Page 103 of Forecheck
I didn’t answer right away. Instead, I got out of the truck and made my way inside. Brent wordlessly followed me, standing several feet away in the confines of the elevator. The tension between us was so thick I was practically choking on it.
“I’m not mad at you,” I said once we were safely ensconced in my apartment. “But you know how important becoming a lawyer is to me. Tonight was meant for networking and celebrating my accomplishments. I put a lot into helping plan it, and I was really looking forward to it. Instead, I just felt like a pile of shit by the end.”
“But why?” he asked, walking up to me and cupping my face in his hands.
“You can’t honestly tell me you didn’t hear the shit those women—myclassmates—were saying about me when you got up to claim your prize.”
“So what, you’re worried that’s how I feel about you, too?”
“I’m not worried that’s howyoufeel,” I answered honestly. “I’m worried how you could possibly want to stay with someone who feels that way about herself.”
I willed the tears welling in my eyes to dissipate, but one slipped down my cheek anyway. With the softest touch, Brent brushed it away, then pressed his lips to the same spot. “ Berkley, you areeverythingto me. Stunning, ridiculously intelligent, loyal, kind, caring, loving—a whole slew of other adjectives I could spend hours providing. And if you need me to remind you of that every day, to wallpaper this entire apartment and mine in words of affirmation until you start to see yourself the way I do, then I’ll do it. Whatever it takes.
“But look at me,” he said, and my eyes snapped to his. “There’s nothing you could do that will send me away. Nothing you could say, no insecurity you could share, that would make me love you any less. In fact, I’ll just love you more.”
He pressed kisses to my eyelids, and I leaned into him, savoring his warmth, his steadiness—my safe harbor in the storm of my intrusive thoughts.
“You know that’s why Kimber and I got into a fight,” I said absently. “She told me I was going to push you away and send you running just like I have with every other relationship.”
“She’s wrong,” he promised me. “You’re stuck with me forever.”
“You mean that?”
“More than anything.”
Brent wrapped his arms around me and pressed his hands to my bare back, rubbing up and down, soothing me. I sighed and rested my head on his chest.
“I really am sorry about tonight,” he said. “If I had known this would happen, I never would have bid on anything.”
“It’s okay. No one could’ve predicted this, not even me.”
Brent’s laugh rumbled against my cheek. “On the plus side, we have a trip to Aspen next winter to look forward to.”
I stepped back and smacked him on the chest. “Not the point, Brent.”
He stepped toward me and grabbed my hand, lacing our fingers together and turning me so my back pressed against the wall. “What can I do to make it up to you?”
I looked up at him, a mischievous grin slowly spreading across my face. “I distinctly remember a conversation earlier that involved this dress and your mouth.”
Brent dropped to his knees before me, hands resting on his thighs, face raised toward me. “What would you like me to do?”
My God. Having this man on his knees before me, face turned up so beautifully in supplication?The list of what Ididn’twant him to do would be shorter.
“Let’s start with your mouth,” I said, lifting my leg and placing my foot on his shoulder. The skirt of my dress shifted to reveal my sex, now level with his face.
“Berk,” he rasped. “You’re not wearing panties.”
“I’m aware.”
“You mean to tell me you’ve been going commando all night?”
Digging my teeth into my bottom lip to hold back a smile, I simply nodded.
Brent lifted a hand and ran it up and down the smooth skin of my calf and shin, eyes never leaving my core. For untold moments, he looked his fill, as if deciding what he was going to do with me. A thrill raced down my spine in anticipation.
At last, his eyes flicked to mine again. “I’m going to fucking consume you.”
“Promises, promises,” I said, unable to hold back from teasing him.
