Page 85 of When the Storm Breaks
He moved to my mouth, his forearms braced on either side of me and for a few moments, he stared at my face as if he was trying to memorize it. A lock of hair fell over his forehead and I lifted my hand to brush it away then held his face in both of my hands.
“Brody,” I whispered.
He dipped his head and slanted his mouth over mine. When our lips touched, my eyes drifted shut and my legs cinched more tightly around his back. Brody kissed me like this would be the last time he would ever kiss my lips.
I lifted my hips, and he nudged his tip against my entrance. Then he glided inside me, and ever so slowly thrust in and out, like we had all night, and he was in no hurry.
He kissed my lips. My jaw. The sensitive spot just below my ear.
This wasn’t fucking. He was making love to me. This gentleness was the cruelest form of torture.
What felt like hours later, we both hurtled into shared orgasms. Afterward, he held me in his arms, and we talked until the sun came up.
* * *
“I’ll miss you, Cowboy.”We were standing near the security check at the Austin airport and even though we were standing close, facing each other, it felt like he was already gone. Like his mind was elsewhere and he was putting distance between us.
“Nah. You’ll be just fine. Give it a day or two and you won’t even remember my name. Brody who?” He mimicked my voice.
I tried to laugh but it came out sounding hollow. “Why is it so hard to leave?” And by that I meant, why is it so hard to leaveyou?
“You’re gonna be just fine. You’re Shiloh Leroux. You’re a supernova. You shine so bright, baby. So fucking bright.” He grasped my chin in his hand and gave me a soft kiss then released me. “You should go now. You’ll miss your flight.”
“Brody. We can make this work. I know we can.”
“That wasn’t our deal, Shy. Your life is out there, mine is here. We knew that from the start. We agreed. Six weeks. No regrets.”
“Things change.”
He took a step back, putting even more distance between us, and shook his head. “Don’t make it harder than it already is. Just turn around and walk away.”
I swallowed down the lump in my throat. He was right. Why prolong our goodbye? But I didn’t want to leave him like this. I wanted him to tell me there was another way and that we had a future and he’d do everything in his power to make it happen, but he didn’t say one single word.
“What if…”
“There’s no what if for us. You’re a rock star. I’m just an asshole cowboy trying to keep a roof over my head. I’ve got nothing to offer you.”
“How can you even say that?”
“We’ve had our fun and now it’s over.”
“So that’s it?”
“That’s it.” He gave me his charming Brody McCallister grin and fed me my own words. “But it’s been a hell of a ride, baby.” He punctuated his words with a sexy wink, and I hated that he did that.
In my heart, I knew he wanted this as much as I did. I opened my mouth to call him out on his cavalier response. He pressed two fingers against my lips to stop the words.
“Go and do what you were born to do. Set the world on fire. Make your sacrifices matter.”
Then he turned and he walked away, leaving me at airport security with an ache in my heart the size of Texas.
Come back. Come back. Come back.
But he didn’t even turn around to look at me. Not once. He kept on walking, and waltzed right out the door, taking a huge piece of my heart with him.
What a fool I’d been to think we could ever stay in the shallow end.
Once again, I’d taken a plunge into the deep end and found myself alone.
