Page 73 of Perfect Pairing
These people—it was painfully obvious how much they loved her. My honey was pure sunshine, and her family was content to bask in the glow she cast on all of them.
I wanted to be included in that warmth, more than I’d ever wanted anything in my life.
“I never knew you didn’t like Cab,” I told her once the tablehad settled. I needed to speak with her, if only superficial things. I wanted to remind her that I was herefor her, that I wasn’t going anywhere.
Brie looked me dead in the eye, not an ounce of fear or hesitation or pain or any of the other things constantly swirling within me present in their emerald depths. “There’s a lot you don’t know about me.”
I snapped my mouth closed. She wasn’t wrong and clearly had zero desire to speak with me, so I let my mission drop for the moment.
While my own father chatted easily with Leon and Lena at the head of the table and kept Hansen busy with a piece of paper and crayons one of the staff had procured for him, I was content to soak in the good energy that came from being around this family. Leon and Lena certainly had their hands full, especially when the elder three daughters were so outspoken and firm in their beliefs. It hadn’t taken me long to realize all five of them were stubborn as hell, which is the only explanation I had for why Brie had been able to—at least as far as appearances went—move on from our…thingso quickly. She simply wouldn’t accept anything less, wouldn’t let me or her family see her hurting.
I admired her for it but secretly hated it. I wanted her as outwardly torn up as I was inside. Then again, maybe the dissolution of whatever had sparked between us hadn’t broken her heart the way it had mine.
But I’d be damned if sitting there next to her wasn’t as easy as breathing, if spending time with her, with her family welcoming me and mine with open arms, hadn’t felt like two puzzle pieces clicking into place. The Wendts and the Delatous went togetherlike meatballs and mashed potatoes.
Each casual brush of her shirt sleeve against my bare forearm when she reached for her wine glass had my body lighting up like the Fourth of July.
I wanted those sparks with her, wanted to rekindle the flame we’d found on a cold New Year’s Day and tended into an inferno on a hot July night.
Simply put, I wanted her. I had her once, and it wasn’t enough.
I didn’t think anything ever would be.
It was about damn time I started fighting for what I wanted.
And I wasn’t above fighting dirty.
I leaned close, my breath fanning the wisps of hair around her face as I said against her ear, “Will you pass me the bread?”
Brie sat up straighter, attempting to move away from me without making it obvious she was doing so. She accomplished it for a moment as she leaned across the table to grab the basket of garlic knots, but she was right back in my space a second later, her sweet scent at war with the bread for which was more heavenly to my nose.
Who the fuck was I kidding? It’d always be her.
“Thank you,” I said when she handed it to me, purposely brushing my fingers against hers. She gasped at the contact, and I bit back a grin.
It was nice to know she still responded to me the same. Maybe we weren’t entirely a lost cause.
“What are you doing?” she hissed.
I shoved a knot into my mouth and chewed, then innocently said, “Eating?”
Brie’s eyes narrowed. “That’s not what I meant, and you knowit.”
“I know nothing of the sort,” I said.
“You’re being…friendly.”
“Am I not a friendly guy?”
“No,” she said almost immediately, and I would’ve been hurt by the frankness of her answer had she not been right.
I hadn’t been a “friendly guy” in a long ass time.
I lowered my voice to barely above a whisper, ensuring only she could hear me when I said, “That’s not what you were saying the night I had my tongue between your thighs, or the one with my cock buried deep inside you.”
“Ezra!” Brie yelped.
All conversation at the table stopped, and too many sets of eyes found us.
