Page 76 of Promise

Being alone with Dart.

22

[Trinity]

On the ride back to the house, Dart has his hand on my thigh. However, he isn’t simply resting his palm there. He’s gently squeezing my leg, like he’s adjusting and re-adjusting his grip. Fingertips kneading my flesh, massaging it. Every press of his fingers sends a shockwave of desire up the inside of my leg and straight to a part of me that’s only been touched by me.

For three years.

He doesn’t move any higher up my leg, keeping his hand respectfully mid-thigh, but all I can think about is how disrespectful I want him to be.

How I want his hand to slip underneath my dress and his fingers to tickle my skin. How I want him to brush where I’m damp and desperate and feel how much my body responds to his.

I shift only slightly, spreading my legs a little wider but not wide enough. If he senses the hint, he doesn’t act. Just keeps toying with my thigh and winding me up until I nearly rocket from my SUV in desperate need of some alone time.

A battery-operated date is required.

Only, when we enter the house, Dart pauses in front of the staircase, blocking the hasty retreat I planned. We stare at one another, the tension between us as tight as his fingers gripping my thigh only moments ago.

“I need a shower,” I state as an excuse. Fisting my hands at my sides, like I’m ready to implode from sexual tension.

Everything seems to collide at once. The way he was with Mirabelle. The way he doted on me. All the back-touching and forehead-pressing and the anticipation of another kiss. The way he handled my family. And forgave me for Spencer Reid.

I want to kiss you like you deserve to be kissed.

I wanted that too.

He’d also asked me earlier if I still wanted a divorce. Something I’m not ready to discuss, but I want him. Right now. Right here. I want him again.

And I haven’t felt this feeling in years. This buzz beneath my skin. This flutter in my belly.

His nostrils flare as if he senses my desire. His shoulders rise. He looks like a bull ready to charge.

Do I want him to charge? Should I charge him? Could I have sex with him again?

One farewell fuck, I’d thought earlier. One more time to just feel him between my thighs. See if we still fit in the ways we fit for years.

I collapse against the closed front door, almost like I’m blown back by the force of my thoughts. The idea of him inside me again. Touching me where I haven’t been touched.

My back meets the wood with a soft thud.

“Tell me what you want.” His voice is ragged, sounding as desperate as I suddenly feel. “I’ll give you anything.”

Anything. He’d always been like this with me. Promising, and coming through on it.

This house. Attempts to have a baby. His love.

His love was always there, underneath it all.

I want him to love me again. I want to love him again.

“Sit,” I quietly command.

He steps back, catching his calves on the first riser of the stairs and lowers to take a seat. The same place he once took me when we first moved into this house.

It’s exactly where I want him.

Dart keeps eye contact with me the entire time. “Be sure about this, Trin. Because once we go there, I can’t go back.”