make me too wet to function. Briggs smiled softly as I took his hand, staring up into his heavy-lidded eyes. His arm wrapped around me, pulling me close to him while snow droplets fell in the thin space between us.

“God, I fucking love you,” he whispered, brushing his lips along my forehead with a soft kiss. “I won’t apologize for the things I just admitted to in the car. But I am sorry that I can’t help but tell youthe truth. About everything. You deserve that much from me, even if it isn’t always pretty to hear.”

“Your truths are safe with me. It doesn’t change how I feel about you.” Crazy. That’s what I was—crazy for Briggs in a way that bordered on idiocy. Yet, I couldn’t find it within myself to give a damn. I wasn’t ready to fully justify torture or the brutality he showed, but just like the color grey—sometimes it appeared light, other times it was darker and more black. He walked the grey line and survived on the darker side when he wanted to run the other way. Who was I to fault his survival methods?

Over the top of his shoulder, I saw my grandmother peeping through her bedroom window, smiling back at me, then snapping the blinds closed. “They’re watching us, Briggs.”

“I don’t care.” His hand slid down my back, resting above the base of my spine. “I want the world to know that you’re mine and that I’m completely at your mercy.”

“Starting with my grandparents?” I giggled, pulling back from his hold to meet his gaze.

The hint of mischief I heard in his voice was gone from his face in seconds, replaced by a softness that made my chest ache. He brushed my hair back, dusting the snow from my cheek with his thumb as he curled his fingers beneath my chin and guided me to his waiting lips. When he kissed me, gravity failed to keep me anchored, my toes lifting my body to collide with Briggs’ chest. His touch reciprocated—his arm wrapping around me firmly, guiding me closer to him. It still shocked me that I believed I knew what love was before him,that I believed I’d be happy in a situation where I never felt as I did now.

“I love you,” I whispered between our breathless embrace. “Thank you for being you.”

My grandpa cleared his throat from the front porch, then scratched the back of his head as Briggs stepped back and turned to face him.

Briggs immediately shifted into the formal, more put-together man he used to appear to be not so long ago. Without hesitation, he climbed the steps and held out his hand.

“Briggs Andrews. Nice to meet you, sir.”

My grandfather scanned Briggs from head to toe, then flashed his teeth with a wide smile. “Likewise, son.” Their handshake was brief, my grandfather bobbing back and forth on the balls of his feet as he crossed his arms right after, this time, evaluating me with something like joy in his gaze. “Well, get in, both of you. It’s freezing out here.” He exaggerated a shiver, then left Briggs standing on the porch with the front door wide open.

“You first, babe.” I hadn’t realized I’d just been standing there, watching them meet each other like it was the most fascinating thing to witness. When my grandfather first met August, he looked at him like he was infectious—not in a good way. Seeing him open up immediately to Briggs made my chest swell more. I wondered if it was possible to have a heart attack from being so in love and happy all at once. I just hoped they’d see past everything like I had done if they ever found out what really happened the night of the fire.

The moment we stepped foot inside, Briggs followed my lead, removing his shoes and coat and putting them where each belonged. It didn’t stop there. He met my grandmother in the kitchen, and when she hugged him—although he looked completely unready for it—he wrapped his arms around her, making her face light up even more so. Throughout the dinner, Briggs kept finding some way to touch me. If his hand wasn’t playing with mine beneath the table, it was sliding down my thigh or at the edge of my knee. My grandparents were too caught up in the conversation to notice, or maybe they didn’t care.

“You know,” my grandfather said as he cleared his throat, wiping his whiskery mustache with a napkin. “I married your grandmother after only—”

“Five days,” I finished for him, rolling my eyes while his shifted between Briggs and me.

My grandfather’s expression turned serious as he settled his focus on me. “You’ve always been strong, Rose. You know what you want and you go for it. But, when I told you to find a place, I didn’t mean to make you feel like you had to leave.”

“It’s not like that.” Briggs’ hand squeezed mine under the table. “I’m doing this because I want to.”

“He’s a good-looking young man. I’d move in with him, too,” my grandmother cut in, making Briggs choke on his water.

“Eloise, you’re making the boy turn red,” my grandfather scorned, then smacked his teeth at her as she narrowed her eyes on him. “Don’t stare, dear.”

“It’s hard not to look right at the red on his face when his hair is almost as fine as the snow falling outside. Hair like that must be genetic.”

My grandfather held his arm out, pointing at Briggs. “Of course, it is. You see his father and him on the TV at least once a month, being followed around by reporters. Or are you like Rose and stopped paying attention?”

“I pay attention! All I’m saying is Rose needs to watch herself.” My grandmother angled to face me directly. “You keep kissing a fine man like him as you did outside, and babies will surely come sooner or later.”

“Eloise!”

“They’ll all have very fair skin like you and fair hair like him. Might as well be alb—”

“Guys!” I shouted over them, but when I looked at Briggs, he was shaking with silent laughter.

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