Page 19 of Honey Pot

No.

“We have a guest,” Silas choked out between clenched teeth and nodded to the trail of clothing I had left down the hallway from the front door.

“Yes, Shore. I noticed.” I shifted on my feet, gathered all my courage, and bowed. “Enjoy the show.” The words were clipped as I dropped with both hands in the air, completely exposed.

The satisfaction I felt as Clementine’s cheeks turned bright red was enough to make my chest hot and tight. I winked at her because if I was going to protect the complicated emotions that were crashing inside of me at that moment, I would do it in the most Cael Cody fashion I could.

I could hear him apologizing to her as I closed the bathroom door and let my head fall against the heavy wood. I ran the water hot and climbed in, attempting to wash away all the urges to go out and find something to make me feel numb. My fingertips scratched at the tile, and my heart raced beneath my chest.

After all this time, why the hell was she there? She was just as pretty as the night I left her, with dark hair and round chocolate eyes, staring back at me, expecting me to have all the answers. I rolled my thumb across that stupid threaded friendship bracelet and wondered if she still wore hers.

“Get it together.” I rubbed my hands over my face roughly and tried to snap myself from the daydream that was Clementine Matthews.

Years spent in a fantasy chasing her, laughing with her, fucking her.

I needed a release.

I climbed out of the shower and dried my hair with the towel before loosely wrapping it around myself and wandering back out into the empty house.

Scanning my surroundings, I looked to the right and then to the left briefly before stepping out directly into another body.

“Jesus Christ.” I fumbled to stay upright and my damp arms wrapped around Clementine as our bodies collided. Her skin was soft and the smell of lavender exploded up into my nose without warning. I recoiled from her, my skin too hot and too needy to be that close to her.

I just wished I had been immune to the hurt in her eyes at my reaction.

“Sorry,” she clipped. “I was just looking for…” She pointed to the bathroom behind me.

“Clementine,” I huffed as she moved around me to enter the room. I had eight hundred different questions I wanted to ask her.

Why did you never write me?

Why did you stop answering the phone?

Who did you become?

How did you get even more beautiful?

“What, Cael?”

My name on her lips sent a shiver rolling down between my bare shoulder blades.

Her lips.Can I kiss you?

“Why are you here?” I asked her instead, like the tried and true idiot I am.

“I’m writing a piece on the Hornets for my job.” She was professional, curt, and polite as she pulled her wrist from my hand. I hadn’t even noticed that I had grabbed her, but the thread of her pale pink friendship bracelet brushed against my skin as she did.

She caught my eye as I noticed it and tucked her hand into her pants pocket.

You’re still mine.

A new fire lit beneath me, one that I’d only felt around her.

One that only she could ever fuel.

“Is that all, Clem?” I lowered my voice and leaned in closer, testing the waters.

Clementine’s brown eyes flickered between my lips and eyes as she tried to devise a suitable excuse. When she pushed up on her toes to meet my challenge I nearly moaned, her lips so close to mine that I could feel her breath on my skin.

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