Page 6 of Rebound
Her eyes meet mine and my insides turn to mush.
Tamara’s always taken my breath away—at twelve when I started crushing on her, at fourteen when we first kissed and now, at thirty-seven, she’s got me twisted up in ways I can’t explain.
It takes me a minute, but I finally step aside and let her into the house. “Thanks for coming over.”
Scents of honeysuckle and cinnamon slide through my senses, discombobulating me as she moves past. She says something and it takes me a minute to realise she’s talking to me.
“Uh, sorry?”
Tamara glances at me, a familiar look of irritation flashing through her eyes. “Elias lives here alone?”
I nod and look around the house. It’s a four bedroom, five bathroom place with a giant kitchen, a backyard he can fit a tiny pool into, and large main spaces. There’s a smaller home in the back for Kuriakose, the family driver. “He bought the house a few years ago with the hopes Nina or I might move in with him.”
She hums and looks around pointedly. I don’t dare interrupt her, but when she moves to the kitchen, I follow in her delicious scented wake. It’s taking serious amounts of effort not to stare at her ass or admire the curves of her body. Since the beach house, I’ve had dreams of stripping her naked and tasting her. The number of times I’ve woken up with my hand wrapped around my cock would annoy her. Like when we first met, Tamara has me addicted. And we haven’t even touched yet.
In fact, this is the longest we’ve been alone since summer camp. Not for lack of trying on my part.
“Can I get you something to drink?”
She turns to me, her shrewd brown eyes narrowed in…frustration? I shove my hands into my pockets so I don’t reach for her. Looking at her now, I realise she’s almost a foot shorter than my six-three. But at this moment, I feel like the smallest man in the world.
I know she hates me; I just don’t know why.
“I don’t intend to stay any longer than necessary, Patrick.”
Ouch. The emphasis she puts on my name sends a shot of something to my dick. There was a time when she loved me. Now she feels a certain something else for me. Something I can’t seem to comprehend.
“The drink can even be water.”
“Fine,” she drawls and leans against the counter.
I fill two glasses with cold water and slide one to her. She takes a sip, eyes still moving around the kitchen while I continue to admire her. I remember lying in the grass behind an abandoned shed, tracing her face with my fingers while she read from one of the romance novels she smuggled into camp. We’d laugh at the descriptions of genitalia, take turns reading the sex scenes and spend countless hours kissing. Those summers were some of the best I ever had and truly the highlight of every year. Getting to see her, knowing she was waiting for me, having her tucked in my arms during campfire nights—nothing could ever compare.
I’ve run through everything that happened back then, trying to figure out where we went wrong. The only problem is, there are gaps in my memories. We had five great summers together where we explored sports and each other thoroughly. We had two big fights, but made up before we parted ways. So where did I go wrong?
“Why do you hate me?”
She groans and puts the glass down harder than necessary, but still doesn’t say anything.
“If you plan to kill me, maybe we should do it outside?”
Tamara continues to ignore me, but she moves to the window and peers into the garden. I stay where I am, afraid if I move something will go wrong. It’s like being around a wild animal; you don’t want to taunt them, but you also want to find a way out of there. The difference is, I don’t want to leave. I don’t want her to walk away either. So I’m doing everything possible to keep her in place.
“This was a mistake,” she says and flips her dark hair over one shoulder. Another scent hits me and my knees wobble. Seriously, being this well-built should make me more steady. In Tamara Chandy’s presence, I’m nothing but the gooiest man on the planet.
“Lot—” the rest of her nickname freezes on my tongue when she turns around and glares at me.
“We don’t need to talk.”
“I really think we should.”
She rolls her eyes and crosses her arms over her chest. “Why? Nothing’s going to change.”
“For one we’re going to be in each other’s lives because of Vera and Elias. Two, I’m not used to people hating me for no reason.”
She scoffs, her cocoa brown eyes sparkling dangerously. My cock twitches and I grit my teeth. Oh fuck. Maybe I find Tamara hotter when she hates me, because my dick is ready to rise up and fight battles for her.
“You better get used to me not giving a shit about you then.”
