Spring Rain

by Jaci Burton

  Shocked into silence, she could only look at him, blinking fiercely to hold back the tears at his words. Words designed to hurt her, to get her to call him a bastard and leave. But he’d said “wanted”. Past tense. And now it all made sense to her. Her memories drifted back ten years, when he pushed her away and said they weren’t right for each other. He’d been an alcoholic even then, though she’d been too young to recognize the signs. He’d hid it so well from her, from everyone.

  All those years of hurt, of suffering alone. She wanted to scream her frustration and sorrow for all he’d lost, all he’d had to endure. Dear God, the strength it must have taken him to exist every single day after Amanda’s death, to fight his addiction, to conquer it. Didn’t he realize how much he’d changed since then?

  “Get out, Kaitlyn. You have nothing to offer me. Unless you’re offering a bottle of whiskey. That I’d take. Anything else, I’m not interested.” He pushed back from the bar and took his seat on the stool, once again staring into the murky amber depths of the bottle.

  Did he really think he could scare her off, that her love for him meant nothing? Did he think his shocking revelation would somehow change her feelings for him?

  “You don’t know a damn thing about me, Brett McGregor,” she started, standing and walking toward him. She stopped when he turned around in his barstool to gape at her. “If you think you can make yourself look less desirable by revealing all your dark and dirty secrets, then you’ve had me pegged wrong all these years.”

  He arched a brow but said nothing.

  “You see, I’ve loved you since I was too young to even know what these feelings were inside me. I’ve loved your heart, your talent, the way you made me laugh and yes, even the way you infuriated me sometimes. The fact you’re an alcoholic makes no difference to me. The fact you were driving drunk the night Amanda died doesn’t matter. You screwed up and you paid the highest price possible. You lost the woman you loved.”

  She stopped and let that sink in before continuing. “I was going to give you credit for learning from your mistakes, but I don’t think I’m going to. After all, you’re about to lose another woman you love. Is that what you want to do?”

  His face paled. “I don’t love you.”

  This time she placed her hands on either side of him. “Yes, you do. You’ve always loved me. You loved me when you thought I was too young, and for the past few weeks you’ve loved me like I never thought I could be loved. Are you willing to walk away from that kind of magic, Brett? Because I’m not.”

  “You have no idea what you’re saying.”

  She smiled. “Don’t I? You haven’t touched alcohol since Amanda died. Do you know how much I admire you for that?”

  “Don’t,” he warned, his eyes darkening. “I’m not someone to admire.”

  “You might not think so. But I do. What you’ve done requires the kind of inner strength the average man doesn’t have. Many would have climbed further into the bottle and never come out. You could have done that too. But you didn’t. You made the choice to change your life. Not only change your life, but live, sober, having to face the reality of what you’d done every single day of your life. In my book, that makes you one of the strongest men I know.”

  “You have no idea how weak I really am,” he said, inclining his head toward the bottle over his shoulder. “I take that bottle out all the time and stare at it, so damned tempted to take a drink it drives me to my knees sometimes.”

  His expression was so desolate, so filled with self-loathing that it nearly crumbled her. “Tell me, Kait. How could you possibly ever want to be with a man like me?”

  She’d had enough. She pushed at his chest as she moved away from him, this time venting her ire without holding back. “Aren’t you tired of feeling sorry for yourself, Brett?”

  “What?”

  “You heard me. You’re so caught up in the mistakes of your past that you refuse to live the rest of your life ahead of you. You’ve been so frozen by what happened that it’s made you stop living. Is that really what you want? Is that what Amanda would have wanted?”

  His lips seamed tightly together, but she saw the glittering of moisture in his eyes.

  “You loved her. She loved you. You fucked up in the worst way possible and she died. But she did love you, with all your faults. And so do I. And guess what? I have faults too. I make mistakes too.”

  “Not like mine.”

