When we get home, he carries me right to bed after locking the door and letting me know where his guns are. I laugh at that—it's not as if they were going to kidnap me. Well, not really. They gave me the choice and I chose wrong because I didn’t know how to be loved. I didn’t know what it looked like, really.
Now, as Brett spreads me out in bed and stands staring down at me, I know just what it looks like. I told him once that the way he looks at me, it makes me feel as if I make sense. And now I really get it. As he climbs over me, cradling me close as he sinks inside of me, I get it.
It makes sense because he loves me. He looks at me as if he loves me. And he knows I love him. Maybe I even did that day I crashed at his feet at the lodge. I am not sure about that—but I am sure that I love him now.
I am sure that I will always love him.
I amabsolutely surethat I will never have to fake it.
Epilogue
Brett
One Week Later
Snowfall on Christmas ensures a perfect holiday.
Staring out over the snowcapped mountains as a slow snow falls, I am certain it will be a Christmas to remember. Snow has fallen for days but it just sets the perfect scene. Standing with a cup of hot cocoa, smelling my grandmother’s recipe cookies baking, and hearing my bunny singing Christmas carols as she bounces around the kitchen is the kind of scene I want to live in forever.
Turning to watch her, I chuckle when she tips her head back, using the whisk as a microphone. Brielle catches me watching her and laughs too, shaking her head as she flushes pink. Crossing the room towards her, I stop just briefly to glance at the tree towering by the fireplace. Brielle spent all week making it perfect.
Her brother Caleb will be here later today as well as her best friends and a few other of our friends. Luke will be here with his wife Leia as well and the girls are excited to make their first Christmas dinner together. Before all of that gets started, we will spend our first Christmas morning together.
Last week was a turning point for us. When her father showed up and threatened my lodge if she did not leave with him, she left. There was no way I was letting her get out of Driftwood, but it took me a minute to get my wits about me. I realized after I watched her walk out of my cabin that I had done just what her father and brother had done to her.
I gave her things, gifts, a place to call home, even orgasms, but I had never said the words.
Hearing someone say I love you, hearing the truth in those words, it means something. It matters. Brielle doubted her worth for so long, partially because the most important people in her life never said those words. They tried to show it, sure, but sometimes words do speak louder than actions.
“You look beautiful playing homemaker,” I tease her as I move behind her as she fusses with more cookies. “I love you, bunny.”
Her little sigh every single time I say it to her tells me I am getting this right. I tried to play hero when her father cut her off, sweep her up to my cabin, take care of all her troubles, but that was not what she needed. Brielle is a strong, capable woman. One who faced down and fought adversity and tyranny—her father cutting off her money was never going to get in her way.
“I love you too, baby,” she coos, making my chest bloom with emotions I am sure will just continue to get bigger, warmer, every time she says it.
“After you finish with those cookies,” I start, reaching out to snatch up a warm, gooey one, “come open some presents. We can save some for later when the others get here, I promise,” I tell her, biting into the cookie and letting out an appreciative moan as the chocolatey flavor fills my mouth.
Winding my arms at her waist, I pull her back against me and burrow my face against her neck. Brielle giggles and nods, moving with me as she finishes her task. Turning at the waist when the last cookie is on the plate, she smiles up at me with a beautiful, bright smile, her blue eyes sparkling.
“Might have a gift under there I want you to open to, Ace,” her voice is teasing, a waggle of her brows making me laugh.
Bending, I kiss her pink lips, sighing into the kiss as it turns hotter, her body twisting to press closer. My hands move to sink into her thick, red hair, the silk strands pinned up atop her head. I pull gently at the tie holding it all out of her way, letting it spill over her shoulders.
“I got the gift I wanted most,” I breathe the words at her jaw as I move my lips there, “I got you, bunny. What more could I want?”
Shaking her head at me because she loves when I go all soft for her, she pulls me from the kitchen towards the tree. We sit at the fireplace, her draped across my lap as I lean back against the warm river stones as the fire flickers beside us. I reach beneath the tree for the box I want her to open most.
Well, the thing I want her to have most is tucked away in the fuzzy white stocking she has hanging on the fireplace, but she will get that later.
“This is huge,” she says as she slides from my lap to sit at the floor with the big box between her legs.
Staring down at her, I cock a brow and wet my lips because I can see up her cute red skirt. Her black lace panties hide nothing and reach out, diving my hand beneath her skirt. When I yank at her panties, pushing them aside, she gasps. I stroke her folds open just once, just seeing if she’s as soft as she looks under that lace. And, of course, she is.
“You will get huge later tonight, bunny,” I tease her as I bring my finger to my mouth, sucking off her cream with a loud pop.
“Behave! We will have guests later. Unless you want to fuck me beneath this tree right now, keep those filthy hands to yourself, Ace,” she says it like she means it, but we both know she doesn’t.
And I will be fucking her beneath that tree, no doubt about that.