Текст книги "Until We Fly"

Автор книги: Courtney Cole

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Текущая страница: 12 (всего у книги 13 страниц)

“Nora, call me when you get this. It’s important.”

I look at Camille. “Let’s go.”

She nods and takes my arm. “Greene Corp has a second jet at O’Hare. We can use it.”

My heart pounds against my ribs as we tear down the road in Camille’s Mercedes. Adrenaline pumps through me and I realize something with a start.

The reason I’m so devastated by Nora’s leaving… is because I love her.

When we get to her, whether she still wants to leave me or not, I have to tell her. She needs to know, and I have to say the words.

I wanted to say them last night, and something held me back. And if I can’t get to her today, she’ll never know.

I’ll have to live knowing that the beautiful, seemingly confident girl who secretly feels worthless doesn’t know I love her… she doesn’t know that she’s more valuable than anything on the face of the earth.

William Greene had better pray to any God that will listen that he hasn’t harmed a hair on her head.

Chapter Twenty-Six

Nora

My blood is chilled in my veins as I open the door to my apartment and look around.

Nothing is disturbed. Everything is exactly the way I left it when I packed for Angel Bay a few weeks ago.

The apartment is still cozy and neat and clean. Not fancy, but perfect for me. It was all I needed when I went through law school. I could’ve lived here forever.

Leaving my front door unlocked, I set my bag down by the kitchen table and sink into a chair, my head in my hands.

How has everything changed in so short a time?

A few weeks ago, I knew what my life was going to be like and even though I hated it, I was resigned to doing it. I’m a Greene, after all. I do what it fucking takes.

But then… there was Brand. And everything changed.

I can’t keep doing this.

I can’t.

I square my shoulders. My father has an iron-clad contract with my signature on it, tying me to him for the next twenty years. William has information on Brand that could ruin him… and will ruin him if I don’t comply.

There’s only one thing that I can do to survive.

I have to take care of William and then run.

I’ll hide where my father can never find me.

It’s all I can do.

All of a sudden, I feel a strange calm come over me and I feel as though I’m watching from afar, from outside of my body.

This isn’t me, this isn’t my life.

It’ll all be over soon.

One way or another.

I get up and calmly walk to the bedroom.

Standing on my toes, I reach onto the top shelf of my closet and pull down a box.

Inside, a silver 9mm gleams in the light.

I never thought I’d have the balls to use it. I never thought I could.

But oh, how things change.

I run my finger over the cold metal before I lift it from the box and load it.

Very, very calmly, I take off my clothes and sit on my bed in only my black bra and panties. In the middle of the bed, I tuck my legs beneath me, and wait.

It’ll all be over soon.

One way or another.

Out the window, I watch the ocean. It crashes against the shore, while sail boats and paddleboards ride the waves. Everyone out there is carefree and happy. Everyone out there is normal.

In here, I’m tainted and twisted and used.

But it all ends today.

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Brand

I stare down at the wings of the plane, as we descend through the clouds and toward the ground.

I can’t focus on anything, other than Nora’s face the other night.

Her eyes had been so wide, as she’d looked at me in the dark. As I’d entered her, she’d sighed so soft, and then whispered into my neck.

Make me good, Brand.

Her words were so quiet that I don’t even know that she meant to speak.

But the words twist and turn in my heart right now.

Make me good.

Because she thinks she’s not. She thinks she’s used.

Unworthy.

Because of whatever that fucking asshole has done to her.

Make me good, Brand.

I grit my teeth and squirm in my seat. I need to get to her. Now.

She’s everything good in the world. She just doesn’t know it.

And I will fucking annihilate him if he’s touched her.

He’ll beg for mercy.

And I will not give it to him.

Chapter Twenty-Eight

Nora

My spine is ram-rod straight as I wait.

As the clock ticks the minutes past.

The seconds.

The moments.

This summer, there just wasn’t enough time with Brand. It all ticked past so fast. And now that I’ve left him, the seconds are coming so slowly, passing like razor blades on my skin, achingly, wretchedly slow.

I can do this.

I’m brave.

I’m brave.

I’m fucking brave.

Being brave doesn’t mean not being afraid, Nora. It means being afraid and doing it anyway.

The mere memory of Brand’s voice, his words, makes me smile, warms my heart and buoys my resolve.

How dare William threaten him?

I could’ve cowered forever under threats toward me, but toward Brand?

