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Then she’d started vo words she hadn’t wanted to utter but was helpless not to, and it was so adorable, I foundIn thatwith theher head into her hands, I knew

She was mine

Then Mia had dropped the biggest, ot when she said Nevaeh wasn’t even sixteen yet orse than when I lostI felt sick to my soul, because I’d instantly wanted her and knew I couldn’t have her

Then I’d s tooth and nail I ached for days after, wanting her Just to hold her, touch ers to her baby-soft cheek, brush my lips over her plump lips, and inhale the scent of her skin I knew if I saw her again—fuck, if I just heard her voice again—I would be lost coed Mia to talk her cousin out of attending school with us I needed distance, as much as humanly possible, to keepthrough s I wanted to do to and with her

And then I found out about what happened after I left her in New York, and I couldn’t breathe I didn’t know exactly what had gone down—not until she toldhad upset her So fro, and I wanted to break his fucking neck

I couldn’t stay away after that Couldn’t get past wanting to protect her fro life could throw at her, ers of the outside world As long as I could be beside her, I would find the strength to hold s in check

Just until her eighteenth birthday

As I walked up the stairs to her bedroo inher, and now I didn’t have to hold back I could hold her, touch her, kiss and taste her all I wanted I had two years of wanting, aching, and craving her to catch up on, and I was going to get my fill

Stopping outside her bedroom door, I inhaled deeply and slowly let it out as I lifted my hand and knocked

“Just a sec,” she called out, and I bracedmy hands on either side of the doorframe

Closingout the sounds of the party fro her I heard the doorknob turn and felt the air shift as it swung inward Her soft gasp hadopen, and I took in all of her slowly

Her feet were bare, as were her legs I liftedat the heh Up and up I went, past the flare of her hips, over her flat stomach and her perfect tits Her hair fell over her left shoulder as she stood there with her hands lifted to fasten an earring in her right ear There was no h she wasn’t wearing her glasses, her blue-gray eyes still had that animated kitten quality to them as she blinked at me in utter surprise

“Braxton,” she whispered, her chest heaving as she aze

“You’re so goddamn beautiful, baby,” I rasped,at me for years

Nevaeh instinctively took a step back, and then another, until I was inside her bedroorabbed her hips, h the ainst the door