AllFreeNovel
Share Us
“Well, hello to you, too,” I heard come from the most enticing male voice ever. Lance.
I spun back around, my hair flying over my shoulder. What was he doing here? He was wearing nothing more than his board shorts, his hair was wet and mussed, and he obviously just came from a surf lesson with a client. But again, what was he doing here? At my room?
I opened my mouth to say something, but was immediately caught off guard when Lance’s hands cupped my face, his lips coming right toward mine before claiming them with his own. He smelt like salt and beach, and tasted like the ocean and bad decisions. But none of that seemed to matter. All knowledge of right and wrong seemed to go out the window and I was suddenly standing on my tip-toes, trying to deepen the kiss, as I parted my lips and allowed him full access to do what he did best—make the moment feel like fireworks were going off. Every kiss with him was like magic and I didn’t think I could ever stop kissing him. I didn’t want to. And if that meant less oxygen went to my brain and I died, at least I’d die happy. Satisfied. Kissing the one man I couldn’t seem to get out of my head even after all these years.
I snaked my arms around his neck and then curled my fingers in the hair at the back of his neck. His hands slid down my back and I immediately arched into him, my breasts brushing up against his bare chest.
When we finally broke apart, he smiled. “I’d been thinking about doing that since last night when I walked you back here.”
A hand flew to my lips and I outlined where his lips just were moments before. It was like magic.
Coming down from my high, I searched his eyes. It would be so easy to fall back into his arms, but nothing about us was easy. Not really. “What was that?” I asked.
He smirked. “A kiss, beautiful. I thought that was obvious.” Then he winked.
I knew that wink. All too well. It got me into trouble three years ago. And when he touched me, I seemed to only further lose my mind.
I shook my head and backed up. “You can’t just come here and kiss me. Out of the clear blue sky.” I walked back into the room and began pacing now. “This,“ I said, gesturing between us. “Can’t happen. Ever.”
“Again,” he said. “It can’t happen ever again because, technically, it already happened.”
“That was a long time ago,” I remarked. I walked over to the bathroom and shut the music off, my good time over.
Actually, that wasn’t true. With Lance I always had a good time, but I had to remember that this was just a vacation. Another blip in time. Stolen moments.
I felt his hand on my shoulder, trying to have me look at him. When I turned around, I closed my eyes. “I’m sorry if I gave you the wrong idea, Lance. But I can’t do this again.”
He placed a finger on the bottom of my chin and lifted it so I was looking into his eyes now. They were a beautiful shade of brown and I didn’t think I’d ever forget the way he looked back at me in that moment for as long as I lived. There was so much affection and warmth there, as though trying to convey so many emotions, so many promises.
But he was wrong.
None of it was real.
Or was it?
I was so confused. I brought my hands to my hair and fussed with it. “You should go,” I finally said, needing time to think.
He shook his head. “No, I’m not leaving. I think we should talk.”
“We never did much talking, Lance,” I countered and cringed at my own lie.
“Don’t do that,” he warned. “Don’t diminish what we had. It wasn’t just sex. It was so much more than that.”
“See, right there,” I said, pointing at him. “All past tense. You just said it. It’s in the past and it should stay that way.”
Adamant now, he shook his head. “No.”
“Excuse me, no?” I asked, bracing myself for the argument I knew we were about to have.
He crossed his arms. “You’re wrong, Gem. You might think you know best, beautiful, but you’re wrong. So incredibly wrong about us.”
I spun around, not able to look at him while he was saying all the right things. I had to be the rationale one here, I had to remember to do the right thing, for both of us. “Leaving the past in the past is the best thing we can do.”
“I don’t agree.” He walked around me and looked me right in the eyes, taking me by my arms. “I’ve missed you and being with you. In the three years, I’ve felt it almost every single day and in the short time we’ve been together this week, I know I’m not making things up. What we had was real. Why do you have to pretend otherwise and push me away?”
I crossed my arms, too, now, but mostly to shield myself from any hurt I’d cause myself from saying what I was about to say. “Because it was a fantasy,” I spat out. “You and me. That bubble burst and I moved on with my life. I haven’t thought about us in a long time.” Another lie, but it had to be said.
“You’re still single.”