That’s where they fucked up.

The front door opens. I hear the latch, I hear the knob. I lift my chin.

I’m fucking brave.

I’m fucking brave.

I reach under the edge of the mattress, my fingertips reaching, feeling. Cool metal answers my question. It’s there… just within reach. Concealed and waiting.

It all ends today.

A polished loafer appears in my bedroom doorway, and I follow the legs up to the waist, up to the chest, up to the face where hardened brown eyes stare at me.

“Nora,” my father says, a camera dangling from his hand. “I see you’re ready.”

He eyes me, all of me, my bare legs, my breasts spilling from my bra, my bare skin, my arms, my face. It’s all exposed.

For my father and my uncle.

My reality slams into me, hard and fast and ugly.

I’m tainted.

I’m used.

But it all ends today.

One more time.

One.

More.

Time.

I unclench my teeth and lay back on the bed, spreading my legs the way they like.

“A Greene does what it takes,” I tell my father coldly. “You taught me that.”

My father nods, his gaze fixed on my crotch. He snaps a picture, then two, then three.

“Starting without me?”

William steps in. He’s already shed his clothes, probably in the living room, and he’s only wearing his underwear. He’s pale, wrinkled, sagging. My stomach turns, but I ignore it.

I’m fucking brave.

“Take off your bra for your uncle, Nora,” my father tells me, with eyes like a predator. “You know what he likes.”

The camera snaps. Again. Then again.

Just like last time, my father stands in the corner, behind the camera, stroking himself while his brother gets off. Like last time, he’ll be careful to stay out of the photos. He only takes them so that William can get off on them later.

William crawls onto the bed, on all fours, his white gut sagging to the sheets. I pull my legs up, away from his skin, not wanting to touch him.

I squeeze my eyes shut, preparing.

I can do this.

I’m fucking brave.

“Open your eyes, Nora,” William breathes into my ear, his rank breath hot on my face. “I want to see you as I fuck you.”

He moves over me, hovering, positioning, and I reach to the side, beneath the edge of the mattress. My fingers close around the cold steel.

That’s when I open my eyes.

And that’s when the breath freezes on my lips.

Bursting through the doorway, with all the fury of hell in his eyes, is my avenging angel.

Chapter Twenty-Nine

Brand

Rage settles down on me, like a cloud, like a shield, as I bellow my way into the room.

With one fist, I punch Maxwell Greene in the face, slamming him into the wall. In one deft motion, I ram my boot into his dick, crushing it. I leave him whimpering in a heap on the floor.

With one bound, I grab William by the neck and drag him from the bed, ramming his face into the wall, again, then again, then again.

I don’t see, I don’t hear, I don’t feel.

I just am.

I just am enraged.

I’m a machine, intent on revenge, on protecting what is mine. I punch William until his face is a wet pulp. The anger pumps through my veins, pushing the rage through my heart, fueling me.

“Brand!”

Nora’s voice breaks through the cloud and I pause, mid-punch, my fist frozen in the air. I turn and she’s poised on the bed, a delicate waif, beautiful and haunting, and with a 9 mm pointed at William’s chest.

“Stand back,” she tells me calmly, her voice cold and soft.

I drop William and step back, my eyes frozen on her face.

William is unconscious on the floor, blood spurting from his mouth, and gurgling in his nose. Maxwell moans from behind him, his hands clasped to his broken cock.

“Nora,” I speak softly, my eyes trained only on her. I see in her eyes that she means it. She’s not aiming to maim.

She’s aiming to kill.

“Nora, I know you’re hurt. What they’ve done is unthinkable, but I don’t want their blood on your hands. You don’t know what that’s like. You don’t deserve to know what that’s like. They can’t hurt you now, Nora. We’ll call the police. It will be over.”

Nora keeps the gun on William’s chest, but she looks at me, her eyes big and blue.

And cold.

“Brand, you don’t understand,” she says simply. “I can’t get away from them. William will ruin you. He knows about your past… about assaulting your father and how the judge made you join the Army. He’s going to use that to bankrupt your company—because he knows people in Washington. And my father…”

I speak up, trying as best I can to stay calm, to dissuade her. “Nora, they can’t ruin me. I was always going to be a Ranger. It was my dream from the time I was a kid. I wanted to protect people from evil like my father. The judge knew that. The judge saw the situation for what it was and gave me a break. Nora, they can’t hurt me.”