  “Oh, so is this a game now? I couldn’t possibly be as bad as you so you can’t possibly be with me? Come on, Brett. Grow up, get over yourself and start living again.” She went to him, wrapping her palms around his stubbled cheeks. This time, she didn’t try to hold back her tears. She let them out, along with the magic that swirled around them in a vortex of flowery-scented wind.

  “I don’t care that you’re an alcoholic. It’s part of who you are but it doesn’t define who you are. Only you can do that, by your actions. You are worthy of love. You deserve a second chance. Please let me be the one you take that chance with. I love you. I always have.”

  She inhaled, struggling to say the words through the tears. But they had to be said. She had to issue the challenge this one final time. “Now what are you going to do with that knowledge?”

  Brett had to fight for breath. His chest squeezed tight with unshed tears and emotions he hadn’t allowed in far too long. Maybe ever. Had he ever had this kind of connection with Amanda? He loved her, of course. But it was a different person who’d loved Amanda. He wasn’t that man any longer. He’d never been the same man with her that he’d been around Kaitlyn.

  But he’d spent the past six years trying to be the kind of man Amanda would have been proud of. He’d spent a lifetime wishing he was the kind of man Kaitlyn could love.

  God, he wanted to take that step with her. He needed her more than he’d ever needed anyone before. And she stood here, right now, offering him everything he’d ever wanted.

  “Please don’t push me away this time, Brett. If you do, I won’t come back.”

  “I’m afraid I’ll hurt you.”

  Her lips lifted into a half-smile. “You might. And then you might not. We’re stronger together than alone. Let me love you. Open your heart to me. I need this. I need you.”

  A light mist fell over them, making Kaitlyn’s face glow as if tiny diamonds sparkled on her skin.

  She was magic. Everything about her, from her powers to make it rain and to bring springtime into his life, to the way she loved him without question. Without recrimination or accusation. She loved him, with all his faults and all his demons.

  How could he say no to a lifetime of loving a woman like her? How could he deny her what she wanted, even it was a broken-down alcoholic like him?

  How could he deny himself the one thing he’d always wanted? For the first time in too many years, hope surged within him.

  He stood and moved her back. “Wait here. I’ll be right back.” He hurried to the storeroom and came out with two covered canvases. He put them both on easels. She frowned as she watched him set them up.

  “Come here, Kait.”

  She approached him, curiosity blending the gold and green in her eyes. He grazed his hand down her cheek. This one time, he could finally give something back to her after all she’d given him.

  When he pulled the canvas off the first portrait, she gasped, her hands flying to her cheeks. “Oh my God, Brett!”

  Kaitlyn fought to breathe through the tears streaming down her face. She stared at the painting, unable to believe what he’d captured.

  There she was, naked and lying on the chaise, just as he’d posed her. But instead of a plain backdrop to the painting, he’d painted the chaise in the middle of a green meadow, colorful wildflowers popping up out of the grass. The skies were dark gray and rain poured down over her, a single cloud parting to shine a ray of light over her body.

  He’d captured her magic. He’d captured her heart. She turned to him, at a loss for words, her heart
swelling with so much love she thought she might burst. “I don’t know what to say. It’s breathtaking.”

  “It’s you.” He bent and kissed her softly. Her mouth trembled at the first touch of his lips against hers. But then he pulled away and said, “This is you, too.”

  When he pulled the sheet off the second portrait, she blinked, then cast a frown in his direction. “What do you mean?”

  It was the nude she’d spotted in the storeroom. The one that had given her the idea to ask him to paint her.

  “That’s you, Kait. I painted it when I first fell in love with you, when you were first coming into your maturity as a woman. Now I have two portraits of you, Kait. The young girl I first fell in love with, and the woman I love now.”

  The dark hair cascading over her body, the delicate arms and fingers posed in front of her, hiding her nudity. Her gaze searched his. “This is me?”

  “Yes.”

  She turned to him and threw her arms around him, capturing his mouth in a kiss that seared her senses. Holding him tight, she was afraid to let go, afraid to believe she could be so lucky.

