Alone (Bone Secrets, #4)(55)

Seth’s smile grew. “I remember how you hated the dampness in the air at school sometimes.” His brows angled down. “I remember a lot of things. Sometimes it feels like it was just yesterday, our days together. I have to think hard to remember a lifetime has passed. That Eden has grown from a toddler into a young woman. Almost the same age you were when we met. How is that possible? My daughter is still a girl. You were a woman.”

“I suspect it is all in the eyes of the beholder.”

He smoothed her hair again. “Tori…”

She closed her eyes at his touch on her hair and the memories washed over her. He’d loved to touch her long hair. So many nights they’d spent together simply watching TV in bed while he ran his fingers through her hair. It’d been soothing and relaxing. After they’d split up, she’d struggled to fall asleep for months and suspected part of her issue had been the loss of the soothing gesture before she slept.

She felt him gather her hair into his fist at the back of her neck and gently tug her head backward. She arched her head back, her eyes still closed. Rain hit her forehead and eyelids, shocking her with its chill. He must have moved the umbrella, because more drops hit her mouth and neck. She shuddered and parted her lips.

She felt his heat touch her lips before his mouth pressed against hers. Warmth blasted through the sensitive nerve endings of her lips and shot down to her toes. She lit up inside.

Seth.

His mouth commanded hers, leading the kiss, challenging her to keep pace. His fingers pressed into her scalp, stroking in a way that made her want to crawl inside him and avoid the world. Nothing compared to being touched and kissed by Seth. Nothing.

He’d always had this power over her. The power to make everything around her disappear until only he existed. Nothing had changed between them. Only the calendar marked the years. Their souls and minds ignored the fact that time had passed and acted as if they’d never been separated.

After a long moment he pulled back, and she was exposed to the rain again. Her eyes opened, meeting his gaze. He’d lowered the umbrella so they both stood in the cold wet. It wasn’t a pounding, soaking rain at the moment. It was a good rain. Soft and gentle, the type that refreshes. She needed the coolness to offset his heat.

She watched a drop run down his cheek and bounce off his coat, feeling the same action repeated on her face.

She didn’t care. Right now, the Pacific Northwest could throw whatever type of weather it wanted at her, and it wouldn’t change that all she wanted to do was stand next to Seth Rutledge.

She wanted to forget that she needed to go to work tomorrow, forget her house had been deliberately damaged, and forget her lab had been robbed. She wanted three days and nights alone with him to immerse herself in him. She wanted to talk and eat and have glorious sex without interruption. The way they used to. She wanted to talk about the future and map out their plans. She sucked in a giant breath, feeling the cold touch the bottom of her lungs.

“I should go,” he said.

Were there any sadder words?

“I know,” she answered. Inside her brain screamed for him not to leave again. The cold had exposed her, opened wide her vulnerable center, ripe for a man to easily destroy with the wrong words. Or salve with the right ones.

“I don’t want to. Not tonight. Not any night again.”

His words were a balm that smoothed her raw nerves.

“I don’t want to ever hurt you again,” he whispered. “I know that can be hard to accept, but I hope you will. I want another chance. And I think you do, too. What we had never died. It was hibernating until our summer could come again.”

But what a long cold winter it’d been.

“I never stopped loving you, Tori. That’s the honest truth. If I could go back in time, I’d figure out a way to do right by both you and Eden. I was wrong to sacrifice you the way I did.”

“Shhh. Don’t talk about it. It’s long in the past and there’s nothing you can do about it now.” She didn’t like the distress in his eyes.

“I’ve thought about it for years. I’ve been haunted by it. I did the worst thing a man could ever do to the woman he loved—”

“You were young. We both were. You thought you were doing the right thing at the time. I forgave you a long time ago.” It wasn’t until the words were out of her mouth that Victoria realized how true they were. She had forgiven the young man who’d been driven by a sense of honor to take care of his daughter.

“I forgave you,” she repeated for her sake as well as his. “And you’re here now.”

He exhaled, and she felt his shoulders relax as he briefly shut his eyes. “You don’t know how much that means to me. I’ve felt like I’ve had a curse over my head for almost two decades.”

Victoria felt a weightlessness flow through her body. She’d been carrying the curse, too. He moved forward and kissed her again, pulling her tight against him. Current shot through her body where she pressed against him. Her mouth knew his taste and feel; it’d never forgotten. She sank into the kiss, almost giddy with the elation he’d caused. She and Seth hadn’t meant to be apart. The universe had realigned to place them together again.

Her house might be damaged, but she had her soul mate back.





Trinity woke, instantly alarmed and confused, blinking at her surroundings.