Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance Read online

  “Oh, one of those,” she said sarcastically. “The kind that takes care of herself.”

  “Yes.” After a moment of thought, he added, “Like you.”

  “Hm. She pays for her own stuff, then.”

  “Exactly.”

  “Gets mad when you try to do too much.”

  “Yes. How do you know?”

  “Because that’s the only type of woman who could hold your interest.”

  “What exactly does that mean? I like to do things for her.”

  His mother sighed. “Pierce, you don’t like easy.”

  He arched a brow. “I might disagree with that.”

  “Let me rephrase that. You are a man, after all. You’re competitive and aggressive. A woman who is too easy might be fine as a…distraction, but she’d bore you in the long run. She wouldn’t be your equal, and while you’re every bit an alpha male, like your brothers, you’re too smart to settle for someone who’s not equally as bright or equally as aggressive as you are. A life partner has to understand where you’re coming from on all levels. It sounds like maybe you’ve met your match.”

  She paused, and Pierce realized that she knew him better than he knew himself.

  “Pierce.” Her voice softened. “I know that you remember what things were like when your father lived with us.”

  His chest constricted. “Mom. Please.”

  “Hear me out. I know you remember what it was like when he left, even if you don’t like to talk about it.”

  “Mom.” He clenched his teeth against the painful memories that came with her words.

  “No, no more running, Pierce. Just hear me out, honey, please. I don’t thrust my opinions on you often, so give me a few minutes. You can forget what I say the minute I hang up if you want, but please hear me while I say it.”

  He sighed, wishing like hell he could hang up the phone and walk away. His mother didn’t force her opinions on him often, so he sucked up his discomfort and paid her the respect she deserved. “Go on.”

  “Honey, not everyone is like your father. It’s okay to trust, and I know you like to control things, but, Pierce, you’ll drive a woman away if you try to make her something she’s not. Especially a strong woman.”

  “I’m not trying to make her anything, Mom.” The words felt hollow. Wasn’t he wishing she’d let him fix things for her? Didn’t some small part of him think she’d eventually allow him to wave his money and make her problems go away?

  “I’m not saying you are. I’m just saying that if she’s really used to handling things herself, well, a guy who likes to make things better for everyone might want to help her with the things she struggles with. I mean that with love, Pierce. When your father left, you took on his role with your brothers and sister as best you could, and there was no dissuading you. I swear you took the entire burden of your father’s leaving off their shoulders and carried it on your own. When Ross and Wes had nightmares, you took them into your room. When they acted out, you set them straight, and when they cried, you put on a stiff upper lip and helped them feel better. You were a little father at age six.”

  Pierce heard regret in her sigh.

  “I tried to dissuade you from trying to take on so much responsibility, but you were a stubborn little thing, and I wasn’t exactly at my strongest.”

  Pierce closed his eyes. He remembered arguing with Ross when he’d taken out his anger on their mother, and later, holding him while he cried about their father leaving. Those months that followed were hard, but Pierce hadn’t realized that they could have defined so much of who he was.

  “Honey, you’re a good, strong, successful man. I’m sure Rebecca knows those things. If she’s the way you say, then let her flourish and enjoy the same self-respect you’ve earned. She’ll need it.”

  He swallowed against the emotions that clogged his throat. “Her mother died a few weeks ago. Should I still let her handle things? Or is it okay to want to help her through? Because everything inside me says she’s taken care of others long enough, that now it’s her turn.”

  “Oh, honey. That poor girl.” His mother was silent for a minute. “Pierce, this will be hard for you to understand, because you are very much of a fixer, but it’s the best advice I can give you. By allowing her to take care of the things she feels she has to, you are helping her.”

  Chapter Thirteen

  PIERCE SPENT THE evening stewing over the issues that his due diligence team had uncovered with the Grand. He was meeting with Jeff and the team tomorrow to go over the details, and there was nothing he could do before then. That didn’t stop him from wearing a path in front of the windows of his home library while he waited for Rebecca to arrive and tried to convince himself not to dwell on the Grand until he had a handle on how deep the issues ran.

