Page 60 of Under My Skin

I spun back around to face him, and he cleared the distance between us in four long strides. Without another word, he cupped my cheeks in his hands and crashed his lips to mine.

Unlike the two times Braden had given me brief, chaste pecks on the lips, there wasn’t a hint of hesitation in this kiss. Not one iota of awkwardness. This wasn’t him testing the waters. It was him pouring every single emotion from the past seventy-two hours into the connection. All the pain, grief, fear, heartache, and confusion. It was a plea for me to let him in. Him imploring me to see where this could go if I’d let it.

As I let out a startled gasp, he took the opportunity to slip his tongue into my mouth, searching mine out and massaging it with determined, purposeful strokes. One of his hands left my face and slid around the small of my back, pulling me flush against him as our lips and tongues moved together effortlessly like an intricate choreographed dance. The rest of the world just faded away, leaving only me and him and this strange, yet hauntingly beautiful connection that had been forged between us when we weren’t looking.

When I finally pulled back, breathless, he brushed his lips over mine one more time. Softer. Sweeter. So heartbreakingly tender that it made my eyes mist over.

“I had to do that just one time,” he whispered, resting his forehead against mine.

And then he turned around and walked back to his car, leaving me standing in the middle of this parking lot, completely speechless.

CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

BRADEN

FOUR DAYS LATER

As I pulledinto the parking lot at Quivira Glen Park in Shawnee, Kansas, I chuckled to myself when I saw my best friend standing next to the swing set, hands in his pockets, wearing a pair of black slacks, a white button-down shirt, and a navy-blue tie. The exact same outfit he’d worn to our senior year homecoming dance. And this park? It was where they’d ended up that night after being run out of the dance by one of Kyler’s tormentors. Where they’d had their first kiss, and where he’d asked her to be his girlfriend.

“It’s almost go time,” I announced as I walked over to where a small crowd of Ian and Kyler’s family and friends was congregated. “Ky should be right behind me.”

“Thanks, man.” Ian took a deep breath, bouncing in place like he was on the sidelines at one of our high school games.

I had no idea why he was so nervous. Weallknew this was just a formality. Unlike the clusterfuck that was my love life right now.

My love life.

Fuck, I’d never thought I would live to see the day when I said those words. But there was no other word for what I was feeling. What else could I call the woman who owned every single one of my thoughts? The woman – and child – I would have laid down my life for if it meant giving them back what they’d lost or sparing them one more second of pain? The only person in the whole world I could envision a future with?

The woman who’d bent over backward to provide for my son when his mother was so cruelly ripped away from him mere hours after he’d entered this world. And who had been so determined to make her own way when an unhinged psycho had done everything she could to keep me from knowing that baby even existed.

The woman I wished I was with right now more than anything, rather than being present in the moment celebrating two people I loved like family on one of the happiest days of their lives.

“Oh. Em. Gee. Is that Braden Hicks?TheBraden Hicks? The highest-paid rookie wide receiver in the country?” Melissa Van Der Beek mock gasped, pulling me from my inner turmoil. “Can I have your autograph, Mr. Big Football Man?”

I rolled my eyes as I gave her a hug. “Might wanna check your facts, blondie. I’m not a rookie anymore. Unlike your man.” Turning to her boyfriend, Liam, I held out my hand, which he shook. “I hear there are talks about calling you up to the majors, man. Congrats.”

He chuckled as he wrapped an arm around Melissa’s shoulders and kissed her temple. “Nothing’s a done deal yet. But thanks.”

“Is everything okay, B?” Melissa asked. “You seem…I don’t know. Off.”

Oh,hellno. I wasnotdoing this right now. Kyler had already tried to ask me what was wrong when she’d shown up at myscavenger hunt stop about half an hour ago, and I’d shut that shit downsofucking fast. No way in hell was I about to ruin this day for her and Ian by unloading about what a shitstorm my life was.

“I’m fine,” I muttered.

“Guys, she’s here!” Ian’s sister, Izzie, exclaimed as she vibrated with excitement like a kid looking into a toy store window.

The buzz of conversation ceased as we all turned toward where Kyler was getting out of her car in the parking lot, dolled up in a replica of the dress she’d worn to homecoming almost five years ago. Ian took several deep breaths before he started to walk over to her, meeting her halfway.

“Hey, baby,” he murmured, wiping some tears off her cheeks and pecking her on the lips. “You look amazing.”

“So do you. You know, it’s a good thing I drive a hybrid with all the driving around town you had me do today,” she teased him.

He gave her another kiss, then pressed his lips to her forehead before taking another calming breath and starting to speak.

“I love you. So much. But whenever I’m with you, it’s like everything I want to say gets caught in my throat and nothing comes out. That’s why I had you drive all over town today, and that’s why I wrote all those notes. It gave me a chance to word everything I’ve wanted to say to you since we first started dating exactly the way I needed to.

“You’re the most incredible person I’ve ever known, Ky. You’re beautiful and smart and you have a great sense of humor, and you get me like no one else ever has. And you’re the strongest person I’ve ever met. You’ve been to hell and back, and somehow, you haven’t let it break you. You inspire me every day to be a better man. A stronger man. Every day when I wake upnext to you, I look at you and wonder how I got lucky enough that you’ve agreed to let me be the man who gets to love you. And all I want for the rest of my life is to keep being that man. The one who gets to love you and cherish you the way you deserve.”

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