“Pierce.” She clung to his waist.
“You don’t have to say a word. I know exactly what you’re feeling, because I feel it, too. With you, I’m whole again. Now it’s my turn to help you heal.” He reached into his jacket pocket and handed her an envelope. “Tickets to Punta Allen.”
Her eyes filled with tears. She opened her mouth to object, and he pressed his lips to them again.
“Before you tell me you can’t accept them, please hear me out. These tickets are for six weeks from now. It was the only time you had three days in a row off work, and I knew you wouldn’t want me to pull any strings with your boss. That’s called a compromise, and if we’re going to make this work, we both need to work on learning about compromising.” He smiled, and tears spilled down her cheeks.
“Pierce, I…” She swallowed against her gut reaction to turn the tickets away and inched her body even closer to his, bringing them thigh to thigh, the urn pressed between their stomachs. Rebecca pressed one hand flat over his heart and closed her eyes, sensing the pure, honest love behind the gift. When she opened her eyes, he was still smiling, and she felt her lips curve up in return before saying the two words that came so easily in most situations—though she was only just beginning to get used to thinking them, much less saying them, with regard to accepting his help.
“Thank you.”
Chapter Twenty-Eight
PIERCE PRACTICALLY HEARD the pieces of his life clicking into place after feeling out of sorts for the last two days. He’d bought the tickets to Punta Allen at the risk of upsetting Rebecca, but what he’d told her about not giving up all of the things he wanted to do for her was true. Rebecca wasn’t the type of woman who wanted to be lavished with jewels or clothing, and Pierce realized that he wasn’t the type of man who was looking to do those things. Maybe on special occasions, but Rebecca had forced him to learn what love was really about—and while material items had their place, they weren’t the things that filled a person’s soul. Those were the things he wanted to do for Rebecca. He wanted her to fall asleep in his arms knowing she was safe, and though he was sure he could afford whatever she wanted, most importantly, he’d be there for her through the most difficult times and, hopefully, the most enjoyable.
He took off his suit coat and wrapped it around her mother’s urn.
“Your jacket.” Rebecca touched his hand.
“It’s fine. That’s why they make dry cleaners.” He brought her hand to his lips and kissed it, then nestled the bundled urn on the floor of her car so it didn’t slide around while she drove. “Where to?”
She furrowed her brow in that adorable way that told Pierce she was debating something; then she ran her finger down the center of his chest. She could do that every day for the rest of his life and he’d never tire of it.
“Would you mind if we kept the urn at your house until we go to Punta Allen?” Rebecca asked. “I’d feel better if it was with us.”
Us. “I love the way you think.”
They drove separately to Pierce’s house, and it felt like a very big moment as they carried the urn across the threshold. Pierce watched Rebecca walk into the living room and assess where to set the urn. He didn’t say anything, didn’t want to influence her decision. He knew she’d find the perfect spot. She was wearing the same jeans she’d had on the night they’d first met, and at least twice since they’d been together. Even though the fit hadn’t changed, showing off the luscious curves of her hips and her strikingly small waist, she moved easier in them. She’d always been confident, but her confidence had been bound by thorns when they’d first met, and now she moved gracefully around the couch to the mantel. She tilted her head to the right and then to the left in a thoughtful pose. A moment later she went to the table by the window and ran her finger along the streak of sunlight that spread across the center of the cherry wood.
“Do you think it should be in this room?” she asked.
“I think it should be wherever you want it to be.”
She crossed the room toward the library. “This is really my favorite room in your house. It feels warm and inviting.” She sat on the curved couch with the urn in her lap and glanced over the bookshelves. “Did you know that I love to read?”
He sat down beside her. “I did see some light reading by your bed. Business and marketing books.” He raised his brow with the tease.
She leaned against his shoulder. “I am a little obsessive about information. I love learning about all the things that go into a successful business, but I also love fiction. As we were driving here, I was thinking of where we could put the urn, and this room kept coming to mind. I haven’t had time to read for pleasure in forever. I was so focused on Mom and school that the luxuries of life went out the door.”
