by Anthology
Swoon.
The only thing marring the romance of it was the fact that her letter was pretty silly, even if the sentiment of it wasn’t.
Brad said, “But you weren’t there.”
“I wanted to be there. More than anything,” she said. “But I hadn’t heard from you, and after how you left things, I had no reason to think you’d want to see me. Otherwise nothing could have kept me away. That’s one of those instances where talking is pretty important.”
“So I’m learning.” The corner of his mouth curled up with that shy half-smile that always melted her bones.
“Okay, so I wasn’t there, but why didn’t you open the letter after that? Weren’t you curious what it said?”
“I did.”
“Wait, what? You said yesterday that you hadn’t opened my letter.”
“No, I said I never opened it while I was gone. I opened it the night I got back.”
Her mouth dropped open. “Why are you just mentioning this now?”
“Well, let’s see. You stole my clothes and ran away yesterday morning before I could. Then last night, the first time I saw you, you were covered in cake, surrounded by a bunch of people, and then later you shouted at me to leave. Today, you jumped me before I could mention it. Not that I minded that last one. At all.”
She blushed at the recounting of the last couple of days, but still. She couldn’t believe he hadn’t mentioned it.
“So you did ignore my love declaration after all.”
Brad raised his eyebrow. “Would that be the declaration that your love for me was like a rash?”
Um. “There was some other stuff in there, too.” She was pretty sure.
“You also compared it to a bad haircut—feels like forever to outgrow.”
Okay, so maybe it hadn’t been the most romantic drunkenly written love letter ever.
She said, “But the point was, I told you that I loved you.”
“You also said in the first line that you were very, very drunk,” Brad said. “I wasn’t sure you meant any of it. I was still trying to figure that one out when I saw you in Tori’s on Friday night.”
“Well, you could have just asked me.” In between her tequila shots. “Don’t worry, though; we’re going to practice this whole talking thing. You’ll get used to it.”
“As long as we can do most of it in bed, I’m okay with that.”
Charlotte laughed. “Sure, why not?”
It’d be her version of the carrot and the stick method. She’d bring the sexy carrots, and let Brad bring the, um, stick. She laughed harder at herself. She could feel her cheeks turning pink.
“You look like you’re having naughty thoughts. Let’s get back in bed and have them together.”
After they’d had many more naughty thoughts together, Charlotte lay curled into Brad’s side and thought maybe she was a little bit passionate after all.
She also thought that this must be what heaven felt like.
Brad was drawing light circles on her naked back, and she shivered. He said, “So you really don’t remember last night?”
“I remember… you in the bar. I remember downing liquid courage so I could talk to you. I remember lusty kisses and flashes of heated skin.” She leaned down and kissed some of that heated skin now. “But that’s about it, I’m afraid.”
“So you don’t remember anything we said?”
“No. Why? What did you say?”
Brad smiled. “Lots of things.”
Charlotte grabbed a tuft of chest hair and yanked a little.
“Ow, okay, okay,” Brad said, laughing. Then he sobered. “I looked at you and I said… you’re beautiful. And you asked me how I could think that.”
“And what’d you say?” She held her breath.
“I said it was easy, because to me it’s… more than your sexy curves. It’s the way your lips curve when you smile or the way you brush your hair behind your ears when you’re concentrating on work. It’s the soft look on your face when you talk about your family, and a million other things I love about you.” Brad shifted, leaning up on an elbow and reaching up to caress her face. “I love you, Charlotte.”
“I love you, too.” She couldn’t contain her smile, and she turned her head to press a tender kiss to his palm. “I just wish I remembered you saying it the first time.”
“Don’t wish too hard. The first time your response was, ‘There’s a rock digging into my butt.’”
Charlotte started laughing. “Tell me you’re kidding.”
“I wish. You told me you loved me later in the night, though, after you blew my”—he winked—“mind.”
They both laughed.
She said, “What else did you say? Anything good?”
Brad gave her a long, lingering kiss. “Mmm. I said that I think I loved you from that first day I met you.”
“Really? That’s hard to believe.” If that were true, how could she have thought for so long that he didn’t care?
Brad looked at her in disbelief. “Charlotte, I took baking classes from you for months. Did you honestly think that was for the cake?”
She thought about it. “People have done crazy things for cake, you know.”
“Well, trust me. It was about love, not cake.”
“That’s another thing I’m going to teach you,” she said. “In my world, the best is when it’s about both.”
Author’s Note - Juliet Spenser
Author’s note from Juliet Spenser: While I took artistic license in naming Bradley’s company, battalion, and brigade, the 10th Mountain Division is real, active, and full of wonderful soldiers and their families, to whom I offer my wholehearted thanks for their service.
Thank you so much for reading! I hope you enjoyed THEN WE KISSED, which is part of my Bliss Harbor series. If you’d like to read more—and I really hope you do!—you can pick up Frannie’s story, This Perfect Kiss, to read the fun that ensues when shy, often clumsy Frannie Colleti and her two best friends come up with a plan to help Frannie catch a man’s attention. It’s soon clear to them, however, that the men of Bliss Harbor—and any breakable items—had better watch out.
This Perfect Kiss - Juliet Spenser
Amazon: http://smarturl.it/tpklol2zon
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Juliet Spenser
www.julietspenser.com
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OL #2 Romantic Comedy Anthology - Volume 2 - Even More All-New Romance Stories by Bestselling Authors (LOL Romantic Comedy Anthology #2)