Page 33 of Return to You

“Talk,” she demanded.

“When I got home last night, Kade was waiting up for me. He said we needed to talk.”

Ali did a quick glance around, even though she was fairly certain that no one else was in the house. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He told me that after Patrick’s funeral he went on a three-month bender and then checked himself into rehab. He said that once he got out, he wanted to have at least one full year sober before he came back. He didn’t want to be like his dad or my mom and put the boys through the same things we’d gone through. He wanted to make sure that he could be the man that Patrick thought he was and that I deserved.”

Jess’s jaw was hanging like it was on a hinge and her eyes were wide as saucers. “He said that? The man that Patrick thought he was and the man that you deserved?”

“Yep.”

“Damn.” Jess looked just as shocked as Ali had been.

“I know.”

“You know what this means?” Her friend asked somberly.

“What?” Ali’s breath caught as she waited to hear what this meant, cause she sure as shit didn’t know.

“Looks like Kade is well on his way to earning his title back. McKnight-in-Shining-Armor rides again!”

They both devolved into laughter but in the back of Ali’s mind there was a little nagging voice telling her that there was no such thing as a knight in shining armor. Kade might be riding in on a white horse now, but everyone left. Even if they didn’t want to. First her granddad when she was a little girl, her mom when she was a pre-teen, and then Patrick.

Her granddad’s death had been hard on her because she loved him so much. Her mom’s death had been scary because she was placed in foster care. Her brother’s death had devastated her because he’d been her whole life. She wasn’t sure she could survive losing someone else she loved and depended on. Which meant, she couldn’t love or depend on Kade…no matter how tempting it was.

11

Kade dipped his head to let the hot water run over his hair, down his neck and over his shoulders. The pounding stream pulsed into his muscles like the head of a vibrating massager. He wanted to lose himself in the sensation. Just like the old Calgon-take-me-away ads he wanted the shower to be a portal to take him far, far away from the knowledge that he couldn't escape from. The knowledge that was tormenting him night and day.

He was still in love with Ali. Actually, screw still in love. He was more in love with her than ever. Fuck. His life would be so much simpler if he could just see her the way he used to see her. As his best friend’s sassy, little sister.

Being back in Whisper Lake was quickly showing him that Ali was his life. He felt like he was alive for the first time in a long time. He was a shell of a man without her, and that was no way to live.

But holy shit, he wasn't finding living with her to be a whole hell of a lot easier. She was just so damn tempting. So damn sexy. So damn perfect.

Watching Ali today at the barbeque had been torture. He closed his eyes and let the water wash over his face as images flooded his brain. Her cute little ass in her jean shorts. It was so distracting that he’d burnt half a dozen burgers and dogs. Her lean, tan legs had skin so smooth they were practically begging him to run his hands over them and every time he was near her he had to restrain himself from doing just that. She might be thinner than she used to be, but she still had curves that could stop his heart. Her hourglass shape displayed by her soft cotton T-shirt and denim shorts had inspired several heart-stopping moments today.

Her frame was still on the thin side but that only served to ignite his fierce desire to make up for his past wrongs and make sure she never had to face anything alone again. But the knowledge that he’d contributed to her pain was gnawing at him.

He’d been a mess, and he’d done what he felt he needed to do. He could rationalize that a million different ways. But his feelings for Ali weren’t rational. They sprang from a primal, primitive place deep inside of him that had him wanting to toss her over his shoulder and drag her into the nearest cave.

He closed his eyes trying to block out his base instincts but it backfired. He wanted to put her out of his mind but instead she filled it.

A flash of the small sliver of her flat belly he'd glimpsed when she’d reached above the fridge to grab the chip bowl played in his head. He pictured himself doing what he’d been unable to do in real life: he stalked across the kitchen, spun her around to face him, dropped to his knees, and began planting kisses along that band of smooth skin. He imagined the way she would shiver when he touched her. He felt the vibration of her trembling under his fingers and lips.

His body responded as if it were actually happening and his erection throbbed heavily between his legs. He figured he might as well drive that train all the way into the station.

He reached down and wrapped his fingers around his pulsing shaft and gripped himself hard as he stroked up and down with firm pressure. With each pass, his movements grew faster, ramping up his level of arousal. He pressed his other palm flat against the wet tile to brace himself, his balance growing unsteady as his head swam with swirling lust. There was no cure for the fever that infected him. Ali had gotten under his skin and invaded his whole system and there was nothing he could do about that except to try and take it one day at a time.

The closer he came to blowing his load, the faster the images flashed through his brain. Except now they weren't just snapshots from today. Now, they were snippets of fantasy, projected onto the back of his closed eyelids as he jerked himself. It was the sexiest movie he'd ever seen.

Ali was on her knees in front of him, her lips wrapped firmly around his engorged tip. He disappeared into the wet recesses of her mouth as she sucked him off, her eyes staring up at him the entire time.

Then she was totally naked, lying back on a bed, offering her breasts to him as her arms stretched out to welcome him into her embrace.

His face buried in her neck as he drove himself into her again and again, his dick buried in her tight wetness, their bare skin creating a friction that could set the world on fire.

Then he was spreading her legs with his hands and covering her sex with his mouth, lapping up her sweet juices as she begged him to keep licking her.

He could only surrender to the overwhelming sensations that these images sent flooding through him. He let his imagination run away and fill in the details—the look on her face, the sound of her whimpers, the flush that spread across her chest as he licked her sex. Then, the taste of her sweet arousal as she came on his mouth and the feel of her body convulsing as she cried out his name.

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