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“Don’t what?” I step in and take the bag of toiletries from her and toss them on the bed. “Talk to me,” I say softly, running my hands down her arms and slipping her hands into mine.
“I don’t know how?” Sadness washes over her face and I hear the tears in her voice.
Fuck that. I refuse to let her be scared. That’s not the Mercy I know right now and seeing her be so unsure pisses me off. “Sure you do. It’s me, sweetheart. Nothing’s changed.”
I ease onto the bed and pull her into my arms until she’s sitting snuggly on my lap. “Why the tears?”
“I missed you, too.”
Holding her for the first time after years of dreaming about having her this close has me wondering why the hell we let her have so much space. I have zero intentions of letting another day go by where she’s not part of my life. Our lives. She’s mentally distanced herself from us and that is all our fault.
She looks so lost. I tighten my arms around her, draw her in and take the first real breath since seeing her when she circles my chest with her arms.
She tucks under my chin and fits so damn nicely in my arms I don’t want to let her go ever again.
Gingerly, I pull her back until I can look into those beautiful eyes of hers.
When she raises her chin, her lips part. I try to fight the urge, but I can’t help it. I tuck that wayward curl behind her ear, tilt her chin a notch higher and lower my lips to hers.
She closes her eyes, those pretty cheeks flushing, and I take the kiss deeper.
Possessiveness roars through me, and my blood lights on fire. My balls tighten, and my cock swells under her ass. She feels it. I know because she gasps in my mouth, and I stroke my tongue over hers, lavish her with the force of me need, memorizing the confines of that hot little mouth all over again. I’m hot, hard, and ready to take her, but she’s not mine alone and I know now is not the time.
“I’ve imagined turning back the time and erasing that night so many times,” she whispers against my lips. She leans in and presses her forehead against mine, and we sit there for a minute. Just breathing each other in.
“Me too,” I grunt. I pull her back to look into her eyes. “But only to change my decision to walk away. As inappropriate as that sounds, I wished we would have spread you out right there on the kitchen counter and claimed what we’d been wanting for years.”
Her expression turns twenty shades of emotions I have a hard time keeping up with until she lands on the last one I thought what I said would stir.
Anger.
Okay. But damn if she doesn’t look hot as hell. My cock pulses.
“You don’t get to say that,” she demands, jumping up from my lap.
I don’t let her get far. I stalk closer and pin her to the wall, both my arms blocking her on either side. Our girl likes to run from the truth and that shit is over. “Why?” I demand.
“Because I’ve spent the last seven years trying to forget you and the pain your rejection caused and here you are telling me you wished you would have taken me up on my wishes? HA! You don’t get a get out of jail free card.”
“Who said I am? You think this has been easy on me? On us? Do you think this was just fun and games? Not coming to you, dragging your ass home with us the second you hit eighteen was and still is the hardest fucking thing we’ve ever lived through?”
“Then why did you? Why did you wait seven damn years, Grant?”
My voice takes on a hard edge that has her flinching but I don’t back down. She needs to hear this. “What would your parents think of us? Your brother? After he kicked our asses he would have walked out of our lives, either taking you with him or doing something far worse. You think we wanted that for you? To be the cause of a rift in your family? Your parents don’t deserve that, sweetheart.”
Her hands are on my chest and her tiny nails are digging into my skin. Good. Let her get all her anger out. I can take it.
Her shoulders are heaving with how hard she is breathing. She looks away. Call me weak but I can’t take her not looking at me, so I take her chin in hand and pull her back.
“Tomorrow.” She swallows hard as if the words are hard to get out.
I have a feeling I know what’s coming next, but I want to force her to say it. “Tomorrow what, baby?” Without trying, she’s beautiful. I run a finger over her cheek.
“I want you gone by tomorrow. All of you.”
She puts those pretty little hands of hers back on my chest and pushes me out of the room, and I go willingly. For now.
Standing in the doorway, I lean in until our noses are touching. “I think you know we’re not going anywhere. Sleep well, princess. Tomorrow is going to be a big day.”