  His mouth was hungry, devouring hers and making her forget all about portraits and the pains of the past. Now was all that mattered. Being in his arms, feeling his hands roaming over her body. He cupped her buttocks and pulled her closer, pressing his erection against her sex until she thought she’d die from the pleasure of it. Sparks of sweet delight rained between her legs.

  She tore at his shirt, desperate to feel his skin under her hands. He shrugged out of it and made quick work of his jeans, then pulled off her sweater and slid her pants down her legs in a frenzy of hurried tugs and pulls. His hands circled her waist and he lifted her to the bar, brushing the bottle of whiskey out of the way to plant her butt right in the center of the cool countertop.

  She shuddered at the feel of icy cold bartop against her heated, bare pussy.

  “Lie down on the bar, baby,” he instructed.

  Anticipation filled her as she laid back against the countertop, her excitement doubling when he drew her legs apart and swiped his fingers over her moist slit.

  “Wet. God, you’re always so wet for me, Kait,” he murmured, bending his head toward her sex. He licked her center, circling her clit and driving her mad with teasing strokes of his tongue, never touching the tight knot of nerves begging for his mouth. He petted her slit, his thumb grazing her moist pussy lips. When he slipped two fingers inside her and covered her clit with his mouth, she cried out, arching against him, demanding without words that he take more of her, fill her deeper and make her come.

  How could a mere few days without him make her so desperately needy for his touch, his mouth, the pleasure only he could give her? How could he turn her into a whimpering, sobbing, wanton who only wanted his fingers in her cunt, his mouth on her clit?

  She struggled for control while he painted the tiny pearl with his tongue, swirling in circles until she was sobbing and writhing against his mouth. Her orgasm hit like a shockwave. She lifted her buttocks and crushed her sex against his lips, demanding he suck harder as she rode out the rush of incredible sensation.

  He kissed her thigh, holding onto her legs as she trembled in aftershock, then made his way to her mouth, letting her taste her cum on his tongue and lips. She licked at him greedily, needing to give him what he’d given her.

  He dragged her toward him, lifting her easily and carrying her to the chaise where he’d painted her. She sat and watched, licking her lips in anticipation while he stood in front of her stroking his thick cock.

  “You like to watch me touch it, don’t you, cher?”

  “Oh, yes,” she said, her gaze lifting to his. “But I’d like to suck it even more.”

  With a low growl he came toward her, holding her head as she opened her mouth and greedily took him between her hungry lips. Her tongue twined around the thick, hot head of his cock, tasting the salty pre-cum that gathered there. She licked the ridged veins on the underside of his shaft, trailing her tongue down the base to capture his balls between her lips. She suckled them gently, grasping his cock in her hands to stroke it upward while she licked the sac underneath.

  “Fuck!” he groaned, his hand tightening in her hair. He drew her head back and positioned his cock head between her lips again, grasping the base of the shaft and thrusting it hard into her mouth.

  She loved this side of him, the demanding, dominant male who knew exactly what he wanted, who looked to her for his pleasure. She wanted to take him to the same heights he’d led her just now, until his cum spurted into the back of her throat and he cried out in ecstasy as she emptied him.

  But he pulled away and dragged her up, flipping her over so her stomach was pressed against the back of the chaise.

  “I can’t wait any longer to be inside you.” He positioned his cock between her thighs and plunged home, striking her womb with the depth and force of his thrust.

  Kaitlyn screamed at the sweet, painful pleasure, her juices coating his cock, slickening it as he withdrew and powered inside her again. The power of the elements bubbled up inside her, threatening to explode in sweet ecstasy. How could she have lived a moment of her adult life without this man? How could she ever think she would be whole without him? This joining meant everything to her, the feel of him inside her stroking taking her to heights she’d never thought possible. Her body shuddered as the joy of springtime burst within her.

  “Make it rain, Kait,” he groaned. “Let me feel your magic.”

