After a moment, I wasn’t doing the kissing anymore—she was. I was now the one along for the ride, kissing her back, letting her in. Her lips moved over mine, soft, hard, licking, biting, all of it. Her tongue traced my lips and demanded entrance. I opened for her, more than willing to give her everything I had been holding back.
This kiss... it was more than a kiss. We responded to each other using a language only we knew. It said,I missed you. I love you. I’m home.
I wrapped one arm around her waist, letting my fingers trail up the hem of her shirt while gliding my other hand up her back and over her shoulder to caress her cheek. Tilting her head back, I positioned her where I liked, slanting my mouth over hers to deepen our kiss.
She unbuttoned my shirt and spread it apart, her hands on my skin sending electricity through my body until I was mindless with want.
This was nostalgia wrapped in lust. Love wrapped in rediscovery. I pulled her shirt over her head and tossed it to the side, kissing her breast over the lace of her bra before tugging the cup down to get a taste of her bare skin. I groaned as her nipple pebbled against my tongue.
She touched me all the way to my soul, filling my heart so full it was about to beat out of my chest straight into hers. This kiss was mind-melting, urgent, claiming, but I had to stop.
I stepped back and steadied her before moving to lean against the opposite corner of the counter. I was lost in a moment I didn’t want to leave. Pressing my hand to my mouth, I exhaled sharply as I searched her eyes. “God, Lily,” I whispered. “I’m sorry. One second more, and I wouldn’t have been able to stop.”
“Why did you?” she asked softly, hesitantly.
I stared out at the darkness beyond the kitchen window and sighed. “I was pushing, and you told me you don’t want to move too fast?—”
I saw it the same instant she did. The faint light from a flashlight, there then gone. In the trees at the rear of the yard. She nearly jumped out of her skin when there was a knock at the door.
“Holy crap,” she exclaimed and hopped off the counter. I caught her as she stumbled against me. I quickly found her shirt and gave it to her. She slipped it on and started to head for the stairs, but I caught her hand and tugged her behind myself.
Stopping when we reached the staircase, I pushed her gently toward it. “Call your dad.” She took her phone from her pocket and went up a few steps watching as I strode to the door. I was ready to stomp whoever was there into the ground if they proved to be a threat in any way.
“Who’s there?” I all but growled at the door as I quickly buttoned my shirt.
“It’s Cade. Everything okay in there?”
I swung the door open. “Backyard, flashlight, two minutes ago.”
Cade rushed through the house and out the back like a shot.
“Upstairs. Check the kids,” I told Lily.
She turned and ran up the stairs.
I stood at the bottom of the staircase, eyes to the kitchen door, waiting for Cade. I glanced up to find Lily behind me.
“They’re fine. Rocky is in the middle of the hall, standing guard like a good dog. I’m glad Cade is here. He has a gun,” she whispered.
She’d obviously forgotten the training I’d had. “I don’t need a gun to catch whoever is out there fucking with you.”
“Oh god.” Her eyes were big. “Luke, I have to tell you something?—”
“When Cade comes back in.”
She nodded. Then we waited for Cade. It was a long five minutes.
“Someone was back there, no doubt about it. But they got away.” The backyard was huge, and it backed up to an alleyway. A copse of trees and evergreen shrubbery lined the back of the yard, and there was no fence. It would be easy to hide within the trees and watch the house. Though it was stupid of whoever had been out there to use a flashlight, as it wasn’t so far away that a light wouldn’t be visible from the kitchen window or one of the bedroom windows upstairs. “There are footprints and trash in the trees, and tire tracks. They must have driven off when you were opening the door for me,” he reasoned.
I nodded. “You aren’t going to stay alone here, Lily.”
Cade nodded his agreement. “Yeah, one of us will be with you. I don’t want you going anywhere by yourself until we figure out what the hell is going on.” He placed his gun in his shoulder holster under his jacket.
“Um, something happened today, and I kind of forgot about it until right now. After I left Luke’s office this morning I ran into a man at Violet’s. He was asking about some evidence Will had collected—a flash drive—and insinuating that they’d worked together. Which was obviously a bunch of crap.”
Cade looked annoyed. Lily turned and tucked herself into my side. I wrapped an arm around her and gave her a squeeze. “I’m sorry. I should have mentioned it right away. So much isgoing on.” She glanced at Cade. “I did text you to tell you to stop by so I could talk to you.”
“That’s why I’m here now, Lily. That, and I’ll be crashing here again. Dad and I don’t want you and the kids to be alone at night. He wants you to pack some bags and stay at the house for a while.” He could see my preparing to protest and cut me off. “Chill out, Lily. I’m not going to lecture you.”
