Page 9 of Timeless
When Lily pulled her car into my driveway and shifted it into park, my body immediately tensed. The thought of climbing out of her vehicle and watching her drive away as if tonight hadn’t happened was a tall task. I knew I wasn’t dreaming, and yet that didn’t mean I was ready to wake up.
“Thank you again.” Her appreciation was quiet and timid, as if she were struggling to holdherself together, just as much as I was.
“That’s it?” There was no silencing the shock in my tone from her brush off; I wasn’t going to lie, it hurt like hell.
Her eyes darted back and forth between me and my home. “Jaxon.”
“Do you actually expect me to get out of the car as if tonight,” I waved my hand between us, “never happened?”
“I-I can’t do this—” The crack in her voice had the power to break me all over again, but my refusal to let her slip through my fingers left me feeling somewhat impulsive and desperate.
Was what I was thinking irrational?
Yes, simply put. Yes!
“Too bad,” I declared, reaching into my back pocket to pull out the set of handcuffs I had on me, and clamped one cuff over her right wrist.
“What the hell, you can’t do this.” She tried in vain to pull her arm away from me, but I easily overpowered her and secured the other cuff over my left wrist.
“Well, I just did,” I said defiantly, if not feeling rather proud of myself.
“Jaxon, no! Take this off right now,” she demanded.
“Sorry, no can do, Lils.”
“So what, we’re just going to sit here in my car until you’re ready to let me go?”
Despite the years apart, everything about her called to me. Nothing in my life had made sense after she left, but having her back now, it was everything. And I wasn’t about to play fair to get what I wanted.
Her.
“Newsflash, I’ll never be ready.”
Chapter Three
Lily
The honesty of Jaxon’s words hit me harder than I could have imagined, leaving me completely unraveled and with no time to formulate a response before he unbuckled my seat belt, pulled me over the console into his lap, a move that was awkward in the cramped space.
My breath hitched as the warmth of his body met mine, and the rich, spicy scent of his cologne wrapped around me like a spell, dizzying and dangerously intoxicating.
Every part of me screamed to pull away, and yet I stayed frozen.
But the moment he leaned his forehead against mine, I might as well have waved a white flag of surrender. All my reasons for resistance crumbled into dust and evaporated as if no time had passed.
Except it had.
It wasn’t supposed to happen like this. Then again, nothing about tonight was supposed to happen the way it did.
A cold wave of fear ran down my spine, causing my body to shudder at the memory.
“Come on, let’s get you inside and warmed up.”
Jaxon climbed out of my car, effortlessly pulling me with him as if I weighed nothing. He used to tease that I was small enough to fit in his pocket, a joke that wasn’t far from the truth, given my petite five-foot-two frame compared to his six-foot-four stature. With other men, especially my ex, that kind of height difference had always felt imposing. But with Jaxon, it never had. His presence had always felt protective, a feeling that hadn’t faded as he lowered me to the ground with a sure grip, his movements laced with a gentleness that was all too familiar.
I followed him up the short pathway in silence, each step tightening the knot of nerves in my chest as leaves rustled faintly in the night air. It wasn’t until he unlocked the front door and flipped on a light that utter confusion took over my train of thought.
The living room was stripped bare. There were no visible signs that anyone lived in the home. Not a single piece of furniture, plant, or photo hung on the wall. Just a blank canvas of emptiness that felt uncharacteristically heavy, as if the life that once filled this room had quietly slipped away.
