I moved closer, reached for his hand, and laced my fingers through his.  “I want to know everything about you, too.”

He blew out a breath and tightened his fingers around mine.  “I’ve never met a woman who wanted to know me.  Sure, they said they wanted to be with me but that didn’t mean they actually wanted to know anything about me.  But you’re different and I knew it from that first time we met.”

“What do you mean, you knew I was different?  How?”  I certainly didn’t feel like I was different from anyone else.  I’d struggled my whole life to make myself stand out; I always believed I was the boring girl that people overlooked.

“Fuck, Harlow, you don’t see it, do you?”

“No,” I confessed in a whisper while I held my breath waiting for him to continue.

He let go of my hand and lightly ran a finger through my hair, pushing it off my face.  His touch was so gentle; so different to the rough way he liked to touch me during sex.  “You stood up to me and challenged me.  You still do.  No woman has ever done that before.  You’re a strong woman, and you’re kind and giving.  Look at the way you’re helping your mum.  Look at how you took Lisa under your wing after you just met her.  I don’t know many women who give so selflessly like you do.  And yet, there’s a softness to you that I haven’t worked out yet but I like it.  I like it a fucking lot.”

“I thought I was going to be the death of you by arguing with you.”

“Yeah, babe, you will be.  But promise me that you won’t ever stop because it’d be the death of you if you did that.”

I knew in that moment that I’d just completely fallen for Scott Cole.  Any man who totally got that about me would hold me captive, and he now had me for as long as he wanted me.

I gently laid a hand on his bare chest.  “I promise.”

His hand curled around my waist and he roughly pulled me close so that we were skin to skin.  “You’ve got me under your fuckin’ spell and I can’t get enough of you,” he growled.

The room was charged with electricity as we connected mind, body and soul.  The sound of our breathing was the only noise to fill the room while we were silently watching each other.

Scott’s phone ringing in his bedroom cut through our moment, and he reluctantly pulled away.  “Sorry, I’ve gotta get that,” he muttered as he finally broke eye contact and left the room.

After he left, I let out a long breath and steadied myself against the door.  The intensity of that encounter had left me in a state of wanting a whole lot more but at the same time, needing a moment to regroup.  Being with Scott was going to involve a whirlwind of emotions; I just hoped I was strong enough to sustain them all.

***

Scott lay his arm across my pillow and pulled me to him so that my head was on his chest.  It was just after two am and we’d been lying in bed talking for awhile now.  I was exhausted after not much sleep last night and then a long day again today.  Scott didn’t seem as wiped as I was though; he was in a talkative mood.

“So, your Dad passed away when you were a teenager?” he asked.  He’d been asking me about my family; trying to work it all out in his head.

“Yes, he died of a heart attack.  It was so unexpected because he was such a healthy, fit man.  Mum was devastated and I don’t think she’s ever fully gotten over it.  She’s only been on a handful of dates and doesn’t seem interested in finding a man.  The café is her life now.”

“When did she move to Brisbane?”

“She left Gympie a few years after Dad died.  I was eighteen when she left; I think the memories were too much for her there.  Brisbane was where she grew up so it was a natural choice for her.”

“That must have been hard for you?”

“Yeah, it was.  After Dad died, I felt lost.  It was just me and Mum then, and so when she left, I felt completely alone.  I mean, I had my friends but I’ve always been a family person so I felt alone without either of them around.  Mum bought her café and started working every day.  It was her way of trying to forget the pain, I think.  But it meant she blocked me out, even though she didn’t mean to.”

He was quiet for a moment while he processed what I’d said.  “So you had no family with you and then the two people you trusted like family did the fucking dirty on you by cheating with each other.”

I sucked in a breath.  How did he get me so well?  Sometimes it felt like he was in my head.  “Yes,” I answered softly.

“People can be motherfuckers sometimes.  Family too.  But you know what?  Family doesn’t always share the same blood.  My boys are my family.  I’d do anything for them and they’d do the same for me.”

“That’s what Storm’s all about isn’t it?”

“Yeah.  It’s about family.  We might argue and annoy the shit outta each other but when it comes down to it, we’re there when needed.  We know we can count on each other.  That’s what makes us as strong as we are.”

“I like that,” I murmured, feeling really sleepy now.

He kissed the top of my head and squeezed me closer to him.  “Night, baby.”

I fell asleep feeling the happiest I’d felt in a very long time.