Page 86 of Lake
“Lake.” She went soft on me as she said my name. Her eyes. Her body. Her tone.
Then she was turning away from me, trying her hardest to cut off the thick emotions that were hanging in the air.
“I need to pack. I don’t have much out.”
She didn’t because she’d done her best to take only what she needed out of her suitcase and then put it back once she was done. Her dirty clothes were in a mesh bag sitting in the corner where she kept her things neatly tucked out of the way.
I stood there like a dumbass, frozen in place. I couldn’t bring myself to help her because I didn’t want her to go. I knew it was coming but I wasn’t prepared for it to be this fast.
I watched with observant eyes like I didn’t want to miss a single thing about her. I filed it all away as if I would pull it out later. Like I would really want to cut the wound deeper.
She was beautiful to me. Her brown hair was thick and shiny. As I stood there, I could almost feel how smooth the long strands were between my fingers and against my skin as her head rested on my chest. It was long but I could tell that she hated it getting in the way because it was always pulled away from her face.
Her face which was soft and hard at the same time. Her expressions always pulling at her features making it impossible for her to hide the way she was feeling.
Those eyes.
I’d miss those eyes.
The ones that twinkled with gold and honey and were endless when she looked at me.
“I think that’s everything,” she said jarring me out of my daze. “I…”
“What?” I asked softly as I closed the huge gap that separated us, but still felt gutted by the miles between us.
“I don’t want to make this into some big thing.” She couldn’t look at me as she said it. “I get people. I know how to read them, to know them in the blink of an eye, to see what they’re feeling.”
I bet she did. She had to in order to do her job and by the way she talked about her dad, I knew it was something that was almost weaved into her from the start.
Not that I was trying to hide what I was feeling.
“Just say goodbye and let me go,” she whispered like it was the hardest request she’d ever had to make.
“No,” I said and my voice was raw and choked with emotion. I wasn’t going to let her off that easily. But I silently promised I wouldn’t draw it out with words or some long, winded declaration of how I felt.
“Lake,” she said again, my name rolling off her lips like a plea.
“Love the way you say my name, hellcat.”
“Hellcat?”
“Yeah. That one work for you?”
“Maybe.” Her lips tipped up in the sexiest smirk as she looked up through her lashes at me.
I said nothing else as I lowered my lips to hers. I didn’t take them sweetly. I took them like I’d never get them again. My tongue swept over the seam of her lips and slowly her lips parted for me.
My fingers dug into her back, holding her tightly into my body. Her fingers tugged at my hair. Our tongues met in an angry dance.
Who knew I was such a fucking poet.
But it was all her, she brought out that side of me.
We stripped each other in silence, only breaking apart long enough to free our clothes. Then I had her under me, caging her in my arms.
“I want to feel you,” I whispered against her lips before kissing my way along her jaw. “Every part of you,” I whispered against her ear and as I took her lobe in between my teeth, I felt her body began to tremble with need.
My lips met the curve of her neck and I felt her nodding in approval.
