Page 38 of Unravel Me

“Exactly why you won’t be meeting him for a while.”

“Well, I’d have to keep seeing you for that to happen,” she adds dryly as she tucks her hair behind her ear, her eyes cast down.

“Is this your way of telling me it’s over?” I tease but my heart races in a way it has no business doing.

“I’d have to know what this is to decide if it was over.”

I sit up straighter, leaning back in my chair so I can get a better gauge on Audrey, though it’s nearly useless. She is unreadable at times. But my god, do I want to crack her code.

“This is dinner,” I start and as she rolls her eyes, her lips curling up in an annoyed smirk, I continue. “Just dinner for two people who can’t seem to stay apart from each other for whatever reason. This is me, trying to figure out how to stretch this meal out as long as I can because the moment your car pulls out of my driveway, I’ll be left wondering how the hell I can convince you to see me again. That’s what this is.”

A tiny smile creeps up on her face, and her eyes soften.

“Can I be painfully honest with you?” Audrey asks, and I hold my breath, eagerly leaning towards her. Hoping this means she is learning to trust me. I want to be a safe space for her to land.

“Of course.”

“I don’t know what I'm doing…” She lets out a humorless laugh. “Like in every aspect of my life. I feel like I’ve lost control of everything lately. And I’m only telling you this because I don’t want you to have too many expectations.”

It’s not what I expected to hear, but I place my hand on her knee, scooting my chair closer so my legs are barricading hers. She was honest with me, and now it’s my turn.

“That makes two of us. I have been drifting through life, one day at a time, just getting by. But I know ever since I saw you on that rooftop, I haven’t been able to stop thinking about you.”

She smiles shyly, tilting her head towards me, getting closer and closer. It’s just us in this kitchen, but when I look into her eyes, it’s like we are the only two people in this world.

“Maybe…maybe we can be lost together?” she offers, reaching right into my chest and grabbing the fragments of my beating heart.

My heart is hers. Even if I tried to stop it, it’s already hers.

Our foreheads touch gently before Audrey speaks the words I’d been waiting to hear since she got here.

“Will you kiss me now?”

Chapter twenty-two

Audrey

Rhett pulls me from the chair I sat in, lifting me to my feet. Our foreheads rest against each other before his lips touch mine, my breath caught in my throat. My palms find his sturdy chest, and I steady myself against him, needing him closer.

The kitchen walls fade away, along with time, as he walks us backwards into a door. Reaching behind him, Rhett turns the doorknob, pulling me with him as I laugh against his delicious mouth. A bedroom opens before us. His bedroom.

This is where old Audrey would’ve freaked out. Maybe she was still here, in me, worrying about moving too fast. Worrying about how different Rhett and I were, about how our worlds didn’t align. Worrying about how Jackson had been the only man to see me naked. But as Rhett's eyes ask for permission, and I nod, clinging to him, I silence the old me.

We fall clumsily inside the small room, and Rhett backs me up until my legs hit the edge of the mattress. My hands grip the bedspread behind me as a soft moan slips out, Rhett’s lip tracing a path down my neck to my collarbone, igniting a spark that lights up my entire body.

His fingers slip under my shirt, my skin igniting with the gentle yet needy touch. He pulls my shirt over my head, and cups my face, kissing me softly again. I find his belt buckle, undressing him slowly, taking in the ripple and strength…and kindness of the man before me. In a few slow motions, our remaining clothes are puddled on the floor.

Rhett backs me up onto the white duvet, until my back hits the rustic wooden headboard. The evening light shines through the window, casting shadows across his face, and it’s quiet besides the hammering in my chest. As Rhett kneels over me, boxing me in, he pauses, and I trace the shape of his lips with my fingertip, moving down to the tattoo spanning his chest.

His skin is warm under my touch, his eyes ocean blue as they grow lustful, looking at me.

He hasn’t even touched me yet, and already this is the most intimate I’ve ever felt with anyone.

My heart was raw, but with him it felt safe.

“You’re so beautiful, Audrey,” he murmurs, dropping down to his elbows so his chest is hovering over mine. “All of you,” he adds, before my mind melts and his lips find mine again. He kisses me gently, then with more vigor, his mouth moving down my neck. My chest rises with each breath, as he lavishes my hardened nipples, and I inhale sharply.

I feel everything…his rough palm cupping my jaw, his soft lips on the most sensitive parts of me. I wonder if he can feel my heart racing beneath his head.