The Heart Remembers: a friends to lovers romance (Heart Collection)

by L. B. Dunbar

  “Katie bug, are you coming?”

  Jesus, I want her to come. I want to make her come so hard she never forgets me, but that isn’t what her mother means, and we break apart. Our chests heave, and Katie covers her lips with her fingers. I bend at the waist as if I’ve run a mile, trying to hide the heavy bulge in my jeans and catch my breath after that kiss.

  “I should . . .” Katie points at the staircase.

  “Yeah, me too . . .” I hitch my thumb toward my room and AJ. But then I straighten myself, and Katie moves, crossing before me. I catch her around the waist.

  “One more,” I mutter, looking up to meet her eyes and her lips curl. My mouth crushes against hers again, and her fingertips grasp my jaw as my palm flattens on her lower back, holding her against me. She smiles against my mouth, effectively breaking the kiss. Lowering as she must have tipped up on her toes, she rolls her lips inward and nods once. Her hands slip to my chest before she releases me, heading for the staircase and disappearing down it like she did when she was seventeen, and I’d hurt her feelings by kissing her.

  Please don’t let her think I’ve taken advantage of her this time around.

  7

  [Katie]

  I can’t concentrate for the rest of the day. Between what I’d learned and the kiss in the hallway, I am a distracted mess. Eventually, Tom and crew, including my father, arrive hours later than expected with pizza. Aunt Karyn is still upset with her husband, and Tricia ignores her brother after she carefully constructed a plan for the week. Everyone needs a little time-out separation after dinner.

  I promised my little sister Daisy I’d walk with her into town for ice cream. It might have been a bit ambitious for us, but a good way to pass the time and a chance to catch up with her. Shortly after my parents married, they had my little brother, John, who is now eighteen, and two years later came Daisy.

  When I went off to college, they were both relatively young, and while I consider myself a good big sister, I can’t say we are close. I know Daisy looks up to me, and I try to give her attention when I’m home, but this trip has been difficult.

  We chat about high school for her and a boy she likes. We talk about Dad being overbearing at times and Mom being overinvolved. I chuckle as she tells me things I already know about our parents.

  “It’s only because they love you,” I tell her, with my twenty-seven-year-old wisdom.

  “I don’t suppose they could love me a little less.” She’s teasing. She knows what I mean.

  At the ice cream shop in town, she sees some friends. I encourage her to hang out with them, but she sticks with me, and I admit I like it. I miss my family when I’m not home, but I’m only a few hours away, and Daisy knows she can visit me whenever she wants.

  When we return to the house, music blares, and an active basketball game fills the driveway. Levi, Leon, and his son, Israel, take on my brother, John; my cousin Job, son of Pam; and my other cousin Holden, Tom’s son. Wine is flowing for the women on the stone patio in the back. My mom waves me over, and I sit next to her after helping myself to a glass.

  I listen in as family gossip is shared. Leon has another sister, Lena, and I learn she’s still living in Chicago. His parents moved back to Mexico years ago. Madison shares her motherly woes of three children under five, and Meghan complains about dating life. I notice Lys is missing and wonder where she is until someone speaks to me.

  “So where’s Derek?” Meghan asks me.

  “Oh, he couldn’t make it.” I repeat my standard answer.

  “I know, but what is he up to lately?”

  “Still making babies,” I glibly reply.

  “What?” Levi chokes, surprising the collection of women.

  “Derek is a doctor,” Madison drawls.

  “He’s an OB-GYN,” I clarify. “He delivers babies.”

  “He looks at women’s hoo-has all day,” Leon adds, out of breath behind Levi. He claps Levi on the shoulder. “Don’t ask. It’s too much information.”

  “That was too much information,” Tricia warns her husband. He steps up to her, whispers something in her ear, and she turns red. We don’t need to ask what he said. It would be too much information.

  Leon leads Levi inside, and then we hear basketballs dribbling again.

