Page 57 of All Along The Watchtower

“You could explain all of this away as just caution because of the Galef murder,” Daniel suggested. “And if Sawyer’s guy finds something more pertinent, address it then.”

Ford met my gaze across the room. “What would you do?”

It was a strange feeling being consulted like this. I understood why. I was the most like her. But it didn’t change the sense that he was treating me as if I were Peyton’s other parent.

“I think she’s had enough challenges settling into a new life here. If we can do this without giving her cause to worrymore than she already does, I think that’s better. Everything’s too vague right now, so telling her is only going to bring up a lot of questions none of us have answers to. She has enough unknowns.”

“Okay. Then that’s what we’ll do.”

We finalized a few more details, then everybody began filing out, heading their separate ways, until somehow I found myself the only one left. This wasn’t where I wanted to be. I’d tried to avoid exactly this. My brain urged my feet to move, to carry me as far as possible from this man who still had the power to decimate me. But one look at Ford’s face stopped me. His broad shoulders were slumped, the weight of this threat only adding to the responsibility and worry of new parenthood. I couldn’t just walk away when he looked like this.

“Hey.” I touched his arm. “We won’t let anything happen to her.”

His eyes met mine, raw with emotion. “I just found her. And now I find out someone could be after my kid?”

“That’s not going to happen.” Before I could think better of it, I stepped closer, wrapping my arms around him in the first hug I’d initiated in more than ten years.

Ford’s breath caught for half a beat before those big, strong arms wrapped around me, pulling me tight against that broad, muscular chest. It was the same and somehow different. Even though we’d both changed, my body recognized his. The shape and scent of him. The steady thump of his heart, and that indefinable feeling that, in his arms, I was anchored against anything and everything the world could throw at me.

God, I’d missed this. Missed him.

His brow came down to rest against mine. Our breaths mingled, and suddenly this was no longer a friendly hug. But I didn’t pull away. Callused fingers skimmed up the side of myneck, and I couldn’t hold back a shiver as he brushed the hair back from my face.

“I’ve missed you, Bree. So fucking much.” His voice had gone to gravel, as it always did when he held back big emotion. “Not just your friendship, although absolutely that, but what we might have been if I hadn’t been so damned stupid.”

My heart thundered in my chest as I stared into the stormy green of his eyes. What the hell was I supposed to do with that? Or with the attraction that still hummed between us? “What are you saying?”

“That it wasn’t a mistake. Thatweweren’t a mistake, and I wish I’d never left.”

I hardly dared to breathe because this was everything I’d wanted to hear from him foryears.But how could I believe him? This man had shattered me once before. Only a fool would allow him close enough to do it again.

But my brain short-circuited as Ford’s thumb traced along my jaw. I shivered at the warmth of his touch, unable to run because every cell in my traitorous body wanted more. His eyes darkened, and I almost wept as he closed that final distance between us. The first brush of his lips against mine was tentative, careful—so different from that desperate, drunken night we’d never discussed.

This was deliberate. Intentional. And somehow that made it more devastating than anything we’d shared before.

I’d kissed other men in the past ten years. Plenty of them. I’d done a hell of a lot more. But they’d all been just physical release. Carefully managed encounters that never threatened my heart. But this… this wasFord. My best friend. The man who’d known me better than anyone. Who still knew exactly how to touch me to make me melt.

His tongue swept across my bottom lip, and I opened for him with a soft sound that might have been a whimper. I didn’t care.One of his hands slid into my hair while the other curved around my hip, pulling me closer. The solid wall of his chest pressed against mine, and suddenly I couldn’t get enough. After so many years with almost no physical contact, I needed to feel him. All of him. My fingers curled into his shirt as I rose to my toes, deepening the kiss, desperate to get closer.

All my carefully constructed defenses, my determination to hold on to my anger, my hurt, were dissolving under the heat of his mouth, the perfect fit of his body against mine. I’d forgotten howrightthis felt. Or maybe I’d just refused to remember.

God knew, there was no way I could make myself forget again.

Ford’s hands slid down my back, and I arched into him with a gasp. His mouth traveled down my throat, finding that spot below my ear that drove me crazy. I clutched at his shoulders, my body on fire, every shred of my good sense simply gone.

His voice was rough against my skin. “I’ve dreamed about this. About you.”

My fingers tangled in his hair as I dragged his mouth back to mine. I couldn’t handle talking right now. Not when he’d reduced me to a quivering mass of sheer need. The kiss turned fierce, desperate. He gripped my hips, lifting me up until my long legs wrapped around his waist. The bulge of his erection pressed against my center through my jeans, driving me a little more crazy as he carried me into the kitchen. My ass settled on a hard surface. The kitchen counter. I could work with that. I tightened my legs, pulling him closer as I devoured his mouth.

The sound of a car door slamming had us jerking apart, gasping.

Ford looked lust-addled and utterly confused.

“Peyton,” I murmured.

For one more second, we stared at each other, panting. His hair was mussed where I’d run my fingers through it. My lips felt swollen, and I knew I had to look just as disheveled.

The door handle turned, and Ford backed up. I slid off the counter, shoving away from him, nearly falling in my haste to put some kind of distance between us.

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