But she’s unmoved and her voice is filled with contempt.

“Don’t you see? It doesn’t matter what the truth is. William has connections in the pentagon who will believe whatever he tells them to. If he wants to ruin you, he’ll ruin you. And that’s not all. I signed a contract that ties me to my father for twenty years. I can’t do that. I just can’t. I’ve got to end it today, Brand. It ends today.”

Her voice is so resigned that it sends my heart pounding into my throat, especially when I see her hand shaking. She means to do it.

She means it. I want to lunge and grab the gun from her, but I’m too afraid she’ll hurt herself with it in the struggle. I can’t risk it.

I eye her carefully, thinking through my options, but then Camille steps forward, her shocked and frozen face finally moving to speak.

“My baby,” she croons, edging toward the bed. “There’s so much that you need to know. Please… put down the gun. They can’t hurt you now. They can’t.”

Nora shakes her head. “Step back, maman.”

But Camille refuses. “Nora, you need to know something… something I’ve never been strong enough to tell you. Look at me.”

Nora pauses, but doesn’t look at her mother. She keeps the gun trained on William. “Just tell me.”

Camille’s tone is blunt. “Nora, you’re not Maxwell’s daughter. Your contract will be void, not that it ever mattered anyway.”

This stops Nora cold, something that finally breaks through her concentration. She stares at her mother in confusion.

“Not his?” She looks at the two bloody men. “What do you mean?”

There’s the smallest tone of hope hidden among her confusion.

Camille stares at her, with love and fear and apprehension.

“You aren’t a Greene. Maxwell Greene is not your father. That means that the contract you signed, which named you as his daughter, isn’t valid. He can’t keep you with him. He can’t force you to do anything ever again.”

Nora’s eyes fill and her lips shakes. “That’s impossible. How…”

Camille shakes her head. “We’ll talk about it more after you put the gun down, my love. Please. Just give Brand the gun. Everything is going to be ok. I promise. It will be okay. “

Each second seems to last a year as I watch Nora’s hand shake while she clenches the gun, as she finally turns her gaze toward her mother. The cold, blank expression is gone, and instead, her eyes are filled with hope.

“If you’re telling the truth… then…they aren’t… William isn’t…my uncle and….”

A tear breaks rank and slides down her cheek.

“I’m not…”

I speak up. “You’re not used, Nora,” I tell her quietly. “You never have been. What they did to you was sick and wrong. And we’ll send them to prison because that’s where they deserve to rot.”

The gun shakes and drops to her side, and it’s finally safe for me to step forward, closing my hand around the barrel, and easing it out of her hand.

She rests against me, sinking into my arms, her head against my chest.

“I hear your heart,” she says slowly, and I know what she’s doing. I’ve done it a thousand times in combat. She’s removing herself from the situation. It’s something a person does to survive, to block out the ugliness, to keep it from overwhelming them.

“It’s beating for you,” I answer, holding her close. “Only for you.”

I turn to Camille to tell her to call the police, but she’s already on the phone, speaking fast, pacing back and forth as she talks to a dispatcher. I look down and find her shoes bloody.

Nora looks up at me, her eyes cloudy, distant, removed.

“You stand on a wall to protect what is yours.” Her words are simple.

I nod. “You’re mine.”

She closes her eyes and rests in my arms.

When the paramedics arrive, I refuse to let her go and carry her out to the ambulance myself.

Chapter Thirty

Nora

I’m afraid to wake up. I’m afraid that when I do, it will all have been a dream, and that it won’t really be over. I won’t be free.

But I open my eyes, and find Brand by my hospital bed.

He smiles, which is the most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.

“Hey,” he says huskily, in a voice devoid of sleep. “Welcome back.”

I look down to find my hand in his, and I look at the clock to find that I’ve been sleeping for almost twenty-four hours.

I blink, confused.

“The doctors gave you a sedative,” Brand explains, seeing the questions in my eyes. “You’ve been through a lot and you needed a chance to rest before you processed it.”

“You’ve been here the whole time,” I say it as a statement, not as a question. Because I already know. I’ve felt him here all along.

He nods. “Yeah.”

I look at him. “You saved me.”

It was real.

He narrows his eyes. “You were all set to try and save yourself. The gun… Jesus, Nora.”

He closes his eyes for a second, then re-opens them. “Why didn’t you tell me? Why didn’t you trust me?”

