Page 36 of Desired By you (Always & Forever #3)

Chapter Twenty-Seven

Brad

My eyes are met with the California sunrise.

We must have forgotten to close the drapes last night.

After our shower, Gabriella and I collapsed into bed, and I slept better than I have in a while; I know it’s down to having her beside me.

I have grown far too comfortable having her around, and I’m starting to think I want things to be different with her.

I don’t think I can go back to just being her friend.

The idea of her doing what we did last night with another man fills me with a rage that could cause me to do something that would land me behind bars right beside my dad and brother.

I haven’t thought about them since I found out Gabriella’s dad was the judge involved in the case.

I’ve spent most of my adult life blocking them out and what they did, what I did, or rather didn’t do.

So I’ll block this out too. It doesn’t change anything, they deserved to be where they are.

Should I be there? Maybe, but I fought to get where I am today, to leave that life behind.

A life that was controlled by threats, violence and drugs.

Every day felt like living on borrowed time.

It wasn’t a matter of if we would get caught by the cops, it was just a matter of when.

I roll on my side and concern fills my chest when Gabriella’s side of the bed is empty.

I get up and go in search of her, forgoing my morning workout if I have to.

I just need to find her. Relief floods me when I see her practicing Pilates out on the patio in front of the sunrise.

I lean against the glass doors with my forearm and watch as she moves into a handstand and parts her legs, then places them down so her butt is in the air, the tightness of her yoga shorts showcases the curves of her ass and it awakens my dick.

I tiptoe out and creep up behind her, wrapping my arms around her waist as she’s bent over stretching.

Her initial screams turn into girlish giggles as I place her down on her feet and turn her to face me.

“You scared me,” she yells, tapping my chest playfully.

“Well, you scared me when I woke and you weren’t there.” My confession seems to startle us both and her eyes soften as her hands come up to cup my face.

“I’m sorry. I’d never leave without telling you. I just wanted to catch the sunrise and get my morning workout in.” She releases my face and steps away and points to the view.

“That’s the Hollywood sign just over there right? I’ve always wanted to see it up close.”

“Let’s go then,” I say without giving it any more thought. “Let’s hike up Mount Lee and go see the sign.”

“Really, you aren’t too busy? Don’t you have meetings?” There’s a hopeful tone to her voice.

“Not till this afternoon, but even if I was, I’d rearrange for you.”

She chews on the inside of her cheek, stifling a grin. “You know, for someone who doesn’t do the boyfriend thing, you sure are very swoony when you want to be.”

“I know. I think I’m spending too much time with Jack. He’s clearly rubbing off on me.”

“Clearly, and we wouldn’t want that now, would we?”

‘No, we wouldn’t, but focus on the ‘when I want to be’, baby girl.

I don’t act like this for just anyone.” A beat passes between us, and I think about pulling her close and kissing her, telling her I want her, and that the idea of her being with someone else breaks me in two.

But then I remember all the things she wants.

The commitment to a life of 2.4 kids, the house, the happily ever after and I fear me and my fucked up past will seep out and ruin her. She deserves more.

To my surprise, Gabriella kept up with me throughout the hike. She wore a baseball cap and her hair in a braid and deep red shorts and crop set and I spent the entire hike up the hill staring at her ass with a stiff dick like a horny teenager.

“This view is insane,” she says, looking out over LA, the breeze whipping around the loose strands that have fallen free from her braid.

“It sure is,” I agree, my focus on her. We have to leave LA tomorrow, and I don’t want to go back to reality and everything that awaits us in New York. I just want to stay with her in this bubble.

“We better head back. I have my meeting, and I’ve arranged something for you to do.”

“Oh, my god, if it’s a full body massage, I’ll love you forever. My back is aching today,” she says, placing her hands on her lower back.

“You’ll have to wait and see,” I say. My stomach does a weird, fluttery thing at her use of the word love.

“We need a photo before we go,” she says, pulling her phone from the little bag strapped around her waist. She takes a selfie with the hills and the sign behind her.

“Come here,” she calls, waving me over.

I’m shirtless and only in a pair of black running shorts, sweat coats my body from the LA heat and having a photo is the last thing I want, because photos capture moments we may forget; to keep as reminders, and if I don’t get to keep Gabriella, I may have to try and forget her altogether, I don’t need a physical reminder, because the memories of her, will be painful enough to live with.

