Finding Trust (Centre Games) (41 page)

“Give me a kiss, then you get some sleep.” He leant forward and closed his lips over hers, giving her no option but to comply. Not that she wanted to do anything else. Whenever he kissed her, she melted into a pile of hot molten goo. He affected her like no other. And this time was no different. Even royally annoyed at him, she still wanted him.

He gently broke away from her, stood and walked out the door, not before popping his head back to give her the little wink she dearly loved.

What the hell was she going to do? Her life felt as if it was a complete disaster.

Chapter Thirty-Three

Rihanna woke and immediately noticed the absence of Brayden’s long, hard body beside her. How had she become so used to sleeping in the same bed as him in just a couple of weeks? The truth was she missed him. She missed the closeness they had shared. The warm arm curled around her when she woke in the morning. His soft, feathery kisses along her neck.

She reached her arm out and stretched it across the bed where the indentation of his body still remained. The sheet was cool to the touch so he must have been gone for a while. She didn’t really remember him coming to bed last night, although she’d swear he wrapped his arms around her in the early hours of the morning. Either that or she was dreaming. Jazz had packed her off to bed shortly after dinner, claiming she needed to rest. All this mollycoddling was starting to seriously piss her off.

Easing herself from the bed, Rihanna pushed to a stand and was pleased to discover she wasn’t as stiff as yesterday. She gingerly walked forward towards the bathroom and was pleasantly surprised to find she could walk much easier. All good signs. Maybe if her body hurt less, she could make sense of what she was going to do with her life.

Rihanna found Brayden, Rory, and Jazz all sitting around, outside on the veranda, enjoying breakfast.

Brayden was tracking her presence across the room and stood as soon as she came close. She could almost feel his super senses wrapping around her now that she knew what to look for. Without doubt, he was carrying out an appraisal of both her health and her mood.

“Morning, baby,” he whispered into her ear as he brushed a kiss against her neck, causing shivers to run up and down her spine. It annoyed her no end how much her body betrayed her whenever he was near. He helped her into the chair and filled her glass with juice.

She pushed back from the table, about to head in and get some coffee. Her actions were cut off by Brayden. “Where are you going, Minky?”

“Going to get a coffee. Anyone want a refill?” she offered to the table at large.

“Sit, Rih. You can’t have coffee; it’s not good for the baby,” Brayden reminded her.

Her good mood immediately evaporated. Now she was pissed. “Bloody hell,” she muttered as she slid back into the seat.

“Sorry, Minky, I know how much you like your coffee. Is there anything else I can get you?”

“What—a nourishing glass of milk?” she snapped, already over the doting and apologetic faces. Fuck, how could this have happened?

Jazz looked at her carefully across the table. She and Rory were yet to say anything. They were both clearly not wanting to intrude on the morning “moment” with Brayden.

“What—nothing to say?” Rihanna spun her attention to both of them. She knew she was being a bitch but, fuck, she just felt irritable and annoyed.

Jazz just snorted a huff, knowing exactly what her game was.

Rory finally finished chewing long enough to speak. “Hey, don’t mind me, I’m just catching up on all the food I missed over the last week. Christ, I’ve been starving. I’m so glad you two know about us. At least I can frickin’ eat now. It was seriously killing me. You don’t know how many times Quade and I raided the fridge in the middle of the night.”

Just like magic, the mood at the table had improved. Rory just had that knack.

“I wondered where all the food had gone. I could have sworn there was another whole rump in there a few days ago.” Rihanna laughed.

“Guilty as charged. Quade and I polished that off the night the

boss arrived. Surely you must have noticed the stud disappearing from bed to eat his fair share?”

She shook her head indicating she hadn’t.

“Minky sleeps like the dead, particularly after she’s had a bit of exercise.” Brayden smirked and Rihanna felt the warm sensation of blood rushing to her cheeks.

“Yeah, you lucky thing,” Jazz teased.

Rihanna ignored her and turned to Brayden. “Did you really go and raid the fridge each night?”

