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Her head tilts up to mine, her mouth parts in surprise, and I wonder…have I never said it? Have I never told her how much it hurt to have her disappear from my life?
I tell her now. “You were my everything, you were the one thing in my life that kept me centered, and you only ever talked about leaving.”
“Abby was your center,” she whispers. “She was your girlfriend for two years, and—”
“Stop.” My hand lifts, my thumb brushing the dampness from her cheek, not sure if it’s rain or tears. “She was my girlfriend, not my best friend.”
She swallows. “That was Craig.”
I laugh, and drop my hand. “Jesus, you’re stubborn. You refuse to acknowledge that you mattered?”
“Reece.”
I turn away and go to the door. “I’m going to get my own room. Lock the door behind me.”
“Reece!”
I don’t turn back. I’m going in circles with this girl, and it has to stop. She’s right. I shouldn’t have agreed to the road trip. Hell, I shouldn’t even have entered her orbit. She ruins everything.
She ruins me.
“Reece!”
I’m halfway across the parking lot, and I barely hear her over the still-thundering rain, but now I do turn back. “Damn it, Lucy, get back—”
She apparently didn’t expect me to stop, because her body slams into mine, our breath whooshing out, although I think it’s more from the proximity than it is the collision.
“I really mattered?” she asks, breathing hard and looking up at me.
It’s on the tip of my tongue to punish her. To say yes, she mattered, but to emphasize the past tense. She mattered once. No longer.
But damn it. She does matter. Present tense.
I don’t have the words. I’ve never had the words to tell her how I felt about her back then, and I don’t have them now. Hell, I’m not even sure I know how I feel about her right now.
She’s stubborn and provocative and infuriating, and…
Fuck it.
I plunge a hand into her hair and pull her face up to mine so that my mouth can claim hers.
I groan the second our lips touch, and my fingers flex slightly in her damp hair when I feel her stiffen. Don’t. Don’t pull away.
Then Lucy’s lips soften beneath mine, leaning into the kiss as her arms wind around my neck.
I tell myself to keep it casual, to not devour her in the middle of a parking lot during a summer thunderstorm from hell, but restraint’s never really been my thing, especially not with Lucy Hawkins.
Her kiss is both sweet and dangerous, both teasing and passionate, and lest she get confused about who’s driving this kiss, I slide my hand down slightly, gripping the back of her neck as my other arm wraps around her, dragging her all the way against me.
I nudge her lips apart and she lets me in with a soft gasp.
Mine. Always mine.
Lightning flashes, thunder barks, and the wind rips the rain viciously against us, but I don’t notice. I’m not aware of anything but her and her warmth.
Lucy’s nails claw at my head, my neck, and each nip of pain is the perfect counterpoint to the softness of her mouth.
I was right. Nobody tastes like Lucy, no girl’s soft moans have ever got me at the gut level like hers have.
