Page 23 of A Complicated Bride

Chapter 9

Brad

There was no escaping the roaring subway trains crashing through my brain as I pried my eyes open to the glaring sunlight and the mocking chirp of birds. My disorientation was owed equally parts to the mingled scents of pine scented air and freshly brewed coffee with a hint of some cinnamon flavored baked goods teasing me from sleep into the wakeful torture of my well-deserved hangover. Where the hell was I?

There was no accounting for the way my mouth split into a smile without any direction from my higher order brain the instant I remembered I was at the Stillwater Inn. The instant the vision of Lily superseded the train wreck in my head.

Lifting myself from the cushy pillows and flower print comforter where I lay on top of the bed clothes almost fully dressed, my mouth betted for something liquid to bring it back to life from its shriveled form. The shower and anticipation of Lily, coffee and a sumptuous breakfast moved me, in that order.

The shower alone hadn’t killed the throbbing in my head, but I had aspiring in my travel kit and I took them before leaving my overly bright room that I supposed was more suited to a honeymoon couple. By rights, I should have stayed at Jack’s last night, but I argued and cajoled and finally he relented and ordered his family chauffeur—awakened from a dead sleep—to drive me home. He was the only one in the house fit to drive. Julie was sound asleep in bed long before Jack and I had polished off a fifth of bourbon—the good stuff from the family’s reserve in the cellar.

Luckily I had a key because there was no way Nora would have let me in. She’d said she needed my room for another guest and I got the idea she wanted some separation between me and Lily.

But separation was the last thing on my mind. I wanted to see her, to touch her, to hear her laugh and get to know everything about her, to listen to her talk about movies and whatever else was in that brilliant brain of hers. There was no doubt she was brilliant. Not in my mind.

I went down the back stairs that led directly into the kitchen—I’d stayed at this Inn before—and to the delicious and life-giving smells. But the first thing my eyes searched for was not the coffee pot. I scanned the room until I found Lily sitting at the farm table, mug in hand, looking fresh with a glistening ponytail, bright eyes and that porcelain skin I itched to touch.

A smile quirked her mouth as she saw me, a shy smile.

Whatever remnants there were of the train wreck in my head disappeared then and the world was bright and clear. Why I felt no need to act cool and keep my emotions under the surface like I always had with women since I could remember, I attributed to my resolve to reform and to Lily’s brave openness. She didn’t cloak her emotions, maybe never had.

I pulled out a chair, sans coffee and sat next to the most fascinating woman I’d met in years.

“Don’t you want coffee? What time did you get in anyway?”

Nora came in from the dining room then, interrupting and not smiling.

“If you want coffee you’d better serve yourself. And then get your bags packed and get yourself to the mansion. I need the room.” She took a basket of muffins from the warming tray and bustled back out of the kitchen.

The brightness of the day clouded and I remembered not to be a bore. I rose and went to the coffee pot, remembering that Lily had just experienced an excruciatingly painful evening of break up with her fiancée. What the hell was wrong with me? Was I that insensitive selfish oaf?

“How are you this morning? You had a difficult night. Did things go as well as you wanted them to with Teddy?”

“You’re the only other person to call him Teddy besides me you know.”

She didn’t want to talk about it then.

“Okay. I’ll take that as a no.”

She sighed and broke of a piece of cinnamon muffin, but she didn’t eat it. She went from studying the crumbs in her plate to studying the lack of stubble on his chin because he foolishly wanted to be clean shaven in case he had the chance to kiss her. Because he wanted to kiss her more than anything in a long while, with real, gut deep desire, not just the knee-jerk lust of hormones combined with the standard stimulus.

Then she looked up with me and that was all the stimulus my cock needed. I clenched down hard on my baseness like I hadn’t done in…ever.

“You don’t have to talk about it. I just thought—“

“No, I owe you an explanation, or something.”

If I thought her gorgeous face had been stimulous enough, then her words put me over the top and my cock leapt for joy as every muscle in my gut clenched in needy desire. She thought she owed me something. It wasn’t a leap for me to deduce that she had feelings for me.

Sure I knew there was a connection, and certainly an attraction. I’d been around that block forever and a day. But feelings were different. The connection with her went deep enough to elicit feelings in me. I recognized that though heaven knows it had been a mind blowing miracle that I could after all this time and effort not to ever feel, to remain numb.

I waited for her to continue, not foolish enough to tell her she didn’t owe me anything. I wanted her to owe me and I didn’t want to deny that I felt that way. For once in my life, I didn’t fall back on the bored neutrality in the face of raw emotion.

“I appreciated how you ran interference for me last night. It was really difficult to face him after…After what I did.”

“You didn’t do anything wrong, Lily.” I knew this to be true though on the surface there might be an argument that she’d run out on him. I was convinced she was in the right.

She scoffed. “Oh I’m not blameless, Brad, though it’s sweet of you to take my side.” She put a hand on my jaw and caressed it, pet my smooth skin the way I’d seen her touch the babies.