I shake my head, clutching his hand. “It wasn’t about trusting you. It was about… being humiliated and entrapped and helpless. I can’t explain to you what it feels like to think that my own uncle and father… made me… I was too dirty for you, Brand. Too tainted. You couldn’t be with someone like me.“

I can’t go on and Brand squeezes my hand, lifting my chin to make me look at him.

“You are not dirty. Or used. You were forced. You didn’t have a choice. But now they won’t have a choice either. They’re going to prison. They can never hurt you again. And that wasn’t your father. Or your uncle.”

It’s like he knows. He knows that it makes such a difference. Yes, I was still raped. But at least I wasn’t raped by my own blood.

“Who am I?” I ask him softly, staring into his blue, blue eyes. “If I’m not a Greene, who am I?”

He shakes his head. “I don’t know. Your mom will be back up here shortly, she just left for some coffee. She has all the answers, Nora. But I can tell you this. It doesn’t matter to me who you are. Because I already know. You’re beautiful and smart and brave. And I love you. I love all of you, no matter what your last name is.”

I suck in a breath and the tears start to fall, streaking hotly down my face, dripping onto my hospital gown.

“I love you too,” I choke, pressing my face into him, squeezing my eyes closed.

This can’t be real.

This can’t be.

But it is.

Brand Killien loves me.

He strokes my back, his hands running over my shoulder blade. He pulls my face up into his hands and looks into my eyes. “You will not sink, Nora,” he tells me firmly. “You’ve been tossed by the waves, but you will not sink. No matter what.”

My tattoo. Fluctuat nec Mergitur. He looked up the meaning. I smile through my tears and nod.

I won’t sink. I won’t.

“Ma belle fille,” my mother says softly from the doorway. I look up, but Brand doesn’t let go. I stay clutched to his chest because there’s no place I’d rather be. I won’t sink because Brand is my anchor. He holds me steady.

“Can you explain?” I ask simply. My mother nods, setting down her coffee and easing herself into the chair by the edge of the bed.

“It’s very simple, really,” she says sadly. “Your father…Maxwell, I mean, has been twisted for a very long time. He and William… they’re an unnatural, hateful pair. I realized it soon after we were married. But I was from France, you see. And after your brother was born, Maxwell knew that he had me no matter what. I knew what he and William were doing together… but I couldn’t stop it and I couldn’t leave, because Maxwell threatened to divorce me, have me extradited and then he’d keep Nate from me. It was… torturous.”

A tear slips down her delicate cheek and even though I should be furious at her for keeping all of this from me, I can’t bring myself to that. She’s suffered, too.

“Why didn’t you tell me?”

My mother drops her eyes. “Because as long as you were a minor, you were trapped with your father. If he had me extradited, you’d have been alone with him. I couldn’t allow that. And if I told you, I was afraid that you’d play that hand in an effort to get away from him. And he’d never have allowed that without a fight. Not after grooming you for so long to be a Greene. I was too afraid of what he would do.”

“Who is my father?” I ask simply.

She looks up, and she smiles a watery smile.

“Can you not guess? Did you really never suspect?”

I close my eyes and race through my childhood memories and one face comes up in them more often than any other.

Strong hands lifting me onto my horse, strong arms carrying me through the gardens, sharing his lunch, twinkling blue eyes that greeted me every day… and always the warmth. He was always happy to see me, always happy to be near me.

“Julian,” I breathe.

Brand cocks his head, questioning.

“Our gardener,” I remind him quickly. “But he’s more than a gardener. He took care of our house, our horses, me…”

I turn to my mother. “But how… and… I just don’t understand.”

My mother smiles.

“Julian is from home,” she tells me. “You already knew he was French too. I loved him when I was young, but then I was wild and carefree and came to America for adventure. That’s when I met and married Maxwell… he needed a normal family to cover up his twisted side. I didn’t know that, though, at first. We weren’t long into our marriage when I discovered what he was. But I was trapped. And Julian came to save me. I couldn’t leave… I couldn’t leave Nate. So Julian stayed with me. Always with me. And then of course, you were born, and he had even more to stay for.”

Her voice drifts off and she stares out the window, lost in her memories.

“But you… you can leave now,” I point out.

She nods. “I can. I can do anything I’d like… because Maxwell will go to prison. I’ve already called my attorney. I’ll be divorcing him immediately. All will be well, Nora. Finally.”

