Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance (8 page)

Pierce finished cooking, and after they set the table, he went inside and brought out two candles in beautiful wooden candleholders.

“Want to do the honors?” He handed her a lighter and Rebecca lit them. When she reached for a chair, he gently touched her arm. “I would be honored if you’d allow me to do that.”

She felt her cheeks flush. “Thank you. I’m kind of hardheaded, so I’m afraid I’ll need reminders.”

He pushed her chair in and crouched beside her. “Rebecca, I really don’t want you to think that I would keep the fact that I’m seeing you a secret from anyone. You’re beautiful, and to be honest, even if you weren’t, I’d still be proud to be seen with you. I was just being selfish. I wanted you all to myself.” 

She softened a little more to him. If he was just throwing out lines, they were the perfect ones, but again she sensed that everything out of Pierce’s mouth reflected his real feelings. She wasn’t sure how to respond.
Thank you? Oh good? That’s a relief?
She went with honesty. It was, after all, what came easiest to her.

“Thank you, but you don’t have to keep explaining. I’m glad I’m here, and it’s nice that you didn’t think I was just a hot piece of ass.”

He kissed her hand. “Oh, don’t get me wrong. You are a hot piece of ass, but you’re not
just
a hot piece of ass.” He rose to his feet, and she smacked his butt.

“You’re not so bad yourself.”

Dinner was delicious and conversation came easily. After they ate, they carried the dishes inside and Rebecca moved toward the sink to help clean up.

“Leave them,” he said against her cheek. “I’ll get them later. I want to spend time with you.”

Pierce wrapped his arms around her from behind and kissed the base of her neck. She closed her eyes and reminded herself that, despite the way her private parts were tingling, achingly aware of Pierce’s scent, the strength of his arms around her, and—
oh Lord
—the feel of all those sexy muscles pressed against her back, this was a
dinner
date. 

PIERCE COULDN’T REMEMBER the last time he didn’t have an endgame, but with Rebecca, it shouldn’t surprise him that he didn’t.
Nothing
should surprise him where Rebecca was concerned, because damn near everything she did sent his head spinning. When he’d seen the way her boss was treating her, he’d wanted to grab him by the neck and slam the cockiness out of him, but Pierce knew that confidence could be just as threatening, and even more demeaning, than fisticuffs. Of course, he didn’t expect the reaction he’d gotten from Rebecca, although he’d understood her point. He, too, hated anyone to think they got the better of him.

He watched her now, standing before his sofa table, looking over the pictures of his family. She looked so relaxed, soft, and feminine. He wondered about her even more now. Was it her mother’s illness and taking care of her that made her so self-sufficient and capable? Was it that reality that made her believe she needed to be competent enough at all things to take on the world? He realized that maybe getting to know Rebecca
was
his endgame.

Rebecca turned one of the photographs toward him. “Your family?” she asked.

“Yeah. Those are my younger brothers and sister.” He pointed to each as he spoke. “This is Ross. He’s a vet in Trusty, where I grew up. Jake’s the one with lighter hair. He’s a stuntman in LA.” Pierce laughed. “I remember when we took that picture. That’s Luke, my youngest brother. See how he’s looking at Wes?” He pointed to Wes. “Right after we took the picture, Jake threw Wes down on the ground in a fake pile driver move. Wes’s expression was priceless.” He pointed to his sister. “That’s Emily. She rolls her eyes at us a lot.”

“She’s the one who designed your house?” She glanced up at him, and her eyes caught the soft light.

He leaned in close, wanting to kiss her. To run his tongue along the swell of her upper lip. Her eyes darkened, and it took all of his willpower to remind himself to take it slow. He didn’t want Rebecca to feel as though she was just like the other women he’d dated, when she was anything but.

“Yes, she did.” He moved his lips a little farther away from temptation.

“She’s really pretty.”

“Really bossy, too.”

She set the frame down. “I like her already.”

“Oh, she’d get a kick out of you.” He shook his head at the thought of Rebecca and Emily joining forces. “You two could put the five of us in our places.”

Pierce filled their wineglasses to keep his hands busy, but he wanted to be closer to her, and he didn’t want her staring at pictures of his handsome brothers.

“Sit with me.” He led her to the couch in the living room.

