Page 53 (1/1)

"You said this was an old friend How long have you two been friends?"

Without looking at hiina reached the bathroo We ht out"

Last year? After her husband passed? A part of Brandon wanted to just let it go--not stir the waters But he’d picked up on souy sent her There was so made her nervous to talk to Brandon about this friend He’d since decided he wouldn’t push it, that it wasn’t a big deal The guy didn’t even live in California Howher, and she was talking about uy she’d been very te deal of this, but he was absolutely getting to the bottom of this today

A few minutes later, he heard the toilet flush then the water running More minutes passed Then she opened the door, her toothbrush still in her mouth, and she smiled Even with a mouthful of toothpaste, bed head, and no , but it only etting together with

After rinsing and wiping her ?" she said, all bright-eyed "Chocolate-chocolate-chip waffles"

He hated to put a daet some if you want But you wanna tell me about this friend of yours from New York first?"

Her smile instantly vanished, and she started toward the bed "No, not really," she said, surprising hiht of it and change the subject This just turned up the need to know uy a few hundred notches "Why?"

"Because it’s not so about" Her response was abrupt--terse--not at all what he was expecting

Taking a few steps toward her, he chose his words wisely because he could feel this getting tense already There was no way he was letting this go now "Why do I get the feeling there’sme?"

She turned to him with a look he hadn’t seen on her since the day she confronted hi back a s ether for all of one week, Brandon You really think I’ve told you everything about reed to do this with you because I didn’t want things to go back to the way they were I like having you in s I’d rather not talk about just yet"

Brandon didn’t want to regret having done this with her He didn’t want to regret that they were just into this one week and already the thought of her having a guy friend she didn’t want to tell hi wall "Like ex-boyfriends or ether with?" he asked, every word louder than the last "Because I’ll be daina said sharply, but then the severity in her own expression lessened, and the corner of her lip rose She reached out and touched his face with her hand, relieving so in every one of his muscles "If that’s what you’re worried about, don’t You’vefriends, and if you recall, I agreed with you"

He reached for her, pulling her into his arms, and buried his face in her neck The relief was replaced by instant fear--fear that he was going to blow this Even he hadn’t anticipated his reaction to be so heated "I’ away "I had a feeling I ht suck at this, but I promise I won’t always be like this I just" He shook his head "I’ll give you all the time you need If you’d rather not talk about her yet, I’ll wait I won’t be so--"

She kissed hi because, unbelievably, another thought he never expected to be thinking had begun to cloud his mind For aso As ina, even she wouldn’t ether His insecure ass was going to destroy this--this thing that after only a week he could already tell was the best thing that’d ever happened to hi she didn’t want to tell hiuy in her life hadn’t been unfounded "I’ht it was a guy you were on the phone with and sent you that ro that last co for nearly losing it because of that If that were ever the case, she should expect nothing less In fact, it’d probably be evenher--clai her with every kiss every time they made love, the likelier it’d be that he’d have less control over his eers through his hair as their kissing began going into that familiar, wild, uncontrolled place Just like that, as alhen he kissed her, he was instantly aroused, and his throbbing erection was already ih his thin boxer briefs Rery and this was his chance to appease her hat she was craving, he pulled away gently, but she pulled hiht