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

by Melissa Foster

  “When was the last time your mother was here?” he asked as they stepped onto the weathered wooden dock that eased over the lagoon like a lonely, forgotten moment.

  “I think she was seven. I like it here, Pierce. It feels right being here with you. Thank you.” She wrapped her hand around his biceps and snuggled in close as they neared the end of the dock where the small boat he’d arranged for was waiting.

  “I was just thinking the same thing. And wondering if we should buy the entire village.” He flashed a joking smile, and she bumped him teasingly with her shoulder.

  “I’m going to stop telling you when I like things if you’re going to offer to buy them all.”

  When they were on the plane he’d chartered, she’d said how nice it was, and he’d offered to buy one. He was only half kidding. He’d do anything for Rebecca.

  “Don’t ever stop telling me. I’ll try to stop offering, but it’s hard. I want you to be happy.” They sat beneath the palapa roof at the end of the dock with their legs hanging over the turquoise water as it lapped at the pilings. Pierce had always thought that his brothers were his best friends, but in Rebecca he’d found a different type of best friend. He didn’t have to hide or pretend with her. If he was angry, sad, elated, or horny, her love for him was as strong as his was for her—and she called him on his shit and didn’t let him brood over issues that he couldn’t control. He knew without a doubt that whatever they faced, they’d get through it together.

  Rebecca rested her head against his shoulder. “All I need to be happy is time with you. Nothing else matters. We could live under a tree in the woods and I’d be happy.”

  He knew it was true because he felt the same way. “I’d build you a tree house.”

  “Would you wear work boots, cutoff shorts, and no shirt? Because that I could get into.” She placed her hand on his thigh.

  Pierce laughed. “You know I would, but then you’d have to wear a little Tarzan and Jane type of getup. Fair’s fair.” He knew she’d do that, too. Rebecca was his every sexual fantasy come true. She was a sensual, passionate woman who knew what she liked and wasn’t afraid to ask for it. From the bedroom to the boardroom, they were perfectly matched.

  Rebecca rose to her feet and pulled Pierce up. “Let’s go, Tarzan, before it gets dark and we get lost at sea.”

  Pierce helped her into the rowboat and then handed her the urn before climbing in himself. He’d wanted to arrange for a bigger boat, but Rebecca had insisted that her mother was a simple woman and would want a simple sendoff. She didn’t want the noise of a motor or the distraction of luxury.

  He rowed them away from the dock. Rebecca sat facing him, with her mother’s urn on her lap, her arms wrapped protectively around it and her bare feet between his.

  “Isn’t it weird that we lived in Reno my whole life, but Mom talked about this place so much that it felt like I’d been here? I feel like I’ve come back to a place I loved. In elementary school, kids used to draw pictures of the places they’d gone on vacation. Disney World, camping, their grandparents’ houses. I used to draw pictures of this beach that were based solely on what she’d told me.”

  “I think it’s nice that you were close enough to your mom to become so entrenched in someplace she loved. I’m sure she’s smiling down on you now, proud of the woman you are.”

  Rebecca dropped her eyes to the urn, and the edges of her lips lifted into a smile. “This is far enough out.”

  They were a couple hundred feet from shore. Pierce settled the oars in the boat and placed his hands on Rebecca’s knees. This was one of those times when words weren’t necessary. Emotions sifted over Rebecca’s face. Her soft gaze narrowed, her brow furrowed just a little, and the edges of her mouth pinched tight. In the next breath, all that tension disappeared, and her lips parted. Her eyes remained on the urn, but she placed one delicate hand over Pierce’s and slid her fingertips into his palm.

  He pressed a kiss to the back of her hand.

  “This is it,” she whispered.

  She lifted damp eyes to him, causing his to well with tears, too. His chest tightened, as he knew hers was, with a feeling of finality. He wanted to take her in his arms and hold her until the pain went away—and he would, when she was ready. Her hands trembled as she picked up the urn.

  He searched her eyes for an indication that she was really ready.

