Page 46 of Vow

“I didn’t know either,” she admitted. “They hid it from me when I went to visit, and … well, I think they didn’t want me to worry or uproot my life to go and help her. Not that it mattered in the end.”

“Because that was the first thing you chose to do,” Andino said.

“Yep.”

How could she not?

“Besides,” Haven added in a sigh as she looked back at him, “it’s not like I have very much in New York to keep me here. Nothing is tying me down. Maybe a fresh start is exactly what I need.”

His green eyes blazed, but he said nothing other than, “What about your friend? Valeria, and her child?”

“Gone.”

Andino blinked. “I’m sorry?”

“Val is gone—took off one night. She didn’t say goodbye, and didn’t leave me a note to explain where she went, or why. She warned me once that she might do exactly that if she felt she had to. She wasn’t legal, if you get my drift. It was still a surprise, and it hurt, but she did warn me. I have to give her that.”

The two continued walking on the trail side by side in silence. He was so close to her that she could feel the heat radiating from his body. And still, he didn’t try once to reach out and touch her or do anything more than just walk with her.

Haven appreciated that.

She also wanted everything else, too.

Fuck.

Why was she such a mess?

Why did this man make her this way?

“If the club sells, will you go even if the house hasn’t sold?” he asked quietly.

Haven nodded. “I will. The house can stay on the market for months, for all I give a damn. I won’t really be losing out when the mortgage is already paid, you know? It’s just a waiting game to sell a starter home in the current market.”

“I’m surprised the club hasn’t sold already. Businesses like that—proven ones—tend to fly off the market.”

“That’s what my realtor said, too.”

“And yet, yours is still there.”

Haven scowled. “I have a buyer. He—or she, who fucking knows since their lawyer is doing everything for them—is just dragging their ass through the process. But the offer was far better than the other two I was given, so it would have been stupid to refuse.”

Andino said nothing.

Haven was fine with that.

She went to take another step on the trail, but Andino was quick to stop her. It was only his hand snaking tight around her wrist and then tugging hard to spin her around that shocked Haven the most. She hadn’t been expecting him to do that when throughout their walk, he’d not once tried to touch her.

His kiss, however, didn’t surprise her at all.

That was most familiar.

He pulled her into his arms, fisted the loose strands of her hair, and closed the distance between them with a burning, searing kiss. His lips were haunting to her, she thought. Each graze, and stroke they made over hers. Soft, at first, and oh, so slow. And then faster, but harder, too. His tongue struck out to lap against the seam of her lips, testing the waters before she parted her mouth and let him inside.

That was all he needed, really.

What could have been an innocent kiss burned far hotter when he had an all access pass to love her mouth exactly how he wanted to.

The way she loved his kiss the most.