Joanne clears her throat. “Why don’t we have Daddy take it to her while you take your bath? And that way, we can have another cupcake once you’re done.”
Ellis nods enthusiastically. “Okay!” She pushes the paper against my stomach. “Make sure she knows it’s from me though, Daddy.”
“I—” My eyes trail Ellis as she runs down the hall, but Joanne steps right in front of me so I have no choice but to look at her.
“You owe that woman an apology, Rhonan.” Her brow arches painfully high on her forehead. “I only heard a snippet of what you said to her, but I can imagine what else you spewed out of fear.”
“Fuck, Joanne.”
“You need to grovel,” she continues. “Vienna is a special woman. Apologize and grovel like you’ve never groveled before.” With one more lift of her brow, she heads down the hall to the bathroom where Ellis has already turned the water on.
A heavy sigh leaves me, but I know that Joanne is right. And the longer I put it off, the worse things are going to get between me and Vienna.
With Ellis’s drawing in hand, I push open the front door and slowly cross my yard, reaching Vienna’s too quickly to prepare what I’m going to say. Nonetheless, when she opens her front door, nothing could have prepared me for the sadness on her face and my lack of knowing what I could say to make things right.
Vienna swipes tears from under her eyes. “What do you want, Rhonan?”
Clearing my throat, I straighten my spine. “I came to apologize.”
“For?” she asks, crossing her arms over her chest.
“For yelling at you yesterday.”
One of her eyebrows lifts, and I’m suddenly aware of what a natural move that is for all of the women in my life. “Is that all?”
“Well, I—”
“You know what?” she says, cutting me off. “No. It’s my turn to talk.” She clears her throat and jabs her finger into the center of my chest. “You had no right to yell at me the way you did yesterday.”
“You’re right.”
“I know!” Her voice rises in volume. “And guess what? You were wrong!”
“About what?”
She points toward the side of her where my house lies. “I do know what it’s like to lose someone I love. Lydia was my family. She may not have been related by blood, but her death destroyed me.”
“You’re right. I—I didn’t know.”
Her hands fly into the air now, her anger radiating off of her and, despite knowing how pissed off she is at me, I can’t help but find her anger fucking hot—the intensity of her gaze, the quickness of her breaths. That I fucked up and she has no problem letting me know that.
“I know you didn’t! Because you just assumed! You just stomped over here like an ogre and—”
I don’t think, I just move.
I close the distance between us and crush my lips to hers. When my tongue darts out to find hers, she shoves me away, but her eyes are wild and her cheeks are flushed. “What the hell, Rhonan?”
The only sound resting between us is our heavy breathing, our chests rising and falling with each labored inhale. Our eyes bounce between one another, the silence deafening even though that seems impossible.
But before I can say anything else, Vienna launches herself at me, jumping into my arms and wrapping her legs around my waist, smashing her lips back to mine.
My adrenaline kicks in, closing her front door behind me and then spinning around, pinning her up against it while our tongues clash and my cock presses against my zipper. I thrust my erection right between her legs, spurring a moan from deep in her throat, but Vienna doesn’t miss a beat. She writhes against me, creating the friction I know she needs.
“God, you’re infuriating,” she mumbles against my lips.
“I’m aware. You’re not a saint either, you know.”
Vienna deepens our kiss, yanking on the strands of my hair between her fingers. “God, Rhonan. Yes.”