  A single nod. A hard swallowing of emotions as she blinked against her tears.

  Pierce cupped her cheek just to let her know he was there for her; then he placed his hands on top of hers and settled the urn onto his lap. He turned sideways, straddling the bench, and took Rebecca’s hand as she moved carefully between his legs, her back to his chest. He placed the urn between her legs and pressed his face to hers from behind. Warm tears slipped between their cheeks.

  “I love you, sweetheart,” he whispered.

  Rebecca reached up and placed her hand on his cheek. “I know. I’ve always known.”

  He reached around her waist with both arms and opened the lid. Her neck bowed. The night was silent, save for the sounds of the water swishing against the sides of the boat, gently rocking the small vessel. He felt her body trembling against his chest, and he embraced her from behind. I’m here, babe.

  She lifted her head, and he felt her hand stroke his; then she inched closer to the edge of the boat, holding tightly to his arms as he inched forward with her.

  When she lifted the urn, he covered her hands with his, stabilizing it, and pressed his cheek to hers so she could feel his presence. She held the urn in front of her, still over the boat, and he wondered what she was thinking and if she was going to say anything to her mother. Each of his family members had wanted to come along, to be here for her. She’d become very close to his mother, Emily, Daisy, and Callie, who had brought her into what Pierce called their Private Girl Club, because they passed secrets by text and phone calls that made Rebecca giggle like a schoolgirl. He had asked her if she wanted to hold a ceremony, but Rebecca said her life with her mother had been private, and it wouldn’t feel right. She wanted to do this alone, with just the two of them.

  He felt her shoulders rise as she drew in a deep breath and exhaled ratchety and slow.

  “This isn’t the end, Mom,” she said just above a whisper. “This is me setting you free.” She lifted the urn with Pierce’s hands still holding hers, and she shook her mother’s ashes into the water. They floated on the surface, slowly darkening as they soaked up the sea. Rebecca brought the urn to her chest and pressed her back to Pierce’s chest again.

  “This is me setting us free, too, Pierce. This is our beginning.” Tears streamed down Rebecca’s cheeks as she curled sideways against his chest and melted within his arms.

  He didn’t know how long he held her as they drifted toward shore and the moon rose in the dark sky. He didn’t know when the sounds of the sea were replaced with the sounds of Rebecca’s heart beating against his, or how he managed to tie the rowboat to the dock. His mind was absorbed with helping Rebecca feel safe as he carried her back down the dock, across the sandy beach, and into the dark cabana. Sometime between This is our beginning and the moment he set her on the bed, he knew that tonight was the night he’d been waiting for.

  He took a step away, and Rebecca reached for his hand.

  “I’ll be right back, babe. I just want to go to the bathroom.” He hated lying to her, but there was no other way he could do this.

  When he returned, she was lying beneath the sheet, her hair spread across the pillow, her bare shoulders calling out to him. He set his wallet on the nightstand, took off his clothes, and climbed in beside her. Her body was familiar and warm. She felt so damn good. She always felt so damn good.

  “God, I love you, Becca.” The words were like a mantra in his mind—one he knew he’d never tire of.

  He settled his lips over hers, kissing her tenderly, lovingly stroking her back to the curve of her rear, letting her guide their pace. She pressed her h
ips to his arousal and rolled onto her back. He was careful tonight. With all she’d been through, he didn’t want to force himself on her, or love her too roughly. He wanted her to feel loved, cared for. Cherished. She spread her legs, making room for him as he kissed her neck, her shoulders, and the tops of her beautiful, lean arms. He would never get enough of her. She tasted sweet and smelled of coconut lotion she’d bought at the airport. He wanted to satiate her every need. His hands traveled down her sides, gripping her waist as he lowered his mouth to her breasts and stroked her nipples to hard points, then settled his mouth around one and sucked the way she liked. He was rewarded with her writhing beneath him. Her breaths quickened, and she pushed his hand between her legs.

  “Touch me.”