The idea of books being luxuries made Pierce realize how much he took for granted. He’d had more downtime in the last two weeks than he’d had in the last year, and now that he’d had a taste of it, he wanted more. With Rebecca.
“I have a feeling you’re going to love my brother Wes’s girlfriend, Callie. She’s a librarian.” He smiled thinking of his rugged, dude-ranch-owning brother and sweet, innocent Callie Barnes. He never would have paired Wes with someone so sweet, but they were perfectly suited for each other, just like he and Rebecca. Callie brought out the softer side of Wes, and Rebecca brought forth emotions in Pierce that he only realized this second he’d always wanted to feel.
“We’re going to Trusty this weekend, right? For the engagement party? I can’t wait to meet your family.”
“I can’t wait for you to meet them, but you should know that they’ll be surprised about you and me.” After Jake’s reaction, he thought it better to warn her ahead of time, because if there was one thing the Bradens loved, it was giving one another a hard time—always in jest, but always with a touch of truth, too.
“Really?” She arched a brow and flashed a mischievous grin. “Surprised that Good Time Pierce is now a one-woman man? I can’t imagine why they’d be surprised.”
He shook his head and laughed.
She rose to her feet and walked to the window, then turned and faced him with a wide smile. “Don’t worry. I think I can handle it.” She set the urn on the mantel and then lowered herself to Pierce’s lap. “But I know that if I can’t, you can.”
“And I always will.” He brushed Rebecca’s hair away from her face so he could see her more clearly. “Bec, other than the things you want career wise, what are you looking for in life?”
She fiddled with the buttons on his shirt. “What I want now and what I wanted before my mom got sick are very different.” She unbuttoned two buttons. “When I was younger, I thought I’d travel and see the world. My mom always talked about visiting Punta Allen, so that was on my list. The Greek islands was another dream, and of course, those places would be wrapped around some magnificent business that I ran, though I had no idea what I would do in that regard.”
“And now?”
She slid her hand inside his open shirt and caressed his chest. “Now?”
She kissed his chest, and she was so close that he couldn’t resist slipping her shirt from her shoulder and kissing the exposed skin.
“How can I think with you doing that?” She arched her neck back, opening up to him.
“You started it.” He kissed the curve of her breast, trailing kisses along the depth of her cleavage. “I missed you, but I can wait. Tell me what you want now.”
She finished unbuttoning his shirt and pushed it from his shoulders, then brought her lips to them, kissing his muscular pecs and then laving them with her tongue.
“Right now? This very second?” she whispered.
He lifted his hips, pressing his arousal against her hips. “No. I know exactly what you want this very second.” He pulled her shirt off, and with one quick flick, he unhooked and tossed aside her lacy bra and then filled his palms with her full breasts.
Rebecca sucked in air as he brushed her nipples with his thumbs, bringing them to taut peaks that he had to taste, inciting a sexy, wanting moan from Rebecca. The desire in her eyes mirrored the lust coursing through him.
“Tell me what you want in life, Bec.” He kissed the tops of her breasts, knowing he was stealing her thoughts second by second and loving it as her eyes fluttered closed and she tangled her hands in his hair.
“To be…” She panted. “Happy. To be…”
He ran his hands along her ribs, sliding his thumbs along the waist of her jeans, then leaned her back and took her belly with openmouthed kisses from hip to hip.
“To be?” he whispered. Her heated skin and heavy breaths were driving him crazy. He brought her back to sitting, and she clutched his shoulders, her eyes closed, her lips slightly parted. Oh, how he wanted to be inside her glorious mouth. He took ahold of the button of her jeans.
“To be?” he urged, desperately wanting to know what she really wanted—wanting to know if he was what she wanted. Needing to hear it from her lips. She had opened up to him so much, he felt closer to her by the second and wanted more.