She pouts and gives me those eyes I can’t say no to.

“Fine,” I grumble.

I stand beside her, and she looks at me deadpan.

“Please try and look like you wanna be here.”

I chuckle and wrap my arms around her waist, and she snaps a photo.

“See, that wasn’t so hard, was it?”

“No, it wasn’t,” I agree, my gaze locked on hers, and in a moment of madness, I lean down and kiss her like it’s the most natural thing to do.

The click of her camera sounds, and I realize she’s taken another photo.

I have become entirely too comfortable with kissing her like she’s mine and it’s going to hurt like a mother fucking baseball bat to the shin when it hits me that she isn’t and never will be.

“Come on, old man, last one down the hill is cooking,” she calls as she makes a start running. I give her a ten-second start before I set off behind her. She turns her head and lets out an excited scream when she sees I’m coming up behind her.

“Looks like you’re making lunch, baby girl.”

I run past her, scooping her up and flipping her over my shoulder with ease as if she weighs nothing, continuing our descent back to our rental with a lightness in my chest.

I spank her ass and she yelps. “And that’s for calling me old.”

Being around her feels easy, but fighting my feelings for her feels like the hardest battle of my life, and one I am slowly losing every day.

I pull up outside a large white building in the convertible Mercedes I hired while in LA.

Gabriella spent the drive with her hands in the air, her hair whipping around her, singing along to some pop track I’d never heard.

With every passing day, her confidence around me grows, and I love seeing her being herself and no longer hiding.

So I hope my little surprise for her today helps with that even more.

“I will be a couple of hours. A woman named Paula is expecting you.”

“If this is the part where you dropped me off at some weird sex dungeon, I’m gonna have to decline.”

I throw my head back and laugh. “No, Gabriella, I am not dropping you off at a sex dungeon, but I love that’s where your mind went.”

She eyes me curiously. “Hmmm, okay.” She presses a kiss to my cheek. “I can let myself out of the car,” she whispers, taking her purse from the backseat before she climbs out.

I watch as she enters the building, my heart doing some strange fluttery shit when she turns to give me a wave.

I put the car in drive and head to the construction site where the new potential club is being built, cranking the stereo and relaxing into my seat.

If we go for this LA building, it would mean one of us potentially moving here for a short time or at the very least traveling back and forth for some time, which just feels like yet another roadblock on my path to wondering if Gabriella could be mine.

I look at the time and realize it will almost be Luca’s bedtime.

I’ve never missed a FaceTime call, but he’ll be in bed by the time my meeting has finished.

I dial my sister’s number and she answers on the second ring.

“Hey.”

‘Hey, sis, you good? How’s Luca?”

“He’s good. Just finishing up his dinner. You’re calling early. Everything okay?“ she asks, concern in her voice.

“Yeah, I’m fine. I’m going to miss Luca’s bedtime. I’m just driving to my meeting.”

“That’s okay. You know you don’t have to call every night? We understand you have a life.”

I digest her words. Calling them every night has become part of my life, my routine since Luca was old enough to talk.

“Do you have anyone with you in LA? You didn’t say yesterday.”

I think about lying, but this is Alessia. I can tell her anything. “Gabriella is here with me. I just dropped her off at an appointment.”

“Oooh,” my sister coos down the phone, and I roll my eyes, getting ready for her comments. “So is it serious between you two?”

“There’s nothing going on. We are just friends. All our friends are out of town. She was alone, so I invited her along.”

“Hmmm, sure, because I too invite my friend, who I look at like a lovesick teen, along on trips.”

“Excuse me?” I bark, her comment getting under my skin.

My sister’s laughter filters through the phone.

“Calm down, will you? Don’t lie to me. I saw the way you looked at her, and I’m happy for you.

I loved Gabby, and so did Luca.” The news of my sister and nephew loving Gabriella makes my heart swell.

They are two of the most important people in my life, and their approval means everything to me because whoever is a part of my life would be a part of theirs.

“It’s erm, a long story and complicated,” I mumble, hoping she’ll let it go.

“Well, lucky for you, big bro, I have no life and I’m free as a bird, so start at the beginning and don’t you dare leave out a thing.”