Until We Fly (Beautifully Broken 4)

I’m fucking brave.

I watch his lips slowly part as he breathes out in a rush.

I watch his tongue dart out and lick his lower lip.

I feel the heat from his hand as he slightly moves it.

Then I watch the word form on his mouth…right before he says it.

“No.”

Chapter Seven

Brand

Nora stares at me, stunned. Her blue eyes are wide and clear, and I see hurt in them. Hurt that I put there without meaning to.

“No?” she repeats shakily, confused. She wasn’t expecting that answer. I wasn’t expecting to say it, to be honest. If I were smart, I’d take her up on her offer and have a summer-long sex session.

But as I look at her now, she seems more vulnerable and sad than confident and commanding as she’d want the world to think. A part of me knows that strings-free sex is the last thing she needs.

“No,” I answer again. “Jesus, Nora. You’re worth more than that.”

She flushes bright red and yanks her hand away as if my skin were on fire. “You don’t know me,” she snaps as she gathers the sponge bath supplies. “You don’t know what I’m worth, or what I want, Brand. Get over yourself.”

She grabs my towel off the floor and tosses it back to me. I grasp her elbow, holding her still as I sit up.

“Nora, I didn’t mean to insult you. You’re a beautiful, sexy woman. I don’t know why you feel like meaningless sex with me this summer would be smart, but I get the feeling that it’s the last thing you need. You’re worth more than a hollow fuck.”

She flinches away at my words, but that’s something about me. I’m always honest.

?

??It wouldn’t be meaningless,” she murmurs, looking into my face. “I’ve wanted you for years. Being with you now would be like fulfilling my oldest fantasy before I have to immerse myself in my father’s business. What’s wrong with that? Don’t I deserve to do something that I want to do before I have to hand my life to my father?”

I’m the one recoiling now as I stare at her in shock. I’m her fantasy? What kind of nonsense is this? If the situation weren’t so tense, I’d laugh.

“I’m not exactly fantasy material,” I tell her instead, fighting to keep from smiling. “I’m just the son of a mechanic who joined the Army and got out of this one-horse town. Not really the stuff of fairy tales, Nora. And besides, you aren’t handing your life to your father. You’re going to work for him. Your life will still be your own.”

She shakes her head. “You don’t know anything about me, Brand. Or my life.”

With that, she walks out, leaving me alone in the room with only a towel covering my dick.

I feel like I’ve been steam-rolled.

What the actual fuck was that?

I roll off the bed, put my clothes back on, and hobble out to follow Nora, but when I reach the hall, I hear water running. She’s in the shower….where she’s wet and naked.

I need a beer.

Fuck not being able to drink a beer and take a pain pill at the same time.

It takes five minutes to get to the kitchen, but when I do, I take the pill with a swig of beer, raising the bottle in Nora’s direction.

Cheers.

I gulp down the rest of the icy liquid, letting it trickle down my throat and chill it’s way into my belly.