Part 22 (2/2)
Vince stared back at her, his dark eyes totally somber for once. ”He threw your underwear. I threw a punch. Things went downhill from there.”
As if she hadn't already felt guilty enough about that night. The truth was even worse than she'd imagined. The stab of guilt went deep.
That night rolled back over her. How much she'd hated herself for giving away her virginity out of anger. The ache in her heart and between her thighs over how raw the rough, brief encounter had been in the arms of someone who didn't really care about her.
Now to hear that Tommy had lorded it over Vince . . .
She sat up straighter. Tommy had arranged for her to meet him that night. Could he have planned the whole explosive event? As much as she wanted to hate him for that, she couldn't scrounge anything more than a deep sadness. They'd all been so young, reckless, even outright stupid.
No one deserved to die because of the ignorance of youth.
Shay saw the same weight of guilt etched on Vince's bold face. ”How do we get past feeling responsible for what happened to him?”
His fists opened and closed on his knees. ”I wish I had the answer.”
She couldn't even hold his gaze and looked down at her dog again, her sweet little spoiled pet that Vince had gotten for her. Somehow he'd known how much she needed the comfort Buster would bring in the middle of this chaos.
An image of Vince from that night came back to haunt her. Vince wrapping himself around her to s.h.i.+eld her after the cops came. That vision collided with memories of the drive-by shooting at the center when he'd covered her yet again. And here he was again, putting himself in harm's way for her, protecting her, comforting her even.
Shay stood and walked to his chair. She wrapped her arms around his shoulders. He stiffened in her embrace, but she forged on, urging him to rest his head against her chest, hugging him close, offering comfort.
His hands slid up to palm her waist, then circled around. She wasn't sure how long they held on to each other. n.o.body cried or spoke, but the air thickened with something she couldn't quite define.
But it was something she absolutely couldn't miss.
He tugged, catching her off guard and off balance. She tumbled into his lap as he sealed his mouth to hers. Urgency pulsed from him into her. She blinked through her surprise to find her body already burning for more.
Her chest rose and fell with ragged breaths. Raw emotions from the past and from the present scoured through her, and she couldn't resist the outlet his kiss, his body offered. She suspected much the same feelings stirred through him.
Twisting, she knelt to straddle him without breaking their kiss. The bold sweep of his tongue over hers sent a fresh jolt through her.
Her legs clamped against his as she wriggled to get closer, yet she was already as close as she could get without crawling inside him. He cupped her head, palmed her bottom, wrapping her in heat.
She stroked her fingers over his smoothly shaved scalp. So sleek. So s.e.xy. She nipped the corner of his mouth. ”Don't you want to ask me fifty questions like, am I sure this is what I really want?”
He teased her earlobe between his teeth. ”Or why the change of heart?”
”Or what are we going to do once tomorrow is over?” She arched her neck to give him better access.
”Or how about, when are you going to stop talking, because tomorrow is the very reason we need this?”
”I can't argue with that.”
She stripped off his s.h.i.+rt, and wow, she'd shortchanged herself in not taking the time to look him over last night. The hard cut of muscles twitched under her gaze, the tattoos s.h.i.+fting with the roll of tendons as if coming to life. The phoenix tattoo draped over his shoulder, wings down his back, was familiar. ”I remember this from when you used to strip off your s.h.i.+rt to work on your motorcycle. Did you know how we girls drooled over you?”
”G.o.d, I loved that rat bike.” His fingers rasped up her sides, his thumbs grazing her b.r.e.a.s.t.s.
”Rat bike?” She s.h.i.+vered at the wash of tingles.
”Rat nasty,” he explained between nipping his way down her neck, into the vee of her s.h.i.+rt, ”held together with baling wire and a prayer.”
Shay kissed her way over his shoulder for a better look, and yes, she'd remembered correctly. The wings flowed down his back with the word Freedom interwoven in the feathers. An amazing piece of art, it must have taken a full day to create.
Shay skimmed her hands over his broad shoulders, thinking of that first night of his return when he'd walked in and nearly scared her to death with his intimidating size. Now her mind filled only with memorizing every inch of him. She crawled across his chest, Carpe Diem etched on his abs, another mark from his teen years, an earlier tat, this one not as expertly scrolled.
He peeled away her s.h.i.+rt and unhooked her bra in a smooth sweep and toss, teasing over her skin. She gripped his arms and found the roughened texture of another tattoo on his other biceps. Could she have forgotten? No. She remembered everything about him. She broke the kiss to look.
”Yeah, it's a new one,” he growled, his hands rising to cup her b.r.e.a.s.t.s, plucking lightly on both until she beaded harder with pleasure.
Her lashes fluttered shut for an instant before she forced them open again, determined to look her fill this time. She found a dagger with Chinese lettering on the handle.
The blade gave her pause.
She forced herself to lean forward and press her lips to the tattoo, to own it as a part of him and not a part of her past. ”Any other new inkings I should know about?”
”You'll have to find out for yourself.” His callused hands rasped along her skin as he stroked from her b.r.e.a.s.t.s around to her back, fingers dipping below her waistband. He gently snapped her thong.
She would have to get naked soon, totally bared in the light. Her scars would be out there for him to see. She should tell him. She wanted to and didn't at the same time.
Maybe he simply needed to rediscover the new and different her the same way she was relearning him.
SEVENTEEN.
Who the h.e.l.l needed sleep?
Vince had never felt more completely awake.
He wondered how the woman kissing him senseless could feel so intensely familiar and new at the same time. Not that he intended to waste even a second thinking right now.
He had a willing Shay in his arms and a bed a few steps away.
She clutched his shoulders, urgently wriggling against him. He scooped her up and carried her to the wide bed. Finally. He propped his knee on the edge and eased her onto the mattress, holding their kiss as he positioned himself over her.
He'd spent so many years avoiding thoughts of her, he'd missed out on the possibility that she'd changed, too. He'd focused on thinking about the negatives they brought out in each other, until he'd lost sight of her positives that had enticed him in the first place. The way she always listened, really listened to what he and other people had to say.
Her uninhibited laugh when she rode on the back of his bike.
Vince elbowed up to keep the bulk of his weight off her. The feel of her smooth hands on his body, exploring his tattoos, sent his pulse into overdrive. Not many women understood, just seeing them as a sign of danger, either a turn-on or turnoff. Shay seemed to understand how the markings were simply a part of him, past and present, with maybe more in his future.
She reached for the fastening on her jeans.
He placed his hands over hers. ”I've got it.”
Smiling, she let her arms fall to rest above her head. With her s.h.i.+rt and bra already on the floor, she made for pinup material. Her pert b.r.e.a.s.t.s high and creamy white with pretty pink tips. Her tousled curls fluffed around her face in a halo belied just a little by her hint of a wicked smile.
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