Following Me (31 page)

“Yeah?”

“Thank you for today.  You don’t
know what it means to me.”  She bit her lip and broke his gaze.

“No, thank you,” he whispered,
pushing her hair off her face and bringing her back to face him.  “I’m not sure
I would have gotten through this past week without you.”

Devon smiled shyly.  “Why is
that?”

He sighed softly before bringing
her face down to meet his lips.  She kissed him until she was breathless.  When
they broke apart, she melted at the sight of him lying beneath her. 
How had
she gotten so lucky after everything that had happened to her?

“Devon,” he whispered.  He
scooted his body up, so he was facing her, seated on the floor of the boat.

“Yeah?” she asked, mirroring him.

“I don’t really open up to many
people, so this is kind of big for me,” he said, taking her hand in his.

Out of nowhere, Devon’s heart
rate picked up.  She wasn’t sure if it was just because she hadn’t been
completely honest with him or what, but it made her uneasy.

“This, uh…isn’t my dad’s boat.”

“What?” Devon asked, confusion
creasing her temple.  “Then, whose boat is it?”

“What I mean to say is that it
was
my dad’s boat,” he said softly.

Devon stopped fidgeting and
stared into his handsome face. 
Was.
  That was such a final word.  “What
happened?”

“Three years ago, he died in a
car accident on the Fourth of July.  Sideswiped by a drunk driver,” he said,
gripping her hands.  “They took him in an ambulance to Northwestern Memorial. 
It was the hospital he had worked in as a doctor for thirty years.  He died before
I got there.”

Devon gasped.  “Brennan…” she
whispered, clutching his hand more tightly. 
What could she say?  What could
she possibly say to heal that wound?
  No wonder he had been sick and in a
terrible mood the week before the Fourth of July. 
How could she have ever
blamed him?

“I don’t know why, but when I
look at you, I sometimes see myself.  I feel like I understand you…like we
could understand each other.  I don’t know if that even makes sense.”

“It does,” she said quietly,
tears welling in her eyes.  She leaned her head into the crook of his neck and
wrapped her arms around him.  She didn’t even want to ask, but she had to. 
“What happened to your mom?”

“They were divorced.  I was an
only child.  She lives in California with her new husband and brood of
children,” he said, distaste seeping into his voice.  “She was only really
interested in me after he died.  At least, she was until she found out he left
me everything, and I wasn’t going to give her a dime.  Now, she doesn’t even
send birthday cards.”

At the thought of having a parent
that cruel, Devon felt a lump form in her throat.  And she couldn’t even
imagine the loss of her own parents.  Her problems felt so small next to his.

“Everything just feels better
with you in it,” he told her.

“It feels better with you in my
lifeit, too.”

Before she could say more,
fireworks exploded overhead, filling the night sky with color.  Devon jumped in
surprise, and Brennan pulled her in closer, laughing in her ear.  They watched
the sky light up over and over again, content in each other’s arms.  It was a
beautiful spectacle, announcing the end of the festivities for the day.  Devon
didn’t want the day to end though.  She didn’t want to let Brennan suffer
another day alone.

She stood, pulling him up with
her, and led him to the back of the boat.  She opened the door, and he followed
without question.  Wrapping her arms around his neck, she leaned up on her toes
and kissed him.  He picked her up mid-kiss and deposited her on the bed.  Devon
shifted under his intense gaze.

Reaching forward, she worked the
buttons loose on his collared shirt and pushed it off his shoulders.  He
dropped it to the floor and stripped out of his T-shirt.  She swallowed hard as
she stared at his body.  When he lay down on the bed, his hand trailed the
curves of her body lightly.  He moved to her stomach and pushed away the soft
material of her shirt from the warmth of her flat stomach.  His lips skimmed
across the surface, flicking light kisses across the hem of her shorts before
he returned north to recapture her lips.

Her heart was racing, yet she was
completely content with him, being in his arms.  He ran his fingers back
through the hair he loved as she found herself exploring his longer strands at
the back of his neck.  His gaze found hers, burning with questions she couldn’t
answer.

“Brennan, let’s stay here
tonight,” she whispered.

He nuzzled into her neck.  “You
think I’m letting you leave, Belle?  You’re very wrong.”

BRENNAN’S ARM WAS locked around
Devon’s body when she woke up.  She yawned and snuggled in closer to him.  Her
thoughts were hazy as she opened her eyes and realized she was still on the
boat with Brennan.  The bed was comfortable, but lying with Brennan was even
better.  She hated that it was morning, that their date was coming to a close,
that they had to work today, so they couldn’t hang out on the boat all day
again.

Rolling over to face him, she
began to twirl the hair on the back of his neck again.  She really liked the
longer strands and the way he looked at her when she played with them.  His
eyes slowly opened, and he smiled when he saw her.

“Morning, Belle,” he said before
he kissed her lips.

