Inevitable (Destiny Series Book 2)

by Lea Hart

  So, it was like most things: meant to be.

  It certainly had put her and Brady in a situation that fast-tracked their relationship. Living with someone told you pretty quickly whether it was going to work or not. And the time she’d spent in his house had been nothing short of terrific. Stretching her legs out, she let out a small laugh. Okay, not completely terrific, considering he’d been hovering like a drone until she asked him to back off. But since last week, it had certainly been one hundred percent amazing. Seemed giving him the green light to fully express his feelings worked out for both of them.

  The many, many hours they’d spent in bed had proven that a hundred times over. If they were not at work, then they’d been at home acting like bunnies. Thinking about what happened in the laundry room alone was enough to make her cheeks red. Fanning her face, she cleared her throat and tried to think of something other than Brady’s amazing…ness.

  So, here she was, miracle of miracles, in love. With, by all accounts, a very fine man. A man who could easily be described as a hero. Why the whole thing made her slightly uncomfortable was not a puzzle that she couldn’t put together.

  Her early years had conditioned her to believe that the people she loved got taken away. By no fault of anyone’s. It simply was. So, having Brady in her life made her wonder when the other shoe was going to drop. When was he going to be taken away?

  Thinking like that didn’t do her any good and she knew it. But knowing something in your head didn’t always mean that your heart and soul got the message. There was a lag and she was definitely experiencing it.

  As much as she wanted to grab ahold of the man and the love he was giving her, she almost couldn’t. Which was self-sabotage at its finest. There was a little part of her brain that suggested if she didn’t totally give in to it, then it couldn’t be taken away. Which was not how the world worked.

  Unfortunately, that was a war in her head that had yet to be won. Didn’t mean that she wasn’t going to continue, but it was a battle nonetheless.

  Courage—she needed a ton of it if she hoped to make anything with the man asleep inside the cabin. Hearing the door scrape open, she turned around and saw Brady stretching in his boxer briefs. A blessed event if ever there was one. Watching his rippling muscles move as he pressed his arms against the top of the door frame reminded her she needed to make it to church soon so that she could thank the good Lord for the man who was mere inches away. “Morning.”

  “It sure is,” he commented as he stepped out onto the porch. He stood behind her chair and rested his hands against her shoulders. See anything interesting this morning?”

  “A bald eagle and that’s about it. I was hoping to see the elusive alligator snapping turtle. But no luck so far.”

  “Let’s take a walk through the park before we head back to pick up our dogs.”

  “Sounds good.” Standing, she moved around her chair and found herself inside Brady’s arms. About the best place to be in the world, as far as she was concerned. His sleep-warmed skin felt wonderful against the morning chill, so she burrowed in as far as she could. His scent surrounded her and she felt her heartbeat slow down. The worries that floated around when they were apart seemed to disappear when she was holding on, so she figured it might be a good idea to hold on. As best she good.

  As tight as she could.

  ***

  Brady held Claire’s hand as they strolled under a canopy of live oaks draped in Spanish moss. They had just finished their picnic lunch and were enjoying the area before they made their way back to Mandeville to pick up their dogs.

  “These old oaks are so beautiful with their mantle of decoration dripping off their branches. Kind of reminds me of some of the lessons that the nuns tried to drill into our heads back in grade school.”

  “What do you mean?” Brady asked.

  “I don’t know. It’s almost sensual the way the moss covers the oaks. Lusty and greedy. Two of the seven deadly sins.”

  “Lust and greed get you every time. I know I’m well under their spell when it comes to you.”

  Laughing, she squeezed his hand. “I’m going to take that as a compliment.”

  “I hope you do. I’m not real reasonable when it comes to you, so I’m probably pretty much stuck with what I’ve got going on. Hell, I should just embrace the damn devil on my shoulder and be done with it.”

  “And what is that devil telling you to do?”

  “Dirty, delicious things to the woman I love.”

  “Yeah, you might want to keep him close and see what he has to say because the things we’ve done in the last week are downright amazing.”

  Tugging her closer, he kissed her head. “May not be much of a sin if we’re two consenting adults, doing what we want within the privacy of our bedroom.”

  “That’s where it gets a bit sticky. There were a few incidents that were not anywhere close to the bedroom.”

  “Details,” Brady replied. “Locked doors. Does that sound better?”

  “Sure.”

  Brady smiled like an idiot as they walked along and thought about how fortunate he was that he came to work for TRG. Had he not, he might’ve missed meeting his person, which seemed almost inconceivable now that they were together.