  He spotted the headlights of Rebecca’s car coming up the driveway, and on his way outside, his mind traveled back to the things his mother had said. As much as he trusted his mother’s advice, he wasn’t convinced that letting Rebecca handle everything on her own was the right thing to do—or that he was even capable of stepping back and letting it happen.

  He took Rebecca in his arms and kissed her. “Mm. That was way too long to go without seeing you.” He kissed her again and slid his hand to the curve of her butt.

  “It felt like forever, but I’m glad I got a little time with Henry. Thanks for understanding.” She reached for the back door of the car to grab her overnight bag, and Pierce retrieved it for her.

  Henry. She’d said his name with compassion, and Pierce had to remind himself that she was a compassionate woman in general and to tuck away the jealous feelings that tried to sneak in. “I wouldn’t have minded staying at your place. You didn’t have to drive all the way out here.” They walked inside hand in hand, and Pierce swore the house grew warmer, felt more like home, once Rebecca stepped inside.

  “I didn’t mind. Besides, I have roommates, so…”

  He put her bag in the hallway. “Roommates? Like sexy hot guy roommates?” He was only half teasing.

  “Superhot. One’s an MMA fighter. You might know him, Big Johnson?”

  He swooped her into his arms as she threw her head back and laughed. “Big Johnson, huh?” He kissed her neck, which only made her laugh harder. “I’ll give you Big Johnson.”

  “Yeah, I bet you will.” She wrapped her legs around his waist, then settled her lips over his.

  He pressed her back against the wall. “Better be careful. You might find yourself in a compromising position.” He didn’t give her time to respond as he took her in another greedy kiss, getting his fill for all the hours he’d missed her.

  “Good Lord, Pierce.” She pressed her hands to his cheeks and kissed him softly. “When you kiss me.” She drew in a deep breath and blew it out slowly. “I can barely think.”

  He took a step back, giving her room to shift her legs to the floor. She kept them wrapped around his middle.

  “Carry me to the couch,” she said with a mischievous grin.

  He cupped her ass and kissed her as he crossed the floor and then lowered himself down, with Rebecca straddling him. She ran her hands through the sides of his hair, and he touched his lips to hers again.

  “It wasn’t my intent to greet you with my carnal desires on display, but you’re too incredible for words.” He kissed her chin, her lips, the soft pillow of her cheeks. The points of her nipples pressed against her cotton V-neck tee, and she was looking at him like he was the most delicious thing she’d ever seen—or tasted—as she ground her butt into eight inches of rock-hard desire. Her eyes held the hazy mist of lust, and her hair was sexily mussed.

  “You push every sexual button I have, Bec. I didn’t mean to come on so strong.”

  “No?” She tilted her head and licked her lips. “Oh, darn.”

  With a soft laugh he shifted her onto her back, positioning himself above her on the couch. He tangled his hands in her hair and kissed her again, meeting her arching hips with his ha
rd desire. He pulled back with a need for air, and she reached for his neck and drew him into another unyielding kiss. He was straining to keep control. He’d thought about what Emily had said about him and his brothers whoring their way through life, and he wanted Rebecca to know his feelings for her went far deeper than sex, but damn if their kisses weren’t pulling him under, into a slow blurring of right and wrong and all things rational. His hand slid to the bend of her hip, and lust coiled deep in his belly as a moan of pleasure slipped from her lips into his lungs. Again, he tried to pull away, make an effort to talk, but when their eyes met, the connection rooted deep within his soul, demanding more of her.

  “Becca,” he said between heated breaths. “We should…talk.”

  “I know.” She kissed him again. “Later.”

  She reached for him again, and he sank into the most seductive kiss, slow and impassioned. She met every lap of his tongue with a sweet laving of her own, slaying his good intentions. She reached for his pants, and he gripped her wrist and held it above her head, earning him a gloriously naughty moan that darkened her eyes and made his heart race.