“Good morning.”  Her heart
fluttered at her nickname.  She hadn’t realized how much she had missed it
until last night when he had finally called her that again.

“Can we skip work today?” he
asked, nibbling lightly on her bottom lip.

“Uh-huh,” she said.  Her body was
suddenly wide-awake.

“Okay, good.”

As his hand slid up the back of
her shirt, she arched in response.

“No one will even notice that
we’re both playing hooky.”

“Definitely not.”

She did everything she could to
keep her focus, but she wasn’t winning.  Work didn’t sound like that great of
an idea anyway.  It would be better to just stay here all day on the lake and
forget the rest of the world.  Brennan tracing her rib cage with his fingertips
wasn’t helping with her motivation to leave.

“It’s not like I need money to
pay rent or anything.”

Devon inhaled sharply as his hand
brushed her breasts unexpectedly.

He stopped moving and pulled
away.  “Oh, that’s right.”

“That was a joke, Brennan,” she
said, pulling him closer.

He kissed her lips again.  His
body shifted over her, covering her.  As his hips began grinding into her, she
groaned, and her legs naturally moved to wrap around his waist.  Her body was
pulsing, and all she could think about was getting him closer and closer.  She
didn’t want this to stop.  She didn’t want any of it to stop.  He tried to
break the kiss, but she pushed her hands up into his hair and pulled his mouth
back down to hers.  He growled deep in the back of his throat and gripped her
tightly.

“Dev,” he said with a painful
edge to his voice, “I don’t want to stop you.”

“Then, don’t,” she said, willing
him to continue.

She knew they had to go, but she
didn’t want to think about that.  She didn’t want to think of anything but
Brennan—the feel of his body pressed into hers, his heated touch, his
passionate kisses.

Brennan sighed and moved back
just far enough, so he could look at her face.  “But we have to stop.”

Devon stuck out her bottom lip
and pouted.

“I don’t mean it like that.  I
want to, Dev.  I do.”  He planted another kiss on her lips and then nibbled on
her bottom lip again.  He stopped and smirked.  “I’m not playing around.  I do
want you, but we have places to be.”

Devon rolled out from under
Brennan and stood, so she wouldn’t tempt him any further.  He reached out and
took her hand, placing a kiss on it.

“You look good in my shirt,” he
said, gently pinching her exposed thigh.

She jumped, surprised by the
touch.  “Don’t pinch me!” Devon cried, reaching forward and pinching his arm.

“Who said you could pinch me?” he
asked, crawling across the bed.  He wrapped his arms around her middle and
yanked her back into bed.  “On that note, who said you could get out of bed?”

“I’ll do what I want,” she said
stubbornly.

“Not until I let you,” Brennan
said, holding her tightly and wrestling her back into the bed.

It didn’t take much effort
because she wasn’t really fighting him.  Although if she had put up a fight,
she was sure it still wouldn’t have taken much effort on his part.  He was
surprisingly muscular.

So, she
stopped resisting entirely and enjoyed the fleeting minutes they had left,
locked away on his boat.  She wished they didn’t have to leave, and when they
did leave, she wished that they could come back soon.  This felt right for
them, and she wanted to remember that and cherish it for what it was.

BRENNAN DROPPED HER off back at her
apartment and escorted her all the way up to the forty-third floor.  He stopped
her before she could head inside.  He picked her up by her waist, letting her
feet dangle above the ground.  She giggled and leaned forward against him.

“I’m going to miss you.”  He let
her body slide against his as he released her, placing her gently back on the
floor.

“I’ll see you soon,” Devon said,
shaking her head at him.  She was dizzy from his touch and his enthusiasm.  She
couldn’t get enough of him.

“Too long,” he murmured.  He
walked her backward into the wall and captured her lips.

“Much too long,” she said between
breaths.  “Maybe you could stay—”

“I’d never make it to work on
time.”

“Not such a bad thing.”  She
fiddled with the buttons on his shirt.

“That’s not helping.”

Devon smirked deviously, toying
with his shirt more.  “Just stay.”

Gripping her wrists in his hands,
he pulled them away from the buttons and lifted her hands up next to her head. 
“Maybe tonight.  I’ll stay here, or you can stay with me.  How does that
sound?”

“Like forever away.”  She pouted
despite her heart feeling like it was beating out of her chest.

“So, is that a no?”

“That’s a yes, of course.”

“Good.”  He released her, kissed
her one last time on her lips, and took a step back.  “I’ll see you at work
then, Belle.”

Devon watched him walk away. 
Sighing heavily, she wished that he could have stayed, but she knew it was
impractical.  They actually did have to work.  They had gotten yesterday off,
and Brennan had missed too much recently because of his dad.  She couldn’t let
him miss work again because of her.

She pushed open the door to the
apartment and was surprised when she noticed that Hadley wasn’t camped out on
the couch already.  “Hadley?” she called, tossing her purse on the floor next
to the side table.