Read Romancing My Love (Love in Bloom: The Bradens) Contemporary Romance for Free Online

but you know, pull yourself up by your bootstraps and all that.” She cleared her throat and looked away.
    “Yeah, I know all about bootstraps. Either they’re made of leather and easy to pull, or they’re made of lead and they drag you down.”
    A genuine smile crossed her lips, and the balls of her cheeks rose. “I do miss her, Pierce. I’m not trying to deny that. She was my best friend, and I know that doesn’t say much about me, but…” She shrugged. “She really was.”
    “I think that speaks volumes about both of you.”
    She rolled her eyes. “Yeah, a twenty-seven-year old with no life.” Her face grew serious again. “That’s not really true. I had a life. It was different from most people’s lives, but it was a good life.”
    He could barely keep up with the undercurrent of emotional torment she experienced, and damn did he want to.
    “We were close. My mom wasn’t just a really good mother, but she was a good person, and we had fun together before she got sick. We used to take walks a lot, and when I was little, she’d wake me in the middle of the night to watch a movie together, or we’d stay up past bedtime cooking or baking.”
    “It sounds like she loved you very much.”
    “Oh yes. Without a doubt. Sometimes I feel guilty about that. She never dated, and she never even went out with friends. She gave up her entire life for me, at least until I got my own apartment near the university. But then I moved back in three years ago when she was diagnosed with lung cancer. I treasure the time I had with her. It’s like she knew she was going to…you know…be taken away early. And one day I’ll pay her back for all she did. She always wanted to go back to Punta Allen, where she spent time as a little girl. I’m going to save enough money to bring her ashes back and spread them there.” She looked out over the park and sighed.
    “Was your mom from Mexico?” Pierce owned a resort in Tulum, which was very close to Punta Allen, a small fishing village with fewer than five hundred residents.
    “No. My grandmother was, though. She gave birth to my mother here in the United States, and she and my mother visited Punta Allen several times when my mother was young. She never went as an adult, but she talked about it all the time.”
    It made him sad to think that her mother died without realizing her dream, and he was impressed with Rebecca’s determination to bring her mother’s ashes to Punta Allen.
    “I don’t mean to bum you out. I’m sorry,” she said. “I never talk about her, and listen to me. Did you slip truth serum into that wine?”
    Pierce sat up and took her hand in his. “You aren’t bumming me out. Truth serum would explain why I talked about my father, too. I never talk about him, either.”
    “Well, let’s see. Two control freaks, each revealing their secrets to the other.” Their eyes met, and her voice quieted. “Sounds like we’re either going to—”
    He slid his hand to the back of her neck, silencing her with his impulsive move as they stared into each other’s eyes.
    She whispered, “End up in a horror flick where you belt out a sinister laugh or—”
    Pierce moved closer, her lips parted, a breath away from his. There was so much he wanted to say, to ask, like how the hell she touched the most intimate, hidden places in his heart in just a few hours, but he couldn’t find his voice. He was too busy restraining himself from taking her in an impassioned kiss. His lips grazed over hers on the way to her cheek, where he pressed a soft kiss.
    When he drew back, her eyes fluttered open.
    “No sinister laugh,” he whispered.
    She fisted her hands in his shirt and sealed her lips over his. Her kiss was everything he thought it would be and more. She met each lap of his tongue with her own. Good Lord, she tasted of sweet wine and strength, despite all she’d been through, and he wanted more of her. So much more . Pierce was no stranger to hiding from emotions in