Page 113 of Someone Like Me
His nostrils flare as he pulls in a slow breath. “I think he felt it, but I don’t think it hooked him the way it hooked me.” He puts a hand to his head, spanning his forehead between his thumb and middle finger, the muscles and tendons in his hand standing out with strain. “He came along with me to try to keep me out of trouble.”
He drops his hand and drags his gaze to mine, and I see the war he’s fighting. Regret and shame hang on him like weights. It looks like he’s using all his strength to meet my eyes.
“That’s why he’s gone. He was looking after me, and I put him in danger.”
I lean forward and set down the pictures on his little kitchen table before laying my hand on his knee. I’d like to tell him it’s okay, but we both know it isn’t. And when there’s nothing else, sometimes honesty is a gift. “It’s a lot to live with,” I murmur.
Drew’s breath leaves him in a rush. “Yeah. That’s the truth.” He’s watching me so closely now. “A life sentence.”
I nod because I know he’ll have to live with this forever, but… “Alifesentence,” I tell him. “Not a death sentence. You’re still allowed to live your life.”
He blinks his eyes wide.
“And what you make of your life matters.”
It’s as though the words give him the permission he needs after sharing this story. He hooks an arm around my back and pulls me against him. Our lips meet for the first time since we kissed in front of my family, and I feel the pent-up power of reunion. We both need this. What we have — what we are making right here — is critical for each of us.
I cup my hand to his face and pull back. He may not need me to say it, but I want to make sure. “What you make of your life matters to me.”
Drew’s eyes flame. “The car is his,” he says, and it takes me a moment to figure out what he means.
“The one in the garage?”
He nods. “He loved that car. Grandma kept it for me.”
A smile as Mrs. Vivian’s genius runs away with me. “And you’re restoring it.”
His brows lift a little as he shrugs. “We’ll see. I’m trying, anyway.”
My smile grows. “I’m glad.”
He leans in and tastes my lips once… twice… three times. And then he pulls back and locks his eyes with mine. “You know all of my secrets now. Everything worth hiding or worth hiding from,” Drew says, his gaze moving between my eyes. The look I read in his and the words on his tongue make me go a little breathless.
He seems to be waiting for something. And maybe now is the moment to tell him I love him. Because I absolutely do. And would he share all of this with me if there wasn’t love, or at least trust, on his part? Maybe I should—
“So if you feel like telling me what embarrassed you tonight, I’m all ears, Guppy.”
My mouth falls open, and I swear, my heart must stop. It has to stop at least for moment. One little organ can only handle so much love.
Drew gave me all of that, his shame and his shadows, to make me feel safe. Safe enough to tell him anything.
“Oh my God,” I mutter, completely awed. I grab a handful of his shirt and pull him to me, suddenly desperate to kiss him. And not as a gentle reunion. When I crush my lips to his, it’s a force of nature. A chemical reaction. A law of physics. It is amust.
I must have him.
Drew opens for me, and my tongue sweeps his mouth. He is heat and home. His tongue catches mine and answers it stroke for stroke. A low hum of satisfaction comes from deep in his throat, and it’s a sound I’d sell my soul for.
I. Love. Him.
I push against him, pressing my hands to his pecs in supplication. Because this isn’t happening unless Drew allows it. I know that much. But it’s got to happen.
And when he leans back on the mattress, taking me with him, it’s like the Fourth of July. The heat and starburst of a thousand fireworks. Our movement wakes Gemini, and he jumps from the mattress. I’m only dimly aware of him curling up under the table as my hands slide under Drew’s T-shirt just as his slip beneath my top.
Drew hisses a surprised breath when his palms move over my bare back. It seems my decision to go braless is appreciated. He growls with lust a moment later when those hands move to my breasts, free under the tunic.
“You brought them?” he rasps between kisses. “Please tell me you brought them.”
I don’t even have to ask. “Backpack,” I pant against his lips.
