Emma Chase (12 page)

*****

Braden stop
s the car, and when I look around, I realize that we are parked outside of Kyoto.  This place is famous for its seafood and sushi.  Not to mention the most amazing sangria ever in the creation of sangrias.  I have been here a few times before.  The food is truly amazing.  The décor is beautiful.  Dark wood, blue lighting down the walls, floor to ceiling fish tanks with tropical fish.  I’ve always wondered how they keep that maintained.

We feast on sushi.  He
drinks beer and I drink sangria.  I don’t always drink sangria, but when I do, I’m at Kyoto.  I don’t know if it’s the bartenders or just the place, but the Sangria is to die for.

We talk and dr
ink.  Braden wants to know everything I have been doing over the few months we have been apart. 

And we dance.  God, I love it when he dances with me.  The man has moves, and there is a band playing tonight.

It was during the meal when he stood, rounded the table, and took my hand in his.  I pushed my chair out and stood next to him.  He tugged my hand firmly to him so that I found myself against him.  His other arm slid around me to where he planted his hand on the small of my back.

Braden shows me what I have been missing all those months.  At first, it is a close, hips-swaying dance. 
He swings me out to arm’s length, twirls me, and winds me back to him. 

He is strong and confident, and my body follows along with him.  I was never much of a slow dancer, but I don’t feel that way with him.  I move where he guides. 

We’ve danced countless times together, yet I still remember the first time we danced together. It felt like we’d been made to be partners.  It was natural and right and beautiful.  I remember how he used to make me feel like I was the only one in the room every time we were together, and we were together over a year.

During the times when the music would slow, he would hold me close and just sway.  The music would pick up and he would twirl me out again.  When the song ends, we stay close, our hips swaying.  His hand is in mine, resting on his chest. His arm is around me with his other hand on the small of my back. My other hand is on his shoulder. 

I am so caught up in the moment that I can’t stop myself from saying what I do next. “Right here, right now is where I want to be.  It’s where I’ve wanted to be for a long time.”

I
have his complete and undivided attention.

Braden smile
s down at me and kisses the top of my head.

So now we are back at the table, finished with our meals and thinking about dessert.  I don’t know how I could be thinking about more food when I just ate enough to feed a small village.  But I am, because until you’ve had the crème
brûlée at Kyoto, you haven’t lived.

I am three sangrias
deep when he asks me about Joe.

I shake my head and look away, surveying the restaurant.   I take great interest in the couple at the table next to us.  

The man is heavyset.  His shirt is so tight around his gut that when he laughs his belly jiggles, and I am afraid for the buttons on that shirt.  At any moment, every button is going to fly across the room with such great force that they could kill someone.  Okay, maybe not kill someone, but definitely do some serious damage like take out an eye.

The woman
is very slim and plain-looking.  Mousy brown hair, brown eyes, pointy nose.  I bet she could be prettier with the right makeup and clothes.  They seem content together. 

Braden leans over and puts his hand on the side of my face.  I close my eyes and lean into it. When I look at him, he has the softest look in his eyes.

So, I tell him everything. 

I
say all of this in one breath.  I am speaking so fast that I don’t think I even understand what is coming out of my mouth.

“Joe left.  He took the money that you gave him. 
Six thousand dollars and he was gone.  All I have left of him is the note he left behind.  A big fat ‘Thanks for the money, kid, and peace out.’  The day that I broke up with you, I was paid a visit by a man who Joe owed that money to.  He told me he was going to get his money whether he got it from me or him.  If he didn’t, he was going to go after you, or worse, Olivia.  I couldn’t let that happen.  I couldn’t let anyone go after you, and I certainly couldn’t allow Olivia to get hurt because of me and my father.” 

Braden’s hand drop from my face and he draws in his eyebrows.  He looks confused at first. 

No, he
is
angry.

“Is that why you broke up with me?”

“Don’t you see?  I had to.  I was protecting you and your family.  I love you—
loved
you—too much to let anyone get close to you.  Not only that, but I was becoming too much of a burden on you.  How many more times were you going to bail my father out of another problem before you realized that I was draining you dry?  I didn’t want you to wake up one day years from now and resent me.”

“So you decided you would make that decision for me?  Jesus
, Em,” Braden clips.

I look down at the table.  When I slide my gaze back at him, his face is twisted in indignation.

“You couldn’t trust me to love you enough to do whatever it took to keep you safe?”

“No!” I squeal.  I literally squealed right here in the middle of the restaurant.

I look around us and see that all eyes are on me.

“I could have kept all of this from happening.  This is all my fault.  What happened to you was because I didn’t do my job better of proving to you just how much I loved you.”

My eyes snap up to him in utter disbelief. I rapidly shake my head from left to right.  Oh God.  How could he think this? 

His face.  I never want to see that look on his face again.  It
is torture to see the pain emanating from his eyes, his face pale.  I put it there.

He pushes his chair back from the table and stands. He walks around to where I am seated and drops to his knees right here next to me.  I move my legs out to him, and he puts his hands on my thighs looking up at me.

“If I would have done my job better, if I could have just shown you exactly how much you meant to me
, this would never have happened to you.”

Oh my God!  He really does b
lame himself for what happened to me.

Tears are shimmering in his eyes.  I throw my arms around his neck and put my cheek to his. His tears stream from his eyes and wet my cheek.

