I didn’t know if it was her or the mouthwatering scent of the pie that assaulted my senses.
Apples and almonds and cream.
She eased back and started to round my chair.
And I felt the faintest flutter of fingertips running through my hair at the nape of my neck.
The only girl in the world who was gaining the power to touch my soul.
I guess I should have fucking expected this penalty.
“You don’t need to do those,” I mumbled as I slowly crept up behind Brinley where she was facing away at the sink, handwashing the dishes.
In that moment, I felt exactly what I was.
The villain.
A wraith.
A reaper sent to slay.
I stopped when there was five feet between us because I wasn’t sure I could get any closer and still get out what needed to be said.
Trying to work up the nerve to do what was right when every molecule that made up my being swore that it was wrong.
Half the lights had been cut, and only a bare glow from the fixture over the sink illuminated the space.
Everyone else had piled in the family room to watch a show with Kai before his bedtime, except for Brody who had gone running back to the club so he could devolve back into the revelry he thrived on.
Head down, Brinley shifted on her bare feet. “I don’t mind.”
Her voice was quieted. Muted. Filled with a timidness I’d never heard in it before.
Like she knew what was coming and she hated it every bit as much as me.
“Didn’t bring you here so you had to work.” I grunted it into the dense air.
How her laugh was both throaty and tinkling, I didn’t know. From over her shoulder, she cast me an affected smile, those wild curls swirling all around her stunning face. “I’m just earning my keep, remember?”
There was no taunt to it. It was a true question. Wondering what was really happening here.
“You are more than sufficient.”
She was too much. Too gorgeous and too good and too real.
A frown notched deep into her brow. “But I’m not, though, am I?”
I guess she had figured out how to read me in a way that no one else could. She already knew what was coming.
“It’s me who’s not enough, Brinley.”
She released a choked sound. “That’s strange because when I’m with you, I can feel all the empty places that have been aching inside me being filled. And it feels like enough. Like more than I ever hoped or expected.”
Torment gnarled my insides.
“I’m not the kind of man you come to rely on, Brinley. Not the kind of man you should tie yourself to.”
She huffed with a shake of her head as she rinsed the last pot then set it into the drainer. “Probably not, but that doesn’t mean I don’t want to.”
