I tilt my head.“And what about you?Did you talk?”
A corner of his mouth lifts faintly.“Not much to say, Sunshine.”
“So I babbled at you?”
“You didn’t babble,” he murmurs.“You talked.And I listened.I liked listening.”
My stomach warms.We’re standing too close now.Close enough that if I inhale a little deeper, I’ll feel the heat from his chest.Close enough that the tension between us wraps around my ribs like silk and barbed wire.
“Ledger,” I whisper.
His eyes drop to my mouth.Just barely.But I see it.Feel it.I want him to kiss me.
He takes a slow breath, steps back half an inch, enough to cool the moment, not enough to break the connection completely.
“We should go,” he admits, voice thick.“Too many eyes here.”
“Eyes?”
“Can’t be sure you weren’t followed.”
A chill runs through me bringing me back to reality.He walks me to the truck, hand steady at my lower back.The moment we’re inside and the doors are shut, I finally ask the question brewing in my chest:
“Ledger, were we more than friends?”
His knuckles tighten on the steering wheel.
“We were,” He exhales.“something.”
“Something what?”
“Something that couldn’t be labeled.Something I wasn’t ready for,” he admits.“Something you deserved more of.”
“And now?”I ask softly.
He looks at me, really looks, his gaze traveling over my face like he’s memorizing every line for the second time in his life.
Now hangs thick between us.
“Now,” he states roughly, “I just want you safe.”
I swallow hard.“And after that?”
He doesn’t answer.
But the look in his eyes does.The silence in the truck is loud with things we’re not ready to say out loud.My heart pounds.
Because even without my memories…I know one truth, being near him feels right.
It’s like coming home to a place I’ve never been and somehow have missed all my life.
Eleven
Ledger
Whoever is behind this picked the wrong prey to hunt.
Idon’t take the truck straight back to the cabin.
