Page 88 of Breakaway Hearts

“He started it as soon as he started talking to you.”

“Then it was my fight. Not yours.”

“Your fightsaremy fights, Firefly.” My voice hardens, anger rising up in me all over again at the memory of seeing him with her. “That sack of shit had it coming. It was clear from a mile away that you were uncomfortable, and that punch was warranted. Especially after everything he did and said to you while you were together. Of course I’d fight him for you. You’re my girlfriend.”

Callie swallows and lowers her hands from my face.

“Fake girlfriend,” she says in such a soft whisper that I almost don’t hear her.

The words hang between us like an invisible haze in the air. All of a sudden, I desperately want her hands back on me, caressing my face with those feather-light touches.

“Right. Fake girlfriend,” I amend as she looks away, hating the way that sounds for some reason. “But it doesn’t matter. Even if what we’re doing right now isn’t real, there’s no way in hell I’ll let anyone talk to you the way he did. If you were really mine, I’d never let anyone hurt you. Fuck, I’d rip them limb from limb.”

Her eyes flit back up to mine, a dozen emotions churning in their depths. The vivid jade color looks darker than usual, such a deep green that I feel like I could drown in it.

I’m barely aware of the sting of my cut anymore.

All I’m aware of isher.

Her lips, her freckles, her long eyelashes that feather up and down against her cheeks. Her knee pressed between my thighs. The spot on my forehead that’s still warm from where her fingers brushed my skin as she took care of me.

She leans forward, or maybe I do.

I’m not sure who moves first.

But the next thing I know, I’m cupping her jaw and kissing her like I’ll die if I stop.

Chapter30

Callie

Reese groans into my mouth, cupping my jaw and angling my head as he takes the kiss deeper. I’m not quite sure what happened, not sure how we went from me bandaging him up to him kissing me like he wants to devour me.

I’m not sure if this is a lesson or something else.

All I know is that I don’t want it to stop.

I make a quiet, needy noise into our kiss, and Reese surges to his feet, somehow managing to stand up without ever pulling his lips away from mine. He wraps his arms around me, pinning me against his large, muscled frame, and then he reaches down to grip my thighs and scoop me up.

I yelp softly, wrapping my legs around him. I’m still not used to how easily he manhandles me, how he picks me up like it’s the easiest thing in the world—but I like it.

His tongue delves into my mouth, and I’m sure he’s barely paying attention to where he’s going as he walks me across the kitchen. I knowI’mnot, but when I feel a smooth surface beneath my ass, I realize he’s set me down on the kitchen counter.

Now that he no longer needs to hold me up, his hands start to roam, sliding over my hips and waist, squeezing my breasts, groping me possessively. I hiss out a breath when he tugs at my nipple through my shirt, digging my heels into his ass to try to pull him closer to me.

“I fucking love that sound,” he mutters, breaking away from my lips to kiss my neck and the sensitive spot behind my ear. “It’s almost as good as your laugh.”

He bites down on the spot where my neck and shoulder meet, and I whimper as the sensation shoots through me.

“Love that sound too,” he groans. “I want to memorize each one of them.”

His hands are rough as they go to the waistband of my pants, working to undo them quickly. I unhook my legs from around his waist and shift my weight from side to side, letting him work my pants off. My shirt comes next, and I lift my arms to help him, not missing the way his brown eyes darken as he takes in the sight of me sitting on the countertop in just my bra and panties.

It strikes me suddenly that this is one of the things I imagined when Reese first agreed to give me lessons. It felt like such a fantasy then, hot and forbidden but so unlikely to happen.

But here we are.

And the way he’s staring at me is so much better than even the wildest of my fantasies.

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