  “You like that, huh?” He tugged her shirt down her arm and dragged his teeth along the smooth column of her neck.

  “Jesus, Pierce. I’m already wet.”

  Holy hell. He couldn’t stifle a groan. Forget behaving. Forget talking. He captured her next breath in his mouth, kissing her hard and deep, a preview of what was yet to come. He pushed from the couch and carried her in his arms. She shifted as he carried her to the bedroom, opening her mouth wider, taking more of his kiss, his tongue, his lips as he lowered her feet to the floor. Rebecca clutched his shirt—and a fistful of chest hairs—driving him crazier by the second.

  “God, I love how you turn me on,” he whispered against her neck.

  He didn’t think of the words he said; he just let his emotions speak for themselves. He didn’t care if he said like or love or fuck or damn. He could no better rationalize a thought than he could refrain from hooking his thumbs in her jeans and panties and pulling them straight to the ground, then crouching to help her lift each foot from the harsh material and stepping out of his own clothes. He turned her around, pressing his hard length to her sweet, round ass, and took her neck in his mouth, sucking as she ground her backside into him. He clutched her waist and held her tightly, slid one hand flat against her stomach, and lower, until his fingers touched her curls.

  She arched her neck. “Touch me, Pierce. Love me. Make me come.”

  He slid his hand down the curve of her belly to her inner thigh. She gasped a breath and held it as he squeezed his way back up her thigh to her sex and stroked her wetness. She craned her neck, and he took her in another kiss as he plunged his fingers deeper. She turned in his arms, and he touched and teased her into halted breaths. Her lacy red bra scratched his chest as she pressed against him, her body pleading for more. Using his teeth, he dragged each strap down her arm, until the flimsy material balanced at the edge of her taut nipples. He could smell her arousal as he slid his finger in and out of her velvety heat, and—finally—God, finally—unhooked her bra, freeing her luscious breasts. He brushed his thumb over her nipple as he dragged his tongue along her lower lip. She gripped his wrist at her center and urged him deeper, holding him there as she rose to the edge and went up on her toes as an orgasm tore through her. He caught her gasps in his mouth, his fingers still working their magic, and as the thrum of her release eased, he took her to bed.

  It was his turn.

  He wanted to be inside her. Now. Fast and hard and buried so deep she could feel him in her throat. He paused long enough to think about a condom. Goddamn condom. For twenty years he’d used them faithfully, and now, with Rebecca, he wanted to feel her, all of her, without a latex sheath between them.

  He gazed into her loving eyes. “Bec, are you on the pill?”

  She shook her head. “It’s been years since I’ve been with anyone.”

  He closed his eyes as disappointment welled inside him, and then he reached for a condom, tabling the conversation for another time.

  She was tight and eager as he slid into her. She wrapped her arms around him, bringing him as close as he could be, hip to hip, his heat buried deep inside her. All of the emotions he’d been battling came rushing forward.

  “Rebecca, look at me. Be with me.”

  Her lids fluttered open. Her gaze was sensual, and he knew he wasn’t imagining what he felt between them. He’d been with enough women to know that the look in her eyes ran deeper than desire. Her lips curled up as her eyes focused on his.

  “I…” The words were on the tip of his tongue, but they were so big that he began to wonder if they needed more of a stage, a momentous presentation.

  “What…?” She ran her fingers along his back, sending shivers of wanting through him.

  “I’m falling for you, Becca. I know you’re working on your life and you’ve just lost your mom, but…You’ve become everything to me.”

  Her brows drew together, and she pressed her hands to his cheeks in that way he’d come to love—and crave. “I know. I can see it in your eyes.”

  He touched his forehead to hers.

  “And I feel it, too. We’re totally in sync, even if we’re from different worlds.”

  He breathed a sigh of relief, and with all of the love that she’d woken within him, he lowered his lips to hers, sealing their words, and their bodies took over.

