Page 76 of Don't Brake My Heart
Looking at the image on the screen as I lined up the shot, I saw so much in Leesa’s face. The colour in her cheeks and the way her eyes flickered to me told me a hundred little things that still weren’t enough.
‘Make sure you don’t cut me out of the photo, little bro peep,’ Lori said drily, crossing her arms.
Leesa snorted a laugh, bumping Lori companionably and I snapped a photo that made me smile crookedly. I’d have to beg Lori for it later.
I rummaged in my pocket for my phone and handed it to Seb. ‘Take a photo of the three of us?’
Lori must have known it was a pretext to get a nice photo with Leesa, but I didn’t care. In a month, all I’d have of her was this photo and memories of this moment. Her forehead wasright there. I could drop my chin and press a kiss there and release all this wild stuff inside me that had been churning since I saw her again – since I said goodbye in September, or maybe even earlier.
‘Molly! Frankie! There y’are!’
I straightened, dropping my arm from Leesa’s shoulders with a start at the sound of Dad’s voice, calling Lori and Seb using his nicknames for them. It was only me he called by my real first name.
‘You all coming for lunch?’ he asked.
I wanted to grab Leesa by that pretty blouse and drag her with me, but she’d only think I was hiding behind her again to take the pressure off with Dad. Instead I leaned close just as she was about to go.
‘Can we talk later?’
Her eyes were wide and wary. ‘I’m not sure that’s—’
It wasn’t ‘no’. ‘After dinner? Your room?’
Her gaze clouded, as though her thoughts were heading in the same direction as mine and she wasn’t certain about it. I didn’t expect we’d have sex, although part of me hoped, but I still wanted time alone with her before everything crashed down around me.
‘Okay,’ she murmured, gesturing that I should go.
*
It took her critical seconds to come to the door when I knocked that night. I scanned the hallway urgently as I waited, panicking that one of the swannies would come by and tell on me to Dad – and then panicking that she wouldn’t open up.
But when she did, I drew back in surprise. She was doubled over at the waist, hair over her head, water dripping from the ends of the curls onto the floor.
‘Sorry, I washed my hair and I can’t blow-dry it or I just get frizz. It’s a curl thing. Come in,’ she said from under her hair, scrunching it with a towel as she straightened.
She was wearing thin cotton pyjamas, splattered with water, at once so domestic and so incredibly sexy. I wanted to take the towel from her and rub it gently over her hair – then take off all her clothes and give her an orgasm.
‘How’s it going?’ she asked, pulling her hair to one side so she could peer at me, obviously no idea of the storm raging in my chest.
I snagged one sodden curl. ‘Better now.’
She watched me warily. ‘How was lunch? I would like to have been a fly on the wall for a Gallagher family lunch.’
‘You should have come,’ I blurted out, which only made her eyes wider. I shoved my hands in my pockets and leaned on the back of her door. ‘It’s interesting these days with Seb around. Dad likes him, which is weird, because Seb stood up to him for Lori last year. Lori could always get away with more than I could.’ I choked off my words, wondering why I’d added that last bit. ‘What about you? Did you miss me?’ Grasping her around the waist, I pressed my lips to her jaw, soaking up her sigh.
‘Colin—’
‘I missed you,’ I murmured, covering the reticence I didn’t like between us with a fraction of the truth. As her body sagged against mine, everything else fell away.
‘Colin, we—’
I dipped my head to her neck, using my lips to nip at her throat. Her squeak didn’t discourage me, especially not when her thighs opened an inch in response to my exploring hands on the curve of her arse. Her fingers curled around the back of my neck. I was dying to know if she was as ready for me as I was for her – up and eager in less than a minute with this woman.
She opened her lips to draw in a shaky breath, chest heaving, but she managed to say it, the truth I’d been shoving out of my head.
‘We aren’t supposed to be doing this.’
1 February, 18 months ago
