come from, Lockhart?
But it earns a laugh from her, and God, does it do things to my insides I’d rather not admit.
“Have you ever done something you know is wrong, but you do it anyway because it’s the right thing?” she asks and totally throws me for a loop.
What is she getting at?
“I think everyone has at some point in their life, don’t you?”
“Hmm.”
“Hmm?” I ask. “Does this have anything to do with the other day?”
She doesn’t answer.
“Vaughn?”
“If you made a mistake, I’d forgive you, you know. Just like I’d hope you’d forgive me.”
“You’re not making any sense. Are you sure you’re okay?” In my mind I’m already halfway across the bridge to her house.
“Yes. I’m fine.” Her breath hitches. “I’ve had a glass or two or three of wine. I miss you, Ryker.”
“I miss you too. When can I see—”
But I don’t get to finish my sentence because she ends the call.
She might have just told me she misses me, but hell if it doesn’t feel like that was a goodbye.
CHAPTER FORTY
Vaughn
The pounding on the door startles me awake.
The family room is pitch black, and for a moment I sit there thinking I’ve just had a nightmare.
Then it starts again.
Instinct has me moving toward the peephole, fearful it’s the police—that something has happened to Lucy—when it should have me pretending I’m not home and dialing 9-1-1.
And I’m not sure if it’s the remnants of the bottle of wine still in my system, but when I see Ryker standing on my porch in the middle of the night—or is it early morning?—I open the door without question.
His fist is midknock when I pull it open. There’s anger etched in the lines of his face, and concern owns every muscle in his expression as we stand a few feet apart.
Without speaking a single word, Ryker frames both sides of my face and brings his lips to mine. The kiss starts out slow—a silent show of desperation—and has us both moving into the house, the door being kicked shut behind us.
It’s heaven and hell at my fingertips. It’s certainty and doubt in my touch.
It’s him.
It’s Ryker.
And I need him more than I’ve ever needed him before.
We undress between kisses. Shirts and shoes and pants. The darkness of the night hiding the things we’re still keeping from each other. Secrets that are tearing me apart. A love I’m afraid to profess in case my world comes tumbling down around me.
He moves from memory down the hallway and lays me on the bed, his mouth between my thighs before I have a chance to protest. Before I can stop him from making me even more vulnerable than I already feel.
His fingertips part me, and his tongue makes its slow descent to dip inside me before sliding back up and circling around my clit.
The groan he emits into the room is like his fingertips dancing over my most intimate of flesh—all-consuming and everywhere at once.
There is no urgency. No rush to get me off. Just a slow dance of his mouth and the soft slide of his tongue as he worships me in a way no one ever has.
And when the warm wave of bliss hits me with its pulsing vibrations, I allow myself to fall prey to him once more. I let him have one more piece of me I’ll never be able to get back.
He rises to his knees and presses a row of kisses up my thigh to my navel. He rests his forehead there as his fingers reach out to find mine.
“I love you, Vaughn.” His words float out into the room and make every part of me he didn’t just warm with his tongue light on fire.
“Ryk—”
“No. I love you, and I’m sick of pretending that I don’t because you’re not ready to hear it. I love you, Vaughn Sanders, and I don’t know what the hell is going on right now, but I know whenever it’s done and over with, I’ll still love you.”
We stay like that for a few moments, entangled in every way imaginable. When he slips into me like a soft sigh moments later, tears course down my cheeks and fall to the pillow beneath my head.
I love you too, Ryker.
I’m just so afraid I’m going to lose you.
Everything I’ve loved before I’ve lost.
But I close my eyes and force myself to live in the moment. To feel his sweet push in and soft grind on the way out. To memorize his hiss of pleasure. To