“Mum, seriously,” Birdie said, “Big. Why, do you doubt me?”

Jennifer shrugged. “You did try to tell me that painter’s dick was huge a couple of years ago. Then I saw the dick pic he sent you, and let me tell you that if you think that’s huge, we need to get you out more.”

Fucking hell.

Enough with the goddam dick talk.

Carey had me covered. He interrupted the conversation. “Mum, did you end up going on a date with that guy your friend was going to introduce you to at her dinner party?.”

“Oh God, no. He spent the night of the dinner party picking his teeth and continually smoothing his hair. How hard is it to find a normal man?”

“My thoughts exactly,” Birdie agreed. “All the good men are taken.” Her eyes met mine as she said that, and I didn’t miss the way her gaze lingered on me.

“Birdie,” Jennifer said, passing her a container of food, “Can you please take this out to the freezer in the garage?”

She did as her mother asked, and I made my move. I’d spent the last three hours waiting for this moment, and I wasn’t about to miss it now. I followed her to the garage, closing the door behind us as I entered.

The way she didn’t react told me she knew I’d followed her, and when she said, “Winter, this isn’t going to go down the way you want it to,” I knew she was lying to herself. She would have stopped me on the way in here if she meant what she’d just said. She sure as fuck wouldn’t have waited until we were alone.

I folded my arms over my chest and leaned against the wall near the freezer. “How do you think I want this to go down?”

She met my gaze. “You think we’re going to dance around each other for a while, you chasing me, me avoiding you. You think I’m just playing and will eventually give in. But that’s not how things will play out. I broke up with you for a reason, and I don’t have any intention of starting a relationship again.”

I narrowed my eyes at her. “And what exactly was that reason, Birdie? Because I don’t remember you ever giving me a real reason.”

“Have you forgotten how much we were fighting?” Her tone was challenging, like she was looking for an argument.

“Christ, I’d just come back from Afghanistan. It was an adjustment period for us. Of course we were fighting.”

Her body tensed. “We were fighting way before you came home that last time.”

“And you were happy to just throw away ten years together without us working on it once I was home full-time?” I loved her, but fuck, I was still mad with her.

Her gaze dropped to the ground and she took a step away from me. “We’d been working on it and we weren’t getting anywhere.” There was something off here. I’d always gotten the feeling there was something she wasn’t telling me, and I was getting that same damn feeling again.

“Was there someone else, Birdie? Is that it?” I hoped to hell she didn’t say yes. I’d never fully believed that, but it had crossed my mind, because her behaviour had been so out of character for her that nothing had made much sense.

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Her head jerked up and her eyes met mine again. “No,” she said with complete conviction, “I never cheated on you.” Her voice softened a little as she reiterated that, “Never.”

Thank fuck.

An overwhelming need to have her in my arms hit me, and I pushed off the wall and closed the distance between us. One arm slid around her waist while I took hold of her face with my free hand. “I hadn’t been working on us. You might have been, but my mind was so fucked up from what I saw over there that I hadn’t wrapped it around what I needed to do back home. I screwed us up, Birdie, and I’m going to make it right. Let me back in. Let me work on us.”

I felt the moment she gave in. She might not have felt it, but I did. Her eyes fluttered closed for a second before opening again and looking at me with heat. Her body relaxed into mine and she gripped my shirt. And while she continued fighting me, she’d crossed the line back to me.

“You didn’t screw us up. We both played our part. But I can’t go back. I don’t—”

I bent my mouth to her ear and cut her off. “We’re going back, Angel. Don’t fight me on this, because you won’t win.”

With that, I claimed her mouth and kissed her for the second time that day. This time, she struggled against me and tried to push me away. I pulled my lips from hers and growled, “Tell me you don’t want this. Tell me you don’t feel something when we’re together and that you aren’t imagining fucking me. I am deadly fucking serious when I say I want you back and that I’ll do whatever it takes, but I’ll give you this one opportunity to tell me no.”

She stared up at me, breathless and sexy as fuck, and she didn’t tell me any of that. Instead, she pulled my mouth back to hers and kissed the hell out of me.

We were going back.

5

Tags: Nina Levine Storm MC Reloaded Romance
Source: readsnovelonline.net