Brady Remington Landed Me in Jail(70)

"What does it mean?" I always knew it meant something with him. I'd be lying if I said it didn't hurt he never confided in me.

"Nothing profound." Brady gave me a rakish grin. "Just means 'my own.' I come from my own, no one else except for you and your family. The Forresters helped, but they really just let me have a room there as long as I didn't mess up too much."

"The tattoo, it's beautiful." I meant it. "How'd you find out about him?"

"From my mom," Brady confessed. "Man, it feels good to say that. Finally someone else knows."

"Your mom?" I flinched when jealousy flared in me. This wasn't about me.

"She found me awhile ago. Told me that she'd had an affair with Frank Stephens. She also told me a lot about him and your mom. Said he was in love with your mom and was devastated when she left. That's why he pursued my mom, I guess."

"Your mom was okay with that?"

"No, not in the beginning. She thought he loved her, but one night he raped her. Then he told her to fix the pregnancy. She didn't. She went back to her family and they disowned her. She brought me back because he said that he'd take care of me. We all know how that ended up. After awhile, she wrote him a letter asking to meet me. When he never replied, she showed up at the house one day. He told her to take off and that I'd died all those years ago."

My eyes widened. "What?"

"She didn't believe him. She asked around if anyone knew a kid by my name. We were both lucky that he kept my name. She wanted that for me. I'm named after her father, my grandfather."

"People knew of you, of course."

"Yeah." He grinned proudly. "She was pretty shocked by that, but she said she liked knowing that her son was well-known. Said that it meant I'd been taken care of by someone and loved, too." He sighed. "I wish I could've told her about your grandmother's involvement, but I didn't know. I just knew I'd been put into foster care."

"Where's your mom now?"

"She went back to where she lives in New York. That's where she was originally from. I'm still in touch with her. We e-mail back and forth."

I grabbed his hand. "Why didn't you go there?"

Brady looked at our joined hands and then met my eyes. "Because you're here, Rayna."

I melted at the tenderness in his eyes. "Really?"

He tucked a strand of hair behind my ear and cupped the side of my face. "Rayna, I could've gone to college last year. I stuck around because of you. Because…"

"Because…?"

When his phone rang, I closed my eyes. ‘So close.'

Brady reached into his jeans and silenced it before he touched underneath my chin and whispered, "Open your eyes. Look at me."

I did. Through tears, I saw something that Brady had always masked to me. I'd known it was there, but never really knew. Now I saw it, full and brimming to the top.

"I love you, Rayna. It's why I've never left and never wanted to leave."

My eyes closed with a snap. I burrowed into his chest. It's what I'd wanted for so long. I finally heard it and wrapped my arms around him.

He brushed my hair back and kissed my forehead. "I've just been waiting for you and I'm sorry that I haven't been a saint. When Kid came and said stuff about you, I went crazy for a moment. I thought he was going to try something with you and I couldn't lose you. It's why I made love to you after you got me out of jail. I was making you mine. Then I started thinking it wasn't fair to you. I wasn't sure if you were ready to deal with me, with everything I felt for you when you were going to go away to college. That's why I started to back away from you, but you got so mad at me. I thought for sure that meant you felt the same, but then Viola was there and everything got messed up. I didn't know what to think and then you were avoiding me."

I stopped him. "I love you, too!"

I met his mouth with mine and poured everything into that kiss. He lifted me in the air and climbed to the other side of the fence. As I entwined my legs around his waist, Brady walked backwards and gently lowered me to the front of his car. After that, I felt him surrender everything into our kiss, into me. I wanted nothing more than to be one with him.

We stayed like that, fused together, arms around each other, until both of our hearts slowed and reality filtered back in. Then he pulled away and groaned. "We can't stay here. I'm not going to do what I want to on the hood of my car. I want a bed and a week."

I rubbed a hand over my sensitized lips. "Might want to wait until after graduation."

"Graduation. Tomorrow." Brady grimaced. "I forgot about that. Clarissa's got a party tonight. Did you want to go?"

My mouth fell open.

He grinned and gently squeezed my hands. "I'm kidding. I want only to be with you tonight." Then he nipped my lips and deepened the kiss. It started out a gentle touch, but flared into more.

After he pulled away, I was reluctant to let him, but I couldn't ignore the real world. "I think we have other stuff to do tonight. You need to do damage control with Clarissa and everyone else who thought you were coming up here to jump off Highpoint Bridge. I need to explain to Viola why we might be getting sued by Frank Stephens."