Page 102 of Rowdy Hearts

“I’m sorry I left the way I did. I owe you an explanation and –”

“Tressy, you don’toweme anything. Would I like to know why you hustled out of town like you did? Yeah, but I hope it wasn’t because of anything I did. I know it seems fast, but you fell into my life and my arms, and I’m not ready to let you go. I love you. I know you probably need a little more time but I –”

“I don’t need more time. I had a whole night to think about it.” I smiled, but I wasn’t joking. I wassonot joking, and I needed him to know that. I grabbed his hand and squeezed, and his smile widened as his hand engulfed mine. It felt right. This felt right. Us. Together.

And trusting him with my biggest secret felt right.

“I love you, too, Rowdy. And yeah, it’s way too fast, but it also feels right and?—”

He turned on his heel, put his hands on my cheeks and kissed me. And not just a closed mouth, public kiss. This was full tongue and meant to make a statement. I rose up on my toes to put my arms around his neck and clung to him, my lips parting for his tongue to slide along mine. He kissed me with a hunger that was so familiar and so exciting and so wild that I wanted to have him pin me up against a wall and kiss me even harder.

I heard a few whistles from down the street, but I didn’t care who saw us. I just wanted to devour him. Or have him devour me.

My hands moved into his hair, rough silk against my skin. I tugged him closer, kissed him deeper and forget where I was.

Until he pulled back, both of us breathing hard and fast.

We didn’t speak, but we smiled. Then I grabbed his hand and pulled him back to my home.

I hurriedto open the door to my condo, with his hands on my hips and his mouth kissing a trail from my shoulder to just below my ear. Shivering with heat, my core clenching and needy, I finally got us through the door and locked it behind us.

His head popped up to look around, but we didn’t have all day. My mom would keep Krista entertained for at least another half hour, but it was close to dinner and my daughter would need to eat.

And I wanted him.

Crooking my finger at him, I led him to my room. Not bothering to turn on the lights or close the shades, I started to strip, kicking off my sensible pumps and throwing my boring professional clothes all over the floor.

Grinning, he watched me with heat in his eyes while I got naked and sprawled on my bed. I propped myself on my elbows as he pulled his henley over his head and dropped it thenunbuttoned his pants and shoved them down his legs with his underwear.

The next thing I knew he was naked and on top of me, his lips on mine, his hands stroking my body anywhere and everywhere he could reach. And mine were doing the same. His skin felt hot to the touch, sleek and muscled. Every place he put his hands, my body arched to give him more access.

But I needed him to give me what I wanted. He didn’t make me wait long. He rolled onto his back, handed me a condom. I rolled it on as fast as I could then swung one leg over his hips and took him.

He groaned and reached for my hips, his fingers pressing into my flesh, helping me, though I was doing pretty well on my own.

We moved together, like we’d been doing this forever, like we were made for each other. And maybe we were.

I rode him hard and fast and made him groan out my name as he came, while I convulsed around him and fell forward onto his heaving chest.

“Come back with me, Tressy. To stay.”

“I thought you’d never ask.”

CHAPTER TWENTY-SEVEN

Rowdy

“Does it hurt?”

“Yeah, like a motherfucker. Damn, that kid had a wicked right hook.”

I stood naked in front of the mirror in my bathroom after a game against the Anderstown Animals, poking at the bruise on my jaw that was gonna leave a hell of a mark. Tressy leaned against the vanity to my right, her expression sympathetic, but I saw the humor lurking in her eyes.

“He’s only twenty years old. And he’s bigger than you. Why exactly did you think it was a good idea to try to beat the shit out of each other?”

“The boys needed something to wake them up.”

“Well, the crowd certainly loved it.”

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