He shouldered his backpack and waited until she got into her car and backed out of the driveway before he turned and loped up the steps to his house, disappearing inside.
She made it as far as the street leading out of his subdivision before she finally gave in to the voice screaming at her that she’d be the biggest dummy on Earth if she didn’t turn aroundright fucking now.
And so she did, zooming back through the sleepy Sunday-morning neighborhood and rocketing to a halt in Leo’s driveway. She raced up the steps and then hesitated, unsure if she should ring the bell or just open the door and walk inside. But a moment later the door flung itself open to reveal a grinning Leo.
“I heard your car door,” he said. “You came back for scrambled eggs, right?”
She stepped over the threshold.
“Yep,” she said. “For the eggs.”
He pushed the door shut behind her. “Okay. Want to head to the kitchen?” His eyes danced, and she grabbed on to his shoulders. Such good, muscly shoulders.
“I don’t actually.” She tilted her face up and kissed him, and unlike last night in the tent, he didn’t hold back for a second. He backed her against the door and licked greedily at the seam of her lips until she opened for him so he could invade her mouth with his tongue. He overwhelmed her, the taste of him, the scent of him, and she kissed him back just as hungrily, wanting more than he could possibly give her in the hallway.
But he seemed determined to try. He grabbed the back of her knee with an impatient growl and lifted her leg to his waist so he could grind against her. Both fully clothed, both standing, both breathing hard from just a few minutes of kissing. His body was the only thing keeping her from collapsing into a heap of neediness on the floor. And his cock… She could feel every inch of him through her magical waterproof hiking pants, and when she tilted her hips just the tiniest bit forward, all that hardness hit a spot that made her whimper.
She tugged at his hair and deepened the kiss, wondering how to get him naked without breaking contact with that mouth of his that was soft and firm and hungry and gentle all at the same time.
In the end it was the jingle of keys that cut through the haze of lust wrapping around the two of them.
“I’m thinking I might do breakfast out today,” William announced loudly from the entrance to the living room.
Leo tore his mouth away from hers, looking at her in dazed wonder for a second before they both turned their heads toward the third person in the room. William grinned sunnily at them.
“Then I’ll do some programming work at the office. Maybe hit the gym afterward.” He flipped the key ring into the air and caught it with a flourish. “You two’ll have the place to yourselves for hours, so be as loud as you want.”
He winked and disappeared, and the garage door whirred open moments later.
She and Leo were alone.
TWENTY-THREE
She came back.
Those three words had been humming through Leo’s blood since Faith had roared down his street and landed on his doorstep. She turned her car around, and she came back.
They’d been staring at each other since William left. Now that the house was theirs, the frantic need to claim her had receded and been replaced by the desire to savor her. His gaze moved from her lips, untouched by her usual bold lipstick, to her eyes, clear and trusting, to her hair, a wavy mess of corn silk and blue. He needed to wrap his fists around it as he pounded into her.
Okay, maybe the time for savoring was over.
“Tell me what you want.” He pressed his thumb against the center of her lower lip and dragged it to the corner of her mouth. “What did you come back for?”
“You.” Her tongue darted out to stroke the tip of his thumb. “I came back for you.”
He groaned and rested his forehead against hers. Those words on her lips were a benediction.
“I’m yours.” It was a confession. A promise. “Whatever you want.”
It was as true now as it had been all those years ago. They’d grown into the adults they might not have become if they’d stayed together, but Faith had never fully left him. The tune he couldn’t quite get out of his head. The cold lake water at the end of a strenuous day. The homemade coconut ice cream from his childhood, the one he could never find a perfect match for in any store. He’d spent a long time hating her, but he could admit it now: he’d spent even longer missing her.
But she was here now. And she was smiling at him.
Then her expression changed, and she sank her perfect teeth into that plump lower lip, denting the tender flesh as she gazed up at him.
“Do you know what I want?”
He leaned close, drawn in by that breathy voice and those big blue eyes.
