“But I love you, Bo. I shouldn’t have left.”
His eyes fill with tears as he smiles. “You loved me enough to leave that day, Ember. I needed to grieve and to be angry. I didn’t want to hurt you, and I would have if you’d stayed.” His hands scoop down my neck and grip my shoulders.
I reach up and pull his hands away from my shoulders and interlace my fingers with his. “Why the hell did you hide from me at Delta Blue?”
He bites his lip. It’s the first time I’ve ever seen him bite his lip and it’s driving me crazy.
“The first time I went, I just wanted to see if you were OK. Josh said you were doing well.”
“Ha. I should have learned after the ‘thousand lifetimes’ debacle, that Josh Dixon can’t keep a secret.”
“Good point.” His face relaxes for a moment. “Seriously though, when I saw you, it took my breath away all over again.” He lifts his head and chuckles a little. “You sounded perfect. I just thought...I don’t know...I didn’t want to ruin you.”
“Ruin me?”
“You just looked so happy. I guess I was kind of afraid that if I barged back in ...” He puts his hands back in his pockets and takes a step back.
“Bo Cavanaugh, you don’t get to decide what’s good for me and what’s not.” I keep my tone light. “You. You’re what’s good for me. I spent the last few months getting healthy for me, but I wanted to make sure that if—like you said—you and I ever got our chance again, that I was perfect for you. For us.”
“I’m sorry about the night of Rae’s funeral.” His voice breaks slightly over the word funeral.
“You needed me. What’s there to be sorry about? I spent five agonizing months trying to be mad at you, but all I did was end up falling deeper in love with you than I even thought I was before. I needed you that night, too.”
He’s standing there, shaking his head with a sexy, crooked grin on his face. I can’t stand it anymore.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Bo
“I needed you that night, too.” Ember lowers her eyes for a fraction of a second, and I grin in disbelief.
We were madly in love with each other this whole time, and both did just enough to screw it up without blowing it into total disrepair. When she looks up, her eyes are ignited with a look I’ve waited months to see cast back in my direction. She arches her eyebrow—always the left one—and steps forward so we’re standing hip to hip. She’s got these crazy-hot knee-high boots on over her jeans that have a heel on them, putting us about eye level with each other. My mind calculates how I could get away with taking those jeans off while leaving the boots on.
Before I can plot any further, she hooks her thumbs through my belt loops—God, I love it when she does that—and tugs so our hips grind into one another as she leans up and kisses me. Hallelujah, Ember is kissing me. She immediately releases her thumbs and weaves her fingers across the back of my neck and through my hair. I’ve never felt anything like her kiss before. If I could feel one thing forever it would be this.
I let her take the lead on this as I slide my hands down her sides and grab her ass with both hands. A hungry sigh leaves her mouth and finds its way into mine. She steps back slowly, begging me to follow as her hands move to my belt, then down the outside of my jeans where she grabs me. I can’t hide how hot she makes me, and I don’t want to.
She backs into the piano, causing my knuckles to pound against a few high keys. Neither one of us pays them any attention. I turn slightly and sit on the bench behind me, pulling her onto my lap. I need the pressure of her body on me. Pulling away from my mouth for the first time, she doesn’t break eye contact with me as she takes off her shirt and lets it fall to the floor. Her breasts are perfect. Everything about her is, but damn, those breasts ...
“Kiss me,” she pleads in a breathy tone when I’m struck stupid by her perfect nipples in that lace bra. She holds my head in her hands with her thumbs just behind my ears. I grab her hips and force her down on me as my tongue licks her from her collarbone to her ear. She groans again, and I can’t hold back any longer.
“We gotta go upstairs.” I hate to pause this moment, but who keeps condoms in a studio?
Ember nods and slides off my lap, leaving her shirt on the floor as she makes a break for the stairs. I chuckle as she runs up the stairs, slapping her ass as we pass through my living room. I take the stairs two at a time as I pass her, heading to the second floor. She snickers just low enough that I know I wasn’t meant to hear it.