Page 18 of Too Close To Call

She wipes a tear away. “I’m sorry about that. I truly am. I never realized you were injured until weeks later. Honestly, my memories of those first days after it happened are blurry. I wasn’t myself. How could I be when my father had just died? The guys held me together back then. I don’t think I could have gotten through it all without their help.”

I can’t stop a snarky laugh. “Yeah, Ryan helped you right into bed, didn’t he? Less than a week after being with me.”

Her eyes flash up to mine, her head shakes determinedly. “No. It wasn’t like that, Case. I never meant to sleep with Ryan. We’d just buried Dad and everyone came back to the house. There were toasts, and stories, and even more drinks to celebrate him and his racing legacy. Ryan was down because of his divorce. We were both down and lonely and, well, it just happened.”

My fists tighten. “Are you saying that Ryan took advantage of you?”

She pushes to her feet and rounds the desk to stand before me. She’s close. Too close. I can smell the flowery scent of her shampoo. I used to love to bury my nose in her hair and simply breathe her in. That damn floral scent gets to me. Any woman I dated that wore that scent didn’t last past dinner with me.

She bites her lower lip, a habit that used to drive me crazy. “No, that’s not what I’m saying. It just happened and neither of us remembers anything.”

It just happened? That didn’t make me feel any better. Had it been that easy for her? Unless their duplicity went deeper than I imagined. “Tell me, did you and Ryan have this all planned out? Are you the reason for their divorce?”

Her eyes widen in shock. “No, of course not! How can you even ask that?”

I shrug indifferently, anger building inside of me. “I suppose the same way you could accuse me of using you and your father to further my career.”

Her face turns ashen. “I deserve that, but I never meant it, Case. Never. Dad loved you. I never had any feelings for Ryan. His marriage didn’t work out because Cindy couldn’t be faithful. When I was in the hospital having Daisy, Ryan met my nurse, Meghan. They are married now and have adorable twin sons. What happened between me and Ryan was just two lost souls trying to find comfort.”

That answers the question of her current relationship with Ryan. Ryan is married? I’m not sure that changes anything. If I can even believe what she’s saying. “What do you want, Tori? Why did you come here?”

She takes a step closer and my clenching jaw is the only evidence of my reaction to having her within arm’s reach. “Are we over, Case? Have I completely destroyed what we once had?”

Her question irritates me. She’s making it seem like I had a choice. I had none. “I’ll ask again. What do you want, Tori?”

She places her hand on my chest. I feel her touch clear down to my heart. I want to brush her hand off, but nothing has changed for me. I am just as affected by her as I ever was, but I know I can’t give her what she wants. To do that would be opening myself up to heartache and doubt. I cover her hand with mine as I wait for her reply.

She looks up at me with those gorgeous brown eyes. “I don’t know, but I need to. We were deeply in love once. We had our future together mapped out before things went horribly off-track. I’m sorry. I’m sorry for everything and I hate that it’s taken this long to tell you that.”

I allow myself the pleasure of running my thumb down her creamy smooth cheek. She shudders and I remember so many things. I see it in her eyes; she’s remembering too. A flood of emotions threatens to overtake me. We’re frozen in time, in the moment, wanting each other yet remembering too much.

“God, you drive me fucking crazy,” I mutter as her lips curl up into a sexy, knowing smile. She leans in and I kiss a spot on her lower cheek that always causes her breath to catch. I am not disappointed when a breathy sound drifts over my ear. The chemistry between us was always explosive. I’ve never found anything even remotely as fulfilling as being with Tori.

“You know you do this to me?” I grumble, almost angry at the way she can make me respond. I kiss my way down her throat. It’s getting harder and harder to remain focused on anything other than Tori. There is no way I can stop the inevitable from happening.

Her fingers curl into the hair at the back of my neck and pull my head up until our mouths align. White-hot, searing desire nearly stops my heart at the first flutter of her lips on mine. She moans when I take the kiss deeper, ravishing her mouth with my tongue. Nobody’s kisses make me feel like this except Tori’s. Only Tori’s.

With a groan, my hands run down her back, cupping her ass and pulling her against my throbbing erection. She gasps at the touch of my cock against her. I pull her closer, squeezing her ass cheeks, grinding our bodies together. It isn’t enough.

“You’re not going on a fucking date with Homer Brockton,” I growl as I suck on her neck.

“No…” she whimpers and clutches at my back.

I pick her up and sit her on the desk. The stapler and other items on the desktop clatter as they tumble to the floor. My hand pushes on her chest, urging her to lie back. I pull her jeans and panties off.

Pausing, I come to long enough to ask, “Tell me to stop, Tori.”

Her muddled brown eyes stare straight into mine. “Never. I want this. I want you,” she cries, wrapping her legs around my waist, preventing any chance of escape.

Little does she know escape is the last thing on my mind. I’ve dreamed of being with her again so many times over the years. I never thought this would happen and I don’t want to rush. I want to savor. I’ve spent so long with only the memories of her touch. I need to know if those memories are real. Does the reality match the fantasy? With that damn scent wafting around us both, I’m in sensory overload. I need her. Now.

I rip her t-shirt down the middle and push the cups of her bra up, exposing the full globes and the powder pink nipples already drawn into hardened nubs. They’re bigger than they used to be with fine, white, shimmering lines radiating from the areolas. I take one tip into my mouth, sucking and teasing, before moving to the other until she’s screaming my name. I growl in my throat.

It’s hard to leave her luscious breasts, but my mouth waters for her taste. I kiss my way lower, stopping along the way to kiss the new roundness of her stomach, more of those shimmery lines, and the spot where the top of her legs connect to the V of her womanhood. She gasps and cries out, arching her back when I find the exact spot that I know drives her wild. Moving lower still, I can feel the heat rising from between her legs and the very scent of her arousal. I breathe her in and let my lips move closer to the taste that I lust for.

I cover the swollen pink bud with my lips, kissing her intimately while entering with first one and then a second finger, filling her, thrusting in and out while sucking and laving her clit with my tongue. She tastes even better than I remember.

I don’t stop until her back arches and she shudders through her release. I can wait no longer. I pull away and her legs tighten around my waist.

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