“I missed you,” I whisper.
He hauls me against him again, not in a kiss but in a fierce, warm embrace, and his arms are full of comfort as they surround me. “God, I missed you too.”
Nowthisfeels like home.
CHAPTER 21: Ford Bradley
Permission
She missed me.She missed me.
She kissed me.She kissed me.
I’m trying to hold onto my shock, to keep a filter on it—unsuccessfully, I might add—because holy shit, she kissed me. It wasn’t for show, or because of a sex cake, but because shemissedme. Because she wanted to.
I wanted her to.
What the fuck is happening?
I’m nervous. I don’t want to fuck this up. I don’t know how to handle this, so I’m letting her take the lead.
I hold her close until the bags start to drop onto the baggage carousel. She rushes toward a bag, tugs at it awkwardly, and I reach in to help her with it.
“I have two bags,” she says a little sheepishly, and I still can’t believe she’s here and she just kissed me. Would it be too soon to take her back to my place and offer her a spot in my bed beside me rather than in the guest room?
Jesus.
I’ve been waiting for this moment for far too long, and I’m afraid I’m going to scare her off. The intensity with which I want her is scaringmeoff, to be honest.
Her second bag comes, and I take the lead toward my Range Rover, parked close by in the parking deck.
It’s on the way home when I can stare out at the road and not feel the awkward rush of eye contact when I get up the nerve to ask the one thing I need to know. “Can I ask you a question?” I begin. I’m leaning on the console armrest, and I reach over and take her hand in mine.
“Anything.” She laces her fingers through mine, and she rubs the back of my hand with her other hand.
“What changed?” I can’t help but glance over at her, and she’s staring down at our hands.
She twists her lips before she answers. “I realized that I have feelings for you.” Her voice is soft.
“What made you realize?” I press.
She clears her throat. “Archer. He, uh…he said he wanted me back, and I said we were better off as friends. And then he wanted to know why I kept running to you, and he told me you’ve, um…had feelings for me for some time. It made me realize that I’ve pushed away my feelings for you because I thought I had to. But when he gave me permission to be with you and said he wanted me to be happy, even if it was with a sibling, then he was okay with that, and I guess that made me think about what I want.”
“And you want…” I ask, trailing off as I wait to hear what I’ve wanted to hear for far too long.
“You.”
My breath hitches, and I wish I wasn’t driving right now so I could kiss her again. As if she can read my thoughts, she pulls our joined hands to her lips, and she kisses the back of my hand.
“I want you, Ford,” she says softly.
She can have me. All of me.
“I want you, too,” I rasp.
I pull into the parking garage, and we get her bags out of the back of my SUV. We head to the elevator and take it up to my floor, and the moment my front door latches shut behind her, her mouth is on mine again, initiated by her for the second time. Her hands are on my jaw, and I loop one arm around her waist to haul her to me as my other hand curls around her neck.
She moans into me as I deepen the kiss, our tongues moving in a slow dance together, the urgency and need there even as we take our time and hands start to move and explore. One of my hands stays around her neck while my other fingertips move under her shirt and along the warm skin of her back. I shift my hips as my cock becomes painfully hard, seeking her out as I push against her.
