Page 56 of Phantom
“Wow. Turns out all the men in my life are complete bullshit.” I swatted Colin’s hand away from my face as I stood up and walked away from the couch a few feet. “So, what? You were gonna do that?”
“I honestly didn’t know what I was gonna do, but then your dad pulled that stunt today, and I knew I couldn’t stay here. As soon as I got home, I bought a ticket to Munich.”
“What? Were you just gonna ghost? Truly live up to the name Phantom?”
“I should have been more specific.” Colin lifted his phone up again, clicked through it, and then held it out toward me. With a few careful steps forward, I grabbed his phone and stepped backward. Looking down at the screen, I could see a confirmation that there was a ticket under Colin’s name to Munich, but there were two others with it. There was a ticket for me and one for Lockjaw. “I wanted you to come with me.”
Colin stood up and walked across the room to me. He brought his hands up to cup my face, and as much as I wanted to push him away, I couldn’t. When it came to Colin, I was powerless.
“I’m not asking you to forgive me, but I needed you to know how much I love you. How much all of my plans got screwed up the second I laid eyes on you again. I don’t want to go back to a life without you in it, but if you say that’s what you want me to do, I’ll do it. I don’t want to hurt you any more than I already have.”
Thoughts raced through my mind at a mile a minute. Had I reached a ceiling within the club? I was never going to be president, or even get a shot? Colin had wanted, maybe still wanted, to take me with him to Germany. If there was nothing left for me in Hoppa, why wouldn’t I start over with the man of my dreams in Germany? Then again, it seemed like every time I took a chance on someone, they let me down.
What was the right answer?
Colin leaned in and gently set his lips on mine. He didn’t linger. His kiss was barely there, and then he was away from me again. “Thank you for listening. I’ll go.”
He pulled his hands away from me and turned his back to me, and I panicked. The thought that Colin may walk out that door and that I would never see him again broke me. When I was with Colin, I didn’t feel like there was nothing left for me.
A future in Germany? One where I could start over and grow? That was what I wanted.
I reached out, grabbed his arm, and pulled him back to me. In a swift motion, he wrapped his arms around me and lifted me off the ground. Our lips smashed together, and my hands clawed helplessly at him, trying to find something to take away the feeling of free-falling that he gave me. He lowered me onto the bed, quickly discarding the towel that was the only thing keeping me hidden from his hands, and I made quick work of removing his shirt and unbuttoning his pants, which he pulled down with his boxers and kicked aside.
I stood and pushed him to sit on the edge of the bed, and then I crawled on top of him. He hooked a finger under the hair tie that held my hair up and yanked it out, and as I pressed my lips back to his again, he guided his already hard self to my entrance, and I lowered over. I curled my arms around his shoulders and held on tight as I moved in a rhythm of rising and falling.
Colin’s hands slotted into the curves of my waist, and his fingers clawed into me with the same desperation with which my hands had moved earlier. How was it possible for one person to destroy me so much and, at the same time, build me up? His lips worked away from mine and down my neck, and before I could stop them, tears were slipping down my cheeks. When Colin noticed them, he tilted my head down so that he could kiss away the drops.
“I’m so sorry for hurting you and lying to you,” he said. “I’ll never do it again.”
“You’d better not,” I huffed back. “Or I really will shoot you.”
He grinned. “I accept the terms.” He cupped my chin in his hand. “I love you.”
He didn’t necessarily deserve to hear it just yet, but I couldn’t stop myself from responding, “I love you, too.”
I lost track of time as we poured into each other again and again and again. It seemed that Colin was dedicated to kissing every inch of me, feeling every inch of me. I couldn’t have strung coherent sentences together if someone had offered me millions of dollars to do so. Instead, I let myself slip safely beneath the surface of Colin’s waters, drowning in him and letting him be my air when I ran out. Even when the rising sun started to peek through the window, we didn’t stop, not until it was the only option we had left.
“When are the flights to Munich?” I asked, and I was legitimately impressed that I was able to say it.
“Not until tomorrow. I have a motel room, though. It’s disgusting, but it’s outside Hoppa. We can stay there until it’s time.”
“What do I tell my dad?” I asked.
“Oh, that’s not something you’ll have to worry about.” Colin’s and my heads whipped toward the bedroom door, where Taylor was standing in the doorframe. “I’ll take care of telling himeverything.”
Chapter Twenty-One
Phantom
Tess and I were sitting ducks when we realized that Taylor had gotten into the house. We were both totally naked, and neither of us had guns within arm’s reach. It was dumb of me to get caught up in her when we were still in Hoppa, but when she pulled me back, any resistance in me dissipated. That small indicator that she was willing to forgive me took all the logical, methodical parts of my brain and scattered them across the desert.
“Taylor,” Tess said.
Taylor shook his head like a disappointed dad. “I honestly expected more from you, Tess. I handed you the truth on a silver platter. Did you not figure it out, or are you so dumb that you’re going to look past it?”
“Colin’s past has nothing to do with his present,” Tess replied.
Taylor’s face lit up at that response. “Ah, so you did figure it out.”
