called the cops and told them where to find us when Alice had hung up abruptly as tires screeched in the background of that underground parking lot—which was why they’d shown up the moment they did.
Rhea had quite literally saved our lives. And then Alice had saved mine by insisting that the hospital give me the surgery that had kept my lungs functional and my heart beating.
I owed everything to these two girls. And I was never going to forget it. So I was quite happy to nod at Rhea like I was completely on board with her about the video game room. Because it made her smile like her world was complete.
Which made my heart glow like my own world finally had meaning.
Alice, though, evidently thought otherwise, because she tapped Rhea smartly on the shoulder and pointed to the stairs.
“Video game room discussion needs to be tabled until morning, I’m afraid,” she said in what I was coming to think of as her mom voice. “Because it’s way past your bedtime.”
Rhea’s smile turned to a frown. “But Mom—”
Alice cut her off sharply. “Rhea, you know as well as I do that bedtime is the one thing that is not negotiable in this house. The only reason I let you stay up as long as I did was because I wanted you to meet Jack.” Her eyes rose up to meet mine, and I saw a smile buried in them… and something else.
Something that told me exactly why she was choosing right now to send Rhea to bed.
My body reacted to that second thing immediately, my breath growing shallow and my jeans suddenly getting too tight in the crotch area, and I flexed my hands, remembering how it felt to run them over her body. Remembering the sounds she made when I touched her.
Remembering the way she arched up into me when I entered her.
And that was absolutely not the sort of thing I wanted to be thinking when there was a ten-year-old in the room. So I put those thoughts behind a steel door and locked it. Then I promised myself that I could bring them out again the moment Rhea went to bed.
Which she did, a moment later. Leaving Alice and I staring at each other in the foyer of her very big, very lofty, very well-decorated house. A house that was bigger than anything I’d ever seen or lived in.
A house that still felt like a home, even with the fancy decorations and the vaulted ceilings. Because Alice was here. And at the end of the day, it seemed that was all I needed.
I took three steps forward and slipped my arms around her waist, dipping my head down to rest my forehead against hers so that we were staring at each other in ultra-close views.
“She’s not wrong about the video game room, you know,” I murmured. “That would be a pretty cool thing to have.”
She snorted. “You’re already taking her side? Great. I can already see how this is going to go.”
I grinned, though, and shook my head. “I’ll never be on anyone’s side but yours, and you know it. You’re the reason I’m here. You’re the reason I’m still alive. You’re… everything.”
It sounded dramatic. But it wasn’t an exaggeration. This woman had saved my life in more ways than one.
Her breath caught at the emotion in my tone, and I moved forward, cupping her face in my hands as I did, and brought my lips down over hers, giving her the sweet, searching kiss I’d been dying to give her ever since we’d found ourselves in the hospital in Reno, and very much still alive.
Ever since she’d been sitting in that chair next to my bed telling me that we were going to be okay.
Though if I was being honest, I’d wanted to kiss her a lot longer than just that. Since the night in the deserted house, where she’d trusted me enough to fall asleep in my arms. Since the cheeseburger that had felt more like sex. Since making out with her in my apartment. Since she’d fallen into my arms in the rose garden.
She returned the kiss sweetly, and then deepened it, opening her mouth to me and inviting me right in, then sweeping her tongue across mine when I gave it to her, her body pressing against mine, her hips rocking in anticipation.
Then, quite suddenly, she broke the kiss and drew away.
“This is your first time in my house,” she said hoarsely.