“Please don’t blame yourself for what happened to me.  I know how much you loved me.  You showed me every minute of every day that we were together.”

I pull my face from his and move my arms
from around his neck, cupping his face with one hand on each side.  I wipe his tears with my thumbs.

“Look at me.
”  He continues to look down at my legs. “Braden,” I whisper.  “Look at me.”

He peeks up at me with his head still bowed and more tears flow down his face.  My own tears begin to fall.

“There is nothing to forgive.  This was my fault.  I did this.  I ended our relationship because I thought I was doing right by you.  I am so sorry.”

Braden wrap
s his arms around my waist and squeezes me tight around the middle, resting his head in my lap.

“If I had listened to you that night you came into the bar instead of
… I could have protected you from the motherfucker.“

I
run my hand through his short hair, and when he is done taking a minute to pull himself together, he sits up, wipes his eyes and sniffs.

“Shhhh
. Stop.”

“Baby, please. Please, let me get back to doing what I was always supposed to do.”

“What’s that?”  I breathe.

“To take care of you, to love you
.  I knew it the day I laid eyes on you when you walked into my bar with Olivia and asked for a light beer and a shot of
Jäger
.”

I start laughing.  Hard.  Uncontrollable giggling ensue
s, and Braden gives me one of his deep, manly laughs. I shrug and wipe my tears from my cheek.

“If you want a girl who is a hot mess, has daddy issues, and is a little damaged on the side.” I laugh out again, "I guess I'm your girl.

Braden smiles up at me. “You are the most beautiful hot mess that I’ve ever laid eyes on.”

I jump up out of my seat
, damn near knocking him back on his ass. “Get up,” I order.

“Yes
, ma’am,” he responds and stands up.

He is on me fast, snaking an arm around my waist. His hand in my hair at the back of my head, angling my head to the side.  His slightly to the other side and slams his mouth over mine. 
His tongue moves in.  Oh God!  He tastes amazing.  A mixture of what could only be described as Braden and beer.

I need to deepen the kiss, and he gives that to me.  My hands slide up his chest and around his head, cupping it and bringing him closer to me.

He pulls my body so close to his own that our hips are touching, which causes a small moan to escape me. He removes his mouth from mine and rests his forehead to mine. My legs are wobbly, forcing me to have to hold on to his shoulders to keep me steady.

We hear a gentleman clear his throat.

Braden bends his head down and lightly bites my bottom lip, smiling against it. We both pull away and look at our waiter.

“Can I get you two anything else, or will that be all for you this evening?” he asks with a grin.

“We’ll take the check,” Braden replies.

I look around us and
see that some of the other diners are smiling, some are gaping, and some are crinkling their faces, clearly in disgust due to our very public display of affection.

I put my face into Braden’s shoulder and giggle.
This has to be our best date ever.

We ride back to my
apartment in silence.  This time we are stealing glances at each other and smiling.  Braden’s hand is on my thigh and my hand is on top of his.  Occasionally, I earn a squeeze.

I bite my lip and he groans removing his hand from my thigh.

The warmth immediately leaves me when he pulls away, and I don’t like it.  I look at my thigh as if it were foreign to me without his hand there to keep it company.

“What?”

He adjusted himself in his seat.  Oh!

“If you bite your lip like that again
, I am going to take you over my knee.”

Oh my God!

I forgot how much that turns him on, and there were times like right now that I don’t even realize I am doing it.  I am a creature of habit, I suppose.

We pull up to the apartment.  It seem
s as though this ride was way shorter than the ride to the restaurant.

Before I
can get a foot out the door, Braden is there, holding his hand out to me. Looking up at him with a smile on my face, I place my hand in his and let him pull me out of the seat. He shuts the door behind me and hooks his arm around my neck, curling me into his side, bringing the side of my face into his chest, and kissing me on the temple.

“Beautiful,” he sa
ys against my head.

He let
s us into the apartment, locking the door behind us.  I forgot he never did give me back my keys.

Braden comes up behind me, his chest to my back, and he runs his hands up and down my thighs.  His fingers curl into the skirt of my dress and pull it up to my waist.  I drop my purse
to the floor and my hands circle around his wrists.  My knees are trembling. I spin around in his arms and hook mine behind his neck, standing up on my toes.

“Kiss me
,” I say again his chin.

“Gladly
, beautiful.”

He crushed his lips to mine with so much force that my legs become instant Jell-O. His mouth moves against mine with such fierceness that I am turned on immediately.

He hooks his hands at the backs of my thighs and lifts me. My legs wrap around his waist.  His hands cup my ass as he walks us back to my bedroom, kissing me the entire way.

I
n my room, he kicks the door closed behind him and lowers me slowly down the length of his body.  I stand there before him, hands to his chest, legs trembling, as he leans back and his eyes travel down my body, stopping at my waist, where my skirt is bunched.  His eyes move to mine, leaning back in to where he is only inches from my face, letting out a shuddering breath.  He moves and I am on the bed with him on top, kissing his way down my neck.

He nuzzles the crook of neck—a
lways a hot spot for me.  I shiver, and he lets out a low moan. He presses his weight on top of me, and his mouth is on mine.  His kiss is sweet, soft, and deep. My hands are moving all over his skin, loving every inch.  His hands are moving down my sides.

As his hands travel their way back up, his mouth slides to my ear and nibbles my lobe. 
He whispers, “I want you, baby.”