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“You are kidding me!”
“Dad was questioned and released. He had nothing to do with it.”
“So why is he here?”
“He just needs a place to stay.”
“And you’re suddenly the soul of generosity? Taking care of the homeless and your father and a beat-up kid?” I was spinning closer and closer to the edge of a question, a cliff I swore I’d never approach—but I couldn’t stop myself. Every defense was in ruins.
“Is this more of the Tyler O’Neill sleight of hand?” I asked. “The guessing game? Which part is the real you and which part is the bluff? Which part is the guy handing out money to the poor and which part is the man who walked away—” My voice cracked and I stopped, grasping with everything in me for control.
“Whatever it’s easiest for you to believe, Juliette. Go with that. Don’t break your head trying to figure me out.”
“It’s a little late for that, Tyler! Or did I imagine that summer? Did I make that up? You and me and the Chevy and coming out here every night. Did I make up your kisses and the way you touched me? Those things you told me about moving to New Orleans and how we’d live above a bakery and you’d play the piano and I’d get my law degree? Was that real? Did I make that up?”
“No.” He was so still. So quiet. “It was real.”
“Then why did you go?”
The words tumbled out, words I’d wondered a million times, and now, now that he was here and my heart was pumping out fresh hurt, they were unstoppable.
Tyler froze as if the question had a power over him he couldn’t fight.
“Don’t,” he breathed, “do this to yourself.”
I laughed, the sound vicious and hard, and he closed the last distance between us. He was so close I could smell him, taste the spice of him on my tongue. A buzz filled my head, a warning that I was too close. Too close to him and too close to doing something stupid.
“Juliette,” Tyler breathed, his eyes roving over my face like fingers over Braille, “I’m not worth whatever it is you’re doing to yourself.”
“Then tell me why you left!” I snapped, and he flinched. “What did you think would happen when I woke up that morning and realized you’d left me, left me after I’d lied to my father for months, after I’d slept with you and given you every single part of myself, after I’d told you that I loved you? Did you think I wouldn’t notice? Or that I wouldn’t care that you left without a word!” I was screaming. “Not one word, Tyler!”
“I know,” he whispered. “I do, I know.”
I slapped him. Because he didn’t know. He had no goddamned idea of the pain I’d lived with.
My hand burned and the buzz in my head turned to a roar.
Tyler’s jaw clenched and his eyes blazed and for a second I wondered if he might slap me back. I would welcome it. I would welcome the chance to totally kick his ass.
“Feel better?” he asked, his cheek turning red.
“No.”
“Me, neither,” he said.
And then he kissed me. His mouth hard against mine, a slap in kiss form. Craving something violent, I grabbed his shirt and pulled him to me. My mouth opened and I devoured him, would have swallowed him whole if I could. If I could just get close enough.
He groaned and wrapped his arms around me, low around my hips, and lifted me against him, notching me against his erection.
His flavor exploded in me. His heat and scent pummelled me. I fisted my hands into his hair, raking the skin of his shoulders with my nails and he groaned low in his chest. A growl of desire and want and need that my entire body echoed.
It was all so familiar. The way he grabbed my ass and how his thigh slid between my legs. That pressure. That fucking pressure. He knew what it did to me.
“Ty-“ I tried to push away, because I felt so close to the edge. So ready. And I didn’t want to be vulnerable like that with him. I didn’t want to give him that.
“I can feel how close you are,” he whispered in my ear, before taking my earlobe between his teeth. “Let me make you come. Let me… let me do it for you.”
No. I wanted to say that. No way. I had my pride. I had my anger. And all my questions.
But it had been so long. Since he’d held me. Since anyone had held me. Since the ice around my body had melted enough for me to feel something. And the rush of feeling was too much to ignore.
So, I just melted into him, onto him. His thigh holding my weight. His arms around my waist.
