Home for Love (An Adult Contemporary Romance) (19 page)

He took a deep breath and let it out
slowly. “I second you on the sexual frustration theory, but I do need to tell
you something.”

“Okay, Mr. Hunter, make it quick,” Bree
ordered, leaning back into her chair to put some distance between them before
she grabbed him and changed his mind. He obviously had something important to
say, she wanted to give him the opportunity, and whilst her hormones raged, she
was in fact dying to know what it was.

“You said you loved me,” he stated.
“Why?”

Bree’s lips curved slowly, savoring the
emotions that flitted through her when she thought of the way she felt about
him. “I love you because you’re my best friend. You always were, and getting to
know you again, I find that I respect and appreciate the changes that I see in
you. I love how you’ve taken on the challenges that life’s thrown your way and
have risen way above them, more than anyone could’ve expected. I love how all
that I believed that you were capable of, you’ve done and more. Not necessarily
professionally, although that’s impressive in and of itself, but in the way,
you interact with others, the way you are generous, and tolerant. I love how I
can act like a kid with you and how we laugh together. I love that our
philosophies of life and parenting as well as our values match or complement
each other’s. I love how you are with Amber. Most of all, I love you just
because. I can’t explain it, but I feel as though there is a part of me missing
when you’re not near me and when you are, I feel drawn to you. I just plain
love you, although I love you so much there’s nothing plain about it really.”

“Ditto,” Todd replied. That one simple
word echoed all that she said. Bree understood the significance. She understood
that he was fulfilling her teenage dream of finding her version of love that
Patrick Swayze’s character in the movie, “Ghost” had for his wife. He’d
remembered how she’d cried over the movie and lamented about how it must be the
greatest love ever to have existed, even though it was fictional. He was
telling her that their love was the real version of that and that their love
was the greatest love. Mostly, he was telling her that he was willing to give
her that love if she wished to accept it.

Todd stood up and walked to the nearby
cabinet. Picking up a ring box, he returned to her and kneeled in front of her.
He took a beautiful princess-cut diamond set in a simple, elegant white band of
gold and held it up to her. The girl in Bree saw the ring and squealed in
delight at the ring and the proposal but the woman in her reveled in the man
who kneeled before her, professing his love for her.

“Bree Tanner Ramsay,” Todd stated
emotionally, seriously. “I promise to give you what you deserve, all that I am
and all that I can be. I promise to love your heart, respect your mind, and
worship your body. I promise to cherish our daughter and any other children you
carry into our family. I promise to allow you to return those promises. With
those promises meant from the depth of my being, will you fulfill my life and
marry me?”

“Without any doubt in my heart and
mind,” Bree answered before throwing herself at him and sending them to the
floor, the ring forgotten.

xxx

“Wait,” Todd stopped their kiss.

“What now?” Bree grumbled.

“I love that you want me this much,”
Todd grinned.

“A big ego is not attractive in a man,”
Bree retorted.

“I can’t help it,” he replied. “With a
beautiful woman like you wanting me this way, especially when I want you as much,
how can I not have an enormous ego?”

Bree grinned, flipping her head to the
side. “When did you become so smooth?” she asked, laughing at his expression of
mock derision.

“When you became feisty,” he responded,
kissing her then getting up.

“What are you doing?” she asked puzzled,
standing up too.

“Got it,” he exclaimed, holding up the
ring. He walked over to her and slipped it onto her finger. “This means that
you and I belong to each other and I find that it’s a heck of a turn on. It’s
to me what the hockey shirt is to you.”

“That good huh?” Bree smiled wickedly at
him.

“Oh, yes,” Todd whispered, his lips
touching her ear and sending shivers of anticipation through her. “I want to
make love to you while all you are wearing is the scent of us and my ring on
your finger.”

“You know what I want?” Bree cocked her
head to the side, studying him.

“If it has to do with the purpose of
that ring or your delectable body then the answer is yes,” Todd replied,
kissing her neck as he spoke. The vibration of his voice against her throat,
his breath caressing her skin and his tongue sending all rational thoughts
away, Bree pulled back and stepped away.

“I have a final confession to make,” she
said, stepping away from him. Bree ignored his scowl and smiled with wicked
anticipation. “I had a feeling that you wanted me but I wasn’t sure.” She shook
her head, “I see that I was silly to be unsure.”

She stepped out of her shoes and looked
at him, allowing her gaze to travel down from his face, slowly over every inch of
his body until she reached his crotch. “Yes, I was very silly to think so,” she
admitted, her gaze purposefully lingering on that spot. She began to unfasten
the long row of buttons that went down the front of her knee-length, black
witch’s dress. “I was going to seduce you tonight,” she confessed huskily.

“Well, you’re doing it now,” Todd bit
out, fighting the urge to grab her and rip the darn thing off. The fact that
she was standing in his house - their house - and that she loved him was enough
of a turn on. That she was wearing his ring was driving him wild. But the
confident, sexy seduction that she was subjecting him to, stole his breath
away.

Bree didn’t respond yet, but let her
eyes rake over his body once more, as she strode towards him. “Remember how I
told you that sex complicated things.”

“Yes,” he groaned. “And if you tell me
that now, I swear that I won’t be held accountable for my actions.”

