When Love Comes Back Read online

  He nodded, visibly swallowed, and then knelt before her to unlace her hiking boots. He moved with precision and care as he took off her shoes and socks. He grabbed his sweatshirt and placed it under her feet so she’d have a soft place to stand in her bare feet and then met her eyes again as he slowly unbuttoned her jeans. Their gazes stayed engaged, the whole time he slowly slid the stiff denim down her thighs, his eyes saying so much more than she was ready to hear.

  After he threw her jeans to the side, he finally glanced down at her boy-short lace panties that matched her bra and swallowed hard. He sank to his knees and pulled her hips forward as he lowered his mouth to her mound. Even through the lace, the touch of his tongue and mouth felt electric. More arousal flooded her pussy as her legs grew weak. She grabbed hold of his scalp just so she didn’t fall at the onslaught of desire.

  He began to work his tongue over her sex, and she was pretty sure she could die happy in this very moment. The lace between her and his tongue acted to ratchet up the friction, sending shockwaves across the nerve-endings of her folds and clit.

  “So wet,” he murmured. “You’ve soaked through your panties.”

  She was beyond words, so she just moaned, “Uh-huh.”

  He pulled the wet lace aside and dipped his blunt fingers into her at the same time he sucked on her clit. Her core tightened and clenched, drawing his fingers deeper inside.

  “Gage,” she keened.

  “Hmm?” he hummed as he sucked on her clit, adding some pressure with his tongue.

  Her world exploded with white-hot ecstasy. Her core clenched and throbbed and grasped at his fingers as they continued to work their magic inside of her. “No more,” she sobbed. “I want you. Please. I need you inside me.”

  “Okay.” His voice was all rocky gravel filled with sex and want and need.

  He nodded and pulled her panties down her thighs. For a moment, he just looked at the private part of her he’d bared. She would have felt exposed if he hadn’t been looking at her like he’d just met god. Her insides quivered. She’d miscalculated how much this would affect her, but it was too late to stop now. She didn’t want to, even if she could. She wanted him, would probably always want him. He was her weakness, and it would probably kill her in the end, but she’d enjoy her journey to damnation.

  He stood, shoved his jeans and underwear down his thighs, and procured a condom, which he slid on in record time. Then he was slowly sliding inside her, filling her.

  He felt so good. She threw her head back and widened her legs to accommodate him.

  After her orgasm, she was plenty wet, so he slid all the way in with one, smooth motion. Seated completely inside her, he stilled.

  Perfection. Why did he always feel so perfect when he was inside her?

  She wasn’t sure which one of them trembled more. This moment...damn, it wasn’t supposed to mean so much.

  “Give me a minute,” he whispered and closed his eyes. “You just feel so good. Dammit.” Sweat dripped down his neck with his effort to hold himself in control.

  “It’s okay,” she gasped as a ripple of desire wound through her belly.

  “Fuck,” he growled.

  “I’m already close again. Just go.”

  That was all the permission he needed. He grabbed one of her legs, hiked it high around his hip, and began to thrust. Every surge filled her deeper, more perfectly. She cried out in time to his cock shuttling in and out of her, rubbing her nerves in the most perfect, delicious way. He seemed bigger than he had been before, and he sure as hell knew what he was doing with his body better than he had when he’d been younger. Before she was ready or even aware that it was upon her, her core lit up again, and the world whited out with another orgasm.

  As she clenched around his cock, he froze on a groan, and he throbbed and pulsed as he released into the condom.

  Aftershocks continued to rock them both for endless moments of pleasure. Gage’s forehead sank to her shoulder as he panted.

  Neither one of them moved as reality of what they’d done sank in.

  Felicia began to laugh. Oh, god, she was just supposed to bring him out here to talk, to find closure, not to fuck. Her low chuckles quickly turned to sobs.

  “Shit.” Gage carefully slid out of her and pulled up his pants, removing the condom. He leaned over, picked her up like she was a small child, and sat down on the sweatshirt she’d been standing on. He tucked her into his arms and soothed her.

