Page 2 of Love Unbound
“Yeah,” he husked. “I’m back.”
Long, black lashes spiked away from those incredible eyes. Briefly, she wondered if they looked that way when wet, too. A straight, narrow nose flared slightly over lips that could almost be classified as too thin. But those lips were very kissable. They were soft and warm and she remembered how they felt on hers.
With her heart thundering, and her mind continuing to haunt her with that delicious memory, she lifted her sapphire blue eyes to his, but his hot gaze was on her mouth. She blushed lightly and nervously wet her lips with the tip of her tongue.
His eyes snapped away from her mouth and she blushed again. What is wrong with me! she groaned at herself internally. Straightening her shoulders, she resolved to not let him see the effect he still had on her. He cleared his throat roughly and swiped the hat off his head and set it on the counter next to him. Jodi watched as the fingers of one strong, tanned hand ran through his dark hair, pulling the shaggy strands away from hiseyes.
“You look good, kid,” he said softly, slowly. “You’ve changed.”
Her eyes narrowed with irritation at being called “kid” at the age of twenty-five. She had changed in more ways than he knew.
Cocking her head to one side, she raised her eyebrows slightly and said, “Yeah, seven years away will do that to a person.”
Free’s eyebrows shot up in surprise at the sharpness in her voice and she took perverse pleasure in it. She kept her shoulders straight and stared up at him, refusing to let him fluster her. She wasn’t the same innocent eighteen-year-old she had been the last time he’d seen her.
“You’ve changed too,” she said quietly, softening her tone slightly. Jodi had thought he looked good at twenty-seven. He no longer had a boyish look to him. Now, everything about him screamed male. He had filled out, hardened.
He nodded his head, his gaze intense, but didn’t say anything. His stoic silence annoyed her immensely, and she turned away from him before he could see it. She crossed the kitchen to the refrigerator and asked him over her shoulder, “Would you like something to drink?”
“I would love something to drink,” Free said, then laughed and held up his hands in mock surrender. “But I was just at your parents, so please, don’t try to feed me!”
Jodi laughed heartily, knowing exactly how her mother is. She nodded and smiled over her shoulder at him as she opened the refrigerator, and said, “Mom probably thinks you’re too skinny.”
“That’s exactly what she said,” Free chuckled. Jodi held up a pitcher of lemonade and a beer, to which Free motioned to the beer. She brought two back and he sat down at the small kitchen table as she lowered herself into the seat opposite him. He glanced down at the laptop that still sat on the table, and she reached over to flip it closed, not ready to share what she’d been working on. Free’s gaze lifted to hers, and they stared at eachother for a long time. It had been so long since she’d seen his face, heard his voice.
Tearing his eyes from her face, he took a long drink of the beer as he looked around the small kitchen. She watched his eyes as they took in her simple home. It was decorated in muted tones of gray and white, with natural wood accents. “I like this place, Jodi. How long have you been here?”
“Just a few months,” she evaded, taking a sip of her own beer. Starting over with a clean slate, everything was simple, minimalistic. She watched him for a long moment, then asked quietly, “Did you come here just to talk about my décor?”
Free chuckled, and Jodi couldn’t help but notice the subtle laugh lines that appeared around his eyes when he smiled. At thirty-four, he looked better than ever, and she hated it.
“No, I didn’t come here to talk about your home décor,” he murmured, taking a long pull off the bottle of beer. He set it down and folded his hands together and rested them on the table in front of him. The way he stared at her made her heart flutter. Damn him for having this effect on her after all this time! Walls she’d carefully built around her damaged heart seemed to be paper thin where Freeman was concerned, and she immediately steeled herself against him.
“Then why did you come here?” she asked bluntly.
“I just thought I’d stop in to see you,” he said slowly, eyeing her warily.
“After seven years?” Jodi asked sharply, drawing her eyebrows together and narrowing her eyes on his. “You were gone so long I figured you’d forgotten me, so why now?”
Shaking his head in confusion, his eyes drilled into hers as he said a quiet, “Of course I didn’t forget you, I could never forget you, Jodi—”
“Then why did you leave? Why did you stay gone forseven years?” she demanded, crossing her arms on the tabletop infront of her.
Thrown off by the bitterness in her question, his head snapped back and he looked away guiltily. “I had to, Jodi.”
“But why?”
“I just did, okay?” he said tersely.
Jodi’s lips pursed in irritation again. She shook her head before snapping, “I think I deserve an explanation after… what happened. Whether you like it or not, I’m not a child anymore and I refuse to be treated as such.”
“Jodi, dammit,” he said through gritted teeth. His eyes swung around to hers and she was immediately mesmerized by the heat radiating out of those turquoise depths. “You’re smart enough to know why I couldn’t stay here and be around you every day. But if you want me to say the words, here they are; all of a sudden, all I wanted was to kiss you every chance I got. I couldn’t stop wanting to do… things… with you whenever I saw you. Especially after that kiss. You wereseventeenfor christsake.”
“I was eighteen, Freeman,” she snapped, though hearing the words come out of his mouth made butterflies take flight in the pit of her stomach.
“Barely!” Free shouted, then blew out his breath in frustration, closing his eyes tightly. Opening his eyes again, he took another long drink of the beer before looking back at her, his aquamarine eyes burning with intensity. “You were a child. And I was way too old to be doing things like that with you. It was wrong. If your dad had found out—”
“I am twenty-five years old!” Jodi exclaimed, splaying one hand over her chest. His eyes dropped to where her hand was, and she felt more than heard his groan.
