Page 100 of Thin Lives

“You remember, don’t you?” she asked.

The obvious answer was “yes”.

Calisto went with something different. “I’m sorry I ever forgot you at all, Emmy.”

He swore he watched months of heartache, silence, and pain fall off her shoulders with his words. Her gaze, once a fiery green, had been dulled the past few months, but brightened instantly. Her smile grew wide, matching his.

Calisto felt better than he had in a long while, and all it took, was this woman in his arms. From the very second he’d remembered all of the things that he had forgotten, his mind focused in on one thing above the rest—Emma. He could only imagine how lonely she must have felt.

Scared.

Desolate.

Caged.

There had been a brief period where he fought with his anger where she was concerned. He thought if only she had told him the truth—taken him aside during the many times he asked her if there was something he was missing.

But then he quickly thought of the bullets that nearly killed him.

And the man who probably tried to do it.

Affonso.

Calisto wasn’t angry at all.

Not with Emma.

He suspected she had done what she needed to.

How could he blame her for that?

“I missed you,” Emma said softly.

Calisto caught the one tear that fell from the corner of her eye with the pad of his thumb. “I never really went anywhere. I was always around.”

“But you weren’t at the same time.”

“I’m sorry.”

“Me too,” she replied. “Where have you been?”

Calisto tilted his head to the side, smiling slyly. “Around. Watching. Planning.”

“Planning?”

He lifted one hand, gesturing at them. “Planning, Emma.”

“I don’t understand.”

“I know.”

He didn’t really need her to, not right then.

Calisto tipped Emma’s head up and quickly dropped his head to press a soft kiss to her mouth. He’d thought about kissing her, touching her, holding and having her every single day. Nothing really prepared him for the shock of love that flooded his system when her lips parted for his without question, and her tongue struck against his hard, letting him deepen the kiss until his lungs burned with the need for air.

Even then, he didn’t stop.

He didn’t think about the customers that were walking in and out of the dressing room as he tangled his hand into the strands of her hair. All he could feel were her soft lips and the heat of her mouth pressed to his.