  Her head spun in chaos, but foremost in her mind was just how right this felt...to be in his arms like this. And that was so wrong. This sojourn with him today was supposed to be about closure, not getting closer, not more emotionally attached to him.

  She pulled away from him. “I’m sorry. I’m okay.” She stood, suddenly very aware that she was in the middle of the forest almost completely naked. Her bra was the only piece of clothing that hadn’t been completely removed. Searching the ground, she didn’t see her panties, so she just grabbed her jeans and rucked them up her legs, needing the armor of clothing to face him.

  Gage handed her shirt to her.

  “Thank you,” she mumbled. As she tugged it over her head, she tried to calm herself. When her head popped out, she noticed Gage had slipped on his T-shirt, too.

  He glanced her way. “Are you sure you’re okay?”

  She blew out a breath and gave him a weak smile. “Yeah, I really hadn’t planned on that happening when I asked you to come out here.”

  He frowned. “I didn’t, either, but I don’t regret it. In fact”—he reached and grabbed her hand—“how soon can we do it again?”

  She stepped back from him, shaking her head. “We can’t. This was supposed to be for closure, not to start something new.”

  His eyes flared with something, maybe challenge? But regardless of what it was, it gave her an unsettled feeling low in the pit of her stomach. She needed him to know where they stood. “I will always care for you, Gage, but I won’t ever be able to trust you again.”

  His shoulders stiffened.

  “And without trust, there’s no future for us. I’m sorry if I led you to believe otherwise. That was never my intention. I just needed to know how things got screwed up so badly between us back then. I never understood that.”

  “And do you feel better now, knowing that it was just my complete and total fuck-up that did it?” Gage bit out the words.

  His anger surprised her. “I...I don’t know if better is the right word. I won’t ever be able to feel good about what happened back then, but I think maybe it helps to know...the details of what happened.”

  “Well, so happy I could accommodate you...and provide an orgasm as a bonus.” His eyes sparked silver with cold rage.

  “Hey!” Suddenly Felicia felt a whole lot less settled about all this. “There’s no need to get bitchy about it.”

  Gage raised an imperious eyebrow at her that just made her madder.

  He shrugged. “If you’re gonna use me for my body like a teenage guy then I’m allowed to get emotional about it like a teenage girl.”

  Her chest tightened. She couldn’t breathe. She had to get out of here. “Whatever, Gage. I’m not going to fight with you about this. Thank you for coming out with me today and talking things through. If it’s all the same to you, though, I think I’m done talking for today. Think you can find your way back to the parking lot okay?”

  He nodded.

  “Okay. Goodbye.” She hiked back to her car as fast as she could up the steep incline, kicking herself for thinking this meeting might have helped.

  Chapter Sixteen

  Gage rolled his eyes as Felicia stormed off. He turned around and kicked a rock in frustration. She was right, he had been acting like a huffy, teenage girl, but dammit, that was the best sex he’d had since...well, since the last time he’d made love to her.

  It wasn’t his fault that he’d read more into it than had really been there. Usually when a woman fucked him, she was at least partly emotionally invo
lved. Guess that wasn’t the case with her.

  Dammit!

  But even as he cursed and fumed, the lassitude and pleasure of really great sex had settled low in his groin. He’d missed just how much she satisfied him in every way.

  He closed his eyes, savoring for a moment just how good it had felt to be inside her again. He groaned. Fuck, he’d missed her. He couldn’t lose her now. He squared his shoulders, finished dressing, and took off at a fast jog, hoping to catch up with Felicia before she made it to the parking lot.

  He caught a glimpse of her, but when he yelled and began to run after her, the hiker turned in surprise. Dammit that was a guy. It was hard to see his expression since he wore a hoodie and large, oversized sunglasses, but he took off at a sprint.

  Nice.

  “I’m sorry. I thought you were someone else,” Gage called after him, but he was already long gone. Fuck. Not only had Gage run off his girl, but now he was terrifying perfect strangers in the middle of the forest.

  He slowed down, just so someone didn’t call the police about the unhinged hiker in the woods.

