Page 29 of Verses Of Us

“I didn’t feel good about yesterday. About how we left things.”

“Why would you care? You made it clear it didn’t matter.”

“Did I?”

She sighed and stepped back. “Sorry you came here for nothing.” Turning on her heel, she walked up the path to her house.

“Lex, wait.” He ran up behind her, her entire body igniting, but not in the ways it had before. This wasn’t a good fire burning in her belly, but one she hadn’t felt since her parents had announced they were separating.

“What?” She spun around, slamming her hands on her hips and bit her lip, fighting the boiling rage and persistent humiliation inside.

A faint smile hinted at Ciarán’s mouth, crinkling his eyes. He found this amusing, which only irritated her more.

“I was an edjit last night.”

“No argument there.”

He laughed, but she didn’t crack. “You need to know that I find you magnificent.”

“Do you?” Her eyebrow lifted.

“Yes. In this business, it’s rare to meet people who aren’t after my fame, who show their truth.” He smiled again, but his flattery didn’t put a dent in her irritability. “Leaving you that way didn’t sit right.”

“Well, I hope you feel better now.”

She turned away, but he took her arm, gently. “You see? That’s the thing. I don’t.”

His eyes burned. She could tell he was keeping something locked behind his beautiful mouth and, though she longed to yell at him, to force him to say what he’d come here to say, her wounded and fragile pride wouldn’t let her.

“I’m not perfect, Lex. Far from it, but me mam raised me to be respectful and…” His eyes dropped to his hand and he let go her arm. While huffing out a breath, he slid both hands down his face. “You’re better than me. Then what I did. And I apologize for leading you on… for everything.”

“I appreciate that.” Alexis blinked furiously, trying to shake the incredibly confusing feelings spreading through her. Her head throbbed with a pain unlike anything.

Ciarán glanced over his shoulder at the idle car. “Well, I should get going then.”

Towering over her, he took her hands. She tilted her head back, meeting his fixed gaze. With a soft touch, he stroked her cheek, then tucked some hair behind her right ear, his fingers brushing along her earlobe. She swore the ground shook beneath her feet.

“Lex… I really did have an amazing time.”

She blushed. “I did, too.”

“You’re one hell of a woman, you know that?”

“Am I?” Alexis replied, unable to still the quickening sense of dread that crept into her body.

He leaned down, grazing her cheek with his lips, and whispered, “The most remarkable person I’ve ever met.”

With a sigh, his mouth found hers, the warmth setting her body on fire and burning down her contempt. Her hands gripped his waist, then ran across his front and up his chest to grasp his shoulders. She stepped closer, pressing herself against him, committing his solid frame to memory. But when reminded that this wouldn’t go anywhere, she released a tortured moan that resonated against his mouth.

When she tasted his tongue tangling with hers, she indulged, losing herself in the darkness that consumed her, in the all-encompassing loss of awareness and of her common sense. As if nothing else existed around them, they both floated in a vast sea of stillness, surrounded only by the morning air. She longed to have it envelop her and for it to pull her into its never-ending bliss.

But then he pulled away, his heady gaze lingering on her face and sinking into her bones. He panted, as breathless as she was.

“Take care, Lex.” With one more swift kiss on the forehead, he said goodbye and walked away.

Unable to move, Alexis dazedly watched him leave. Only once he had stepped one foot in the SUV, did she become wildly alert.

She ran down the path. “Ciarán, wait!”

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