Page 52 of I'm Yours

I slowly end the kiss, my body screaming at me to stop being a fucking moron, and ease back from her. Our foreheads rest against each other, her hands cradling my face and playing with my facial hair. I let out a breathy laugh. “It’s a little thicker than I could grow in high school, huh?”

She nods, eyes scanning my features. “So much has changed.”

“It has.”

“But you… you still feel the same to me.” She sits back so there’s space between us once again and her nose wrinkles. “Is that weird?”

The weird thing is that it’s not weird. That I understand what she means. Instead of saying that, I shake my head and lean over, brushing my lips against her soft lips because I just can’t help myself. “It isn’t. But…”

“Uh oh. Here’s the but.”

“It’s not that. It’s that I don’t know if…”

“If you should be kissing someone from your past when your wife hasn’t even been gone a year?”

She gets it. Of course she does. “Right.”

“Kissing doesn’t need to…”

It’s my turn to interrupt because I don’t want to hear her say that kissing doesn’t mean something. “Don’t say that. You know it’s not true.”

She almost deflates, her shoulders slouching. “You’re right. That was an asshole thing of me to even come close to saying.”

“I want to get to know Sadie the adult.”

“I want to get to know Reed the adult.”

“Good. Then it’s settled. We’ll get to know each other again.”

The expression on her face almost makes me laugh. “Why are you pouting?”

“Because I also really liked kissing you.”

“Oh, yeah?” I can’t stop the smug grin that spreads across my face.

She shoves me lightly, giggling. “Don’t embarrass me.”

“How am I embarrassing you? I’m just glad to hear that you like kissing me. That means I got better at it over the years. The last time we kissed you must not have liked it that much.”

Her facial expression changes in an instant. She’s suddenly so serious it almost scares me.

“What?”

“There might have been something I didn’t include on the list that I need to tell you.”

“Okay?” I hedge, removing my hand that was still resting on her hip. Something tells me that I need space for this conversation.

“That last night before you left for college… remember it?”

Remember it? Of course I remember it. I’ve relived it in my dreams more times than I care to admit. I lost my virginity that night. I stare at her, my heartbeat pounding so fast and hard I can feel it in my throat. In three seconds I have a million thoughts roll through my head. It wasn’t actually her first time. She ended up pregnant and gave the baby up for adoption. Or miscarried. Or… I can’t even think of the third option there. Maybe she regretted it all these years and I avoided her at all costs and she couldn’t tell me that it never should have happened.

“Yes.”

“I lied about something.”

I swallow hard. “About what?”

She looks down for a few beats before focusing on the water. It takes a few minutes but she finally turns her gaze on me again. “When you dropped me off at home, and you’d said that you were in love with me and I told you I didn’t love you back.”

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