  She was hot, wet. Ready. Every stroke drew a gasp from her lungs, every flick of his tongue on her breasts brought a rocking of her hips. He throbbed with the need to be inside her. She pushed at his hips, urging him forward. He reached for his wallet to retrieve a condom and she grabbed his wrist. He looked into her eyes, and her lips curved into a smile. Love and desire heated inside of him. Daisy had tested both of them when they were home, because Rebecca insisted that she couldn’t ask Pierce to do that for her unless she was willing to do it for him, even though her sexual experiences paled in comparison to his. They were both clean, and they’d been waiting for her birth control pills to take effect before making love without protection.

  She drew his hand back to her hip and whispered, “It’s our beginning.”

  He lowered his forehead to hers as he slid deep inside her. Feeling the full intensity of their love for the first time, they both stilled. Buried deep, his heart so full he couldn’t wait a second longer, he laced the fingers of his left hand with hers and brought it to his lips. His lips brushed against her mother’s ring, which she still wore every day, another thing he loved about her. Rebecca was the most loyal person he knew. She gazed up with love in her eyes, and he felt himself falling deeper in love with her with every breath—and knew he would just keep falling.

  “I don’t want just a beginning. You’re my yesterday, my today, and I want you to be my tomorrow every day of my life. I can’t imagine a single day without you by my side.” He’d thought of a million ways to say what he wanted to say, and now it all fell away. His emotions were laid bare, and it was all he could do to form the words that came.

  “I can’t imagine a day without you, either,” Rebecca said.

  “Then let’s not. I love everything about you, Bec. The way you look at me, your touch in the morning. The sigh you make right before you fall asleep in my arms. I love the way you watch babies when we’re in the grocery store, or walking through town, and the way you helped that old man across the street when we first met. I even love that you can deck a guy. God, Bec, I love you so much it literally hurts sometimes. You’ve become the very air I breathe.”

  He felt her heart beating as fast as his. Her eyes filled with fresh tears, and when she smiled, they dripped down her cheeks.

  “Marry me, Rebecca. Let’s make this the beginning of our forever.”

  “Pierce.” His name left her lips like a secret.

  He touched his forehead to hers, shifted his hips, moving deeper inside her again. “Will you be my wife, Rebecca, because I want to be your husband more than anything in this world? I want to love, honor, and protect you. I want to offer to buy you things you don’t need and have you laugh at me and tell me no. I want to walk through the park and kiss you under the streetlights. I want to have a family of our own, so you can love our babies the way that your mother loved you, and I want to bring them here, every year if you want, so they feel connected to your mom, too.”

  She reached up and touched his cheek, now openly crying tears of joy.

  “I’ll never tire of your touch,” he said. “And even when we’re old and gray and our bones creak, I can promise you, I’ll never tire of touching you. Marry me, Becca.”

  She nodded.

  “Yes?”

  “Yes. Yes, I’ll marry you. There’s no other man on earth I could ever love.”

  Pierce lowered his mouth to hers and could barely contain his excitement at finally being able to give her something to signify his love for her. He reached into his wallet and pulled out the ring he’d designed for her. He’d struggled between his desire to give her more than she could ever want and her love of simplicity, and he’d finally come up with a design that he hoped she’d love. He held her left hand and slid the ring onto her finger. Two carats of inlaid canary yellow and white diamonds—so as not to be too flashy or to overpower her mother’s ring—wrapped in an intricate setting of two bands crossing over each other. The colors set off her mother’s ring just as he had hoped.

  “Pierce,” she whispered as she admired the beautiful ring. When she opened her mouth again, no words came out. He wiped her tears with the pad of her thumb, and when their lips met, all of the emotions of the past few weeks coalesced, guiding their love and sealing their promises of forever.