  But Felicia must not have been worrying about that, because he never caught up with her. When he arrived in the parking lot, he only saw the taillights of an old Ford Bronco leaving the parking lot. It looked like the one he’d wanted in high school...black with sunset trim. He hadn’t seen one of those in decades. Even when he was in high school, most of them barely drove. It was probably a collectible now.

  Just another thing he’d missed out that he’d wanted, but he wasn’t going to give up on Felicia so easily. He climbed into his Jeep and took off down the mountain pass.

  He didn’t spot her for a good twenty minutes of the drive, but just as they came off the mountain, he finally spotted her old Dodge truck about half a mile in front of him. He stomped on the accelerator, hoping there were no cops around, although at this point, he’d just follow her home.

  As the road came off the mountain, it made a wide curve and then crossed an intersection. The cross traffic had a stop sign, but the road from the mountain didn’t. From higher up the hill where he was, he could see the disaster about to happen. Felicia had no idea.

  His heart raced in panic.

  He screamed as the old Bronco from the parking lot flew through the light, hitting Felicia’s truck just behind the driver’s side door, sending it spinning. Felicia’s truck hit the edge of the pavement and tumbled and rolled, picking up speed down the steep incline of the shoulder of the road.

  Her truck rolled three times before finally coming to rest on its roof in the ditch.

  Gage couldn’t take his eyes off that flipped truck, its wheels spinning in the air and smoke coming out of the undercarriage. Oh, god. How hurt was she?

  She couldn’t be dead. She just couldn’t.

  How upset had she been when she left the parking lot? Had she put on her seat belt?

  Please be okay, he prayed. All the things that could have gone wrong spun through his head. He barreled his Jeep down the road to where she’d come to rest, sliding to a stop on the shoulder, not even knowing how he’d arrived there.

  He jumped out of the Jeep.

  “Felicia!” He slid down the embankment of the shoulder of the road, the high brush scraping at his arms as he flailed to maintain his balance on the loose soil.

  In the truck’s tumble, the driver’s side door ended up the farthest away from him. Running to get to her felt like trying to wade through molasses. He couldn’t move fast enough to reach her.

  The smell of gas filled the air and heat from the engine clicked ominously, although a quick glance didn’t reveal a fire...yet.

  His knees slammed on the ground as he dropped beside the driver’s door. The cab roof had caved in a good foot, so there wasn’t much of a hole to see into. The glass was gone, so Gage reached in, touching her shoulder. He couldn’t see her face. “Felicia, can you hear me?”

  She moaned.

  As relief flooded him, blood flowed back to his extremities. She was still alive. “Come on, baby. Talk to me. Are you okay?”

  With the way the cab was collapsed, it was impossible to tell anything about how badly injured she might be. All he could see was part of her shoulder and the backside of her head, which appeared to be twisted slightly.

  “What happened?” she asked, her voice low and scratchy with confusion.

  “Someone hit you, and your truck flipped. Can you tell me what hurts?”

  She made a small choked sound, and he could see her trying to move.

  “Don’t move, baby. I don’t want you to hurt something.”

  A man came up behind him. “I called nine-one-one. Is the driver okay?”

  He shook his head. “I’m not sure yet. I can’t see enough to tell for sure, but she’s conscious.”

  “Gage, don’t leave. Help. Please...” The sound of her distressed voice killed him, although she sounded stronger so that was a good sign.

  He reached for her, touching her back lightly, trying to soothe her. “Help is on the way, Doc. Just hold still. Not too much longer. Listen. Do you hear the sirens? They’re coming.”

  As soon as the paramedics and fire crews arrived, they tried to move Gage out of the way.

  “No,” Gage argued. “I’m not leaving until you get her out.”

  A fireman tugged hard on his shoulder, forcing him to stand. “Sir, unless you move, we won’t be able to do that. Come over here and talk to the police about what happened.”

  A policeman took over and pulled Gage to the side to get his statement, and the firemen rushed in to see to Felicia. “You saw the accident happen, sir?”

