stood and stripped off his street clothes, glad he’d chosen to shower at the gym. But when he got in and slid his hands down her back, they were met with some kind of flocked fabric. “Do you have to wear this?” he whispered. “I want your skin under my hands.”
She sat up. “Help me, then.”
He helped her shed her nightclothes and then folded her close, pulling the bedding up around them. Chloe snuggled against him and a few seconds later kissed the base of his throat, her fingers coming up to touch his face.
Although he knew she’d found the moisture there—wasn’t sure exactly when his vision had blurred—she didn’t ask about it or try to talk. She just wrapped her arms around him and squeezed. He squeezed back, the roller-coaster of emotions he’d experienced during the day quieting before sliding to a halt.
Chloe had somehow made everything all right. And she’d done it without uttering a single word.
* * *
They didn’t need a second opinion. His father was dying.
He slid the last report back in its folder. “I don’t understand.”
His father reclined on the bed, and although he’d always had the body of a runner, wiry with ropy muscles, his cheeks were more angular than Brad had ever seen them. His skin was sallow, the yellow signifying liver involvement.
Brad’s mother wasn’t in the house: his father had sent her out to get something.
“I needed to talk to you alone. Tell you how...sorry I am. For the things that went on when you were younger. I didn’t stand up to your mother when I should have.” He paused and then cleared his throat. “I know if I don’t say it now, I might never get another chance. I’m proud of you, Brad. You’ve become a fine man.”
A fine man. One who didn’t like locked doors and who couldn’t be in a relationship for longer than a couple of months.
Brad waited for the anger to rise up and swallow him, but it wasn’t there. All he felt was regret. “I appreciate you saying that.”
What else was there to say?
“You’ll be around for your mother after I’m gone? Despite everything that happened, I know she loves you.”
Was he serious? Brad was the last person his mother had ever wanted around. He swallowed, not sure how to answer. “She’ll be fine. She’s a strong woman.”
His father shook his head. “I know it seems that way, but we married right out of high school. She was pregnant with you at the time. She’s never been alone—really alone—in her entire life. She needs to know someone will be there once I’m gone, even if she won’t come out and say it herself.”
Why was his father telling him all this?
Because he was the fall-back plan.
Even as the thought went through his head, he dismissed it as ridiculous. But was it? His mother and his father had always presented a united front to the world—she was the brick and he was the mortar. His mother would be lost without him, despite her garden parties and all her social acquaintances.
She’d be as lost as he had been as a child.
“She’ll need you,” his father repeated.
Chloe came to mind. She’d needed him too. Things hadn’t worked out with Travis, and she’d come running to him. Had asked for his help when it came to flirting and the bedroom.
Had he been her fall-back plan as well?
Bile rose in his throat even as he swallowed in one hard movement, trying to make the ugly thoughts disappear.
“She doesn’t want me, Dad. She never has.” Brad wasn’t sure if he was talking about his mother or about Chloe. But maybe it was one and the same. And this was a hell of a time to realize he loved the woman who was currently sharing his bed.
Damn her. Damn his mother.
His father reached out and grasped his hand. “It might not seem like she wants you right now, but she will.”
“And you expect me to just...”
He couldn’t bring himself to say the words. And you expect me to just drop everything...to forget how she treated me—how you treated me—as a child? Because, despite his apology, his dad didn’t realize what a huge impact those things had had on him... All his dad knew was that they’d provided him with every material thing he could possibly want or need. And more. They’d given him everything.
Except love. And a childhood free of fear.
He’d had to go elsewhere to find that. And he had, in the Jenkins family. And most recently in Chloe Jenkins’s arms—Chloe, who had her own issues with fear.
His whole life was one big circle of irony, which now seemed to be closing in on him as surely as that closet from long ago. His parents hadn’t wanted him. Until now.
And Chloe hadn’t wanted him either—had ignored him from the second she’d said “I do” to Travis.
Until now.
WHEN WAS MAKING love not making love?
When it was sex.
Chloe lay curled on her side in a tight ball, her breathing still heavy and uneven, while Brad stared at the ceiling. She’d been lying right beside him, still caught up in the afterglow, when her eyes had happened to meet his in the mirror and had been shocked by the cold emptiness she saw there.
She’d had to roll over to block out the sight.
She might love him, but he did not return the sentiment.
God, she was such a fool.
He’d shocked her tonight by coming through the door and grabbing her off the sofa. Pressing her against the nearest wall, he’d propped his elbows on either side of her head and stared down at her for a long time. Just as suddenly he’d lowered his head and kissed her. The second they’d touched, it had been as if a bomb had gone off. He’d devoured her, using his lips, his tongue...his teeth, his body telling her in no uncertain terms that he’d wanted her. Badly. Couldn’t wait to have her. She’d never seen him like that before.
She’d been thrilled. Ecstatic. Surely he felt the same way about her that she did about him.
There’d been none of the slow build-up that had always gone on between them. He’d shoved her scrubs and panties down and off and had lifted her onto his hips, burying himself inside her within seconds. Had carried her to bed like that. Still kissing. One hand under her butt, the other buried deep in her hair, holding her to him as he’d groaned into her mouth and surged inside her with each step.
Then she’d free-fallen onto the bed, with Brad still on top of her, still inside her. All around her.
She
