Read Online Brody by Cheryl Douglas - Free Book Online

my shoulder, brushing at the tears streaking her cheeks. “You don’t get a do-over! You’ve had chance after chance, and all you’ve ever done is played fast and loose with my love, like it was a gamble you could afford to take.”
    “It wasn’t,” I whispered, lowering my head. “Nothing’s worth losing you.”
    “Gambling is.”
    “No, it’s not.” I looked up, hoping she could see the depth of my sincerity. “I’m sorry if I ever let you believe it was.”
    “I don’t understand,” she said, shaking her head slowly. “What are you saying, that you’re giving up gambling?”
    My gut clenched at the suggestion. God, what would I do without the thrill, the excitement, the challenge?
    “No, of course that’s not what you’re saying,” she said, sounding disgusted. “How could I be stupid enough to think that? You’ll never give that up. Not for anything.”
    “I just need some time to figure things out.”
    I wouldn’t make her any more promises I couldn’t keep, especially not on the spur of the moment, in the middle of the night. With the moonlight filtering through the window, her blond hair falling over her shoulders, she looked like a goddess, and everything in me told me never to leave her. To get down on one knee, right now, and beg her to marry me. But I would never forgive myself if I woke up, after acting on impulse, and realized I wasn’t ready to commit to forever. Not even a forever that included Riley.
    “You’re out of time, Brody. You ran out of time a long time ago, remember?”
    I closed my eyes as she sucked in a sharp breath when my lips grazed her shoulder. “This is where I belong, right here with you. We both know that.” My lips traced her collarbone before finding the sensitive hollow with my tongue.
    “No.” Her hands gripped my shoulders, probably to try to maintain some control. “This isn’t right.”
    “Then why does it feel so right?” I licked and kissed her neck hungrily, unable to hold back as my body remembered how amazing it felt to be inside her.
    She’d always been my one and only weakness. Sure, there’d been booze and gambling, but Riley had always been my only living, breathing vice.
    “It does feel right.” She whimpered, rolling her head back onto the soft down pillows. “God, it feels so right to have you back in my bed.”
    I crawled on top of her, intent on giving her pleasure, not taking advantage of her weakness. I kissed her while my fingers slipped inside her, drawing her out of her head so she could enjoy this indulgence. Riley spent entirely too much time in her head, always weighing out the pros and cons, especially where I was concerned.
    “Brody…”
    The way my name slipped from her lips as I pleasured her took me back to a time when she’d given her love so freely, believing I was the man who could make all of her dreams come true. God, I missed being that guy in her eyes.
    Refocusing on her, on what she wanted and needed, I drew lazy circles around her peaked nipples with my tongue, enjoying the hitch in her breathing when my hand found a steady rhythm, remembering exactly where all of her hot spots were. It may have been a while, but my mind was programmed to know how to satisfy this woman. My woman.
    “Oh God…”
    Her whole body tightened in anticipation of her release, and the selfish part of me wished I could draw this out a little longer, delay her gratification so I could freeze this moment, in case she never wanted to repeat it.
    “Brody…”
    I captured her mouth, stealing her breath and kissing her with all the love in my broken heart. Because as happy as I was to be with her again, I felt her cool detachment in the way her hands didn’t hold me as much as they held me at bay. I wanted to be engulfed in her again. To feel her adoration in the way she wrapped me in her arms, sighing contentedly as she breathed in my scent and whispered she loved me.
    I felt the tightness in my chest when she finally opened