  Chapter Fourteen

  MUCH LATER, REBECCA and Pierce lay on the bed, nose to nose, each with a hand on the other’s cheeks. Rebecca’s mind was still floating in the clouds from their lovemaking. Pierce made love to her as if he cherished every second just as much as she did, like he wanted it to go on forever. He didn’t rush her after his own release. He took his time, caressing her cheek, her hip, her arms, pressing soft kisses to her face and remaining inside her until he was too soft to hold his place. She played their lovemaking over in her mind, lingering on his whispers in her ear. She’d heard the desire in his voice when he asked if she was on the pill, and she’d nearly said to make love to her and just pull out, but she had too many things she had yet to accomplish to take a chance like that. Pierce had been with so many women that she had to be smart, too.

  “I never imagined feeling like this about anyone,” Pierce admitted. “You. Us. It’s all so unexpected.”

  She cuddled in closer. “Completely unexpected. Relationships haven’t been anywhere near my radar screen for years.”

  He kissed her lips and draped his arm over her waist. “Did you miss intimacy? You’re so young to have given up so much for so long.”

  She shook her head. “When you’re in that situation, there’s no room for missing or wishing for something else. At least for me there wasn’t. I was busy trying to remain employed, which I didn’t do a great job of, keeping track of pills and medical appointments, and…I don’t want to talk about this, because you’re going to fall into pity mode like everyone else and I don’t want to ruin what we have.” She was frustrated with herself as much as the situation. There was always a look when she spoke of these things, and she knew she overreacted to it, and sometimes she called it pity when she wasn’t even sure it was. But whatever it was, it made her feel uncomfortable, and it bothered her enough that she was unable to keep herself from reacting so vehemently to it.

  “Babe, talk to me. Let me into your life. I promise I won’t pity you. I want to know all of you, not just the sexy, fun parts. I want to understand what you’ve been through and where you hope to go. It’s really okay for people to say they’re sorry and to feel sad that you missed out on things; that’s not pitying you.”

  Rebecca sat up and pulled the sheet over her chest. She loved how he wasn’t afraid to express himself, even if she might not want to hear what he had to say, and that he cared enough to ask difficult questions. Most guys would stay away from uncomfortable subjects like her mother’s death, as if her disease were contagious. H
e said all the right things and she believed him, but he still didn’t understand.

  “Don’t you see, Pierce? I didn’t miss out on anything. I made sure of it. I was there for the only thing that mattered—spending time with, and taking care of, my mom. If you would have given me a million dollars and said, Here, hire someone to care for her and go live your life, what do you think I would have done?”

  “Aw, Bec.”

  “No, I’m being serious.” She wasn’t yelling or even raising her voice, but her tone was serious and she saw in Pierce’s eyes that he heard it loud and clear. “Pierce, I loved taking care of my mom as much as I hated it. It was hard, damn hard, but we had time together that, if I were too wrapped up in myself, we never would have had.”

  Pierce wrapped his arms around her and pressed her head to his chest. Chivalrous. It’s who he was.

  She remained against him for a minute, maybe two, then pushed away gently. “I know you care about me, and I know you want to hear all about what I’ve gone through, but you can’t look at me like that, or I can’t open up to you.”

  “Like what?”

  “Like you wish you could fix it.” Her heart was in a tug-of-war. She loved that he cared and wanted to fix things for her, and at the same time, she hated the fixing part. She never felt like she’d missed out on life, and she didn’t want to be seen as someone who had.

  “How can I change that, Bec? I know I can’t fix it, but I’m human, and I care about you, so you’re going to see that I wish I could.”

  “Then wear sunglasses when we talk.” She felt herself smile.

  “Wait. Stay right there.” He leaned forward and brushed something from her shoulder.

  “What was it?”

  “It’s that chip you carry around.” He smiled and it made her smile.

  Rebecca knew that she wasn’t an easy person for someone to love. She was strong and she had her own beliefs about who she was and how she lived her life, and she could only hope that Pierce might someday understand why those things were hard to change—or even if they ever would.