Long Time Gone - Lorelei James Page 0,30
ironic that’s how it played out. Cal touching her everywhere with those skilled hands. Knowing exactly how to make her purr, moan and scream. Him kissing her from the arch of her foot to the crown of her head and everywhere in between.
He dragged out the pleasure. When they’d both reached the point of no return, he whispered, “Come with me. I wanna hear you say my name.”
“Cal.”
“Look at me.”
She met his gaze and shattered beneath his pounding thrusts.
When the throbbing ebbed, she saw something deeper in his eyes and it soothed her ragged edges, knowing he’d be as messed up by her leaving as she was. Knowing their time together had meant as much to him as it had to her.
They remained locked together as their sweating bodies cooled and their heartbeats returned to normal.
After a few deep kisses, Cal slowly rolled off her. He snatched his clothes and left her to get dressed.
Kimi gave the rumpled bed one last look before she lugged her suitcases into the hall. Then she wandered through the house and out the back door.
She cried during her goodbye to Gigi. Maybe if she got the tears out of her system now, she wouldn’t sob as she watched Cal’s taillights fading off into the distance. The pup licked away her tears and whined. “Be a good girl. He’ll need extra doggie snuggles, so stick close.” She ruffled the soft fur. “But feel free to bite any other women he brings around.”
Gigi yipped agreement.
She shouldered her purse and saw her suitcases were gone. She found Cal leaning against the driver’s side of his pickup, squinting at something across the horizon.
“What?”
“It feels like rain. God knows we need it.”
“So we’re talkin’ about the weather now?”
Cal smirked. “Darlin’, sixty percent of rancher’s conversations are about weather and thirty-nine percent of conversations are about cattle.”
“And the other one percent?”
“Everything else.”
Kimi slid her hands up his chest. “Glad to know I made the one percent for a little while.”
“You’ve been ninety-nine percent this week and you know it.” He tugged her against him. “I’ve been wrestlin’ with how to say this, or if I oughta say it at all. I know you have to go. But when you get tired of the gypsy life, come back here. Come back to me. I’ll be waitin’ for you. For however long it takes.”
She lost the ability to breathe.
“I trust in this, what we have between us, to know that it’ll last. I’m confident enough to let you go, because I realize this ain’t the right time for us, but there will be a right time. And you will be back.”
“So you’ll just…?”
“Live my life as I’ve been. I’m not askin’ for any promises. I don’t need them because I know in my soul that you’re mine.” Cal tipped her head up and gazed into her eyes. “You’ve been mine, Kimi West, since the moment I saw you. My heart knew it; it just took a year for my head to catch up.”
“And for me to grow up.”
“Well, that was hangin’ over us too. But now…” He kissed her, almost chastely, but that kiss was a promise. “Now I’m stakin’ my claim on you. And I’ll be right here, waitin’ until you’re ready to do the same to me.”
Then Cal stepped aside and opened the driver’s side door for her.
The drive to Gillette was silent. But after Cal’s declaration there wasn’t anything else to say anyway.
Cal unloaded her bags and sat with her in the terminal after she’d bought her ticket.
When the intercom announced boarding, he walked outside with her.
The exhaust fumes from the bus eddied around them, churning the stiflingly hot air until she felt she was choking and couldn’t breathe.
“Take care of yourself, darlin’.”
“I will.”
“Have fun, be safe. Shoot first, ask questions later.”
She laughed through her tears.
“Keep in touch. Let me know when you get settled.”
“I’ll miss you.” I already miss you.
He kissed her forehead.
“Cal—”
“Go,” he said gruffly, “before I change my goddamned mind and make you stay.”
She stood on tiptoe and kissed his chin, his dimple, and those beautiful lips. She whispered, “See you around, cowboy,” and forced herself to get on that bus. She took a window seat on the opposite side of where Cal had stood.
But when the bus pulled out, ten minutes later, she saw him, standing there, watching her leave.
Later that night Cal sat on the tailgate of his truck, throwing the ball for Gigi, trying like hell to focus on the sunset, or all