“Most nights,” he said with a twinkling grin. His eyes had lit up full of humour. “I’m just not so obvious because my tastes are a bit more varied. These guys tend to stick mainly to red meat if they can. I’ll chow down on just about anything and I don’t need quite the same amount of protein from meat. I can live well on grains, fruit, and vegies.”

Rihanna nodded, taking in everything he said. What struck her was how little she really knew about him. Little things like that. What was his favourite colour? Which season did he prefer? What foods didn’t he like? What was his most vivid childhood memory? Who taught him to play guitar?

They were strangers who had been brought together by an operation.

“Uh oh, this isn’t good. She’s analysing something,” Jazz warned quietly, almost to herself.

Rihanna pushed her chair back and muttered, “I know nothing about him. How can I possibly do this? What was I even thinking?”

She hobbled from the room. What she didn’t see was the look of pain that sliced through Brayden’s near perfect features. Nor did she see him rise from his chair and try to follow before Jazz gripped his arm and shook her head, indicating he should let her go.

“Leave her be for a bit. She’s still processing,” Jazz warned.

“How can I leave her, Jazz, when she’s obviously hurting and confused?” He was hurting just as badly as her but felt helpless to do anything to fix it.

“She needs time, Brayden, to think things through. Just before was the first time that the baby became real to her. Remember, she has no symptoms yet. Not being able to drink coffee is a very real thing directly resulting from the baby. Till now the baby was just some fictional thing that we were all talking about. I think the realisation that she is really pregnant just hit.”

Brayden still looked pained but with a healthy dose of scepticism. “I hope you’re right, Jazz. Everything I am is screaming at me to go to her.” He dragged his hand through his hair. “Fuck, this is killing me.” Brayden’s eyes flashed to Rory, seeking support from his bother.

“She’ll come round, mate. Give her time. She’s had a truckload to deal with in the last two weeks.”

Brayden rounded to Jazz. “I’m not sure I can stick with the plan.”

“You need to. It will work.” Jazz sounded totally confident.

He wanted to argue with Jazz, but he knew she was probably right. The three of them closest to Rih had come up with a plan. Now they needed to see it through. Fuck, it would probably kill him in the process. How could he have ever agreed to this?

Rory chose that moment to ask the obvious. “Care to let me in on what the plan is?”

Brayden looked at Jazz, as if confirming her approval to disclose. Jazz nodded her head, indicating Brayden should proceed.

“I’m going to go and tour with the band for a month. Give Rih a bit of time to come to terms with all of this. Hopefully by then, she’ll have missed me and be prepared to give us a go. Peter has helped out by insisting she stay here and sort things out. Jazz is going to stay here with her on the ruse that she’s looking after her while she’s getting over the accident. The last thing we want is her going back to Peter’s and slipping into her old life and patterns,” Brayden briefly explained. That was the basic outline. There was, of course, more fine detail that Peter, Jazz, and he had worked through.

Rory nodded his understanding. “So what happens after a month?” he asked logically.

“Well, hopefully we’ll be back together by then. If not, I’ll probably do something drastic like plan an intervention and kidnap her myself.” Brayden raked his hand through his hair in frustration.

Rory just laughed at that. “You got it bad, bro. She’ll come round.”

“I hope you’re right.”

A wicked grin split across Rory’s face. “Aren’t I always?”

Brayden just laughed and nodded. “Mostly. So what are you up to?”

“Well, given all this relationship drama and the fact that for some reason the boss seems to have overlooked giving me anything serious to do, I’m figuring I’ll hang around here and keep an eye on the girls and Quade. That okay with you, mate?”

“Sure, make yourself at home. Oh my mistake, you already have,” Brayden joked sarcastically.

“Ha ha, Pony Boy.”

Brayden sobered. “No, seriously, Rory I’d be happy if you stayed around. I think she’s going to need all the support and gentle coercion she can get.”

“Okay, go play rock star, big fella. I’ll keep the home fires burning and look after the little women, oh sorry, totally ‘smoking’ hot women,” he joked and nudged Jazz. “It’s a tough job but somebody has to do it!”