  For the first time in his life, he dared to want something without reservation. The singularity of the desire and love he felt for the woman walking next to him stole his breath because it had the power to destroy him if ever it was taken away.

  And that was the deepest fear in his heart: it could be taken away. Just like his mama when he was a boy. But he wasn’t a boy anymore. He was a full-grown man who needed the courage to claim what was his. Claire was his other half, his better half, the person he was going to spend the rest of his life with.

  “Honey, you excited about us starting our family?” he asked.

  “Are your referring to those two puppies we’re going to pick up in a couple of hours?”

  “Yeah. It’s not like I knocked you up yet.”

  Stopping, Claire looked up and frowned. “What do you mean…yet?”

  “Eventually, I will, and that’s what I mean by…yet.” He gave her a once-over and wondered if maybe she hadn’t eaten enough at lunch. What he’d said was pretty clear. Not too many ways to interpret it.

  “We are at the beginning of our relationship, and what you’re talking about probably won’t happen for years.”

  “Sure,” he mumbled.

  When she squinted her eyes even further, he smiled and pointed to a bunch of birds taking off. “Look, honey, isn’t that pretty?”

  When she looked away, he took a breath. Note to self: keep mouth shut. When she turned back around, he gave her an innocent smile. He remembered what Brock had told him about a love language, and he figured now might be a good time to figure out what hers was. “Honey, what’s your love language?”

  “My love what?”

  “My brother told me that he and Lilly speak the same language so they know how to make each other happy, or he knows hers and vice versa. Anyway, I’m supposed to find out yours and then speak it to you.”

  “Well, I guess I never really thought about it.” She swung their hands back and forth. “I like the way you tell me how you feel and I like spending time with you. Those are the things that make me feel close to you.”

  “Okay, I can work with that.”

  “What makes you feel loved?”

  He looked down and raised an eyebrow. “Spending time together doing…stuff. Naked stuff. Stuff that lets me ravage you and make you scream.”

  “Okay, I get the picture. What else?”

  “The way you take care of me. The food you make me, the way you wash my back in the shower. Small stuff that lets me know I matter to you.”

  “Brady, I love you and of course you matter to me.”

  Scooping her up in his arms, he lifted her off the ground and swept her in a circle. “That. That right there is my love language. Do that a hundred times
a day and I’ll do whatever I can to make you happy.”

  Claire placed her hands on his face, lowered her mouth, and smooched him good and hard. “Almost seems too simple,” she whispered against his lips.

  “Always is with the right person.” He kissed her back and then lowered her to the ground. When her laughing hazel eyes gazed into his, he knew he’d been given the world. “How long is it going to take before I can get you to marry me?”

  “When the time is right, we’ll know.”

  He lowered his head and rested it against hers. “That’s where it’s going to get interesting because I have a feeling that I’m going to know long before you do.”

  “Brady, you can’t make something move faster any more than you can slow something down. Let’s just enjoy the journey and not worry about the destination.”

  “If you say so, Claire. Just know that I like to get places fast, so slowing me down is going to be hard.”

  “I think you and I understand the brevity of life. We understand that things can be taken away in the blink of an eye. Maybe we have to trust that what is happening between us is going to last and we can let it be.”

  “But you’re going to marry me someday…right?”

  Claire stopped under the canopy of trees and slid her hands onto her hips. “Is that a proposal, Brady Landry?”

  “Only if you say yes. Otherwise, it’s just an exploratory conversation.”

  “That is the saddest proposal in all the world.” Shaking her head, she turned away.

  Brady stepped in front of her and picked up her hands. “I know that you’re the one for me. Our happiness is inevitable. The family we’re going to make is inevitable. You and I hand-in-hand until the end of our days is inevitable. I just want to get started as soon as we can. I won’t ask you today to be my wife and let me make you happy. But I might ask you next month to let me be the one to protect you, cherish you, and kiss you until the day we leave this earth.”

  Claire raised their joined hands and kissed his knuckles. “When you ask me properly, then I can just about guarantee that I’ll give you a resounding, absolute, unequivocal hell yes.”

  Lifting her up again, he embraced her tightly and buried his face against her neck. “Get ready, Claire ’cause I’ll be satisfied with nothing less.”

  “Didn’t think you would be.”

  “I love you, sweet darlin’, and I always will.”

  “Love you more, Brady.”

  Looking up into the canopy of trees, Brady heard the haunting call of the loons out on the lake. He remembered something he’d learned back in grade school about the male of the species having a yodel that marked his territory. He swore the sounds he heard were just that, which he totally understood. He wanted to claim Claire as his very own and it seemed that she wasn’t going to mind when the time came. Which he was going to be satisfied with…for now.

