Page 81 of All In
I nodded, my body screaming for his, while the realization of what just happened was seeping into the cracks of my broken heart, and I didn’t know if it was harming or healing them.
Outside, the air was cooler, a bracing slug to my slushy mind. I sensed Theo coming down off the high, too. The lust waning, thinking twice and starting to ask questions. The cab ride was too long. I kept my gaze locked on my window, where I could just make out Theo’s reflection beside me, his features sharpened into hard angles of frustration.
When the cab finally pulled up in front of my house, Theo tossed some money into the front seat, and we climbed out. My hands were shaking as I fumbled the key in the lock, and once in my living room, I froze.
I wanted him to leave. I wanted him to stay.
I wanted to curl up alone on my bed and cry. I wanted to drag him into my bedroom, have him tear my clothes off, take me hard and deep until we both found relief.
I wanted to cry for betraying what I’d had with Jonah. I wanted to cry because kissing Theo felt like nothing I’d known since.
Happiness burned within the fire, a glowing treasure I couldn’t reach without getting burned.
My eyes filled with the deluge of swirling emotions. I couldn’t hold them back. My shoulders hunched and I hugged myself.
“Oh, God, Kacey,” Theo said, moving around to face me. He cupped my cheeks in his hands. “Don’t cry, baby. Please…”
I shook my head, fighting for control. “No, it’s okay,” I heard myself say, trying to explain the unexplainable. “It’s just… It’s the first kiss since…”
Theo took a step back, his hands falling to his sides. “Fuck. Kace, I’m sorry.”
“Don’t… I don’t know what I’m trying to say. Or what I feel. It’s nothing to be sorry for. It’s not your fault.”
“It’s not yours either,” he said. “We just…got caught up in the moment.”
I looked sharply up at him. “Did we?”
Theo stared at me a moment, his whiskey-colored eyes soft and warm. “Yeah,” he said, carving his fingers through his hair. “We got caught up in the moment. The place, the song, the mood. It was like a drug.”
I felt a tug in my chest, then a sharp pain. Straight through my heart. “Yeah, I guess so,” I said.
“I’m going back to Vegas,” Theo said. “Tonight. I think it’s best.”
No,I thought, even as I nodded my head. “Okay. I think, maybe…you should. I need to think. God, I don’t know what I need.” I looked at him, so stoic and kind, willing to do anything for me, to do the right thing. “I’m so sorry.”
“Don’t be sorry,” he said, moving to hold me, pressing me to his broad chest. “Do not ever be sorry. Not with me.”
As suddenly as his arms closed around me, they then released. He tossed his things in his bag, and in minutes, he was at the door, leaving.
“I’ll call you when I land.”
“Okay.” I said. “Teddy?”
He stopped at the door. “Yeah?”
“Thank you.”
A ghost of a smile touched his mouth. Then he was gone.
CHAPTER
TWENTY-EIGHT
I threw open the kitchen window.
“Yvonne.”
From inside her house came a muffled reply. “It’s late, baby.”
