Page 55 of Forever Finds Us
Something happened then, when he couldn’t wriggle free from the traps on his legs and feet. He stood and took a deep, clarifying breath. He reached down one hand at a time to free himself from his own restraints, and then he entered my body slowly and carefully, like it was sacred to him.
And he began to make love to me.
I thought I might have whiplash from the dizzying changes in his demeanor, but it felt like he wanted it all.
All of me.
And he wanted to show me all of himself. He needed me to understand him, but he didn’t know which part of himself to expose, so they all showed. The man now caressing my face with his hands, his elbows digging into the bed and holding him above me as he moved inside me slowly, almost reverently, was at war with the dominant man who got off on punishing me and restraining me while he smacked my ass raw and fucked me with his mouth and a whiskey bottle.
And then there was the country boy, with his backward hat and his mountain twang, the man who couldn’t seem to believe I wanted to give him this forbidden thing he’d only just realized he needed.
He was the one moving inside me in a slow and steady rhythm, and I loved him the most because he was mine. I knew that now.
He released my wrists from the Velcro holds, lifting my hands one by one to his ass as it clenched and he glided in and out of my body.
Looking in my eyes, his were backlit by the moon glowing behind my gauzy window shades. “There’s no one else, Roxanne,” he breathed. “Only you. Do you know why?”
I shook my head. I couldn’t speak because the vulnerability etched into the lines around his eyes mesmerized me.
“Because you see me. All of me. Every part. No one’s ever known the parts of me you know.”
Sweat trickled down his face, the drips catching in the hair darkening on his cheeks and chin and above his lip as the night wore on. He touched his forehead to mine, and his thrusts became stronger. My hands smoothed up his back and I held him, letting him fuck however he needed to.
It didn’t matter to me as long as he was mine.
“I promised I’d take you out tomorrow night,” he whispered, “so will you come to dinner with me at my brother’s house? I wanna take you home.”
“Yes,” I breathed, my heart filling to the brim.
It was all I’d ever wanted, for someone to want me so much that he showed me off to the people most important to him. I just never expected to be in love with that man.
But I was. I was in love with Brand Lee.
He kissed me then, sealing the moment so no one could ever take it from me, and I cried out softly into his mouth as another wave crashed over me, my body clutching and responding to his as he came inside me.
Chapter Twenty-One
Brand
The next morning, drinking coffee with Merv at her kitchen table, she came right out with what she wanted to know.
She’d been watching me, wonder written all over her face. The heart attack and her brush with death had her questioning the world around her.
Merv wasn’t usually so direct, but she looked at me and asked, “Why’d you stay away all those years, Brand?”
“I…” She’d caught me off guard. “It’s not important.”
She’d switched to decaf, and I was already wishing she hadn’t, but not because it put her in a bad mood. The lack of caffeine made me feel off kilter.
After last night with Roxanne, I needed it. We’d made love again and again, and then I’d cleansed her in the shower, washed her hair, combed it, dressed her in pajamas, and tucked her into her bed.
A text came through from her as Merv worked up the courage to ask me more.
7:15 AM
Did you take my front door key?
I’d already ordered her a new bedroom set, mattress, and linens from a local furniture boutique in Jackson, and they’d be delivered and assembled later today while she was at work. I’d stolen her front door key from her key ring before I left, but her door locked automatically, so her place wouldn’t be left unsecured all day. She just wouldn’t be able to engage the deadbolt, and by the time she got home in the evening, the new bed would be ready and waiting for us, and the key would be tucked beneath the pot of pansies next to her front door.
