“You didn’t do anything.” Her normally fiery green eyes dart to the side, and I scrub a hand over my face and curse because now all I smell isher.“I just need to go.”
“Cora.”
“Don’t make this something it’s not.”
Don’t make this something it’s not.
She stares at me, the wordsdon’t make me say this was a mistakean unspoken threat that has my hand balling into a fist at my side as I stand to my full height.
If she wants to play games, I’ll play.
She presses her lips together as she looks me up and down, taking another step back so she doesn’t have to crane her neck to look at me.
“I’ll be in tomorrow to figure out the truck, okay?”
“Sure.” The word is a slow drawl, and I can see the way she swallows hard, not missing how loaded my response is.
“Night,” she squeaks out, and I cross my arms over my chest as she backs toward the door.
“We’re gonna talk about this.”
“I know.”
“I don’t want you to run.”
Her eyelids flutter shut for the briefest of seconds before she meets my gaze. “Tonight I have to.”
“You’ll make it up to me.” The statement hangs between us—a challenge.
“I guess we’ll see.”
16
CORA
Isit in my car and stare at the “open” sign flashing in the window of Lowcountry Automotive. It’s early but I couldn’t sleep.
Last night had rocked me to my very core, and if I am being honest, I am still reeling from being in Talon’s arms.
From having him inside me.
I’d woken up deliciously sore and am reminded of the way I’d given myself to him with every step I take. Our connection had been intense and that scared the hell out of me.
It still does.
Talon Banks shouldn’t be the person who lights my soul on fire. He was my self-imposed, high school rival. And the one that broke my heart in a single afternoon—something he probably never thought about again after that day but one that still haunts me.
I’d never recovered from losing that simple wooden box.
And yet, I’d let the boy who’d grown into a man rip the lace from between my legs and fuck me against the wall of the garage.
Tears prick my eyes as I let everything wash over me again.
I’m embarrassed and ashamed.
But then again, I’m not.
I’ve let the memories from my past keep me in a choke hold and given them the power to derail my future.
