Page 92 of Forgotten Pieces

Footsteps interrupt us. “You guys coming back out?”

“Be right there, Harper.”

We walk to the door to the patio but before we cross the threshold, Rae says, “You deserve to be happy Tacoma. I know you haven’t been. Not for a while. But if he makes you happy then I think you should fight for him, no matter the cost.”

I fight to hold back tears. I let her walk out ahead of me as I catch my breath. I get a quick look at Ryder and see him watching me.

I hope the cost for us isn’t too great.

* * *

I’m quiet on the way as Ryder drives us home from Easton’s house. The conversation I had with my sister threw me for a loop. I want to pretend that everything will work out with Ryder but I’m not sure that it will. He has so much to work through with Shelley and I can’t be the one waiting in the wings for him. I was meant to be on stage, front and center. I know how he feels about me but I just don’t know how long my restless heart can wait around for him.

But then I think of things the other way. The way I want them to be. The way I think we both want them to be.

After I came back out of the kitchen with my sister Mac had gotten Ryder to open up and he was conversing with my family and friends. I know that him, Easton, and Trace hung out back in the day but I know it wasn’t much. They seemed to have reconnected well. Ryder was smiling genuinely. The only time I’ve ever seen him smile and mean it is when he is with me.

If we could work this out, make us work despite everything standing in our way, it would be amazing. I would finally plant my roots in White Creek. Easton would be happy to have me as a permanent resident and I would be able to spend so much time with my sister.

The thoughts awaken something in me. It gives me a purpose I never thought I would find. I want to be here. I want to be with my family. I am tired of being away, living the wild life, hiding everything with my personality. I want to be here.

“What are you thinking about?” Ryder asks me as he reaches over and grabs my hand.

I look over at him and my chest tightens. He is everything I wanted when I was just a kid. And somehow he is still everything I want. How did I find someone who understands every part of my soul? “Us,” I say because with Ryder I can always speak the truth.

He brings my hand to his lips and kisses it gently. “I like when you think about us. I like that we are an us.”

And with those words all my fears fly away. We have a thousand hurdles to work through, a hundred explanations we will need to give, but the only one that matters is that the two of us are meant to be.

We pull up to his house and he cuts the engine. “You could have left it running,” I say.

He looks at me curiously. “Why?” Before I can respond he continues, “You aren’t going anywhere but upstairs to my bed.”

He shuts his door and walks around to the passenger side. He opens the door and I swing my legs around as he frames me in. He cups my cheek and places a soft kiss on my lips. He pulls back and whispers, “You keep the ghosts away.”

Tears brim my eyes at his words. I cup his face, his beard scratchy against my hand. We stare at each other and speak through our eyes, a new way of communicating, something we never did in the past. I can see him, every missing piece, every broken piece, every forgotten piece. They are all there buried deep inside him. Just like the ones buried deep inside of me.

Our lips crash together and he is pulling me out of my car, kicking the door shut behind him. He carries me up the porch, through the front door, up the stairs to his bedroom, our lips never parting. He pushes me down as he crawls on top of me, his lips finally leaving my mouth as his kisses leave a trail of heat down my neck and across my clavicle.

I run my hands up and down his back as he explores my body. He pushes my tank up with my bra, feasting on my breasts while his hands unbutton my shorts. His tongue makes its way from breast to breast as he tugs my shorts off. His fingers slowly trail up my calf, leaving a path of fire before he brushes his hand over my knee and up the top of my thigh. He trails his fingers back down before bringing them back up the inside of my thigh, ever so slowly.

I fail to hold back a moan as his fingers tease. He brings them to the center of my body then back to my knee, denying me the pleasure I yearn for. He chuckles against my stomach as his mouth makes its way down my body. I squirm under his touch but it keeps him denying me more and more.

I am ready to push him off me when his mouth lands on my clit at the same time he pushes a finger into my body. “Fuck, Ry,” I scream as my entire body shakes from the intense pleasure pulsing through my body. He sucks my clit into his mouth, curling his finger inside of me. He pulls back and my hips rock to find his face again.

“You are so needy, birdie.”

I prop myself up on my elbows and meet his gaze. “Stop teasing me. I don’t like it.”

He shakes his head and grins. “Oh baby you like it, you just don’t want to admit it.”

Before I can snap back at him, he holds my hips down and licks me from my pussy back to my clit before shoving his tongue inside of me. White heat emanates from my body as his thumb finds my clit. The pressure from his hands on my hips keeps me from moving when all I want to do is wrap my legs around his head. He switches back and forth between using his fingers and his tongue to the point I know I am going to explode.

I grip his hair and hold him against me, grinding on his face as much as I can. He plunges three fingers into me and lightly bites my clit, throwing me over the edge. I can’t even remember my name as my entire body feels like it's floating. He continues to lick me as my body pulses against him, causing another orgasm to hit me out of the blue.

He crawls back up my body, pulling my shirt over my head as he goes. His mouth lands on mine as I push my hips into his. I can feel his hard length fighting to be released.

It doesn’t take long for me to get him out of his clothes. It takes him even less time to slide between my legs, pumping hard as I hold on to him. He groans into my neck as he slams harder and harder into my body.

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