Page 29 of Brazilian Fantasy
I can’t stand to hear him say he was packing my bag to take me to the airport early so he could be with the shark next door, so I cut him off. “Thanks. I have a million things to do and didn’t know when I would find the time.”
I step up to him and reach for the bag, but he holds it tightly. His gaze searches mine, his brow pulling tight as a lock of hair falls into his eyes. I resist the urge to push it back.
“Piper, what’s wrong?” he asks. So much for trying to appear casual. I guess I’m just not that good of an actress.
“Nothing,” I say and practically yank the bag from his firm grip. “I, uh…I’ll just take this to my room and make sure everything is in there.”
I hurry up the stairs and leave Lucas with Gabriela, but when I enter my room, I find it completely empty of my things, and a relevant shift comes over me. I’m in love with Lucas, and if he’s ready and willing to move on, it should be with me, dammit. I think about that for a moment longer, think about Maddie, the pup, the family I always wanted, the family Maddie needs. Am I a girl who gives up so easily? Hell no. It’s time to tell Lucas how I feel about him and his daughter.
I spin around, ready to go back down the stairs, shove Gabriela out the door and fight for the family I love. But when I turn, I find Lucas in my doorway, leaning against the jamb, a sexy grin on his face.
“Something funny?” I ask, both my knees and heart wobbling at the sight of him.
“You’re jealous.”
He knows. He knows how I feel. But how does he feel? Was this just sex for him, or something more?
Ask him.
He pushes off the door, heat and desire in his eyes as he takes three steps and stands before me.
“Who says I’m jealous?” I ask, my heart full of the love I feel for him.
He laughs, but his expression is filled with pure adoration as he looks at me. “Oh, you’re not?”
“I…Lucas…was this just—”
He puts a silencing fingertip to my lips. “I don’t want Gabriela. I never did.” As his finger moves to my cheek in a gentle caress, relief, hope, and need zing through me.
“No? Then who do you want?” I ask, a silly question. The want and need in his gaze as it moves over my face speaks volumes.
It’s me he wants.
As my heart dwells on that, he says, “I want a woman who is sweet, kind, and insightful with my daughter,” he begins, his voice deeper, more intimate than ever. “I want a woman I can be open and honest with, share my life with, the good parts, and the bad. I want a woman who is insightful with me, and gets all jealous when my neighbor tries to throw herself at me.” He brushes my cheek. “I can’t tell you how happy that made me.”
Raw need shimmers between us, and I melt into him. “Oh. Where are you ever going to find a woman like that?” I ask, my voice rough from the emotions squeezing my heart.
He grins, and love shines in his eyes as he coils a long strand of my hair around his finger. “I’m guessing not in this neighborhood.” He shakes his head, standing solidly over me, hard and muscular. Possessive. “No. To find a girl like that, I’m going to have to look in the U.S., or better yet, look at what’s right in front of me.”
He bends and drops a soft kiss onto my mouth, so tender and achingly passionate, my knees nearly give. “I want you, Piper,” he whispers into my mouth.
He breaks the kiss, and I’m left breathless. “I want you, too, but why did you pack my suitcase?”
“You know, I figured I could tell you what you meant to me and how much I wanted you, but I thought actions spoke louder than words.”
Clearly, I’m missing something here. “So you packed my suitcase? Ready to ship me off to the airport?”
“I wasn’t sure how you felt, but I wanted to show you how I did by packing your bag so I could unpack it in my bedroom. I don’t want to hide this from Maddie anymore. I want us to be a family.” I gulp, a deep choking sound, and Lucas runs his thumb over my cheek. “When I saw the way you looked at Gabriela, I realized you wanted the same things I wanted. I know you have a life in New York, and I’ve given this a lot of thought. If you want, we’ll go there with you.”
Love rips through me, and it hurts to breathe “You would do that?”
“Yes. Anything you want.”
I shake my head, incredulous. “I don’t want to go back. There is nothing really for me to go back to. I want to stay here. I want to take care of you, Maddie, and her nameless pup.”
“Olaf.” The small voice comes from the doorway, and we both turn to see Maddie standing there. I suck in a tight breath and hold it as she holds out her pup. “Olaf,” she says again, naming her pup after the snowman from the movie Frozen.
“Maddie,” Lucas says and hurries across the room to scoop up his sweet daughter—soon to me my daughter, too—and her pup, Olaf.
