Maybe, just maybe, this was where we were meant to be.
That for once in my life, I’d been granted reprieve.
* * *
She slipped out the door with a peck and a reluctant goodbye.
I couldn’t stop myself, I bolted right after her, snatching her around the wrist, unable to let her go. My kiss a demand as I pushed her against the outside wall. She whimpered, hands on my face, mine on her hips.
“I really should go,” she whispered.
“I know...but I don’t know how to let you.” I hoisted her up, those legs around my waist. She rubbed against my jeans, her pussy a tease. My dick pressed at the fabric, desperate for release. “Fuck, Rynna. What are you doing to me? Making me lose my mind. Have no control when you get in the room.”
She nipped at my mouth, kissing me, rocking against my cock. “The only thing I know is how desperately I want you. How desperately I wantthis.”
“What is it you want?” I barely managed. Groaning deep, I strained harder against her, wondering just how horrible of a parent I’d be if I stripped her right there and fucked her against the wall.
“This. You. Us. Frankie.”
At her confession, I froze, my heart going stone in the center of my chest before it started thudding. Thudding with possibility.
I pulled back to search her eyes through the darkness. The air was bogged down with humidity, the residual of the storm a wet mist coating our heated skin.
She stared back.
No reservations.
No fear.
Just blatant, unblemished hope. A beacon calling me out of the storm.
“I...” All the bullshit that still haunted my life stalled my words, the promise I wanted to give her freezing on my tongue. Because the last thing I wanted was to do her wrong.
Hurt flashed through her expression before it filled with soft understanding. Because that was just the way this girl was—flush with grace. Too good to be real. She edged back a fraction to search my face. Reluctantly, I released her, helping her slide down onto her feet.
I stood there, a shadow blocking all that light.
She tilted her head, her hand on the side of my face. “Do you still love her?”
My chest grew so damned tight I was sure it was going to explode.
“Your ex-wife?” she pressed.
That was the problem. Her hunch was off base. Thrown in the wrong direction. But when it came down to it, Frankie’s mother was the problem. That stupid fucking loyalty I’d clung to for far too long.
It lashed at me, a scourge of regret.
“Fuck, Rynna,” I whispered harshly, the ground swept right out from under me. “I—” I averted my gaze to the wooden planks, struggling to find the correct answer to her question. Because she deserved to know, and still, I didn’t know how to tell her.
Warily, I shifted my attention back to her and plucked out the only honesty I could find. “When it comes to Frankie’s mom? The only emotion I can process is hate.” I blinked, swallowing hard. My insides burned. Flames. Unrelenting hell. “But then I wonder if I have the right to hate her. Not when I was the one who drove her away.”
“She left you. She left Frankie. I don’t know the circumstances. But for that alone? I hate her. I hate her for the simple fact that she could possibly walk away from you two. If I had been given a gift like that, I wouldn’t ever have let it go.”
A soft puff of air escaped my throat, and I wound an arm around her waist and pulled her against me. I pressed a kiss to the top of her head. “Rynna.”
Rynna.
Fucking Rynna.