  “Yes, a Bronco...an old one...black with sunset trim, 1985 or ’86 model.” He shook his head. It had looked like the same Bronco he’d seen at the top of the mountain, but that wasn’t possible. It shouldn’t have been coming from that direction. But what were the odds of seeing two identical vehicles like that—when it had been years since he’d seen even one of them—on the same day?

  After that, he had no idea what he told the police as he watched the activity around the cab of her truck. He focused all his energy on the glimpses he got of Felicia, praying that she was okay as they worked to get her free.

  Finally, she was free, and he broke away from the police interrogation to rush to her side. A large brace encircled her neck, but thank fuck, she was alive and looked mostly okay. She waved everyone aside as the paramedics loaded her onto a stretcher.

  When she spotted him, her expression morphed from a mix of annoyance and fear into relief. She reached out to him. “Gage, please tell them I’m okay. You can take me home, right?”

  Gage glanced at the paramedic standing behind her, who slightly shook his head. The paramedic said, “I’ve been trying to explain to her that she needs to get that bump on her head checked out.”

  Gage zoomed in on the small cut and blood seeping from a bump high on her temple. He lightly kissed the other side. “Let them do their job, Doc. I’ll take you home just as soon as the hospital clears you. Come on. You have medical training. You know how important it is to be sure. Besides, you had a concussion a couple of weeks ago. It would be better to be safe.”

  The paramedic straightened. “You had a concussion recently?”

  “Yes, but...”

  “No, no ‘buts.’ Your friend is right. At a minimum, you need a CT scan and probably twenty-four hours observation. We’re taking you in.” The paramedic looked up at Gage. “You want to follow us to the hospital?”

  Gage nodded. “I’ll be right behind you.”

  He took off toward his Jeep, but the policeman stopped him. “I need to get the rest of your statement.”

  Gage impatiently shook off the officer’s hand. “I’ll be in the ER with my friend. You can find me there.”

  The back doors of the ambulance closed, and a stab of panic struck Gage in the middle of his gut. He didn’t want to let Felicia out of his sight. He had no idea what might happen, but his n
erves jangled in warning. There was something going on that had put her in danger. She’d had way too many close calls, and he had no plans to let whoever was doing this get any closer.

  The accident happened not far from the local hospital, so it took less than ten minutes for the ambulance to turn into the ER entrance. Gage parked in the first parking spot he found and took off at a run toward the ER doors.

  He didn’t even stop at the reception area; he just barreled back to the curtained area where the patients were and immediately spotted Felicia. She was so pale and fragile looking.

  A nurse called, “Sir, you can’t be back here.”

  “It’s okay,” Felicia called out. “He’s with me.”

  For a moment, the nurse in the maroon scrubs looked like she still planned on pushing him out, but she glanced back at Felicia with a sigh. “Okay, but only because things don’t look too serious with her condition.” She stared him down. “Don’t make me regret my lenience, though.”

  “I won’t. Promise.” He strode over and grabbed Felicia’s hand. “Hey, you. Are you okay?”

  “Yeah, seriously, I’m fine. There’s no reason for me to be here.” She was so pale, and her hand shook within his grasp.

  With blood still trickling slowly down her forehead, Gage would believe that when a doctor said she was fine. “Let’s see what the doctor says. You’ve had a terrifying half an hour, and the adrenaline can hide a lot of aches and pains in the moment.”

  A young doctor who looked to be barely out of medical school brushed through the curtain, looking down at a chart. “Felicia Parks?”

  “Yes. That’s me.” Felicia’s grasp on his hand tightened like she needed some reassurance.

  The doctor leaned forward and poked at the wound on her head. “You were in a car wreck?”

  “Yes,” Felicia said.

  “Her truck rolled over three times,” Gage added. He needed the doctor to know how serious her injuries could be after being tossed around that much.

  The doctor’s eyes widened in surprise. “Really?” He squinted his eyes and tilted his head at Felicia. “Is anything else hurting?” He gently palpitated her abdomen and listened to her breathing and heart rate.