Page 86 of Forgotten Pieces

I set my phone back down. My mind clear. I know what I need to do. Tacoma’s decision doesn’t matter. If she doesn’t want to be with me, I’ll be fine with that. I just know I need to end it with Shelley. We can’t make each other happy.

I sip my coffee, feeling somewhat relieved over the revelation I’ve had.

The front door opens, and I tense up. Did Shelley come home to surprise me? It’s not really her style. But I guess this conversation is better to have in person.

I go to turn around in my chair when the voice that speaks freezes me.

“Ryder Thompson, you can’t fuckin’ fuck someone like that and just run away. You said you wanted this and you can’t be a chickenshit and run off. You need to speak to me like a man and don’t ignore me!”

I turn around slowly to see the most beautiful human I have ever seen. Tacoma stands just inside the doorway, hands on her hips. Her hair is wild like she never brushed it after last night. Her green eyes determined to put me in my place. Her cheeks flushed.

I bite back a laugh, I thought it was Shelley walking through that door, but it wasn’t. It is my feisty birdie, the one who flew back to me.

“I wasn’t ignoring you.” Because I have no idea what she is talking about.

“I knocked at that door for five minutes and you just sat there. I saw you through the damn window,” she yells, throwing her hands up in the air.

I stand from my chair and slowly walk toward her. “I was lost in thought.”

“You are always lost in thought! I think you are going deaf!” she retorts.

A grin slides over my face. Everything I want is standing in front of me. I haven’t felt this way in years. It’s like everything has clicked into place. “I’m not going deaf.”

“Ugh! You are so frustrating.” She grips her hair as she stomps toward me. “Do you see what you do to me? You bent me over a table and fucked me. And now you have turned me into a crazy person. Because I shouldn’t have liked it. I shouldn’t want this. I don’t want to be the other woman. But help me god, I can barely restrain myself as I look at you right now.”

“Then don’t,” I say.

“What?”

I step closer to her so we are only a few feet apart. “Don’t restrain yourself.”

I think I stunned her because she stares at me with a deer in the headlights look.

“Want to know what I was lost in thought about?” I don’t wait for her answer. “You. I was thinking about you. About how sweet you tasted and I didn’t get to taste nearly enough. About how your luscious body felt in my hands. How your soft lips felt against my own. How good it felt to be inside of you, finally, after eight years of wanting you.”

I step closer so we are only inches apart. “I thought about how I should apologize to you for taking you that way. For being brutal and forceful. For claiming you as mine. But I can’t apologize because I would do it all again.”

A whimper escapes her mouth and before I can even reach out and pull her against me she jumps into my arms making me stumble back.

Her legs wrap around my hips and I grab her ass to hold her up as she attacks my mouth with hers. “I want you so bad.”

“I’m all yours, birdie.”

I walk her to the dining room table and set her down. Last night was fast, raw, pleasure. Today I want to show her just how much she means to me. How much she has always meant to me.

I kiss her slowly, reminding me of all the times we would lie out on a blanket by the lake and do the same thing. I suck her bottom lip into my mouth and she lets out a whimper. Her tongue forces its way into my mouth and I grip her hips and pull her tight into me. She clutches my neck like she never wants to let go.

I kiss my way down her, savoring her sweetness. I swear her skin has always tasted like cherries. I kiss the sensitive spot behind her ear, the one I discovered eight years ago. Her hands make their way down my back and up my shirt, caressing my tight muscles. My hands do the same as I lift her shirt over her head. I move my mouth down to her full breasts and palm them before pushing her bra down and taking a nipple into my mouth.

“Fuck Ryder,” she moans, her hands returning to my head as she pulls me against her breast.

I switch to the other one, lapping and sucking until she is squirming underneath me. My hands make their way to her shorts and I pop the top button. I pull away from her chest and look her in the eye. “I’ve wanted you for eight years, birdie. Even in all that time we spent apart, I still wanted you. I’ve always felt you here,” I say as I press her palm to my chest. “Every day I was in the middle east, every day I was at base, every day I wasn’t with you, I would pray for the day our paths crossed again so I could tell you that I need you to breathe.”

A tear rolls down her face and I wipe it away with my thumb. “No one has ever made me feel the way you do, Ry. You’ve always been the home I wanted to fly back to.”

I cup her face and bring her mouth to mine. This kiss isn’t like any kiss we’ve ever had. This kiss is so much more than passion. This kiss is telling each other we love each other without saying the words. We have too many obstacles in our way to say those words, too many hurdles to cross. But deep down in our souls, we know this is what we need.

She pushes my pajama bottoms down. I take her bra off followed by her shorts and she lifts her hips so I can take them down her legs. “No underwear?”

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