Every Way (Brush of Love 4)

“I’ve already made a deal with Ramon. It’s done, Bryan.”

“Then we’ll find a way to undo it. We have a good relationship with Ramon. We’ll figure it out,” I said.

As I sat there holding my trembling wife, I wondered if Laura had something to do with Ben. My original thought was that my mother had sent Laura to fuck stuff up, but now I wasn’t so sure. If this Ben character was tracking Hailey down and knew enough about her life to threaten us by name, then maybe he had come into contact with Laura and decided to use her as a pawn.

I didn’t know what the hell was going on with that situation anymore, but Ben now trumped the thing with Laura.

This needed to get handled, and it needed to get handled quickly.

Chapter 22

Hailey

“Just calm down. Everything’s going to be okay.”

As I lay in Bryan’s arms, I felt the rest of the boulders I’d been carrying crash to the ground. I felt helpless and insecure. I felt bloated and guilty. But most of all, I felt terrible for keeping this from Bryan and for creating this situation. The worst was that I’d made him feel like this was a facet of my personality that would eventually destroy us.

But he was right. It would if I didn’t find a way to get it under control.

“From now on, Hailey, you can’t keep things like this from me. I understand that we are our own people, but you are carrying very precious cargo. And you’re precious to me in your own right. This is serious, and the fact that you kept it from me tells me a lot of things like the fact that you don’t trust me.”

“I do trust you,” I said breathlessly. “I was trying to protect you.”

“Then stop. Because you’re doing a shit job of it.”

A breathless chuckle left my lips as Bryan placed a kiss on my forehead.

“I’m going to do whatever it takes to protect you. We have to go to the police, but I know that makes you uncomfortable for many reasons. I’ll come up with something. I’ll make sure you don’t have to sell John’s paintings.”

“I don’t know how you’re going to do that,” I said.

“Trust me, Hailey. Now that you’ve told me what’s going on, trust that I can get this under control.”

“It shouldn’t be your problem in the first place.”

His finger crooked underneath my chin and pulled my gaze up to his. I found myself lost in his eyes, in their concern and in their fiery need to protect. His arms wrapped around me and lowered my back to the bed as we continued to start into one another’s eyes.

I spread my legs for him as he dipped in between them, his fingers tucking a strand of hair behind my ear.

“I love you, Hailey. You are the mother of my child and the best wife a man could ask for. Any problem you encounter is mine, just like any problem I encounter is yours,” I said.

“I don’t know how to fix this anymore,” I whispered.

“It’s no longer yours to fix. It’s mine. You’ve done enough. You’ve been strong enough. Now let me solve this for us so we can start our life together in peace.”

He cupped my cheek as I raised my lips to his. They were warm and soft. Inviting and comforting. I felt a sense of peace rush over me as my arms threaded around his neck, pulling him closer to me. I needed to feel him. I needed him to blanket me. I needed to feel normal and beautiful and wanted and loved.

I needed to lose myself in him.

His tongue begged for entrance as it swiped over my lips. I opened my body to him, his hands roaming along my curves. Our tongues battled for dominance as my hands raked down his back, clawing at his shirt so I could get it over his head.

Our bodies were harmonizing with one another. I rolled him over and straddled his lap, peeling my clothes from my body. His hands roamed over my stomach and thighs, my waist and my breasts. He cupped them, squeezing their aching peaks before he leaned up and kissed me again. He rolled me over onto my back as his hands slid down my body, grasping the material of my skirt and pulling it down my legs. I heard his jeans fall to the carpet as his lips descended onto my ankle, his mouth kissing all the way up my body to meet my lips again.

“I could never cheat on you,” Bryan said. “Cheat on this. You’re everything to me. Everything I’ve ever wanted. You’re my life and my source of strength. The reason I get up in the morning with a smile on my face. No woman has ever made me feel the way you do, and no woman ever will.”

I felt his girth pulsing at my entrance. I felt my arousal dripping down the cracks of my body. I rose my hips up to encompass him, drawing a groan from his lips as my body devoured him. I shook with want, aching to be touched and caressed and kissed. I crashed my lips up into his again as he sank to his hilt, and then I ran my toes up the backs of his legs.

“Fuck, you feel so good,” Bryan said.