Page 68 of Something Good
“Good. I can’t say I love the thought of you married to someone, and I know I gave up the right to have a say in that a long time ago, but a guy cheating on you? Seriously makes me want to contemplate murder, even if it means driving all the way to Chicago.”
His cheeks were flushed and the fingers wrapped around his glass were white from the force of his grip. He was pissed on my behalf. For a moment, I reveled in the warmth of his possessiveness. But just as quickly, my temper flared.
I drained my glass and set it down hard. I was surprised it didn’t crack.
“You’re right. You don’t have the right.” I stormed past him, making a beeline for the door. “Thanks for bringing me home. You can go now.”
“Will, I didn’t mean to upset you,” he said, following me back to the front of the house.
“No. You don’t get to come in here and be angry on my behalf because someone else hurt me.”
“He cheated on you!” Those spots of color on his cheeks intensified with his anger.
“I know that!” I shouted right back. “But you don’t get to decide that the way he hurt me is worse than the way you did.”
He took a step back as if I’d struck a physical blow. “You really want to get into this right now?”
“I don’t want to get into anything. I’m pretty sure I asked you to leave.”
He released a frustrated breath. “I just wanted you to have the life you deserved. I didn’t want to be the reason you stayed. I didn’t want to hold you back.”
“It wasn’t your choice to make. And the way you did it—sleeping with me and then dumping me—it wrecked me.”
He paled at that but pressed further. “But you went to college. You have a career. Would you have any of that if you’dstayed?” He yanked out his hair tie, scooped the hair back up with quick, efficient movements, and put the tie back in all over again.
“We’ll never know, will we? You never gave us that chance. You let me fuck you, and then you threw me away. You threwusaway.”
He took a step forward. And then another one. There was sadness in his eyes as he approached. “I wasn’t trying to throw you away,” he said, his voice soft. “I was setting you free.”
“Well, that plan backfired. I almost failed out of college that first semester and barely made it through the next. I slept with half the queer population of West Lafayette.” He flinched, but I didn’t pull any punches. I wanted him to know what he’d done to me all those years ago. How it had affected me. “You broke me, Sammy.”
“I’m sorry.” There was anguish in his eyes as he stepped forward one more time. We were standing close enough that I could feel his breath on my lips. “I’m sorry,” he whispered. Then, one more time, “I’m sorry.”
And then his lips were on mine. Despite my frustration, I melted into him, helpless to stop my mouth from opening as he traced his tongue along my bottom lip. He placed his hands on either side of my face as he sunk deeper, tangling his tongue with mine. It was soft and tender and a little tentative.
It was everything.
I groaned, pouring ten years’ worth of anger, frustration, and hurt into it, taking the kiss from something sweet to something darker and more aggressive. Spinning, I pressed Sammy against the door, wedging my knee between his legs and pinning him in place. He ground his erection into my thigh as he matched my energy, moving his hands up to thread them through my hair and pull. I hissed into his mouth, but it was a delicious kind of pain that had electricity shooting straight to my dick.
I pulled his bottom lip between my teeth, then nipped his jaw until I got to his neck, where I licked and sucked, leaving bruises all along the column of his throat. His hands slid down to my ass, kneading my flesh as we rocked against each other in a frantic rhythm.
Without warning and far too soon, my orgasm barreled through me, unloading into my briefs and the dress pants I’d worn to my hearing this morning. I grunted through it, dropping my head to his shoulder and riding his thigh as waves of pleasure rolled through me.
The first thing that registered as reality began to punch through my lust-hazed bubble was that Sammy was placing soft kisses in my hair. Gentle, sweet kisses, over and over again. My pants were a mess, and with my alcohol-induced buzz wearing off, a headache was brewing, but those damn kisses had me fighting back tears all over again.
He rubbed his hands up and down my back while I swallowed past the lump in my throat and blinked a couple of times to clear the moisture from my eyes. When I thought I had myself under control, I pulled back.
“Are you okay?” His chocolate-brown eyes were full of concern as he studied my face. “I’ve never seen you so angry. So aggressive.”
“My marriage just ended, and you—the guy who ripped my heart out just days before I left for college—you’ve come back into my life out of nowhere. I’m sorry if I’m struggling to process all of it in a calm and rational manner.”
He winced. “You’re right. You’ve been through a lot. And I’m sorry if I pushed you into something you weren’t ready for.”
“I’m the one who has you trapped against the door. You didn’t push me into anything, Sammy.” I stepped back, dragging my hand through my hair. “But that doesn’t mean I’m okay. It still hurts…it’s neverstoppedhurting. And seeing you againopens those hurts back up so they feel fresh and raw all over again.”
I paced farther into the living room, putting some distance between us before turning back to look at him. “I don’t think I ever stopped loving you. Dmitri cheated on me, but maybe what I did was just as bad.” I looked away, unable to bear the look on his face as I confessed it all. “My heart never belonged to him. It wasn’t mine to give because it was still yours.”
“Will…I don’t know what to say.”