  “Where’s Lys?” I ask, hoping to turn the topic.

  “She’s on the phone with her husband.” Tricia doesn’t sound pleased, and Meghan wrinkles her nose.

  “Everything okay?”

  “It will be,” Tricia says quietly, not offering any additional information. When an uproar happens from the side yard, I excuse myself with my glass of wine and head to the basketball game. Lys has come outside, and she’s trying to hold her own playing ball, but it’s more like a full-court press with Levi.

  With my heart in my belly, I’m feeling unsteady about our kiss earlier and decide to call it a night.

  + + +

  “Come in,” I say when a knock sounds on my door later. I glance at my phone on the bed for the time and realize just how late it is. It’s almost midnight, but I’ve been reading.

  “Hey,” Levi says, his head popping around the door.

  “Hey.”

  “You okay? You disappeared down there.” He’s referring to earlier as the women drank wine, and Levi played basketball with Lys. It wasn’t really just Lys, and it wasn’t even her I am upset with. I am angry with myself for kissing Levi and throwing myself at him once again. I don’t know what I was thinking, and I don’t want to treat him like some rebound from Derek.

  Derek the OB-GYN, who spent his days looking at other women’s hoo-has as Leon so eloquently stated it. I had nothing against Derek’s profession. It was necessary, honorable, and I was certain he saw his patients as women in need of medical care and not in a sexual manner. Still, he was a little too clinical in his approach with me at times, leaving me with some unsatisfactory moments. Thoughts of this also wound me up. Despite my kiss earlier with Levi and last night’s self-stimulation, it wasn’t enough to release all the tension in me. Not to mention, the hot book I was reading wasn’t helping matters.

  “Yeah, just reading.” I hold up my tablet and wave it at him. I’m dressed in my favorite cotton nightshirt that looks like lingerie but feels like a tee. It’s comfortable with wide shoulder straps and a deep-V between my breasts. I don’t miss Levi’s eyes roaming over it.

  “Storytime,” he teases, entering my room and closing the door behind him. “I love storytime.”

  “Since when do you read?” I tease, having no idea if he does.

  “Nightly. I highly recommend Goodnight Moon. It’s illuminating.”

  “Was there a pun in that recommendation?”

  He gives me a sheepish grin and steps over to the bed. With a hop, he helps himself to the open space, bouncing next to me in my seated position against the headboard.

  “What are we reading?” he continues to mock, eyes falling to the bright screen of my tablet.

  “Nothing,” I choke, quickly closing the flap cover, but Levi is quicker, tugging the tablet from me and opening it. By some fluke of technology, it hasn’t closed out of the screen, and Levi begins to read aloud before I can stop him.

  “Her hands danced through my thick hair as she giggled, then moaned, a combination of laughter and passion. The sound traveled straight to my dick, and I shimmied her jeans to her knees, forcing them to bend and expose her to me.”

  “What the hell is this?” he strains. I reach for the tablet, but he holds it out to his side, too far for my reach despite my body falling over his.

  “Give it to me,” I whine, and he gasps at the implication. “I mean the book.”

  Holding it higher, he narrows his eyes and continues to read.

  “You wouldn’t dare . . .” Her voice faded off as I ran a finger through her wet folds.”

  “Levi,” I hiss already wound tight from the story and our earlier moment.

  “Wouldn’t dare do what?” I chuckled, kn
owing what she meant and intending to ignore her. My eyes roamed up the landscape of her body. Her head tilted upward as she glared back at me between her open thighs. I held the bottle precariously over the center of her, tipping it like I intended to pour. Those innocent doe eyes softened, and I faltered. She wasn’t fighting me. In fact, she was about to let me do anything to her, despite her protest. Her trust overwhelmed me. She trusted me, and it was strange to witness her giving it to me.”

  “Oh my God, Levi, please stop reading,” I beg as his voice deepens and turns rougher, throatier.

