Page 35 of Easy Reunion
Chapter 15
Rierson
Iescort Kelsey through Commander’s Palace so we can retrieve our cars, but I don’t want to. Every step we take together toward the entrance means our night’s ending. I want to pull her back into the alcove we were nestled in for hours and let the atmosphere continue to keep alive the hope there’s more than just forgiveness to be found with her.
Much more.
As we step outside, a mournful sax wails down the street. Kelsey shivers. My hand slides up her back to cup her shoulder. “What is it?”
“The soul of this city just hits me here.” She presses her hand into her stomach. “Whether it’s through tragedy or beauty, they come together as one. It’s a special kind of bond that I’ve never witnessed before.”
Even as I tighten my arm around her to tuck her against my side, my breathing starts to quicken. I need to kiss her again.
We haven’t been just us without hiding anything since the last time we were in Professor Wiley’s classroom alone. Not even when our bodies were entwined so intimately with the hotel sheets have I felt this connection. I need to taste her as we learn each other for who we are with our secrets unraveling a little at a time. I need to see the gray eyes I knew then in the woman I’m holding now. I didn’t lie to Kelsey when I told her I thought she was amazing and beautiful over fifteen years ago. I need her to believe that. And there were reasons for the pain we suffered. Because, yes, damnit, I was hurt too.But will the reasons why matter?I think jadedly. It’s a primal urge clawing at my insides, the need to lay claim to her lips once, just once, here in my city—our city—where we’re just us without any bad memories between us.
Yet.
Just as she’s handed the valet her ticket, I drag her around the corner of the building. Sputtering, she asks, “What the hell, Ry?”
“This.” My head lowers. I capture her lips with mine as I press her body back against the turquoise clapboard.
I was going to give her a gentle kiss at her car. I intended to take us back in time to the kiss I almost gave her as I hugged the breath out of her in the classroom and murmured, “You are so incredibly amazing and beautiful. And I’m going to miss you so damn much.” I’d just put her down after spinning her around in jubilant glee, and for a heartbeat, a second, an eternity, a feminine awareness lit her face. In her eyes, there was a knowledge I was feeling something more than gratitude. And if Professor Wiley hadn’t flung open the door, I would have kissed her.
The kiss I’m giving her now isn’t that. It’s reverent but wholly sexual. I brush my lips across hers once, twice, willing them to part. On a gasp they do, and my tongue accepts the invitation immediately. I taste the creamy coffee she had in place of dessert on her lips. Aligning our bodies so our hearts touch, I cage her head between my arms as I deepen the kiss further, ravaging her mouth like I did just a few nights ago as I lay atop of her glorious body. Her arms wrap around my neck, pulling me closer. A moan escapes her lips, hidden to all but me by the sax playing nearby. Need swirls up between us, merging with the heat and hunger in the warm summer air. It prompts me to want to drive the kiss higher even as it makes me want to treasure her.
Tearing my mouth away, I trail kisses behind her ear and whisper, “Kelsey.” I’m burning up for her again.
In contrast, she freezes. Pressing a hand against my chest, she pushes me back slightly. “I know where we took things the other night, but I’m not ready to go there.”
“This isn’t going away between us,” I point out, breathless.
“No, but it doesn’t mean that I want to rush this either.”
“We also have a hell of a history,” I manage to get out when there’s nothing more that I’d like to do than hitch her skirt over her hip and feel the smooth length of her thigh wrapped around my waist. Again.
And after the words are out of my mouth, I could slap myself for saying them. “Yes, we do have that between us still, don’t we?” Leaning up, she presses her lips on my cheek, coolly, before backing away. “Good night, Rierson. Thank you for a lovely evening.” And I stand stock-still as she dashes around the corner to escape.
Damn, how do women move so fast in heels that high?
Unfreezing, I race after her. She’s hugging herself before sliding into a BMW waiting at the curb.
Pulling out my phone, I immediately begin to text her, but I wait to send it. I don’t want to upset her while she’s driving. I know I won’t forget to send this one.
Instead, I hand my ticket to the valet and wait for my vehicle to be pulled around. About fifteen minutes later, as I’m waiting for my garage door to open, I finally hit Send.
The first time I thought about kissing you, you were wearing a pair of black leggings and a purple tunic. I’ll never apologize for our “first date” kiss. Maybe it should have happened fifteen years ago. But even if I won’t apologize for that, you should know I tried to do it back then—apologize, that is.
I lower the garage door and walk out the side entrance before making my way into the back of the house. Lisa looks up from where she’s studying on the couch. “Hey! How was your date with Kelsey?”
My phone chooses that moment to ping. “Give me a second, and I’ll let you know.” I read the message.
When was that?she writes back.
The day after graduation but you were already gone. Damnit, this shouldn’t be over text.
There’s a long pause before she says,I agree. I deserve better than to discuss this in text. I thought we were going to do that tonight.
We were. But then I got lost in the moment,I write back.
