hot water wash over me in the shower, I replay the conversation that I had with Sebastian. I’m fucked. He wants something and he’s someone who will play dirty to get exactly that.
Biting the corner of my lip as my skin turns red beneath the hot water, I pinch my eyes closed and shake my head a couple of times, fighting back the tears.
I can’t do this.
Any of it.
I need to focus on finishing my dad’s house and get the fuck out of town. Whatever pain Sebastian wants to inflict, I’m not going to allow him to drag Ford or anyone else from Gallup down.
I’m going to go back to him, figure out what he wants and do whatever that is to just shut him up. Then maybe I’ll be able to figure out my own life, my future.
Once I’m dried off and wearing Ford’s clothes, I grab my dirty clothes from the floor and neatly fold them as I take a sip of the cooling coffee. It’s perfect, a little sugar and nothing else.
Looking behind me, I double check to make sure nothing is on the floor of the bedroom. I’ve made the bed, it looks perfect, as if nothing raunchy happened on that mattress last night.
The front door squeaks as it opens and my head whips around to see who is walking inside, though I don’t know why I even have to look, Ford is the only one here. The only one who would be here.
“You ready?” he asks. He looks almost nervous, definitely unsure of himself.
“Are you okay?” I ask.
He nods his head once, turning around as he holds the door open for me. Making my way past him, I step out on to the porch, the humidity of the air hitting me so hard that I almost stumble backward.
“Yeah,” he mumbles as he locks the door.
“Ford,” I call out, turning around to look at him.
Slowly, he straightens as he faces me. I watch as the man actually deflates in front of me. I’ve done it again. I’ve hurt him and this time I haven’t even said a single word. I have to say it though.
I have to end this right now. If I don’t, Sebastian will do something, I can feel it.
“I’m going to head back to LA in two days,” I announce.
Ford watches me for a moment. He tilts his head to the side. His jaw clenches and then a muscle jumps in his cheek, other than that, he shows me zero reaction.
“In the hour that I left you alone, something happened.”
Shaking my head, I try to deny his words. The fact is that they are right. Something happened, something by the name of Sebastian. But if I tell him, I know Ford, he’ll try to fix it. I don’t want him to, I need to fix my own shit.
“It didn’t. I just… I need to get back. My obligations are starting to pile up and I can’t take any more time to play around.”
I watch as my words are a direct hit. I hate myself a little more as each minute passes. This is the exact reason that I ran from him seventeen years ago instead of talking to him in person.
Ford Matthews is the perfect man. He’s kind and gentle, he’s tough when he needs to be and he’s a badass when he needs to be that, too. With me he’s always been nothing but kind and gentle even when I didn’t deserve an ounce of it, like now.
“Not letting you walk away a second time,” he snaps, closing the distance between us.
Before I realize what’s happening, his hands cup my cheeks, his mouth is immediately against my own. I moan when his tongue invades me, I welcome the sensation of the way that he fills me. Whimpering, my entire body melts against his.
Lifting my arms, I wrap them around his shoulders and press against him, rubbing my hardened nipples against his chest. I want him again, I don’t know why or how, but I do. He nibbles on my bottom lip, biting it hard once before licking the sting away and lifting his head.
“Ford,” I exhale.
He shakes his head, and I think that he’s going to deny me. He takes half of a step back, bending slightly to wrap his hands around the backs of my thighs and picks me up. God, I don’t think I’ll ever get over the fact that he can pick me up and carry me around so