Page 31 of Off-Limits Love
“No, I mean it. You stepped in when you didn’t have to, and in return— I am so sorry for what he said to you. How he treated you.”
He inhaled and, on the exhale, said, “’S fine.”
“No, it’s not. But I am grateful and thankful you were there.”
He lifted his free hand to adjust the baseball cap he wore and ended up taking it off, flipping it around and shoving it back on just to give himself something to do that didn’t involve touching her. “You…sh-shouldn’t…p-put up. With…that. H-him.”
Mak’s gaze softened at his bumbling, and he called himself all kinds of things, even as he lost himself inside the glacier-blue depths of her eyes, wondering if there was anything else on earth as beautiful. They were the sea and sun in one. Dark and light. Blue and white. He wished he had the proper words to describe them, but nothing seemed to measure up and do the trick.
“I know. Trust me; I see things more clearly now. In big part, because of you.”
She stepped toward him suddenly and wrapped her arms around his waist. Finn froze at the contact and then slowly returned the embrace, unable to stop himself.
He leaned over her and lowered his head until he could rest his chin atop her hair, reveling in the soft sigh he heard her release. The scent of her filled his head. Vanilla and chocolate and—sweetness. Goodness. All things Makayla.
He ran his hand up her back, loving the way her body responded to his, melted against him even more, as though craving the embrace as much as he did.
Emi played in the corner, oblivious to them, and he couldn’t stop his hand from shifting up into the dark hair at Mak’s nape. He heard her gasp as he lightly tugged, and Mak lifted her head from his chest and tilted it back, leaning into his touch as she looked up at him with those gorgeous eyes wide and locked on his.
Beautiful. She was just beautiful. All hair and eyes and a smattering of freckles across her nose and cheeks. He lowered his gaze to her full, pink lips. Felt the way her breathing picked up as they parted to draw in more air. He wondered if she’d taste like chocolate and vanilla. If she’d welcome a kiss from him or shove him away the moment he lowered his head to try.
The crunch of gravel and the drone of multiple engines banked all thought as his family arrived with horrible timing.
Mak swallowed audibly as she hurriedly pulled away, cheeks flushed a bright hue and getting redder by the second.
She first glanced at Emi and then toward the stream of people now walking through the doors, eyeing the two of them with varying expressions of surprise to downright orneriness.
Hudson’s near-permanent grin widened, and he clapped his hands together and rubbed. “You two look cozy. What’s happening in here?”
“N-nothing,” Mak said too quickly. “We just got here. Setting up the cake.”
Hudson cocked an eyebrow high, his knowing gaze shifting to Finn. Finn fisted his hands to keep from throttling his baby brother.
“Well, I’m glad you’re still here. Now you have to stick around for the party. You have to be here when we cut into that cake. Right, Finn?”
Brooks whacked Hudson none too gently on the back of his head as he walked by. “That’s enough of that. You’re not too big for me to knock you down a few pegs for your birthday. It’ll be my gift.”
Brooks continued on his way to join his wife at the food table, deftly stealing one of the sandwiches she’d just uncovered and getting shooed away for the theft.
“I should go,” Mak said softly, flashing Finn a quick glance.
“St-stay.”
Mak blinked up at him, those gorgeous blues searching his face. “Are you sure?”
He nodded, gaze locked on her and certain.
“I-I suppose we can stay for a while. But I should— I should go check on Emi,” Mak said, backing away from him and then hustling off toward her daughter.
Finn watched as Dawson and Sophia arrived and called out hellos with Cole and Ana two steps behind them. Everyone talked at once as they prepped food and drinks and paper goods, making a fuss over the cake and Mak’s obvious talent.
The women in his family welcomed Mak and Emi with smiles and compliments, and if they were surprised by the extra, nonfamily guests, they didn’t let on. But he felt their curiosity and their combined stares, especially those of his brothers.
He could talk around his brothers, no problem, and while it had taken him a good long while to be comfortable enough around the women in his brothers’ lives to speak, he’d eventually managed. Mak’s presence would change that today. At least when it came to addressing them as a whole.
Still, he didn’t want her to leave.
“You can thank me later,” Hudson said in a low voice.