  “I twisted my head and took a swig, then put my mouth over her heated entrance, letting the alcohol cascade over her folds, combining with her essence. Her hips bucked at the sensation of warm liquid over sensitive skin, ripe with desire. My attention turned from teasing to tasting her, which I did with full abandon. My thoughts were lost to everything except the task at hand—bringing her to pleasure. I had no notion of my surroundings, other than her thighs on either side of my cheeks and her unending trust in me. Feasting on her, focusing on her . . .”

  “All right, that’s enough,” I demand, crawling over him and grabbing the tablet. It snaps shut with a loud crack, and I toss it to the bed, noticing my position too late. I’m straddling Levi. He glances down where my legs are spread over his thighs. In seconds, I’m flipped to my back with Levi over me.

  “Is that what you want, Katie girl? A man to pour whiskey on you and drink you up?”

  Jesus, I hiss, turning my head away from him. I’m so turned on I can’t think straight, and the rhythm between my thighs pulses louder than my heart. The clenching forces me to buck upward, brushing my core against the hard length of him.

  “Did the doctor not satisfy you?” His voice lowers, seductive and sweet while possessive at the same time.

  “I’m not discussing Derek with you,” I mutter. Levi thrusts forward, tapping me with the heavy thickness of him.

  “Then let’s discuss whiskey and women,” he says, sliding a hand down my side, tracing my body. I should stop him, but I don’t want him to. Instead, my head tips back as his nose skims along my throat. We don’t speak as my nightdress lifts, and his hand coasts over my upper thigh.

  “Oh God,” I moan, unable to handle this, unable to handle him teasing me. Either touch me or don’t, I want to scream. As if he read my mind, his knuckles brush over the panel of my thong.

  “Sweet Jesus,” he mutters, looking down where his hand brushes against me again. “Sweet girl, you are soaking wet.”

  My mouth falls open, but he’s moving down my body. Before I know what’s happening, my thong is shoved to the side, and he blows air on tender skin, dripping with desire as the book stated. Hesitantly, my hands cover the sides of his head.

  “Please,” I whimper. “Don’t tease me.” It’s more forward than throwing myself at him, kissing him in a hallway, but Levi hears the strain in my plea. His tongue swipes across me, and I’m gone, lost in the bliss of fantasies about him doing this very thing to me. His mouth turns more aggressive, sucking my clit between his lips before his tongue delves between the folds.

  “Oh God,” I groan again, at a loss for words. It’s never felt this incredible. His tongue. His lips. And then two fingers join the mix, diving into me on a quick rush while his tongue teases that sensitive nub, and I break faster than I ever have before. With knees spread on either side of his head, I jackknife forward, holding his head in my hands and purr at the onslaught of my orgasm. I’m floating, falling, free in this experience of his mouth at my center.

  When I can’t take any more, I fall back to the bed, and Levi slows, taking a final lap across my spent folds. I tip my head, arching my back.

  “Enough,” I mutter, but the second he’s released me, I want him again. I want another one just like that, only I don’t want to be selfish. Hell, I don’t even know what happened. As my eyes open and I stare into the dark ones looking back at me, I bite my lip, certain my expression reads fear instead of sated.

  What just happened here?

  “Thank you for that,” he whispers, pressing a kiss to my inner thigh before slowly retreating off the end of the bed.

  Where are you going? I should ask, but I don’t, still stunned that Levi Walker just feasted on me. I’ll never be the same again.

  My body craves more, but my heart can’t take whatever’s happening.

  8

  [Levi]

  Two steps into the bathroom and I have my shorts down, jerking off like a teenager on a mission. I am on a mission. Holy fucking shit, I do not want to lose the fantasy, which is now a reality. I just feasted on Katie. I tasted from the forbidden fruit, and I am never going to be the same.

  My fist jackhammers. My palm squeezes. My balls tighten, and I spring like a hydrant open on a hot summer day.

  Jesus.

