Total pages in book: 59
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Estimated words: 55550 (not accurate)
Estimated Reading Time in minutes: 278(@200wpm)___ 222(@250wpm)___ 185(@300wpm)
Out of frustration, I slam my hands on the top of the trunk and stomp toward my truck. I get in, seething about the situation and stare straight ahead.
“Wa—”
I hold my hand up and she stops. I need a moment.
Or ten.
“I know we’re not together and you can do whatever you want, but for the love of God why is your spare tire flat?”
She says nothing, giving me no choice but to look at her. Lemon stares back, shrouded in my too big for her raincoat. She opens her mouth, and then closes it.
I close my eyes and pinch the bridge of my nose. “For years, I talked about your safety and how you have to take precautions. Especially like this, Lemon. What if it wasn’t me who stopped to help you? What if . . .”
“I wouldn’t have opened my window for just anyone, Wade.”
“But you did,” I point out.
Lemon stares straight ahead. “I’m sorry, okay? I’m sorry I am here, that I broke up with you, that I disappeared for a week. I’m just . . .”
“I get it,” I say after she trails off. “I do, Lemon. I would be the same way if you had a child with another man. You are the only woman I have ever loved. Still love. And it would tear me up inside if our roles were reversed. Goldie happened. It was a drunken . . .” I stop myself from saying it was a mistake because Goldie is far from a mistake.
My head moves back and forth, and I sigh heavily. “I was drunk and hurt. You destroyed me, Lemon. When you told me you wanted a break . . .” I pause and swallow the frog in my throat. “. . . from us, that you don’t want to break up because you wanted your freedom, I thought I had died and gone to hell. The pain I felt from losing you, from hearing you tell me to leave you alone, to wondering what the hell I did as your boyfriend to make you feel this way—I had to numb the agony anyway I could. So, I drank. I sat there in the house with my brothers and drank until I was stupid.”
“I know the pain I caused because I felt it as well.”
My head turns sharply toward her. She meets my gaze. “Then why?”
“I don’t know!” Lemon cries out. “My friends made the single life look great and they kept giving me shit about having a schedule to talk to you. I tried to explain how it made things easier for us, but they didn’t get it, and they were relentless.”
“Where are these friends now, Lemon?”
She looks out the window. “I regret it, Wade. I do, but that doesn’t change anything because . . .”
I lean toward her, reaching around and gently pulling on her chin so we’re looking at each other. “It changes everything.”
Lemon pounces. Her fingers grip my wet T-shirt, pulling me toward her until her lips are pressed to mine. Her tongue pushes into my mouth and she lets out this moan that goes straight to my other brain. Lemon leans back, lets out a little “ouch” when her head hits the window. I slide closer, thankful the console is already up and out of the way.
“Come here,” I say, as I pull her toward me. She straddles my hips, her mouth back on mine in a feverish passion. This isn’t what I want from her, at least not everything. I just want her, the way we used to be but matured and moving forward, together.
Lemon shimmies out of my raincoat and then her fingers are on my shirt, pulling it upward. I let her take it off. I let her lead. I let her control the pace.
Her hips move against my crotch, creating friction and desire. She pulls away from my mouth, her fingers digging into my scalp.
“Wade . . .”
The sound of my name coming from her, wanton and needy is a moment I’ve dreamed about for years, something I’ve hoped and prayed for.
My lips kiss every exposed part of her I can find. She takes her shirt off, leaving herself visible for only me. Lemon sits back, her hips still moving and her eyes full of lust and need.
Slowly, she tugs on the straps of her bra, letting them fall. My heart races as my eyes search hers for the okay to touch her in places that are burned into my memory. I lean forward and press my lips to the valley of her breasts as my fingers outline the top of her bra. Her breathing hitches and her fingers are back to tugging on my hair.
My arm slips around her waist, increasing the momentum of her hips. This is as far as we can go, at least tonight. Tomorrow, things will be different. I’ll make sure of it.