Page 105 of Branded (Breakers Hockey)

Thirty-Four

Jules

“How are you here so early?” Cas asked once Ethan had lost his battle with sleep and passed out on the sleeping bag, curled around Sparky, his fingers in the dozing pup’s fur.

“Power went out at CeCe’s, so Matt sent me home.” Good. That sounded casual.

When, truthfully, I was falling apart inside.

Because of the conversation I’d walked into.

Because of what I’d heard Cas say.

Because of my son going to Cas for help and Cas handling him so gently, so carefully—like the care and gentle he’d shown me.

Because of how that had finished . Before I’d gotten his shock at seeing me out of the way and joined the conversation, anyway.

“Ah.” His fingers smoothed over my cheek, and he got right to the crux of the issue. “How much did you hear?

Right.

Um . I should probably lie, or at the very least, prevaricate.

Instead…I just gave him the truth.

How could I lie? Prevaricate?

When he’d given Ethan— me —so fucking much.

Cas might not know it, but listening to him talk to my son, hearing him treat Ethan so sweetly, explaining things in a way I never would have, but also with a gentleness and honesty that I felt in my soul was exactly right had reinforced everything.

This was right.

This was special.

This was…something I was never letting go.

A hand on my cheek. Cas’s brows lifting in query when I didn’t immediately answer.

So, how could I not give Cas the same gentle and honest he’d given my son?

“All of it,” I whispered.

His fingers flexed. “And are you panicking because I love you or because of what I told Ethan?”

“Neither,” I whispered. “I’m not panicking. I’m falling.”

His brows drew together.

“No,” I corrected. “I’ve fallen.”

That didn’t have his brows relaxing. If anything, he went even more still.

“I’ve fallen for you and the way you look at me.

I’ve fallen for the care you take with Ethan.

I’ve fallen for the man you are and the way you smile and how it feels when you hold me.

” He inhaled sharply, but I kept going. “I was scared, so scared to let go, to let myself have you—to let us —have you. Because I knew— knew —you would hurt me—hurt us —eventually, and I had to protect him. But you won’t, will you?

” He took another breath, but I was on a roll and kept going, kept giving.

Because it was my turn to give. Because he’d spent the last weeks and months giving.

“I know you won’t hurt us because I know you now. ” A beat. “And…I love you.”

My entire body was trembling.

This was about as far out of my comfort zone as I’d ever stepped.

But it was the truth—one that had been circling around my mind for a while now and I’d been avoiding it, even as Cas kept winding himself tighter and tighter around my heart. Welding himself to it. Tattooing himself on it.

It was time to stop denying that.

And it was time to stop playing Chicken Little, bracing for when the bad might come.

Because it might come. I couldn’t prevent that, and neither could Cas.

But I could trust that he was going to continue to treat me with care, treat Ethan with care, and trust in myself and my spine and the strength I’d gathered over the years to know that I would accept nothing less.

Ethan was blooming.

Part of that was because of Cas.

Part of that was because of how Cas was with me.

Because I was more awake, more alive now than I’d been in years.

Not since I’d first felt Ethan move, not since I’d first held him as a newborn in my arms, covered in blood and goo and screaming his head off—the only people in the hospital room with me the nurses who’d held my hand and my legs and the doctor who’d played catcher—had I felt this much love, this alive .

And it was Cas who’d woken my shit up.

Cas who’d showed me what potential looked like.

Not me scrabbling to hold on to the tiniest bit of good, dropping to my knees and scrounging for the crumbs tossed there.

Cas hadn’t given me crumbs.

He’d given me everything.

And he wasn’t going to stop.

So…I was going to do the same.

“Jules?” he whispered.

“Yeah?” I whispered back.

“Did you just tell me that you love me?”

The surprise in his tone was beyond cute. I’d befuddled my big, sexy, gorgeous hockey player. “Yup.” And I popped the p.

“I—”

His eyes went damp, and I froze.

Because he was giving me that—letting me know how important those words were to him.

I carefully shifted, moving around Ethan, not wanting to disturb Sparky, and closing the distance between my body and Cas’s by crawling into his lap, wrapping my arms around his shoulders.

“You’re different, honey,” I murmured. “And I’m sorry it took me so long to recognize that, to crawl out from beneath my shell to recognize the gift you were giving me.

” He jerked, but I kept going. “I see it now,” I whispered.

“I see you. And I’m going to protect it and work for it and?—”

That was clearly the moment that Cas lost his patience.

Because his lips hit mine, cutting off the rest of my words. Which was fine. I’d gotten to the important parts. I could tell—or rather, take a page out of his book, and show —him later.

Now…

His tongue was in my mouth and he was kissing me in a way that set me on fire.

Luckily, he had the presence of mind to hold me close and stand, to carry me out of the room?—

Which sparked my conscience, and I tore my mouth from his. “Your ribs, honey.”

“Better,” he grunted, dropping his head and nipping at my jaw, my earlobe, my bottom lip. “Now kiss me, gorgeous.”

I could do that.

I could do that.

So, I did.

I kissed him as he walked me down a hall I hadn’t had the chance to explore yet, into a room I didn’t know because I’d spent all of forty-five minutes in Cas’s place and five minutes had been spent standing in the entry, just inside the front door, and the other forty sitting next to my son, watching Home Alone .

Now I landed on something hard and cold and I had just a couple of seconds to process it was a dryer as Cas moved away from me and closed the door.

“No lock,” he muttered, shoving a large hamper in front of it, eyes blazing as they latched onto mine. “Gotta fuck you now.” Rough words that sent a shiver right through me. “So, you need to keep that gorgeous mouth of yours shut and not wake Ethan and Sparky, yeah?”

Oh my.

I shivered again, loving the growly, demanding side of him.

“Jules?” he pressed, prowling toward me, hands reaching for my T-shirt, yanking it up over my head. “Can you do that for me so I can fuck you, sweetheart?”

Truthfully, I probably couldn’t.

But I wanted him.

Needed him inside me.

So, I nodded.

A flash of a smile. “Liar.” A nip to my earlobe again. Then hot words in my ear, his hand wrapping around my back, flicking open my bra. “Guess I’ll have to keep your mouth occupied with other things.”

“Yes, please.”

It slid out of me before I could think.

Then he was chuckling and lifting me off the dryer, yanking my pants and underwear down my legs, tossing them aside.

“Or maybe,” I whispered while he was kneeling before me, “you need to keep your mouth occupied with other things.”

His eyes hit mine.

Then his lips curved.

And while he occupied his mouth, I wasn’t very good at keeping quiet.

But neither was he when I occupied mine.

Luckily, Ethan slept like the dead.