I snickered and shook my head as my eyes hooked on the front door. It was right there. A few steps and I would be free from this conversation. Free from the embarrassment of his rejection.
But his hand grasped my chin and pulled my gaze to his, and I was helpless to his command.
I couldn’t hide from him any longer. I had to face this head-on, no matter where it went.
“I love you,” I said breathlessly.
I watched the corners of his mouth twitch as his lips drew closer to mine.
“I love you, too,” he said.
“What?” I asked, not sure I had heard him correctly.
His grin turned into a full-blown smile before he guided my lips to his. The touch of his warmth against mine sent shivers ricocheting throughout my body. Electricity was humming in my brain and my heart was fluttering a thousand times a second.
Kevin was in love with me?
The kiss ended, but I wanted to have him back, to feel him against me again. I wrapped my hands in his shirt and pulled him back to me, our lips colliding again. He pressed me into the banister as his hands slid down my body, massaging my hips as he parted my legs with his knee.
I was panting when I pulled away as my hands drifted around his neck.
“I love you, Brooke. And you’re not a homewrecker. We had a therapy session today, just the two of us. And it was painfully obvious that neither of us was there for the right reasons. Sarah still has a long way to go and—I don’t want her back as a companion. I still don’t believe she’s willing to be a full-time mother and I don’t think she’s right for the family I’ve made with my twins. She’s not happy about it, but the doctor didn’t fight me on it either. I know he saw what I saw. He felt what I felt.”
I gazed up into Kevin’s eyes as my knees began to weaken.
“So, you two aren’t—?”
“No,” he said. “We aren’t. Sarah did this all on her own. No matter the reason for it, it was the choice she made. And she has to reap the consequences of that. You aren’t keeping this family apart. If anything—”
He stroked my cheek with his thumb and I nuzzled into his touch.
“If anything, you brought us back together.”
His thumb stroked over my lip and I pulled the tip of his finger between my teeth.
He groaned and sucked in a breath of air.
I lapped at his finger and watched as his eyes darkened.
“And I know you,” Kevin said. “I know you’re still blaming yourself for Sydney’s kidnapping. And you can’t. None of that was your fault.”
His thumb continued to travel over my jaw and the sensation had my nerve endings humming with electricity.
I was trembling as his knee rubbed against my pussy.
“You have to let that guilt go,” Kevin said. “You saved her. That’s all that matters to me.”
“But, I—”
He crashed his lips against mine and silenced my protest. My hands rushed to his hair, pulling him as close as I could get him to me. I ground down onto his knee and swallowed his groans, feeling the way his hands traced my every curve.
“I love you,” I said into his lips. “I love you, Kevin.”
“Miss Brooke?”
Sydney’s voice at the top of the steps forced us apart quickly.
“Yes, sweetheart? Is everything okay?” I asked.