  The End

  Please enjoy a preview of the next

  Love in Bloom novel

  Flirting with Love

  The Bradens

  Love in Bloom Series

  Melissa Foster

  Chapter One

  ROSS BRADEN HANDED Flossie, a frail fifteen-year-old tabby with thinning fur and soulful eyes, to Alice Shalmer. Alice had recently retired from the Trusty, Colorado, library, where she’d been the head librarian for thirty-plus years. She lived on the outskirts of town and had seven cats, but Flossie was her favorite.

  Alice clutched the cat against her thin chest and buried her angular nose and pointy chin in her side. “Think I’ll get another year out of my old girl?”

  No, he didn’t, but Alice knew this already. They’d been playing the I-hope-so game for several months already. No need to drive the sadness home.

  “I sure hope so.” And Ross truly did.

  Alice pushed her black frames back up her nose and smiled. With Flossie safely snuggled against her, she left his office, closing the door behind her. It was Friday morning, and as the Trusty town veterinarian, Ross had a long day ahead of him. He didn’t mind, as Fridays were reserved for well checks, giving him a less stressful workday than the rest of the week. And Friday night was just a few hours away. He was already thinking about his options—call one of his brothers and have a beer in town, or drive down to one of the neighboring towns and connect with one of the handful of women he’d dated over the past few months, getting lost in her for a few hours. Ross didn’t date women in his hometown, where gossip was as plentiful as the grass was green. He preferred to keep his private life to himself, and driving half an hour in either direction offered him the comfort and privacy that he desired.

  “Ross?” Kelsey Trowell poked her head into the exam room where Ross was washing his hands. Her long dark hair was pulled back in a casual ponytail. Kelsey was in her midtwenties and rarely wore makeup. In the standard Trusty attire of jeans, cowgirl boots, and a T-shirt, she looked about eighteen years old. She was smart, efficient, and sweet as molasses. More importantly, she was one of the few women around who wasn’t trying to rope a husband, or more specifically, wouldn’t try to reel in Ross, one of the last Braden bachelors, making her ideal for her position.

  “Yes?”

  Knight, one of Ross’s three Labradors, walked into the exam room behind Kelsey. She reached down and stroked Knight’s thick black fur as he passed.

  “I told your two o’clock she could come in at ten. She had a hair appointment that she forgot about and couldn’t reschedule.”

  Ross arched a brow and reached for a chart. “We wouldn’t want Mrs. Mace to miss her hair appointment, now, would we? That’s fine.”

  Kelsey moved to the side as Sarge, Ross’s three-year-old golden Lab, joined Knight, now lounging at Ross’s feet. Ross’s boys were always on his heels.

  “Want me to take the boys out of the office so you can
bring Tracie Smith back with their new silky terrier? Her daughter, Maddy, is so cute. She hasn’t put their new puppy down since they got here. Oh, and your next two appointments are here. Everyone seems to be early today. Should I get them set up in the other exam rooms?”

  Ross looked up from the chart he was studying. It was eight forty and Tracie’s appointment was at eight forty-five. “No. I need to run upstairs for a second. When I come down, I’ll get Tracie and Maddy.” He closed the file. “Justin Bieber? Tracie named her puppy Justin Bieber?” Tracie had grown up in Trusty, and she was a few years younger than Ross. Justin Bieber was her family’s first puppy.

  “Maddy named him.” Kelsey lowered her voice. “Leave it to an eight-year-old girl.”

  Ross took the back stairs two at a time with Sarge and Knight on his heels. His house and the veterinary clinic were connected by a front and back staircase, as well as a door that led directly to his kitchen. The property spanned thirty acres, with an expansive view of the Colorado Mountains. He snagged his cell phone from the bedside table and slanted his eyes at Ranger, the two-year-old golden Lab feigning sleep on his bed.

  “Off.”

  Ranger opened one eye and yawned, then crawled to the edge of the bed and slithered off. For the past six years, Ross had been the veterinarian and trainer for Pup Partners, a service-dog training program run through Denton Prison. Denton, Colorado, was forty miles west of Trusty. He had a hard time letting go of the dogs that didn’t make the cut, hence his three boys.