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Honestly, it had been sexy as hell right up until the point where he refused to drop her off at the bus station. The man wouldn’t even discuss it. Hadn’t given her even a few minutes to wrap her head around everything and come up with a plan. Instead, he’d told her to stay quiet and brought her to this prison.
Ok maybe prison was being a little harsh. His house probably cost more than Liv had made in her entire life. The decorating was almost magazine worthy, if a little generic for her tastes. Hell, the couch alone probably cost more than all her furniture combined. But really, if you couldn’t leave a place, it was a prison. And she still didn’t know his plans, or even if there was one.
“Why are you doing this? Why are you trying to protect me?” Liv hated how her voice gave away that she was close to tears.
Tepes stepped in front of her, his body stopping her restless circuit around the room. He somehow still looked perfectly calm. Did anything phase this man? She looked like a wreck. Her once nice suit was ripped, her shoes were scuffed and battered. Liv didn’t even want to consider what her hair or makeup looked like.
He placed his hands on her shoulders, the heat of his body so close soaked into hers. Why was she so cold?
“Because I care about you Liv. I’m not going to let them hurt you.”
“You care about me?” Liv snorted. “If you care about someone, you don’t abandon them and never talk to them again because of something their sister did!”
Tepes shook his head. “That’s not fair Liv.”
Liv knocked his hands off her shoulders and gave him a push. The action felt so good she did it again, forcing him to step back. “No, what’s not fair is when someone acts like a friend then disappears. When you write them every day, sharing every part of your soul for two years and they cut you out of their life without even a goodbye.” She shoved him again.
“You were sixteen, and I was twenty-one. After what your sister did, it wouldn’t have been right to keep talking.”
“Right?” She shoved him again. “The right thing to do would’ve been explaining things to me instead of vanishing. Fair would have been not kicking me out onto the street because my sister had issues. Hell, it would have been moderately decent of you to not have your friends dump our shit on the street, leaving me homeless for months.” Tears blurred her vision, and she slammed her fists into his too solid chest. “The right thing to do would have been to take one god-damned day to check in on the girl you claimed was a friend and make sure she was ok before walking off and forgetting about her.”
The buried anger of years rushed through her, and she lashed out, hitting him in the chest again and again. Years of loneliness and having to be the responsible sister. Struggling to get her GED while working full time so she wouldn’t go hungry. Trying over and over to get her sister to grow the fuck up and, in the end, losing her to some asshole who got to walk away from a murder charge because he had connections and money.
Tepes grabbed her wrists, stopping her assault, so she kicked out. He wasn’t the one that she wanted to hurt, but it didn’t matter. Liv couldn’t stay calm or passive anymore. She growled and struggled against his hold, trying to make him feel the pain that had been locked inside her for so many years.
The world seemed to spin and then she was pinned to the floor. His large body pressed down against hers. Even her hands were still as he pinned them over her head. The heat of him, the weight of him, felt like a blanket wrapping around her. Somehow, even though she was helpless, she felt safe.
For long seconds they lay there, their faces only inches apart. Liv breathed in the warm air as he exhaled, and she felt the anger inside her melting into longing. She had dreamed of being this close to him. Of what it would be like to have him pressed intimately against her. She’d never imagined exactly this situation, but the reality of him holding her down was so much better than the fantasy.
Tepes slowly released her hands and used one of his to brush a lock of hair off her cheek. “I didn’t know you were living at my place.”
Heat rushed to her cheeks. She hadn’t told him because she hadn’t wanted to admit that her mother had left them without even a note. If she was being fair, she also hadn’t told him about the men her sister had cheated on him with because she had feared what he would do.
“I know. Why didn’t you at least say goodbye?” Speaking to him with their faces so close was like they were in their own bubble, protected from everything outside.
“I was afraid if I talked to you, I would give your sister another chance. I should have left her long before then. I knew she was cheating on me from my first deployment, but I ignored it.”
“Why?”
“Because I didn’t want to lose you.”
“I was just a kid.”
Tepes’ chuckle blew a warm breath against her cheek. She shivered as her nipples tightened.
“Exactly. A smart, funny, and loyal kid. Your letters were the only good things in my life sometimes.”
“I wouldn’t have stopped if you left her.” She wouldn’t have. Honestly, it would have been easier since she wouldn’t have felt like she was betraying him by not telling him about what her sister was up to. “I didn’t stop until you stopped writing back.”
Liv could see he was struggling for words, but did it really matter? Here he was back in her life and he’d saved her from whatever Luis’ men would have done to her. Even if he sent her away now, the memory of them talking like this, bodies pressed so intimately together, would haunt her dreams forever. When she had been younger, a relationship of any kind with him had been pure fantasy. But now?
Even if it didn’t work out, Liv knew she would regret it if she didn’t try. Her future was uncertain, to say the least. Luis would probably make sure she didn’t survive to cause him any more trouble. If she was going to die, she wasn’t going to be afraid to take chances.
“You’re too young for me.” Tepes’ eyes held a hunger that told her his words were excuses.
“Iwastoo young for you,” she corrected.
Now or never.
