Page 40 of A Reckless Memory

His warm hands left my lap to loosen my hair. Pressure eased on my scalp and the whisper of my plain, brown strands caressed my face. I no longer cared how sincere he was.

He tipped my chin up. “I’d hoped she wasn’t far away.”

“Who?” I whispered, terrified he was talking about another woman.

“The fearless girl who didn’t care what others thought.”

If he wasn’t looking at me like I was a long-lost discovery, I’d wonder who he was talking about. “She found hair products and moved to a city with decent clothing stores.”

“I thought she was amazing as she was—wild hair and worn clothes and everything.”

“Ansen.” How did I respond? He sounded sincere, but the hard feelings from the last ten years argued otherwise. The Aggie who got her heart broken standing in the door of her brother’s office would disagree with him.

I didn’t need a reply. He cupped my face and claimed my mouth.

* * *

Ansen

Eternity and no time at all had passed since our last kiss. I wasn’t sure it could happen again, but she was back in my arms. I didn’t know how long she’d stay, but I knew I wanted it to be forever.

The thought humbled me. I didn’t deserve her, but after seeing Dr. Jake skirt around her in a human’s version of the mating dance, I wouldn’t be content if anyone else was with her.

So that left one other option. Be a good enough guy for her. Be the guy I should’ve been when we were engaged. The man she thought I’d been.

I set one knee on the floor and tugged her toward me as I deepened the kiss. She came, compliant. Soft. Mine.

Resting her on my knee, I stuffed one hand through her soft hair and slid my other past the hem of her long blouse to massage her ass. She had padding in places she hadn’t had before, and I wanted to reacquaint myself with every square inch of her and introduce myself to the rest I hadn’t met yet.

“Ansen,” she said between breaths like she couldn’t quit kissing me. “We shouldn’t do this.”

“I know.” I knew she thought we shouldn’t, and hell, maybe she was spot-on.

But with her pressed against me, nothing felt more right. Nothing had been this right for a long time.

She whimpered and sank back into me. Licking my tongue against hers, I brushed my hand under her shirt. I needed more of her warm, satiny skin, and I didn’t stop until I cupped her breast. She was fuller there too. This woman was branded into my head, and I was rapidly rewriting my memories, making them fresh. Relevant.

She dug her fingers into my hair and fisted, angling my mouth to plunder the depths better, and fuck was that ever a turn-on. The woman went after what she wanted, and what she wanted was me.

I rolled her tight nipple between my thumb and forefinger. She moaned into my mouth. Her sounds were as sexy as everything else about her. I left her mouth to trail kisses down her neck.

“Let me hear you, Aggie.”

“Ansen,” she whimpered, rocking on my thigh.

I abandoned her nipple and stroked down her belly and thank fucking God for leggings. I could wedge my hand between the material and her abdomen. She leveraged her legs to give me room, and I sank into heaven.

Finally, at least one part of me was where I needed to be. “You’re wet for me, aren’t you?” I rubbed across her clit and through soaked skin. She was hot enough to burn me.

She ground onto my hand.

“I need to feel you come for me, Ags.” I pushed a finger into her, and she immediately clamped onto it. A groan left me. I threaded another one inside. My pulse pounded in my erection, and I probably had a perfect imprint of my zipper on my dick, but that could wait. “How bad do you want it?”

“I need it,” she said in a ragged whisper.

Yes. “Take it.” I nuzzled the base of her neck and nipped her lightly with my teeth.

She jerked like I was made of electricity, and right now, I thought I was. Flowing between us was an energy that had never been disconnected. This woman and I were tied together, and the question was what we did with it. I knew what I had planned.

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