He’s holding me so tenderly, it’s a balm to my bruised heart. I don’t know how long we stay like this. It could be minutes or an hour, but finally, he moves back just a little and wipes the last of my tears away.
“Do you want to see the rest of the house?” he murmurs, still caressing me, soothing me.
“Please. Give me a tour.”
I hop down, and with his hand holding mine tightly, as if he’s worried I might slip away—spoiler alert: never happening—he leads me through the rest of the first floor, showing me a laundry room, a guest bedroom, the living room, and then leads me to the study.
“I thought this would make a nice library for you. Install built-in bookcases, a cozy chair and table. It wouldn’t be as grand as Billie’s because Connor’s a fancy fuck, but it could work.”
I’m blinking up at him in surprise. “I think I just fell in love with you.”
Brooks barks out a laugh. “It took me mentioning a library to do that?”
“I mean, it didn’t hurt. You’d be okay with me taking over a whole room?”
“The whole house isyours, Juliet. Do whatever the fuck you want.”
“You would have to live here, too, you know.”
“I have what I want.” He kisses the top of my head and leads me to the staircase. “I have you. Let’s go up. The second floor needs more work than the first does.”
“Is that even possible?”
He winces. “Yeah, it’s possible. Old house, remember? If this is too much of a project for you, and you’d rather we sold both houses and bought something newer?—”
“Do I look like a woman who’s afraid of a DIY project, Mr. Blackwell?”
“No, you lived in an attic. Remember?” His voice is growly, and he narrows his eyes at me. “A fucking attic, Juliet.”
“Hey, it served the purpose.”
“Yeah, the purpose of punishing yourself.”
We reach the top of the stairs, and I turn to him, my mouth dropping in surprise. “I wasn’t?—”
“Yeah, you were.” His mouth is set in grim lines as he watches me. “We both know it, Wildfire.”
I swallow hard.Isthat what I was doing? Maybe, without realizing it.
“Okay, there are four bedrooms up here,” he says, and starts pointing them out. “One bathroom for the three smaller bedrooms to share. The primary bedroom has an en suite.”
I follow him through, poking my head into all of the rooms.
“They’re pretty small,” I murmur quietly, taking it all in. It’s true, the bedroomsaresmall. “But they’d be fine for kids’ rooms. Or an office. What about your home gym?”
“I have a garage out back,” he says with a shrug. “And I usually go to the firehouse to work out anyway. Bridger has given all of us access to the gym there. I don’t need a room in thehouse for that. We could share an office here, since we both have offices at our businesses.”
I’m nodding, feeling excitement bubble up in my stomach as I start to see it all in my head.
“I want to see the primary.”
“Right this way.” He gestures to the open door, and I walk past him, soaking up his warmth. This bedroom is at least twice the size of the others on this floor.
“I suspect that a previous owner opened a wall to another smaller room to make this bigger,” he says, as if he can read my mind. He’s leaning on the doorjamb as I walk around. His arms are folded, showing off hisincrediblebiceps. “My eyes are up here, Wildfire.”
I smirk, then chuckle as I look around. “I like it. I’d paint it something soft, like a yellow or green. Pretty curtains on the windows. A rug in the middle of the floor, after said floors get refinished. It would be really pretty.”
“The bathroom’s through there.” He points at another doorway, and I step over and then freeze.