I feel Brand staring at me, and I look up, into the ocean blue eyes that I love.

All will be well.

Chapter Thirty-One

Nora

I cling to Brand, my arms wrapped around his strong waist as we fly down the highway that hugs the lake, on the back of his grandfather’s Triumph.

The wind whips my hair behind me and carries the scent of the lake, of the water and the sun, of Brand. And there’s no place I’d rather be.

“You ready to stop for lunch?” Brand calls back to me.

“Sure,” I answer in his ear.

He pulls to the side, to the little lookout I’d brought him to so many weeks ago, back when he was still limping, back before he was really mine.

We crawl off the bike, take off our helmets, and he digs out sandwiches from a pouch on the back.

As we eat at the picnic table, I prop my legs on his lap and he stares at me thoughtfully, the corners of his eyes turning up.

“Tell me again what you said to Maxwell yesterday,” he tells me. “When he called you from the jail and asked you to show leniency, to intervene on his behalf with the prosecutor?”

I inhale, exhale, then smile. Because it had felt really damn good.

“I told him that prison is waiting for him. And that I’ve heard prison life is hard for pansy-asses like him, so it’s a good thing he’s a Greene. He can do what it takes.”

Brand smiles, a smile full of pride and humor and sadness.

“You’re badass,” he tells me with pride. “Remind me never, ever to fuck with you.”

“Don’t you forget it,” I answer, putting all thoughts of Maxwell and William Greene out of my head. I’m only focusing on the future now.

“What will you do with your parent’s house? I mean, now that everything is over.”

He shrugs. “I think I’ll just sell the land. I don’t want it.”

I can understand why. In the weeks since he signed over everything to his mother, she hasn’t bothered to contact him.

“What about you?” Brand asks softly, reaching up with a large hand to tuck my windblown hair behind my ear.

“Your mother will get everything at Greene Corp. She said she’s going to divide it between you and Nate… you’ll be rich, Nora. In your own right. Not working for your father, not under anyone’s thumb. You can do anything you want.”

I nod slowly, staring out at the lake. “I know. It’s a crazy feeling. For as long as I remember, I’ve been told what I want: to grow up, be a good Greene and head up the legal team for the company. But now, I can figure out what I want to do. I can use my degree, or use Maxwell’s money to get another degree so that I can do something I actually want to do. Or we can travel the world. The possibilities are endless.”

I turn back to look at him and he stares down at me, his expression thoughtful.

I focus on the cleft in his chin. That lovely, adorable, sexy cleft. I reach up and place my thumb in it, where it fits perfectly.

“We fit,” I tell him. He rolls his eyes and captures my hand in his.

“In more ways than one,” he answers. I blush at that connotation, when I remember how well he’d fit inside of me last night, as we’d rocked together, over and over and over.

We fit.

“I’m sorry I wasn’t there when you looked in the box,” I tell him suddenly, because the guilt comes back again. It’s been two weeks, and I still feel awful that I left him, that I made him feel not good enough, when he’s better than anyone I know.

He shrugs. “It’s ok. I’m ok. Really.”

I reach into the pocket of his jacket, where I know I’ll find the lock. He’s been keeping it there for weeks. I pull it out and stare at it, as I turn it over and over in my hands.

“I’m glad he finally admitted his own guilt,” I say simply. “You deserve that.”

Brand shrugs again, his eyes guarded as he looks out across the water. “I think I can honestly finally say that I don’t care. I am free. I’ll always miss my sister, but her death wasn’t my fault. I know that now.”

“I’m glad you see that,” I tell him. And I mean it. I’m so freaking glad. I know what it’s like to carry guilt for something you can’t control. I don’t want that for Brand.

I snuggle into his side, absorbing his warmth, soaking him in.

“Tell me about her.”

“About Alison?”

I nod.

“Well, she was only four. But she was bubbly and happy all the time. She followed me everywhere. And being the six year-old boy that I was, I’m sure I wasn’t always the most patient with her, but I did love her. I’ll always miss the sister she would’ve become and I’ll always wonder who she would’ve been.”

My belly tightens, because of all of it… because Alison deserved to grow up and because Brand deserved to have a sister who was his best friend, someone to talk to about girls and confide in and torment and tease.

He didn’t get that.

But he did get me. It’s not the same, I know. But I’ll be his best friend, and his confidante, and I’ll never leave him again.