Rebecca didn’t seem to give his expensive, handmade furniture a thought as she slipped off her heels and tucked her legs beneath her, which made her even more appealing to Pierce. She was so different from the money-hungry women he usually dated. She was comfortable in her own skin and was not trying to impress him. Her knees pressed against his leg, and that sexy little dress of hers inched higher, revealing the curve of her thigh. She had one arm stretched along the back of the couch, and Pierce laid his arm over hers. He’d already slipped off his shoes, and he realized that the stress he’d felt earlier was gone. She’d made him forget about his impending acquisition and the stresses of his workday. He couldn’t remember the last time he’d spent an evening without those things looming over him.

He brushed her hair from her shoulder, and it was so soft and silky that he held on to a lock and ran it over his fingers.

“I’m really glad you’re here.” He didn’t have to work at conversation. The truth came easily.

“Me too. I thought you’d take me straight back to my car after the incident with Martin.” She held his gaze, and he could tell she was no longer embarrassed by what had happened.

“Not a chance. I’d like to know more about you. If it’s not too personal, I’d love to know what your life was like before your mom got sick.”  

“Gosh, it seems like a lifetime ago. I had a pretty normal life, I guess. I got my own apartment after I graduated from community college. I’ve always worked a lot, but I had time for friends back then, so I had more of a social life. Not much of one, but some. I did all the normal twenty-year-old stuff. I worked, of course, and went out to bars, danced, drank, studied when I started taking classes at the university. My mom and I got together for lunch or dinner once a week.” She smiled and met his eyes. “Life was good, you know? Normal.”

“Was it
easy
?” He brushed her shoulder with his fingertips.

“You know, once you have the kind of perspective that I have, you realize that all the bitching and moaning you’ve done in the past, over boyfriends, or homework, or five extra pounds, it’s all such garbage.” She ran her finger along the seam of his sleeve across the back of the couch. “If you’d have asked me when I was twenty if life was easy, I probably would have complained about working and going to school. Isn’t that ridiculous?”

“No. I think every age has its difficulties.”

“True. It would have been valid then. But now I know what difficult really means. When my mom was first diagnosed with lung cancer, it wasn’t real to us. We thought she’d beat it. There was no doubt in my mind. She’d never smoked; she didn’t work around asbestos. The whole thing seemed unimaginable. But a year later, when they found a brain tumor, things became real.” She paused, and Pierce inched a little closer, bringing her knees onto his lap so he could wrap his arm further around her shoulders and back.

“That’s when I moved in with her. And from then on my life became a circle of medical appointments, scans, and medications. You do what you have to for family, you know?”

“Yes, that I do know, and I’m so sorry, Rebecca, for all you’ve gone through.” Pierce thought about his own life, taking care of his siblings after his father left and watching over them as they grew up. Protecting Emily from guys who were no good for her. He understood family love and loyalty well, and listening to all that Rebecca had gone through made him realize how much of life he, and most of the people he knew, took for granted.

“I’ve only told one friend about all of this. I don’t want to unload on you. I’m sorry.” She inched back, and Pierce touched her shoulder and her legs at the same time, hoping to keep her close.

“Please don’t move away. If you’d like to talk about it, I’d like to listen. I want to know more about you, all of you.”

He heard her breath catch, and she pressed her lips together. “I’m not a—”

“This isn’t pity, or my effort to save you, Rebecca. I like you. I want to know about you because I like who you are.”

“Oh.” She glanced down at his hand touching her thigh. “Okay. Well…that’s when things got hard. Time-consuming. Pretty heartrending. It was hard to hold a job, and we had Mom’s medical bills, so I went into survival mode. I worked when I could, moved us to an efficiency apartment, and just made the best of every day so that my mom wouldn’t feel guilty about being sick.”

She inhaled a shaky breath. “It’s still pretty new, you know? Six weeks is enough time to realize she’s not coming back, but not quite enough time to stop feeling pitied when you tell someone.”

“I don’t pity you. I feel sad that you’ve gone through losing someone so close to you, but it’s not pity.” He touched her cheek. “And now? You said you’re picking up the pieces of your life.”

