“They are.”
He turned to look down at her. “You'll probably find this hard to believe, but I didn't bring you here to seduce you, Macy. I just wanted to get away from the wedding for a while, and I wanted you as company.”
“I wouldn't have come if I didn't want to, Brad.”
He cupped her cheek, his thumb stroking her skin. It felt wonderful and Macy closed her eyes. Barely a second passed before his lips were on hers.
She'd thought they would be hard, but they were anything but. He took her under in seconds. Macy forgot to breathe as his mouth made love to hers. She didn't know where the kisses stopped or started, only that for the first time in her life a man’s touch made her feel wonderful. Her body had ignited, her breasts tingled, and heat pooled between her thighs.
“Macy.” He whispered her name, and she almost believed the reverence in his voice. Almost, but not quite, believed the raw need that one word had resonated with.
His hand moved down her body, fisted in the fabric of her dress, and then she felt the heat of his palm on her thigh, shivered as it moved upward.
“I want these wrapped around me.”
“Yes.” She reveled in the passion stirring inside her. Feelings she'd never experienced, built. Maybe she could do this, if the liquid heat racing through her was any indication.
He kissed her again; this time it was almost savage in its intensity, and Macy pulled back. Not completely, but enough so the contact was broken.
“I need to ask you some things before we do this, okay?”
Brad noddeddown at the lush woman in his arms. She felt so good pressed against him, every soft curve hiking his passions each time she moved.
“Macy, honey.” He found his voice. “Have we got a problem here?”
“No.” She shook her head. “It's my problem, not yours, but I want this. I need you to understand that, Brad.”
Moving on instinct he hadn't known he had, Brad cupped her face in both hands softly. Something told him this woman needed gentle right now.
“I'm trying.”
“We need to take this slow, and I need to feel like I have some control, if that's all right with you?”
He knew there was shit happening here that he didn’t understand. Brad was sure that someone had hurt this woman, and it had likely been her ex. The sudden urge to find the bastard and make him pay shocked him as much as his need to be here with her.
“Sure as hell is hard, honey. I mean, what man wouldn’t want to be here, with a sexy woman who wants to have sex with him and take control? You do want sex, right? Or did I read that wrong?”
Her smile was small.
“I want it, but I had a difficult relationship, Brad. I should probably tell you that right off, and you’re the first man I've been near in four years. I’m not sure why I decided you were safe, but I have. So if that's too much for you to handle, I can understand that. Let's face it, we only met a few hours ago, and you're probably already regretting this, bringing me here.”
He should be, but instead he slid his fingers around the back of her neck and stroked the soft skin he found there.
“You want me to kill him?”
“No, he's been locked away, but thanks for the offer.”
His stomach clenched at the thought of this woman in the hands of a man so bad he was behind bars.
“I want you, Brad.”
She looked up at him with so much longing in her eyes he felt it settle heavily inside his chest.
“I want to be normal again, and I thought with you, for just tonight, maybe I could.”
Brad felt like he was wading through a minefield with no protection.
“Well now, honey, you're looking at the wrong person if you want normal.”
