AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Oh,” she whispers, her gaze dropping from mine to hit her toes.
“Don’t worry, Cupcake. I’ll tread quietly.” We stop outside of her room. “This is yours.”
I swing the door open, revealing a mirror image of mine—a wooden bed, faux-fur throws, wool carpet, and simple white-painted walls. There’s a freestanding clawfoot tub in the room’s corner beneath exposed timber rafters.
I stand like an idiot in the doorway, watching as she inspects her room, like crossing the threshold will automatically have us both undressed.
Her in her room, me in mine, is as far as it will ever go. She’s mine to protect. A temporary tenant. A dangerous temptation.
She eyes me for a long beat. “And you? Where will you be?”
“Down there.” I grunt and point down the hall. The ten-foot distance between our rooms is going to be the death of me. Not to mention my cock.
“Towels are in the bathroom. Make yourself at home. If you need anything, you let me know.”
Stubbornness pulls through her expression. “I won’t.”
“Dakota,” I order, frustration getting the best of me.
Glancing over her shoulder, she gives me one of those half-annoyed, half-amused looks. “You growling at me, Hotshot?”
“Do you remember what I told you that night?” My voice lowers, husky, full of the past.
Tell me you remember.
Although, if she does, I’ll have a whole other set of grievances. I step forward, planting my forearm above the door over her head, staring down into those gorgeous gunpowder eyes. “The night before you left for San Antonio. What did I say?”
She’s silent for so long. An eternity. And I think of every goddamn way I can fill the cursed silence.
Kiss her.
Fuck her.
Beg her.
Crush my lips onto hers, soft, hard, whatever she wants, and back her up and into the bedroom. Kiss her because I can’t remember what she tastes like. Kiss her because it’s all I’ve wanted to do for the last six years.
Still, I get myself under control, hands fisting at my side to keep myself from touching her. “Dakota.”
She stares up at me with that unflinching, gorgeous face of hers.
She doesn’t remember.
But then she opens her mouth and whispers, “‘I will always come for you. No matter what.’”
“Always,” I repeat.
A tender vulnerability paints her face. “That was a long time ago, Davis.”
The tightness in my chest warms. “But I meant it. I still do.”
Dakota leans into me, stretching out her hand to brush against mine. An electrical charge explodes across my skin. An ever-present awareness that she is here, back with me, where she belongs.
Easy. So easy to pick up where we left off. The spark. It’s still there. Living, humming in my veins every time we touch.
And that’s when I fucking see it.
My dog tag looped around her neck.
