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A vibration.
I didn’t have to look to know what it was.
As Lily heard it, her posture changed. Her lips mashed together. Her chest was moving like she was panting and she couldn’t stop fidgeting.
A conversation that had been going so well, and then this.
“Hey …” My fingers went to her cheek. “It’s just us in here. No one else. Whatever is happening over there, ignore it.”
At least I had confirmation that the sound of her phone was what changed her demeanor. That every time the fucker vibrated, it set something off inside her.
A trigger that went deep as hell.
I didn’t think I could rewind her past and erase the damage that had been done, but I could certainly try to rub every spot that had been wounded and kiss those fucking scars in hopes that they’d never reopen again.
“It’s so ingrained in my head. It’s like … I’m always waiting for it.” Her voice was barely above a whisper. “And when I don’t answer or respond, the messages come in faster.”
“I’ll solve that right now.” I got up from the bed and grabbed her phone off the dresser. Not only were there missed calls from David, but several texts had also come through. I hit the buttons that would turn her phone off, and when the screen went black, I returned it to the dresser and rejoined her on the mattress. “Now, you can’t be reached, and you can’t react to the messages if you don’t know they’re coming through.”
Her eyes were getting emotional. Not teary. It was like I could see the fear within her irises. “That was probably a very bad idea.”
“Listen to me.” I grabbed both of her shoulders and moved my face close to hers. “I’m not going to let anyone hurt you or fuck with you in any way. I think you know me well enough at this point to know how serious I am when I say that.”
“This is different.” Her voice stayed flat.
“You’re saying I should destroy your phone, then?”
She tucked her legs up to her chest, staying quiet for far too many seconds. “It wouldn’t matter, Brady. He’d still find me.”
TWENTY
Lily
“Itold you in Edinburgh that when we got off this plane, I was going to take you to my place, and I meant that,” Brady said. “But as much as I want to tell you to come home with me, I want this to be your decision.” He ran a finger under my cheek. “Bringing you to my place will change things, Lily. I want to be sure that’s what you want.”
As I sat next to him on the couch in the main cabin, expecting the pilot to call at any moment to instruct me to get the plane ready for landing, I was repeating his words in my head. Words that, before our last night together in Scotland, I never anticipated hearing.
Because I never thought it could ever be an option.
How could I bring someone into my mess?
How could I put them at risk?
How could I even think of dating when I wanted to spend every waking second in the air?
What I knew, what I felt, what I was absolutely sure of was that if I wasn’t in the air, I wanted to be with him.
Still, it felt almost selfish of me to say, “It’s what I want.”
I didn’t know if I was being fair. If I was making the right decision for Brady. If I was truly only thinking about a happiness that I’d wanted for far too long and I knew he could give it to me.
“That’s what I was hoping you would say.” He cupped my cheeks. “You know something? I’ve never brought a woman to my house before. You’ll be the first one.”
My brows rose. “Ever?”
“Ever.”
I wasn’t the only one who had changed.