“Oh, I want you to be accountable,” Bree
unfastened the last button and held her dress closed with her one hand. “I want
you to be accountable because you’re going to make me scream and writhe and beg
for your body. And, I promise to do the same,” she touched his shoulder with
her free hand and whispered, allowing her lips to graze his ear.

Todd hissed then pulled air in through
his teeth very slowly to maintain control of the hot, hard punch of lust that
hit him. 

“Well,” Bree continued with mock
coyness, “I’ve decided that I like the complications that sex brings with it…”
she trailed off before dropping her dress.

Bree had the satisfaction of seeing
Todd’s eyes popped as his stared at her, unmoving and with raw, debauched want.
Using his momentary immobility to her advantage, she turned and made her way
for the stairs. At the first step, she turned around and sweetly stated, though
her eyes only spoke of heat, “I like the complications caused by sex, as long
as it’s sex with you.” Then she let go of the seduction routine and ran up the
stairs to their bedroom.

Todd shook his head to break the stupor.
He loved that woman, he thought, before giving chase with a determined, sinful
grin.

The tiny Cessna, bearing the name,
Hunter Couriers, glided through the Alaskan winter sky as it made its way from
Fairbanks to Devil’s Peak. Bree moaned at the jittery, jerky movements the
plane made, willing herself not to vomit. Todd had decided to do the run as a
treat for the family, which Amber had been only too willing to endorse. Because
they’d both seemed so excited by the trip and insisted that it wouldn’t be a
family trip without her, Bree had caved in to the idea. Now, she cursed herself
for doing so, although she had to admit that shopping for Christmas gifts in
Fairbanks had been a lovely experience. She’d also managed to get ingredients
for a Christmas dinner that she wouldn’t have gotten in town and with Todd’s
brother and sister joining them this year, it was important to her that she
pull out all the stops.

They’d turned it into a mini-vacation
and had spent the weekend at a hotel. Amber had been thrilled at the treat,
loving that she had her own room with a door leading directly into her parents.
Amber had been more delighted though, to Todd’s detriment when he got the bill,
with the soft drinks stocked in the bar fridge. That would teach him a lesson
for next time, Bree smirked to herself.

Thinking back to just two years ago,
Bree marveled at the many changes coming home had brought. She remembered
flying and feeling as terrified when she’d arrived with Amber, also during a
snow-drenched winter. She recalled Amber’s excitement about seeing her
grandparents and her nervousness about meeting her father.

Just two years ago, Todd and she were at
odds with each other. They had been two parents, circling each other over their
child and not trusting or open to love. As a couple, they’d gone through much.
But, they had worked through things and had now been married for nearly a year.
Even more so, they'd each had to undertake personal journeys of letting go of
the past and moving forward.

The plane shook and Bree bounced in her
seat as they went through a spot of turbulence. Closing her eyes and breathing
in deeply, she ignored Amber’s excited chatter as she marveled at how high they
were flying, how wonderful a pilot her father was and how tiny the web of
rivers were below them.

 “Are you okay, honey?” Todd interrupted
Amber’s description of the high mountains that they were flying above.  

Bree opened her eyes and looked at his
profile. My goodness but he’s handsome, she thought. And he’s such a good,
wonderful man. Shaking her head at her sentimentality, she shouted back, “I’m
okay. I just need to get home now.”

Amber, sitting next to Bree, looked over
in concern then shook her head. “It’s fine Daddy, Mom doesn’t like flying.”

“I know sweetheart,” Todd responded.
“Will you hold her hand for me?”

“Uh-huh,” Amber replied and slipped her
little hand into Bree’s, squeezing her mother’s tightly.

Bree leaned over and kissed the top of
Amber’s head. Leaning back into the seat, she thought back again. When she’d
returned to Devil’s Peak, it was to confess to Todd that he had fathered a
child and he’d been furious that he’d missed the first six years of her life.
Surprisingly, he’d also been furious that he’d been robbed of the chance to be
there for her during the pregnancy. Despite the feeling of nausea, Bree smiled.
She wanted to get off the plane to be able to walk again on land. But, she also
wanted to get off the plane so that she could experience one of many wonderful
firsts yet to come with Todd and Amber. She’d do things right from the start
this time, she smiled to herself. She’d tell them that their family would be
one person larger in early spring.

As the plane descended, Bree thought of
how she’d believed that she’d been coming home for good. Shaking her head at
such utter nonsense, slanting her eyes first at Amber and then in Todd’s
direction, she realized that she’d come home for love.

About
The Author

Aneesa
Price writes romance and lives it with her university sweetheart and husband.
After having surmounted the challenges of being in a bi-racial marriage in the
newly democratic South Africa, she now attributes her marital bliss to
purposefully added spice and passionately resolved differences. After living in
a variety of cities in South Africa, the cosmopolitan city of Johannesburg is
the playground that she enjoys with her husband and two daughters. 

She
writes to give her readers the gift of experiencing the new and fascinating,
something she strives for herself when she explores new places, reads, cooks
with her kids or goes picking for antiques with her husband.

She
welcomes new connections.

Facebook
Author Page

https://www.facebook.com/AneesaPriceSugarandSpice

Twitter

www.twitter.com/aneesaprice

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http://www.amazon.com/-/e/B008NA62CO

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Price’s Fabulous Fan Club

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