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I try to fight the tears that spring to my eyes, that rise and start to slide down my cheeks. But it’s impossible as a thousand memories of Lena swell up inside of me, as I relive the million moments that made us best friends.
“Kelly, Kelly.” Kane drags his chair around the table, wrapping his arm around me and squeezing me close to him. “What is it?”
I cry into his firm chest, the sobs tearing a jagged path through me, tearing me up inside. “I’ve had a crush on you for so long. I’ve always dreamed of this moment…”
“You have?” he growls, his fingers moving through my hair.
“Forever.” I sob. “But I always thought to myself, well, it can never happen because he’d never want me. And then you went missing. But now you’re telling me my dreams could come true.”
“They can.”
I throw myself back, staring up at him. “How can you say that? Do you think Lena’s going to throw us a freaking parade when she finds out? And you said you couldn’t even tell her you were alive. Which means – what – you’re going to leave Malta and disappear back to God knows where again? Is that it? You haven’t explained how any of this could work, Kane.”
“Kelly, calm down—”
I leap to my feet, slicing my hand through the air. “Don’t tell me to calm down.”
He follows me and grabs my shoulders, pushing me up against the wall and kissing me with rough force, kissing me so that I have no choice but to listen to the lust inside of me and kiss him back. Even now, in the midst of my anger and sadness, I find my body tingling at his touch.
Groaning, he slides his hand up my leg, further and further until he’s almost at my sex.
It takes everything I have to break it off and spin away from him, turning with my hand raised.
“No, Kane. You don’t just get to kiss me and stop my questions. None of this makes any sense.”
He sighs darkly. “I know, Kelly. I fucking know that. But it doesn’t change how I feel.”
“But what about your daughter? What about my best friend?”
He runs a hand through his hair, a gesture I recognize from my lifelong crush on him, a gesture that means he has no freaking idea how to answer the question.
Returning to the table, he drops down with another sigh, shaking his head. “All I know is I can’t let you go.”
Chapter Ten
Kane
Kelly wanders over to the table and drops down, drawing my eye to the way her breasts quiver despite the circumstances, despite how important this discussion is. We could be standing on the edge of a volcano and I still wouldn’t be able to stop myself from studying her flushing skin, from drinking in the way her eyes glimmer.
“If you can’t come back to life,” Kelly says, “then how the hell are we supposed to have a future?”
A thought occurs to me, but it dies as soon as it arises.
“What?” she says, reading my face.
Because of course my woman can read my expression, dissect the emotions moving across my features.
“I was going to say you could disappear with me, but…”
“But that would mean leaving Lena without her dad and her best friend, not to mention how much it would hurt my parents.”
I nod. “Exactly.”
We’re silent for a time, a soft rare breeze purring against the window. Someone strums a guitar elsewhere in the city. My phone sits quietly at the edge of the table, letting me know Jocko hasn’t encountered any problems yet, that Lena is safe.
“But I really can’t let you go,” I snarl, passion flaring up inside of me. “This feeling, it’s not… I don’t just want you. I need you. I’ll go insane if I can’t spend the rest of my life with you, Kelly if we can’t build a home together and fill it with children and laughter and happiness. With song. Do you still sing?”
Her features shift in that shy-sassy way of hers, a constant battleground being played out on her face each moment. It’s the way I imagine her looking when I push inside of her for the first time, her virgin-tight hole gripping me firmly, so tight my helm will sizzle with sensation.
I repress a groan, tightening my fists to stop myself from reaching over and palming her breasts.
“Yes,” she says after a pause. “I mean, sort of.”
“What does that mean?”
“I sing to myself. Sometimes I’ll sing in front of Dad or Mom or Lena. But I still haven’t worked up the courage to go on a stage yet. Or record any of my music. It’s like my throat closes up anytime I know somebody’s going to actually hear me.”
I reach over and stroke my hand along her cheek, savoring the way she shivers, the way her eyes flicker with lust, and something else, something beyond mere affection.
