sexy sounds echoed in her throat as she shifted restlessly, content exactly where she was. “Ugh, not morning?”
“Not morning,” he confirmed, love for her overtaking his nerves. The most disastrous of surprises couldn’t quell what he felt for her and he’d figure out a way to make it up to her if this went sideways. “I love you, Bodie, you know that, right?”
Her pout transformed into a delightedly shy smile. “Not as much as I love you. Don’t think I’ve told you that.” Her hand rose, her tiny palm cupping his stubbled cheek. “I’ve loved you since our first kiss. I should have told you.”
The missing piece of the puzzle finally slotted into position with an audible click. A hollow space inside his heart closed in on itself, healing a rift and sealing it off with her words.
She really was perfect, everything he could wish for.
“You’re telling me now, that’s all I care about.” Braun ran his fingertip over her lower lip. Taking her again, right here, was deliciously appealing. His cock vehemently agreed, straining against his pants. “If I didn’t have a surprise for you, I’d be showing you just how much I fucking love you, Boadicea.”
“A surprise?” Hesitance colored her voice. “I-I’m not big on surprises.”
“You’ll like this one.” Please, God, don’t let her turn me into eunuch.
“Incoming,” Atticus rumbled as the main doors opened, then closed with a snap. “Boss, you might want to hide the cuffs.”
The...oh, shit. It took Braun seconds to snap the poppers on Bodie’s cuffs, whisking them off and tossing them to Atticus. At Bodie’s confused look, he shrugged. “Your surprise doesn’t know about extracurricular activities yet.”
“My surprise...” Bodie bolted upright as the sound of wheels on wood reached them. Her eyes were huge, panicked. “Oh my God, Braun, you didn’t.”
“It’s time, Bodie. She’s waited six months for this, just the same as you. The longer we leave the bridge broken, the more it’s going to fall apart, darlin’. Alicia doesn’t care what you look like; she loves you. She asks Connie about you every damn day—and don’t look so shocked. You ask me about Alicia every damn day too.”
Bodie pushed off his lap, forcing herself up onto her feet, hobbling in a slow circle to face the doors. He reached to steady her, but she held up a hand to stop him.
Goddamn it, there were tears in her eyes.
Fearing the worst, Braun cursed himself for being an idiot. Ready to embrace the fallout, he stood and ranged himself behind her, getting his first look at who he hoped would become his sister-in-law.
His initial thought was how similar Alicia was to her older sister. Despite the four years between them, they could have been twins. Alicia’s hair was the same sleek fall of black but much shorter, ending a couple of inches above her thin shoulders. Her eyes were the same shape, framed with long lashes, but while the color matched Bodie’s, the inner spark in them was absent.
She wore a plaid shirt and dark pants. He could almost see her bones under the material. Connie had told him the girl was recovered from the house in a bad state—her parents had not only beaten and berated her on a regular basis, they’d starved her, used her as an ashtray, broken her down to a shell.
Yet she’d had the strength, the sheer fucking willpower, to bring an end to her suffering by pulling a gun and putting a bullet between Abraham’s eyes. Another through her mother’s abdomen.
Yeah, she and Bodie were more alike than they knew.
Fighters, both of them.
Connie and Liam flanked either side of the wheelchair. Liam seemed rather taken by his new charge, and Braun wondered if his friend had an unspoken crush spanning back across the years. After all, Liam had grown up with Bodie, which in turn meant he knew Alicia. If that was true, how much pain had the boy suffered to side with Bodie when Alicia was hurt?
Too much. Enough to tear a heart down the center.
Bodie stiffened as Alicia rolled forward slowly, her attention riveted on her sister’s face. Around them, everyone was silent, absorbing the emotions ricocheting between the siblings. Waiting for the tension to explode.
“Bodie?”
Braun felt it rip through her. Just her name spoken in a soft, unassuming voice sliced through whatever held Bodie back. She stumbled forward, hindered by her cast, and he saved her from faceplanting with an arm around her waist.
With her crutches nowhere in sight—maybe shouldn’t have left them unattended