Her face brightened, and when she spoke, every word carried hope. “I am. I’ve got a strong business sense, and I only have a couple classes left before I graduate. I don’t know if that will help in finding a job, but it can’t hurt. At some point I’ll move from waitressing and bartending to the business field, I hope. But for now, I’m good with people. Well, other than yelling at Martin and decking that doofus in the bar.”

“I can tell that you’re good with people. Besides, Chiara wouldn’t have hired you if you weren’t. Every job at the resort revolves around people.”

“Oh my gosh. I almost forgot. I should probably go. I have to memorize the menu, and I only have a few days to learn it.”

“I’ll help you.” The offer surprised him as much as it surprised Rebecca. Pierce had never held a waiter job, and truth be known, he had no idea how difficult it might be. In fact, he had no idea that the waitstaff had to memorize the menu. He left those details up to the restaurant managers to handle. But he wasn’t ready for this date to end, and if that meant helping her study, he’d damn well do it.

“You don’t want to spend Friday night learning a menu when you can be out carousing.”

“Carousing? Didn’t you hear anything I said to you?”

“Sure, but what did that have to do with not carousing?”  

He slid his hand up her thigh to her hip and scooted closer. Up close, he noticed the quickening of the pulse at the base of her neck. “I like you. I want to get to know you, Rebecca. I guess I haven’t said it enough. I’ve been saying it in my head, though.”

Her soft, full lips parted, and he leaned forward and kissed her.

“Sorry. I’ve been dying to do that all night.”

Her cheeks heated. “Me too.”

“Now maybe I can think a little clearer.” He kissed her again, longer, more sensually, basking in the taste of her and the feel of her sweet mouth against his.

He drew back, hoping the distance would ease the desire pulsing through his body. He wanted to touch and taste every inch of her, to claim her as his own, marking her with his mouth, his hands….At the same time, a different torrent of desire coursed through him—he wanted to protect and care for her. He knew it was fast, and yet he could no sooner stop the feelings from swelling inside him than he could stop making business deals for a living.

She touched her kiss-swollen lips, as if she wanted the feel of him to linger. Pierce was compelled to explain his feelings in a way he never had before.

“I’m thirty-six, Rebecca. I’ve done a lot of
carousing
, and I know it’s a little crazy, but I’ve never met anyone like you. I don’t have an interest in going out tonight. I want more time with you, not less.”

“But studying a menu? Talk about boring.” She pulled her knees closer to her chest, and the skirt of her dress bunched around her upper thighs.

“Well, if you do that, it won’t be boring—but we also won’t get much studying done.” He forced himself to stand and untucked his shirt to hide how that flash of skin had aroused him. “I’ll get your purse.”

When he returned, she was sitting on the edge of the couch, nervously wringing her hands. “Are you sure, Pierce? Because I feel kind of guilty. I mean, you must have better things to do than hang out with me while I study for a waitress job.”

“I can’t think of anything I’d rather do.” He handed her the purse.

She shrugged and withdrew the menu from her purse. “Okay, well, I’ll try to learn fast.” She scanned the menu as she drank her wine. She glanced at him. “Do you want to go watch television or read or something?”

He realized he was standing beside the couch staring at her. It was hard not to when she looked hot, sexy, and smart all at once.

“Actually, I have a file I need to review for an acquisition. I’ll be back in a second.” He went down the hall to his home office and printed the file he needed, and when he returned, Rebecca was sitting across the couch with her knees pulled up and a pencil tucked behind her ear.

“You look so sexy, Bec. Maybe I should just spend my time studying you.”

She laughed and slid him a coy look. “Bec? I love that. You’ll get sick of looking at me after a few minutes, so go for it.”

He sat on the couch by her feet, and she buried her toes under his thigh. Damn, he liked that as much as he liked the way
Bec
felt coming from his lips. She studied the menu, making notes along the margins, while he tried like hell to concentrate on the file in his lap and not to notice the way her dress had gathered at the base of her ass or how cute she looked when she crinkled her nose and closed her eyes as she studied. She didn’t say a word, but just having her there with him felt good. Every so often, she’d wiggle her toes beneath his thigh, and without any thoughts, he massaged her calf. Working beside Rebecca was nice, and something he’d never done with a woman he was interested in. A comfortable silence settled in around them, and eventually he fell into focusing on his papers.