“Do you regret it?” he finally asked.
“Regret what?”
“Coming back.”
That was a loaded question. “Sometimes. The hard times. But I also don’t. After Mom died, Cleveland didn’t feel like home anymore. I kind of just felt lost. Then I crossed the borderinto Misty Peak, and despite everything, it felt like I was home again.” For some reason, tears started to gather in her eyes. “She’s here. I can feel her. In this house. In the mountains. And anytime I think about leaving, a part of me feels like I’d be leavingher, so I just…don’t.”
Kayden shifted closer and reached out a hand. She wasn’t sure what he was doing until he swiped a tear from her cheek. “You feel like you have her back when you’re here.”
“Yeah. I know it sounds crazy. But she was my best friend, and this was her home for most of her life. Coming back here would have meant the world to her. I just wish we could have done it together.”
She expected Kayden’s hand to drop. Instead, it curved around her cheek, cupping her face. He’d done that before, and each time it felt so incredibly intimate.
“It would have taken courage.”
It took everything in her not to lean into that touch. “It didn’t, actually. Because I had this naive belief that people would see the good in me and be kind. What takes courage is staying every time something makes me feel like running.”
His hand curved around her neck, and when he spoke, his words were almost a whisper. “I don’t know if this is the right or wrong thing to say, but I’m glad you’ve stayed.”
Her belly tingled, not only at his words but the way his touch made her skin sensitive. It was deep inside her, from her neck right down to her toes.
“Kayden…” His name was a whisper on her lips, and she wasn’t even sure why she’d said it.
“Tell me not to kiss you, Tilly.”
Little flickers of awareness came to life inside her.
“Tell me to back away,” he pushed. “To take my hand off you and go home.”
She opened her mouth, not sure what words were going to come out…and in the end, nothing did. Not a single sound. Because no part of her felt capable of telling Kayden Walker to leave. Even the thought of his hand dropping brought an uncomfortable twist to her stomach.
So instead, she lowered her gaze to his mouth. Traced those full, thick lips with her eyes. Lips she craved to feel on her own.
A growl reverberated from his chest, then his head lowered, his mouth crashing to hers.
The second their lips sealed together, she was breathless. And tingly and hot and lost. God, so lost.
The fries and sauce slipped out of her fingers, and suddenly she was free to touch him. To slide her fingers up his chest and neck, then into his hair. It was softer than she’d thought. Smooth and kind of silky.
When he nibbled on her bottom lip, she gasped, and his tongue slipped into her mouth, melding with hers.
She groaned, a deep, primal sound that fell into the quiet of the room.
He leaned her back and suddenly he was on top of her, the soft couch at her back in complete contrast to the hard chest at her front. His weight was heavy and intoxicating and made her want to grind against him.
At the feel of his hand moving up her side, her heartbeat stumbled over itself. Because even though the material of her sweater separated his fingers from her skin, it felt like there was nothing between them.
His hand kept moving, sliding over her ribs, only stopping at her breast, then he was cupping her, palming her breast as she moaned.
God, his touch on her was like nothing else, and she wanted more.
When he found the bud of her nipple through her bra and swiped with his thumb, a whimper tore from her throat, and she lifted a leg around his hip, tugging him closer. Grinding against him.
His mouth had just started moving down her cheek and neck when something sounded from the front of the house. A car engine followed by…small thuds against the door.
Oh no…
Kayden wantedto devour this woman. To touch and kiss and taste every inch of her velvet skin. To spend hours getting lost in her.
