I tilt my head back to meet his eyes, smiling wide. “I loved it.”
A grin spreads across his face, creases bracketing his sexy mouth, and my eyes drop to it. And I don’t know if it’s the Fireball or the high of my first motorcycle ride or him being sweet and looking sexy in the moonlight, but I lean forward and kiss him.
I can feel he’s taken by surprise, but he recovers quickly, his hand lifting to cup the back of my head and keep me there, pressed to his lips. This time its no quick peck, he takes his cue from me and deepens the kiss, urging my lips open and swooping inside, chasing my tongue with his, and it’s our first real kiss.
And oh, my God, can this man kiss.
My hand moves to his chest and slips up to the warmth of the skin exposed at his throat. I cup his neck, and he adjusts his head, canting to the side as he hooks an arm around my waist and hauls me across his lap. I’m cradled in his arms, and a feeling of belonging washes over me. It’s like this is where I’m supposed to be. It’s like coming home.
I feel safe in his arms, and I never want to leave his embrace.
We kiss a long time, and I can’t help wondering if he is only allowing us this, here, because it’s as far from a bed as we can get. Not that Saint couldn’t bend me over one of these boulders and take me, and I’m sure he could make me love every minute of it. But that’s not the way he’d treat me. Somehow I just know it innately. I feel it to my bones.
Saint’s palm strokes up my thigh and back down to squeeze the back of my knee. It travels up again, and this time it skates up my abdomen and closes over one breast.
I stutter in a breath as he squeezes and caresses, his thumb stroking the erect nipple poking through his Kings of Carnage T-shirt. I feel the zing shoot through from my nipple to my womb, and I moan into his mouth.
He breaks the kiss, dragging his mouth along my jaw and down my throat. He latches on and sucks, and I know I’ll have a mark there tomorrow, and I don’t care. I want it. I want his mark on me. I want to look at it in the mirror tomorrow and remember this moment all alone with him up on this ridge.
His mouth releases me and drags across my hot skin to my ear. He nips and then growls, “I want you.”
Did he say those words or did I imagine them?
He pulls back to stare in my eyes, and I nod my head, clutching at his neck and pulling his mouth back to mine. He complies, kissing me again and again.
Eventually he breaks free, pulling my hands from his neck. “We need to stop.”
“What? Why?”
“This wasn’t why I brought you up here.”
“I know that.”
“I shouldn’t have let it go that far with you.”
“Why?”
“Because of who you are. Because I made a promise to your mother to take care of you. This wasn’t what she had in mind.”
“How do you know that? Maybe this is exactly what she knew would happen.”
He shakes his head. “No way. This wasn’t the deal. I’m not looking for an ol’ lady.”
“Seems to me you’ve already got a wife. We are married. This is okay.”
“We agreed this was temporary. I’m not looking for anything permanent, and that’s what you’d be. Nothing with you could ever be casual, Kami. It just can’t. I’m going to get my patch soon. And that’s all I’m focused on. You understand?”
“Okay, fine.” I push off his lap, and he stands.
“The kiss was a mistake.” He stares at me. “We’re better off staying friends.”
I huff out a frustrated laugh.
“What?” he snaps.
“You. Only you could think you could put your wife in the friend zone.”
“This isn’t a real marriage, so, yeah, I can.”
“Okay. I get it. You don’t want me. Fine.”
“Didn’t say I didn’t want you. Think I just fucking proved that I do. But this would be a complication I don’t need right now. You get that, right?”
“I said I did already. Geez.”
He moves to the bike. “It’s getting late. We should head back.”
He throws his leg over, and lifts the bike off the kickstand, then waits for me to get on while he straps on his helmet. I take the one he pulls from the handlebars and holds out to me. Once it’s strapped on, I climb on behind him.
He doesn’t waste a moment before he drops it in gear and twists the throttle.
CHAPTER SEVENTEEN
Kami—
I sit in the garden in the early morning sunshine, sipping a coffee and thinking about things. Saint left an hour ago, saying he’d be gone all day. It was a bit awkward this morning, but when he grabbed my coffee mug before I could add the creamer, and took a big slug of it, it broke the ice. He winked at me, and I gave him a smile in return. I was actually sad to hear his bike roar off into the distance.
I came outside to enjoy the cool air before the heat of day sets in. Birds chatter as they flit around the feeder and birdbath I cleaned up and filled. With the picket fence fixed and painted, and the weeds all pulled, revealing the pavers, the garden is magical. I even unearthed some little brass fairy sculptures hidden under the overgrowth.
They remind me of the little fairy gardens Mary Elizabeth and I made in her backyard the summer we were seven. I smile at the memory, and wish she could see this place. I know she’d love it, too. She was always into reading fantasy stories about fairies and such.
I long to have our friendship back. I bite my lip, wondering if she’d take my call. I suppose there’s only one way to find out.
I dig out my phone and stare at her contact. I take a breath and call. As it rings I imagine her staring down at her phone contemplating whether to pick up. I silently count the rings. Three, four, five. I’m sure its about to go to voicemail, when it connects.
“Hello?”
“Mary Elizabeth?”
“Yes.”
“It’s Kami.”
“I know who it is.”
“I’m glad you picked up. I’ve wanted to call you for so long, but I was afraid you’d reject me.”
“So, what did you want, Kami?”
“This is really hard for me… to admit I was wrong. I know I was awful to you. I’m so sorry.”
“Well, thanks for your apology but it would have meant more if it had come when you hadn’t lost everything else first.”
“You’re right. You’ve been right about everything, Mary Elizabeth. I screwed up, big time, and worst of all, I treated you horribly. I know I have no right to expect you to forgive me, but can I at least try to make it up to you?”
“How?”
“Well, could we have lunch and talk? I’ll drive all the way to Savannah, I swear.”
“I’m actually in Atlanta right now visiting my aunt for the summer. So…”
“Perfect. I’m in Uprising.”
“Where’s that?”
“It’s a small town not far from Atlanta.”
“I heard you got married. It’s all over town.”
“Is it? I guess I shouldn’t be surprised.”
“I saw you at graduation. Was that your new husband?”