And…eventually…she’d be okay.
Because that’s what she did. If Aurora Tennison fell, she simply picked herself back up, brushed off the dirt, and forged on. She’d done that twice before, first with her mom’s death and then her dad’s.
She could do this, too.
Not because her heart didn’t feel as if it were breaking into a million pieces, but because Megan had been right before. Just because her dad couldn’t get past losing the woman he loved didn’t mean Ro had to let her broken heart rule the rest of her days.
I won’t end up like him.
She wouldn’t. No matter what this or any other man felt—or didn’t feel—for her. Because she was Aurora Freaking Tennison. And she was a survivor.
Dropping her hands from his chest, Ro backed away. She started to turn, to go where she wasn’t sure. But a gentle hand to her good wrist stopped her.
“You’re wrong.”
The guttural declaration had her swinging her head back around. Had he seriously just told her she was wrong? No, no, she wasn’t wrong. Ro thought she was spot freaking on, actually.
She’d just laid her heart on the line for him, and he hadn’t said a word in return. Seemed pretty cut and dry to her.
“It’s fine, Brody. Really. Let’s just forget this ever happened and move on.”
“What if that’s not what I want?”
Her chest tightened, and it took everything Ro had to keep her chin from trembling. “You don’t…” She cleared the crackling from her throat. “You don’t want to move on?”
A single, slow, purposeful shake of his head. “I don’t want to forget.”
The tightening in her chest shifted and morphed, swirling into a cyclone of fear and longing. A burgeoning storm of emotions she was finding more and more difficult to keep hidden.
“Brody?”
With the gentlest of tugs, he pulled her back to him. Moving willingly, Ro didn’t even consider putting up a resistance.
Her steps came to a halt when the tips of her painted toes touched the tips of his shiny dress shoes. A hand rose to her face, first one and then another. Ro’s pulse spiked, every ounce of air in her lungs freezing instantly from his electrifying touch.
Despite Ro being five-eight, Brody’s six-four frame towered over her, that firm, intense stare of his becoming fixed onto hers. Inhaling deeply through his nose, his slowly exhaled breath struck her forehead like a warm, summer breeze.
“I have to honest, Princess.” His low rumble made her lower belly tingle and sent shivers down her spine. “Before last week, I never thought of you…of us…like this. But…”
Oh, she really,reallyliked that “but”.
“Yes?” Ro stared up at him, praying this was headed where she thought it was.
God, it was hard to breath. Impossible, even. And if he didn’t spit out whatever it was he was trying to say in the next two seconds, she very well may pass out from lack of oxygen.
Wouldn’t be the first time you passed out in his arms.
“Now I can’t seem to think of anything else.”
The breath she’d been holding escaped in a rush. Afraid this was nothing more than a dream, Ro almost didn’t bother asking her next question. But if this was real, if the man she’d been pining for her entire adult life—and longer—reallywassaying what she thought he was saying…
I have to know.
“What, um…” She gave a nervous lick of her lips. “What changed?”
Brody’s hard expression softened, a slightly crooked smile dancing on his bearded lips that made her crave. “You kissed me.”
Her heart thundered in her chest as she shot back a half-teasing, “If you say so.”