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She laughed, dismissing his words. That told him she wouldn’t settle for less than the truth—so he would give her what he could for now.
“Fine. I wanted to make it easier on me.” Scowling now, he scrubbed both hands across his face. He wasn’t ready to tell her everything—what she’d made him feel before and what he was feeling now. So he looked into her eyes again and said, “But now I’m back.”
“Temporarily.”
“And I had to see you. Try to explain.”
She swallowed hard. “Meaning what exactly?”
“Meaning that night with you threw me. I wasn’t expecting it. I thought distance would help. But I couldn’t get my mind off you,” he said, moving closer. “Every night I dreamed of you. Every day I thought of you. Damn it, Kayla, you’re inside me and I had to come back to tell you that.”
She took a shallow breath but didn’t look away from him. “I still don’t understand why you left without so much as a goodbye. You hurt me.”
He winced. “I know.”
“I won’t be hurt by you again.”
“I don’t want to hurt you.”
“Then leave.”
“I can’t,” he said, taking another step closer and celebrating internally when she didn’t move away. “And you don’t really want me to.”
“Yes, I—” She broke off when he reached out and pulled her into him. “No, I really don’t.”
Five
“That’s what I needed to hear.” He kissed her again, pouring into that kiss every emotion, every ounce of hunger that had hounded him for the past nine months. And she moved into him, opening for him, leaning closer still, wrapping her arms around his neck and meeting his passion with her own.
Just like before, she staggered him. The connection. The intensity of the fire that leaped up between them threatened to engulf him and this time, he welcomed it. This is what he had been missing for far too long. This place. This passion.
This woman.
He swept her up into his arms, never breaking the kiss that held them bound by breath and soul. Carrying her through the small house to her bedroom, he set her on her feet and in seconds they were naked and falling onto the brass bed covered in a soft, silky duvet and a mountain of pillows.
Holding her close, he rolled her across the bed and she went with him willingly, eagerly, entangling her legs with his. Her hands slid across his skin as he explored every inch of her body. Heartbeats thundered and each breath was a sigh sifting into the quiet. There was an old clock on the wall and the steady tick of seconds passing pounded out around them like a drumbeat.
He broke free of the kiss long enough to say, “Please tell me you still have condoms in that bedside drawer.”
She pushed her hair out of her eyes, looked up at him and nodded. “I kept them.”
“Grateful to hear it.” He reached for one, tore it open and sheathed himself before turning back to her. “I’ve missed you, Kayla.”
“I missed you, too, Matt. So much.” She reached up and cupped his face in her palms. “I still don’t know why you left, but right now, it doesn’t matter.”
Guilt pinged in his chest, for the pain he’d caused her and for holding himself back from her still, but he ignored it. Now wasn’t the time. Now was for the two of them. To reconnect. To reestablish what they’d found that night so many months ago. What he’d so stupidly thrown away.
Then his brain shut down, overloaded by his senses. All that existed was the slide of skin on skin, the soft sighs of their heightened breathing, the crashing beats of their hearts. He meant to take her slowly, to draw out the experience of being together again. But that plan dissolved in a raging sea of desire that pumped so hard, so hot, it was impossible to ignore.
She moved into him, arching her hips as she ran the flat of her hands across his chest. “Now, Matt. Please, now.”
“Yeah, baby. Now.”
He entered her in one long stroke and instantly felt the sense of rightness that he remembered so clearly. Her body cradled his, her arms sliding around his back, holding him close. They moved together in a nearly silent dance of passion that crested faster and higher than either of them had expected. He felt it when her body began to tighten. He heard her breath hitch in her chest, felt the frantic slide of her hands, the sharp edge of her nails raking his skin. And when she cried out his name, lost in the pulse of release, Matt let himself go.