The three of them burst out laughing at their own jokes. They all knew that Rihanna and Jazz were definitely not the helpless types. In fact, they were both so far on the other end of the scale, which was half the problem.

A look passed between them. Brayden knew Rory understood how much this meant to him. Having him around to answer questions and provide information would be a huge help and it would also allow Rihanna to do it from a more removed position. Hopefully this would give her confidence and a point of reference in her understanding of their unique abilities.

“Yeah, now I just have to break the news to Rihanna.”

Rory just smirked and chuckled.

***

She was lying on a sun lounge by the pool when Brayden wandered out. The first thing she noticed was he’d changed clothes. Gone were his casual board shorts and loose surf singlet. In their place was a pair of jeans that looked like they’d been tailored to fit his tight butt and muscular thighs. This he’d teamed with a mint green polo shirt that set off his tan and the chestnut highlights in his hair perfectly. She could look at him all day and never tire of the sight. And damn, there were those pesky butterflies in her stomach again. Why did he have to affect her like this? Sometimes the universe just plain sucked.

He walked over and dragged the other reclining lounge closer. He lowered his long frame down and sat facing her, his elbows resting on the tightly stretched denim of his thighs.

“Hey, baby, how you feeling?” She had no doubt about the sincerity or tenderness in his voice. He really did care.

“Okay, just taking it easy. What are you up to?” She nodded at him, indicating his clothes.

He looked away briefly before looking back to her. Her heart immediately leapt into her mouth and the butterflies in her stomach turned from the feeling of seeing the hot guy you were attracted to, to gut-wrenching fear. He had something on his mind and she had a horrible feeling she wasn’t going to like it.

He reached over and took her hand. His thumb began stroking the soft skin across the inside of her wrist. “I have to go away for a bit. Reece wants to spend some time with their new baby and the boys have a full tour planned for the next month. They asked if I could fill in and I agreed.”

She tried desperately to dislodge her heart out of the way so she could talk but it wasn’t quick enough in moving back to her chest.

“You asked me for some space and this is my way of giving it to you. Take the month to think about us and our baby. I want you to think about all the great things we’ve shared and all the amazing things that we’ll do together in the future.”

She went to protest but he reached forward and gently placed a finger across her lips, silencing her.

“Shhhh. I don’t want to argue with you. Just hear me.”

She nodded her agreement and he withdrew his finger; she didn’t realise it but she’d tightened her grip on his hand.

“I love you, Rihanna, with everything I am. I know you feel you don’t know me but you do. Nobody knows me better than you. You know everything about me that counts. Yes, I’m protective and a bit overbearing at times, and yes, I push you to be more open and comfortable about how you feel. And yes, I didn’t disclose everything about me until a few days ago. I also explained why. It wasn’t that I didn’t want to.” He paused, searching her eyes, looking for something.

“I need you to understand it was the hardest thing I’ve ever had to do keeping that secret from you. I asked you to trust me and I couldn’t give you everything that I am, then. I didn’t lie to you. I just didn’t fully disclose. That hurt you, cut you deep. But it hurt me, too, not being able to be fully open with you. You’ve had a glimpse at what we could be and my secrets ripped it away. Now I can give you everything.”

He squeezed her hand. “Everything. All of it is yours. My heart, my body, the secret of my enhanced abilities, my possessions. They’re all yours. I’m giving you everything and I’m going to trust you not to hurt me with it.”

He took her other hand. Rihanna knew the significance of what he was saying. He had given her the power to destroy him. It was big; no, it was huge. “Now I need you to trust yourself enough to reach out to me and take it all. Share it with me. And in return I want you, all of you and this baby and however many more we’re blessed with.”

The power and depths of his eyes dragged her further in; she was drowning in them. Drowning in everything that was him. She felt the first hot wet tears she’d been trying to hold spill down her cheeks. He was just so overwhelming. His passion, sincerity, and confidence in her—in them—annihilated her.

It was something beautiful and she wanted it. But she also knew the extent of despair and pain she’d feel if she ever lost it.