  Dastardly plans to knock her up and bind her to him were beneath him, but accidents happened and who’s to say what would occur down the road?

  “Let’s go get those dogs of ours,” he said.

  “We have to be a bit crazy to take on two puppies, but what the heck? Go big or go home.”

  “Couldn’t agree more, Claire.” He took her hand, headed them back toward the picnic area, and thought about the plans he was hatching. Going big didn’t even begin to describe what he had in mind. Letting out a little chuckle, he knew it was his best plan yet. After all, his and Claire’s happiness was inevitable.

  EPILOGUE

  Saturday, February 10th

  Brady adjusted his tie, took one last look, and called it good. He was in his best suit and ready to walk down the aisle. Hard to believe his big brother had finally talked Lilly into tying the knot, but he had. Today was a day that had been in the making for over twenty years, and he was more than happy to see his brother finally make his dream come true.

  Looking over his shoulder, he saw Claire walk out of the bathroom and felt his breath catch. He’d never seen a more beautiful woman in his life. Despite the frown on her face. “What’s wrong, honey?”

  “I don’t much care for the way my dress is fitting me. It seemed fine when I got it a couple of weeks ago and now…look.” She stood and ran her hand over her very sexy, very round baby bump. “Your son has decided to roll himself into a little ball and I’m not sure how well this dress is going to hold up against his antics.”

  Brady strode over, ran his hand over Claire’s stomach, and grinned like a man who had discovered that gravitational waves were real. When, in fact, all he’d done was knock his wife up.

  Something that happened every day around the world. Not like those folks who discovered that the concept of time was in fact not a rigid box but a rippling ocean alive with subatomic waves.

  Still, he had a lot to be proud of.

  “Honey, he’ll settle down the minute you eat some Jell-O.”

  A snort and a guffaw greeted his declaration and he decided not to say more. Never did the words, “Your woman is always right even when she’s not” ring truer than when she was five months pregnant. “What can I do?”

  Claire rubbed her stomach and collapsed on the bed. “Help me with my shoes.”

  He lifted the ballet flats that sat next to the bed and slipped them on her feet. “Have I told you how beautiful you are and how much I love you today?”

  “Yeah, guess so.” She leaned back and closed her eyes. “Do I have time for a little nap?”

  Brady checked his watch and grimaced. “Sorry, darlin’. We need to get to the church.”

  He held his hands out and helped her up. “My brother still has his boxers in a twist that we got married before them.”

  Claire heaved herself off the bed and straightened her dress. “We had to because of the baby.”

  “I tried to get you to marry me before we ever found out there was a baby on the way, so don’t say we only got married because you were pregnant.”

  “I’m not. But don’t think that your shenanigans with my birth control pills went unnoticed. You, sir, did your best to make sure the only answer I could give you was yes.”

  He ran his fingers over her hand and smiled. “Things work out how they are supposed to.”

  “Good thing I love you as much as I do because if I didn’t you would be in hot water.”

  “Noted.” He gave her a good kiss and heard the dogs running down the hall. Turning, he saw them skid the last few feet as they came through the door. The puppies were now pretty good-sized dogs and they had all the control God promised a couple of toddlers. Which meant it was never quiet. Which suited him and Claire both. Turned out they were in sync about what they wanted in their lives, and that was a loud, happy house. Two dogs and a baby boy on the way just about guaranteed they were going to get exactly what they wanted.

  “Come on, darlin’. Let’s go help my brother and Lilly get married.” The way she took his hand and held on were never things he wasn’t going to appreciate. She was his and that was something he was going to cherish for the rest of his life.

  “Love you, Brady.”

  He stopped in the doorway, framed her face in his hands, and pressed their mouths together. After he’d kissed her properly, he released her mouth and tipped his head against hers. “You’re all I ever wanted and I love you with everything I’ve got.”

  “I know. Don’t think that’s anything I ever take for granted.” She placed her hand over his heart. “I’m the luckiest woman in the world.”

  “I’ll make sure to give you all kinds of reasons to never think anything different,” he replied as he led them out of the house. Truth was, he was the lucky one.

  THE END

  WHAT IS NEXT…

  Interested to find out who has Brody so busy? Look for INESCAPABLE in Fall 2017.

  If you would like to see what happens with Erin and Hunter, look for DUPLICITY in 2018.

  Want to see what the storyboards look like for the whole series? See Pinterest.
/>   INSPIRATION

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  If you would like to see the storyboard for this book Pinterest

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