They were made for each other. No matter what had happened in their pasts, what damage he’d caused, they would always belong together.
He spun them and lifted her to the edge of the kitchen counter before stepping between her thighs, hands on her knees. Every inch of her made him want to explore more. Touch and taste.
He was just sliding his palms up her thighs, when the ringing of a phone sounded…hisphone.
“I’m ignoring it,” he whispered against her lips.
But her body stiffened, and it was as if the call pulled her out of the fog and back to reality.
Goddammit.
Her hands slid out from beneath his shirt and pressed to his chest. He bit back a growl as he forced his mouth back from hers. It took him two breaths to look up at her.
“You should answer that,” she whispered.
It was the last damn thing he wanted to do.
With a click of his jaw, he gripped her hips and lifted her down from the counter. “This isn’t over.”
Her eyes flared.
He turned and moved back into the studio room and took out his phone.
Antwan. Well, fuck. He couldn’t be mad at his friend.
He waited one more second to get his breathing back to normal and then answered the call. “Hey.”
“Lock…did I catch you at a bad time?”
The worst fucking time possible, but it wasn’t like he could tell him that. “No such thing. You doing okay?”
His friend took a few deep breaths. “I just needed to talk to someone who understood.”
Lock straightened. “What’s wrong?”
“I’m struggling. Being here, in our old apartment, without her…it’s harder than I thought it would be.”
Lock ran his fingers through his hair. He was talking about Hollie. Antwan had kept the lease on their apartment because he couldn’t give it up. But now that he’d been discharged and had moved back there, he probably couldn’t handle the memories.
If the team hadn’t already killed Malone, Lock would have hunted him down and killed him a second time. “What can I do?”
“I don’t know. Talk to me?”
“I’ll do you one better. You still coming to visit with Jesse?”
“Yeah, flights are booked for the week after next.”
“Pack a bigger bag.”
There was a pause. “What?”
“Stay in Misty Peak longer. Hell, stay a year. Being in the same town where you lived with Hollie can’t be helping anything.”
Lock’s phone vibrated with a text, but he ignored it as he waited for his friend to respond.
“You sure that’s okay?”
“Hell yeah, I am. I’ve got four bedrooms and I’m only using one, so there’s plenty of space.” In fact, his house felt pretty damn empty right now.