  Releasing her power, she inhaled as the scent of lavender filled the room, then lilies, then roses. Such sweet perfume when mixed when the utterly earthy scent of sex. Her womb clenched as he drove deeper powering his cock inside her with unrelenting thrusts. The rumble of thunder was followed by the downpour of hard, driving rain.

  The drops sluiced down her back into the crack of her ass and onto his cock. Cool moisture penetrated her as he thrust forward again, striking her G-spot with each forceful stroke. She gripped the edge of the chaise and held on tight, feeling the stirrings of orgasm build within her.

  But then he withdrew and flipped her around, pushing her onto her back and covering her mouth with his lips. His tongue slid inside and fucked her mouth, at the same time driving his cock between her swollen pussy lips and burying himself inside her.

  Though they’d made love before, this time was different. She felt the release of tension within him, and knew this time he held nothing back. Before there had always been a part of him she couldn’t have, a part he kept tucked deep inside. Now he gave her everything, and she took it all in, embracing his essence within her own. An outpouring of love and emotion permeated her senses, and she felt more powerful than she ever had before.

  Together they were strong. They could handle anything. Thunder shook the room, the crack of lightning brightening the room like daylight.

  His groan made her tremble, his hands tightening as he wound them underneath her to lift her hips and tunnel deeper inside her cunt. She cried out against his mouth, hovering on the precipice of ecstasy before she flooded him with her juices. He jerked and shot hot streams of cum inside her, trembling with the force of his orgasm.

  Her climax tore a scream from her lips, his fingers biting into her hips as he shook with the force of his own release. She claimed his mouth, licking at his tongue and biting his lower lip as she trembled and quaked through yet another shaking orgasm. Brett held her tight as they rode out the storm together until all that was left were tiny aftershocks.

  She closed her eyes and felt the power of his love, knew she had found all that she could ever want, and more. If she died today, she’d leave blissfully happy.

  “This isn’t going to be easy,” he mumbled against her neck. “I’m difficult.”

  “I know,” she said, tangling her fingers in the soft thickness of his hair. “And I love you anyway. And I’m stubborn. More stubborn than you. Which means you’ll never get rid of me, Brett. Don’t even try. I’
m yours forever.”

  He leaned up and searched her face, his eyes showing a warmth she hadn’t seen before. “The best day of my life was the day I found the Storm family, the day I met you. I love you, Kaitlyn. I always will.”

  “I love you too, Brett. This journey we take, we’ll take together. One day at a time.”

  He kissed her and she knew then they would fight the battle together.

  As long as they had each other, the battle was already won.

  Epilogue

  One year later

  Angelina Storm slipped her hand into her husband Galen’s, always seeking his power through touch. His magic merged with hers and gave her the strength to keep from sobbing like a baby, something she swore she wouldn’t do.

  Then again, watching her daughter Shannon take that first dance with her new husband, Max brought a tear to her eye she couldn’t hold back.

  Her second child had been married today. Logan would be following suit in six months’ time, and Kaitlyn and Brett’s wedding was only a year away.

  She smiled through the pool of tears and looked up at Galen, still so handsome even after thirty-six years of marriage. He still had the ability to make her pulse race and her body think things no woman her age should. Well into his sixties, his raven-black hair was mostly gray now, but his deep blue eyes still sparked her libido and made her heart do flips against her ribs. Sometimes she still felt twenty-five years old and in the deep throes of first love. Then again, why wouldn’t she? Galen had been her first and only love.

  “Are you crying again, lass?” he asked, swiping away the tear with the pad of his thumb.

  “Of course not. Okay, maybe a little bit,” she said with a tremulous smile.

  “Our babies have grown up.”

  She nodded, the moment bittersweet. This is what she’d wanted, for all her children to find their destiny in the arms of the one they loved. All four had done it. Aidan and Lissa were expecting their first child in a few months, the glow of impending motherhood lighting up Lissa’s face as she stood next to Angelina and reached for her hand.