Brand takes the lock from my hands and stands up. He gazes out at the lake, and I see where he’s staring. From here, there is a perfect view of the buoy, the fucking weathered buoy that has taunted him most of his life.

With perfectly strong steps, Brand strides down the path to the beach, stopping when his toes hit the water. With one quick movement, he hurls the lock out over the lake. With laser precision, it hits the bell on the buoy before it bounces into the water and immediately sinks below the surface.

For a moment, the sound of the bell echoes down the beach, haunting and eerie.

Brand climbs the hill and stands in front of me, a strange grin on his face.

“I rang the fucking bell.”

I smile and shake my head.

“Yeah, you did.”

And all of a sudden, the air around us is lighter and I know why.

Because it’s gone.

All of it… the guilt, the hate, the bitterness… all of it is gone.

I press myself into Brand’s arms, enjoying the way they wrap around me and hold me close, the way all is right in the world when I’m here, the way he loves me.

The way he’s mine.

I stand on a wall to protect what is mine.

I’m his and he’s mine.

It’s the way it’s meant to be.

We’ll protect each other forever, for the rest of our lives.

No matter what.

* * *

Brand

Nora and I ride the old Triumph for hours, and I enjoy everything about it. I enjoy knowing that my grandpa had once ridden this very bike. I enjoy the way Nora wraps herself around me, trusting me to keep her safe. I enjoy the wind and the sun and the sky that is so vast and huge and everywhere.

We ride for hours until we finally ride home, to Gabe’s little cottage. As we get ready for bed, I look at Nora.

She stands in front of the window, bathed in the silvery light of the moon, and I know that she’s everything I’ll ever want. She’s more than I ever knew I deserved and then some.

She’s beautiful.

And she’s mine.

Looking up, she catches me looking at her and smiles.

“What?”

I shake my head as I turn back the covers of the bed.

“Nothing.”

We climb into bed, tumbling into each other’s arms, the way we have for weeks, as if turning to each other in the dark will keep all of the ugliness away. Because you know what?

It does. It really does.

Nora strokes my face, letting her fingers slide down my cheek, until her fingertip presses into the cleft on my chin.

We fit, Brand.

“We’ve got to get back to reality,” she tells me regretfully. “I’ve got to get to know Julian as my father. You’ve got to figure out what to do with your parents’ house, then we’ve got to decide where to live.”

I stare at her in the dark.

“We should probably decide where to live first, before we do anything else.”

She smirks. “Smart ass. Fine. Where do you want to live?”

I’m quiet for a minute as I ponder that and for the life of me, I don’t care.

“I don’t care where we live,” I tell her honestly. “I just want you with me. We can live in California by the ocean, we can live in the countryside in France, we can live in the city in Chicago or New York… it doesn’t matter. I just want you with me.”

Nora stares up at me, her full lip quivering.

“Agreed,” she answers softly. “You’re home to me, Brand.”

A lump forms in my throat, and I try to swallow around it, as I think of every fucking thing that has happened over the past couple of years.

“It’s funny how things work out,” I muse aloud. “Two years ago, I thought my world was ending, that nothing would be ok again. But everything happens for a reason. All of those twisted paths in my life led me to where I’m meant to be…. which is right here.”

“With me,” Nora sighs happily, squirming closer.

“Yeah,” I agree. “With you.”

“Before we fall, we fly, Brand,” she reminds me softly, tracing the tattoo on my forearm. “Your gran was right.”

“She was right about a lot of things,” I answer, as I flip her over and hover above her. Nora raises an eyebrow.

“Such as?”

“Well, you’ve got to take life by the balls and shake it as hard as you can.”

She giggles and leans up to kiss my neck. “Your gran said that?”

I nod. “Yeah. You’d like her.”

“We need to go visit.”

“Yeah,” I agree. “We do. She’d like you, too.”

“What else was she right about?”

I stare into Nora’s eyes, long and hard. “Well, she was right about one other thing. The best things in life are worth fighting for.”

Nora sighs a shaky sigh and puts her head against my chest, closing her eyes.

After a minute, she opens them again.

“I can still hear your heart.”

I smile in the night.

“I should hope so. It’s yours.”

Nora grabs my face and pulls it to hers, kissing me as soundly as I’ve ever been kissed, soft then hard, then harder.

Her hand trails over my chest, over my hips, down to where I’m hard for her.

“Make me yours, Brand,” she breathes.

I smile.

“Gladly.”