“What—” he starts but I wrap my arms around his neck, slide my hands in his rain-wet hair, and press my mouth to his in a lingering, soft kiss.
One strong arm comes around my waist and he pulls me closer. I let him, go to him willingly, my arms tightening around his neck, fingers clutching at his hair. I hope he understands what I’m doing, why I’m kissing him in the rain. My kiss is an apology, a request for his forgiveness, a hope that he’ll give me a second chance.
He growls softly against my lips as we break apart and everything inside of me flutters at the sexy sound. “What are you doing to me?” he asks, his voice pained and so low I can barely hear him above the rain.
“I could ask you the same thing,” I murmur close to his mouth just before I withdraw from him, letting my arms fall from around his neck. He lets go of me and I slide back into my car, smile up at him, and offer a little wave before he slams the door shut for me, enclosing me in the quiet darkness, alone with my thoughts once again.
My lips tingle the entire drive home as I relive the moment again and again. The exact moment when I grabbed hold of Ethan and kissed him. Me. The girl who’s terrified of men.
Ethan doesn’t scare me. More like it’s my body’s reaction to him that terrifies me—and fills me with curiosity. He touches me, kisses me, and I want . . . I want to melt. I want more.
As I spend more time with him, he also makes me feel safe. Protected. There’s something about him that I find so incredibly comforting and I can’t quite put my finger on it.
I frown, wishing I wouldn’t overthink so hard. Worry so much. Maybe I’m not supposed to understand. Maybe I should just go with it. And I’ve never just gone with anything in my life. Not anymore at least.
The one time I did . . .
It cost me. Almost everything.
The nice detective came on a Thursday, twenty-six days after my rescue. The reason I knew was because I kept count on a calendar, marking off each day with a red slash, wishing for some sort of sign that he wanted to reach out and talk to me.
But no sign ever came.
Detective Green appeared in front of our house in the afternoon, before Brenna came home from where she volunteered at the community pool. Dad hadn’t wanted her to go when I came back. He was too afraid something might happen to her and Mom finally had to put her foot down, explaining to him that lightning rarely if ever struck twice.
Great. So they referred to what happened to me as lightning. How . . . weird. They didn’t seem to know how to talk about it, what to say about it. I didn’t either.
So none of us did. Not as a family. We pretended everything was back to normal. Or as normal as we could make it. No one came over. Brenna tiptoed around me like I might shatter and I sort of loved it. She’d never treated me that nice before.
Dad, on the other hand, refused to look at me. I didn’t know why. I didn’t know what I’d done to make him hate me. I’d already cried enough tears at night to soak my pillow straight through, which was exhausting.
In the daylight, though, I acted like everything was fine.
When she answered the door, Mom was flustered to see Detective Green on our doorstep. I thought she found him handsome, because he was. I also thought any detective made her nervous, because she was always afraid they were going to deliver more bad news.
The good news had already come a week ago, in the form of one Aaron William Monroe being apprehended in Nevada. Las Vegas to be exact, hanging out in front of the Circus Circus Casino and trying to entice a cute teenager to go with him. She got uncomfortable and reported him to a nearby security guard. He took off in chase of Monroe, who fled the scene immediately, but the guard caught him, tackling him right there on the Strip in front of approximately one hundred spectators.
Quite the catch. Hard for me to believe he was actually in jail. Not that I felt better knowing he was locked up . . .
“Nice to see you again, Mrs. Watts. But actually, I came to see Katie.” Detective Green’s warm gaze lit upon me and I turned away, uncomfortable. I knew he meant no harm, but it didn’t matter. All men made me uncomfortable after what happened. The bruises had faded and my ribs felt a lot better, but I hadn’t forgotten.
I would never forget.
“Oh. Really?” Mom twisted her clutched hands in front of her as they stood in the living room. I was at the entrance to the hallway, watching the two of them, wondering whether I wanted to talk to the detective or not. “What’s going on?”
He offered Mom a reassuring smile. “Don’t worry, Mrs. Watts. Everything is okay. I just have a few things I’d like to discuss with Katie. Privately of course.”