“May I ask what happened? I mean, I don’t want to pry or gouge open any wounds, but I cared about her.” Lex covers her face and vibrates with quiettears.
“Hey, it’s okay. I know she cared about you, too. If it makes you feel better, she didn’t talk to me for a month after we split up. I think she may have liked you a little more thanme.”
A tiny laugh trails through her. “She was smart.” Lex pulls back with black muddy trails tracking down her cheeks. “What happened to my beautifulfriend?”
My heart warms as she says it. Lex has always been a self-proclaimed hermit who only had a heart for blood relations and then only some of those. She once told me that Emilia was her first real friend and she wore that like a badge. She loved my sister. I knew that. I stilldo.
“She fell.” I shrug because there is no other explanation really. “She went on a hike with her boyfriend—a walking tour about a mile beyond the overlook in Hollow Brook. It had just finished raining, and her foot caught on a branch. She tripped and sailed over a steep embankment—about twenty-five feet. That’s all. Hit her temple on a sharp rock, closed her eyes, and never opened them again. I was at the office with my father and Shep—got a hysterical phone call from Teagan. Tom, her boyfriend, didn’t really have any of our numbers. He was pretty new to the scene. But Teagan had sent Emilia and him a group text—a picture of her headed to a winter dance at school so he knew to call. We took off for the hospital, but she was already gone. Life turned inside out, and it was hell.” I close my eyes, and Lex presses my face to hers by the back of myneck.
We sit there, our noses locked together, our lips lying over one another as our silent hot tears conjoin intoone.
“I’m so sorry, Ax. I’m so very,verysorry.” Her lips find mine, and we start in on a slow, delicious kiss that feels more medicinal than it does anything else. For sure it’s not one of those angry kisses we indulged in back in the kitchen. Gone is all the fury, the resentment over what we lost, what we could have been. This was a perfectly mild kiss, penetrating to the core with hope of a beautifulfuture.
She pulls back, her face glossed with tears, her eyes so red they’re unrecognizable. “Did you think of callingme?”
“I don’t have your number, Lex.” I shake my head. “I tried to find you, but you’ve covered your tracks so well I would have bet you slipped into the witness protection program. Heck, you did a fantastic job of protecting yourprivacy.”
She gives a wry smile. “I am ratherstealth.”
“And stingy with your whereabouts.” I give her hip a light pinch, and she bucks with a quiet laugh. “But I’m glad I found you.” My eyes rake over her features in hope of a hint that she might feel the same. “Are you glad you found me?” There. I said it. For as desperate as it sounds, I really do want ananswer.
Lex takes a quivering breath somewhere between tears, regret, and relief. “I was about twenty minutes ago. And I most likely will in about another hour.” She cocks her head to the side and offers up a quick wink. “But prior to this, I pretty much blamed you for the current disarray in my life. You do realize it was you who caused me to bolt from The Sloppy Pelican last spring and send Harlow Walking Disaster Hartley in instead. Everything went to holy heck after that. I lost my job. Igainedtwo friends.” She head-butts me lightly with that last one, and I can’t help butlaugh.
“Friends never were yourforte.”
“And now one of the she-devils is living with me while the other one is making me wear frilly taffeta in just a couple of weeks. Friends are a hazard I’ve spent my entire life avoiding.” She slaps me over the ass with some muscle behind the action. “And it’s all yourfault.”
“If my actions led to tonight, I’m guilty as charged.” I dip a kiss into that soft spot just below her ear. “And I plan on becoming a repeat offender.” My hands drip down her thighs, melting into her skin as if I had the ability to become a part ofher.
“Repeat offender, huh?” A dirty laugh brews in her chest. Her eyes widen with delight as if this is the banter she’s craved all along, something with a hint of crudeness that leads to the promise land for the both of us. “You do realize I have a brother who would love to see youarrested.”
A horrid groan escapes me at the thought of Marlin Maxfield. “Did you have to drag your brother into this? Marlin hates me, and you knowit.”
“I do know it. And you do realize this brings me great pleasure.” She outright giggles into me like a schoolgirl, and I can’t help but shed an ear-to-eargrin.
“You know I love it when you’rehappy.”
Her mouth opens as she gasps. I had done the unthinkable, invoked theLword—the pinprick in our heliumballoon.
“Don’t.” She presses a finger over my lips. “You’re no longer allowed to speak for the night.” She leans in and takes a healthy bite from my shoulder, eliciting a roar of a moan from me. “I’m ready for you to have me now.” She gives my leg a few quick taps. “Nice and slow to begin with, then hard and aggressive like you mean it. I want my hair tugged once when I least expect it, and do that little thing with your tongue before you’re through.” She dips her finger into my mouth and bites down a smile. “And if you play your cards right, I might let you tell me what to do in the morning. After all, you are theboss.”
A hopeful smile percolates on my lips. “I think we both know who the boss is around here. But as for tomorrow morning—expect to be on top.” My teeth graze over her ear. “On all fours.” I run my tongue up the side of her face in a heated line, and she shivers beneath me. “And most importantly on yourknees.”
Lex shakes with a laugh, and I cover her mouth with mine, drowning out that sound leaving her body to express the sentiment. Lex and I make love slowly at first, just the way she instructed, then something fiercer, darker, deeper, longer,stronger.
Lex always did have impeccable taste and timing. Lucky for me, her appetite for my body hasn’t waned a bit. If I’m truly lucky, her hunger will linger long enough for her to realize that I’m one meal she’ll need regularly for the rest of herlife.
We wrestle long into the night, well past those early morning hours and straight through to sunup. We hold one another as the sun rises and fills the room with the peachy glow of another blessed day. It feels like the first day of the rest of ourlives.
* * *
Sleep has never felt sothick, so delicious, so very necessary. Both Lex and I moan in tandem as our lids flutter at the very sametime.
“Hey, beautiful.” I lean in and steal akiss.
“I look like a witch.” She scoots in and wraps her limbs around me, and just the feel of her heated flesh pressed up against mine makes my skin quiver as if attempting to drink herdown.
“You look like a goddess.” I graze my teeth over her ear. “One I’m gearing up to properly worship.” I rub my blooming hardness over her thigh. “But first I have a gift foryou.”
