Voyeur - Lacey Alexander [113]
He still didn’t know for sure about love. He’d never let himself be an emotional guy. His job demanded that he block emotion out, and it had always come easy for him—in fact, now that he thought about it, it was probably why he was so good at what he did. Maybe it was due to his parents’ divorce—he’d just never believed in monogamy very much after that, that it could work, or maybe that it was even natural. Happy couples seemed few and far between in his life.
But Laura’s tenderness and the genuine way she’d opened herself to him and put herself at risk affected him in a way he couldn’t keep ignoring. From touching herself on the webcam for him . . . to experimenting with a three-way . . . to telling him she loved him. He’d never had anyone trust him so very much, and each time it had stirred something deep inside him, made his heart feel like it was bending, stretching, in his chest.
“Thirty-four Woodview,” the cab driver said, pulling to the curb in front of a small, quaint-if-slightly-funky-looking apartment building from another era. Braden glanced toward the front door and, palms sweating, heart racing, realized he was actually nervous—an emotion he wasn’t very well acquainted with.
He paid the driver, picked up the rose he’d laid gently on the seat next to him, and got out, striding boldly to the door and inside. Then he found the apartment number Monica had also supplied and, without hesitating, knocked firmly, ignoring the doorbell.
When Laura opened the door, he feared she might faint. Her mouth dropped open and he’d never seen her eyes so wide. “What are you doing here?”
Good question. He still wasn’t sure. “I just couldn’t leave things the way they were, snowflake.” Then he held out the flower, a pink rose just beginning to open.
Her eyes dropped to the rosebud and she let out a heavy breath. “How did you know this is my favorite flower?”
He shrugged. “It’s Riley’s favorite, so I took a shot.”
Trembling now, she accepted it from him. She stood with her hair falling tousled around her face, wearing a pale yellow strappy top, blue jeans below. Her nipples jutted softly through the fabric. Damn, she was just as beautiful as he remembered, maybe more, and only then, in that moment, did he realize just how stupid he’d been.
He should have come here the day after she’d left Vail, the day he’d realized he missed her so much. He just hadn’t known then, or the week after, or the week after . . . he hadn’t known for sure until right this moment. He loved her. He loved her so fucking much. Being without her had physically hurt. For the first time since February, he felt happy.
“I have a plan for Riley,” he said. “I think she should move.”
Laura blinked. “Huh?”
“I think Riley should pack up and move to L.A. with Sloane. I think they should keep solving new mysteries together. And I think they should find their own secret garden. If they can’t find one, they should make one.”
She blinked again. “Braden . . .” she began uncertainly, her eyes reaching out to him needfully.
And he understood. That he had to just say it. Because she needed to hear it. And he needed to tell her. He didn’t even know how to say things like this, but he had to learn—right now. “Come to L.A. with me, Laura. Let me make love to you every night for the rest of our lives. I know it seems sudden, probably risky—but I love you.”
Laura’s knees nearly buckled beneath her, and she reached out to press her hand against the wall to steady herself. He wanted to make love to her. He loved her. Actually loved her. “I . . . I thought you didn’t know what love was.”
“I just figured it out, snowflake. I’m in it. With you. And I have been since we met. I just didn’t know it, because . . .”
She tilted her head, trying to understand. “Because you’re . . . a virgin?” she suggested. “When it comes to love?”
He nodded, the corners of his mouth curving softly upward. “I guess that’s an accurate way to put it.” Then he stepped up closer and slid his arms smoothly around her waist, and her whole body ached for more