Brothers of Paradise Series

Parker frowns at me. “Already? Not a single drink?”

“No. I have an early morning tomorrow.” I kiss him on the cheek as I pass. “Have one for me. I’ll see you tomorrow at the marina.”

“Yes, of course.”

I don’t say goodbye to Hayden. I head straight out to my parents and Gary, kissing them goodbye and thanking them for the dinner. I can’t stay around Hayden another minute, or I’ll demand proper answers to my questions. And then I’ll break-and it won’t be pretty when I do.

I hear them talking as I leave, but I don’t turn around. More goodbyes and are you really leaving, too?

Hayden is following me out, but I still don’t look back. I keep walking. He’s taller than me, though, and with his long legs he catches up with me easily. “Damn it, Lily. Wait a second.”

I turn on my heel, taking the path behind the hedges to the greenhouse. I open the door to the smell of hydrangeas and sun-ripe tomatoes straight on the vine.

Hayden closes the door behind him. He glances around, eyes narrowing at the abundance of green. My mom had it built six years ago and it’s been her pride and joy ever since. It’s so filled now that once inside, you’re completely concealed from view. But of course, he hasn’t seen it before.

“This is new.”

“Yes.” I wrap my arms around my chest. “Just another thing you missed while you were gone.”

He takes a step forward. His face is set in hard, rough lines, nothing at all like the charming appearance he presented at dinner. “I’m sorry about the kiss, all right? Truly.”

I laugh. It’s not a happy sound, not at all. It’s too hot in here-balmy, even. I can already feel sweat down my back, anger making my cheeks flush. “I don’t think you’re sorry.”

Hayden scowls. “Why are you angry, Lily?”

“How could I not be? You come back here and you fit in with the family. You joke around and make Mom laugh. You say you’re back indefinitely.”

I must look a mess: crazed expression, arms moving. I don’t stop, either. I walk up to him and shove him hard, backwards.

He takes it in stride. “Lily?”

“Why did you kiss me?”

“Because I wanted to,” he repeats. “Because I…” He shakes his head, but doesn’t try to stop the blows I’m aiming at his chest, my fists barely connecting, tears burning behind my eyes.

“You can’t come back here and kiss me and act like we’re friends, as if you didn’t break my damn heart.” There’s so much inside of me-ten years’ worth of anger and resentment-and it’s all coming out.

“I’m sorry.”

“How could you? You just left!”

“I’m sorry.”

Hayden wraps his arms around my waist, steadying me against him. He doesn’t stop me from hitting. It’s like he’s taking it all, offering me his flesh as payment. “I had to.”

“Why?” Another hit. “Why?”

His voice is pained. “I had to, Lily. I didn’t want to. It killed me to leave you.”

“It killed you?” I tear at the buttons of his shirt, needing to get closer to him. Needing the connection of skin, my nails on him, to make him hurt like I’ve hurt. “You didn’t even say goodbye. I spent years wondering if it was something I did.”

Hayden’s mouth is there, kissing away the hot, angry tears on my cheeks. “No. No, nothing you’d done, baby. Never anything you’d done.”

I bury my hand in his hair and meet his lips with my own. It’s fire and flame, the two of us, colliding without restraints. We’re still arguing, just with our lips. I punish him with my lips and he responds with his tongue. It’s a fiery dance.

His hands skim the side of my chest and I shiver. My nipples are taut against the fabric of my dress; I can feel it.

“You can’t just come back here,” I say, my hands finding the buttons on his shirt. I tear and rip and get them open.

“I know.” He helps me with my own clothes, tearing at the zipper of my dress. “I know. Fuck, this dress, Lily… When I saw you… You kill me.”

I get all of his buttons undone and he releases me long enough to tear the shirt off his body. My hands feast on him-on the long clean line of his shoulders, so much broader now. The smattering of hair on his chest that he never used to have. The taut muscles of his stomach. Mine, my mind says. Always.

“Here.” He pulls me to a wrought-iron chair in the corner. I push him down onto it and straddle him. This is going fast, too fast, and not nearly fast enough. Ten years of anger and disappointment and resentment. Ten years of loving him from a distance.

Hayden’s breath is hot against my neck. He pushes my dress down and presses kisses to my collarbones, my chest, my breasts. He kisses me like I’m a lifeline. Below me, I can feel the strength of his arousal, tearing at the fabric of his jeans. I want him inside me as badly as I want to hurt him. The greenery around us is a beautiful backdrop to our anger, hiding us from the outside world.

“Lily,” he murmurs. His hands find the clasp of my bra and snap it open in one smooth moment. He pulls it off me, baring me to his view.

“See?” I ask, though I don’t know what I mean. See what you do to me?

But Hayden understands. His hands smooth up my waist to cup my breasts. He leans forward, closing his lips against one of my nipples. He sucks strongly, alternating with a bite that sends me gasping.

“Asshole.”

He laughs around my nipple. “I know.”

I pull at his hair, tug and grip as he presses bruising kisses to my skin. I missed his hair, the thick, silky blackness that’s so uniquely him. Nobody else has hair like Hayden.

“You had to shave this off,” I tell him. “I saw a photo.”

He nods. Strong hands pull at the fabric of my dress, bunching it high on my waist. He’s fighting, always fighting, but this time to get us closer together. “You had a photo of me?”

“Yes. Gary showed us.” I kiss him again, a searing warmth flaring through my body. The fabric of my panties is so thin that I can feel the roughness of his jeans below, rubbing at me through the underwear.Contentt bel0ngs to N0ve/lDrâ/ma.O(r)g!

The anger is like a kindle to my fire, to my desire, to my need to be one with him. I run my nails up the muscular grooves of his back and Hayden groans against my neck. “Fuck, Lily.”

“Don’t you remember?” I whisper in his ear. “I hurt when you hurt.”

His hands move, tearing, tossing, getting fabric out of the way. He kisses me deeply as his hands grip my ass, holding me against him, against the hardness in his jeans and the strength of his chest.

It’s easy to move my hips like this, to rub against him. Friction is our friend. “Siren,” he groans.

“Asshole,” I say again.

Hayden slips his hand into my panties. The first touch of his callused fingers sends me gasping. It’s been too long, too long since I’ve been touched. Desire throbs between my legs. Hayden finds my center easily, circling a few times.

And then, gently, he slips a finger inside me. Once, twice, he pumps it, my world changing with every delicious intrusion. I know what he’s doing. He’s making sure I’m ready for him.