Page 60 of After All The Wreckage
“What?” It was my turn to be hurt by things he’d held back. I didn’t want our relationship to be like the one I had with my dad. Half-truths that had to be hacked to find the real answer. “You never said, not even when Dunn asked if Monte knew your mom.”
“Because I didn’t know. The closer Monte’s vision gets to actually happening, the more he sees. Like a camera lens placed too close to an object and slowly coming into focus. It’s never enough to give a time or location, but more details pile on.”
I let out a breath. We’d both uncovered more in the dark of the night. “Please let me help, Gage. Let’s help each other. This is exactly what I’m good at—putting the puzzle together piece by piece until the whole comes into view.”
He raised his hand, pushing a strand of my hair back and tucking it behind my ear. My entire being convulsed at the gentle movement.
I couldn’t tear my eyes from his if I tried. We were locked in a heated debate without words. A debate I wouldn’t be the one to turn away from because it was about much more than me working this case or shooting Dunn. It was about us. Who we were at our core. It was about the burning flame flickering between us.
His gaze fell to my lips, and the energy between us grew, particles of electricity building. If they didn’t release soon, they’d turn us to ash. His head lowered, my fingers fisted in his T-shirt, and the check fluttered to the ground as our lips met.
My soul sighed, my teenage heart leaped for joy, and the earth seemed to tilt. One of Gage’s arms wrapped around my waist, and the other went to the back of my head, holding me to him. Holding us steady. The smooth slide of skin on skin ignited the coiled desire waiting inside me.
It didn’t feel like any first kiss I’d ever had. It didn’t feel like a second or even a hundredth one. It felt as if we’d had an infinityworth of kisses strewn behind us. And maybe we had. Maybe we’d been twined like this over centuries’ worth of lifetimes.
His hand slid under my sweater, the heat of his palm burning a trail up my spine. A whimper escaped me. A damn whimper I’d never let out before. My tongue glided along the seam of his mouth, and he groaned, letting me in, and suddenly the gentle tango we’d started wasn’t nearly enough. The embrace went from teenaged dream to erotic craving in mere seconds. I pressed myself into him, increasing the pace of our mouths and tongues. A deep hunger fueling us. All softness disappeared, leaving behind wild demands and brutal strokes.
Desperate to mark him as he’d long ago marked me, I let go of his shirt, twined my hands behind his neck, and dug my nails in. His hiss of pleasure only added to the blaze. He flipped us around, pushing me toward the counter. My lids fluttered open, our eyes locked, and it was then that we both caught movement in the hallway.
We jumped apart as Ivy moved toward us with one hand rubbing her eyes and the other holding her otter. She wrapped a tiny arm around Gage’s knee and rested her head against his thigh. The image they made together was so sweet, I felt my ovaries flip over once again.
“Hi, Wowy,” she said softly.
“Morning, Ivy,” I said with my heart in my throat.
Gage’s hand went to her hair, tousling the wild curls, but he was taking me in with hooded eyes. My chest was heaving, my lips stinging from the ferocity of our embrace. My reality had been altered. I’d never be able to go back to my old one now that I knew what kissing Gage felt like.
“Go get a yogurt, Ives,” Gage said.
She didn’t question him, just moved away into the tiny kitchen that was barely two steps away.
Gage’s voice was lower and raspier than normal when he spoke. “I’m sorry.”
His words had me tumbling back to earth faster than the arrival of his little sister had.
I swallowed hard. “Don’t apologize.”
“I’m not sure I know how to do this, Rory.” He glanced in the direction Ivy had gone and then back down the hallway to where Monte must still be sleeping.
“I know.”
“What I feel when I kiss you—I can’t afford to get lost in that.”
“I know,” I repeated. The soft lick of rejection was eased by his admission of feeling something too.
Gage seemed frustrated by my easy acquiescence to his words. His voice dropped even lower. “You deserve to be someone’s entire focus in a way I’ll never be able to give you.”
My pulse picked up another notch, my heart ramming against my ribcage as if trying to escape. I couldn’t help the hope that twirled through me. He wasn’t rejecting me as much as fighting with the weight of his responsibilities. I understood that maybe better than anyone.
So, I did what I could to help lighten his load. I closed the distance between us once more, and he looked at me with wariness.
“Take it easy, Gage. We shared a kiss. Not rings and I dos.”
He frowned, and I pushed at the deep grooves between his brows with my fingertips.
“You keep that up, and you’re going to have more wrinkles than a shar-pei.”
When he didn’t respond, I dropped my hands, pushed past him, and headed for the door. “I’m going to D.C., but I’ll call you later and we can try to put the puzzle pieces together.”
