Page 23 of Homecoming

“And that’s how I ended up in Bahrain. I took a job with the Donavans and with Rylee’s organization.” I shrugged, slightly embarrassed after talking so much about myself.

He stared at me so intently that I got uncomfortable.

“What?”

His answer was not one I expected in a million years to be. “I’m going to kiss you now.”

Chapter Six

Ian

God, she was beautiful.

Hearing about her life was both great and painful. She was sweet in talking about her struggles, never giving me even the slightest impression that she blamed me for leaving her there, for walking out to a new life. But the shadows of her pain lurked behind her irises, especially when she talked about how she’d had no friends.

If she only knew that the deep loneliness and the longing she felt back then still resided in me, she wouldn’t believe me.

Listening to her talk about her parents, her home, and her life, made me see my own truth. When I walked away from that awful place, from her, I became homeless. And no matter the fame and the money, I still was.

She was my home.

She was everything that was important. I was just too young to see the truth that was staring me right in the face back then.

When she finished her life story so far, all I could think about was how much I missed her, how she was an integral part of me. How much I wanted her.

Not just in my life. But my partner.

I knew I didn’t deserve it, not after what I’d done, and the secrets I’d kept. Secrets that I had no clue I’d ever be able to tell her.

She didn’t know what I’d done, how I’d changed the course of not only my life, but the life of a good man, and three young boys. And how I was the only one who’d ended up turning my life around.

She had no clue my leaving was not voluntary but necessary, and if I hadn’t had Mr. Kendrick pleading on my behalf, and later having my back every step of the way, I would have ended up in prison, and by now, would probably be dead.

Her parents wanted to shield her from it, if the trailer park was abuzz with the latest “scandal” and the residents loved to hurl nasty words my way, while glaring at me. They resented me for existing at that point, and the Adamses had begged me not to tell Lola.

The fact that I still had a dinner plate waiting for me after the accident went a long way in telling the story of good people.

But all that didn’t matter; it was in the past. My mind was focused on only one thing.

It was crazy, we had reconnected after years spent apart. She’d only just finished telling me what had happened in the years I’d been gone from her life, but the need to connect with her on a deeper level was consuming my body and mind.

When she asked why I was silent, why I stared at her without blinking, I told her exactly what was on my mind. “I’m going to kiss you.”

I expected her to recoil, to jump up and deny me the taste. To shout or rant about how I couldn’t do that since we barely know each other.

But she didn’t do any of that.

Hearing my words, her breath left her in a gush of air that I felt over my oversensitized skin. She leaned slightly my way; I wasn’t even sure if she was aware she did.

I leaned into her and cupped the back of her neck with one hand. She shivered at the contact and her pupils dilated but she never looked away.

Slowly, my eyes closing even though I wanted to keep looking into her eyes, I sealed her lips with mine.

We stayed like that for a breath, both of us waiting for the other one to freak out. But then the need that was burning in me turned into an inferno, and I traced the seal of her lips with my tongue. She didn’t need much convincing, as she opened her mouth and welcomed me inside.

The taste of her went right through me and squeezed my balls.

For fuck sake, I felt like a teenager kissing a girl for the first time.