Page 20 of Huck Frasier
“When we graduated from college, I left. Lark stayed a bit longer. She would go home and check to see if she had returned, but she never did. I don’t want to talk about her.”
I was going to find out what the hell happened to their mother, I would keep it a secret.
14
Marley
He didn’t kiss me right away.
Not even after I curled into his chest like someone trying to memorize the shape of safety.
Frasier just held me.
Strong. Steady. Warm.
The kind of quiet that didn’t ask questions. It juststayed.
When I finally pulled back and looked up at him, I expected judgment. Pity. Something cold.
But all I got was him.
Soft eyes. Bruised knuckles. A man who would have torn down mountains to get to me—but still stood still until Ichoseto reach for him.
So I did.
I rose up on my toes.
Fisted his shirt in my hands.
And kissed him like I hadn’t stopped thinking about it since Tunisia.
He responded instantly—his mouth crashing into mine, rough and hungry, like he’d waitedtoo longand wasn’t going to waste another second.
Clothes hit the floor in a blur.
My top. His shirt. His hands found skin like he’d been memorizing it in dreams.
And when he lifted me, my legs wrapping around his waist, I wasn’t scared anymore.
Iwantedto be close.
I wantedhim.
He laidme down on the motel bed like I was fragile and furious all at once.
His hand slid up my thigh. His mouth traced the line of my collarbone. And when his fingers tangled with mine above my head, something inside me broke open.
“Say it,” he whispered against my skin.
“Say what?”
“That you want this. That you wantme.”
I looked up at him—every wall gone, every fear trembling, every nerve alive.
“I don’t want to run anymore,” I whispered.
He kissed me slow. Deep. His hand trailed between my thighs, he drove me wild, until I was crying his name, and demanding more.