  I bite my lip to prevent the moan and swallow the howl in my throat as I come like I’ve never come before. Silver dots float before my eyes, and I have to grip the counter to keep from falling over. With a coated hand and a racing heart, I step into the shower and go for round two within minutes.

  + + +

  On Wednesday, a beach day is planned, followed by dinner at the weekly street fair called Riverwalk, and then a volleyball match at a private beach only the locals know about. It isn’t really a secret, it’s just that most people prefer the public beach while the other one is tucked beside a dam. In the center of town runs a river with small rapids that empties into the larger lake, and people love to float on inner tubes down the passage to Lake Michigan.

  At the beach, Tricia suggests I take AJ on a float ride, and Lys volunteers to come with me. However, Tricia pushes that Katie go with us as well since we have three tubes up for grabs after the teens dumped them near us. The teenagers are too cool to be seen near their parents at the beach, and I totally get that. What I don’t get is the silence between Katie and myself. She’s hardly looked at me today, and I don’t know how to bring up what happened last night.

  Maybe it was too much. I definitely reacted quickly after reading that dirty novel passage. Maybe she didn’t like what we’d done. However, the mewls and purrs that happily haunted my dreams last night told me otherwise. She loved it, and so did I.

  While Lys and I are in our thirties, and Katie is twenty-seven, we walk along the riverbank like chastised children, forced to do something we don’t want to do.

  “I can hold AJ, if you want,” Katie offers as he needs to sit in someone’s lap while we travel downriver. Thankfully, she’s been carrying him. It’s been a strange day for me. I’m not wearing my prosthetic, and the airing of my leg feels amazing while I also sense the stares of those around us. This is my hometown, yet I don’t recognize anyone. Still, I feel the weight of the whispers. I’ve been on my crutches when I’ve needed to stand, but hobbling to the rapids has not been easy. I’m crotchety and grumbly by the time we get there, wondering why I’m doing this.

  “I got him. Just hold him until I’m settled.” The command is harsher than it needs to be, and Lys offers an arm until I’m in the tube. Katie hands AJ down to me, and I settle him on my belly.

  “I’ll take your crutches,” Lys offers, and I’m grateful for both their help even though I’m not acting like it.

  “Thank you,” I mumble, watching Lys enter a tube and place the crutches over her lap, keeping them out of the water. She pushes off the riverbank and begins to float lazily down the waterway. Katie plops herself into the final tube and waves at AJ, cooing and chattering to him as he looks around in wonder at the trees to the side of us and the river gently pushing us toward the lake. We’ll empty onto a shallow sandbar before hitting the larger body of water, but for now, we float.

  Quiet falls between Katie and myself as Lys has gone ahead. I tap my foot in the water while one hand steers me and the other holds onto AJ’s back.

  “You okay?” Katie asks, eyes on AJ.

  “Why wouldn’t we be?” I snap, again harsher th
an I should be. Katie licks her lips, chewing at the corner. Dammit. “Hey.” I try to tamper my irritation. Extending my arm, I reach for her inner tube and swivel to hook my foot under her leg.

  “I’m sorry,” I say, and then admit, “I’m crabby today.”

  “Why?” she asks, tipping her head.

  “The beach is difficult for me. The sand isn’t good for my leg, and I hate using my crutches on uneven turf, not to mention, I feel like people are staring at me.” Normally, I would not give two shits. Let them stare has always been my attitude, but something about being here makes me self-conscious. Maybe it’s that people know me, even if I don’t recognize them.

  “No one is staring,” Katie tries to assure me, and she wraps her other leg over mine, locking my ankle between her own.

  “It’s like they all know my history, though, and I don’t know them.”

  “What history?” Katie asks, and I stare at her.

  “You mean you don’t remember my dad as the town drunk? Or that my brother killed himself in our backwoods?” The words are bitter on my tongue, and I’m lashing out at her again when my past is not her fault.

  “I have a different story I remember about you. The summer Emily arrived, I’d been riding my bike up and down the street. My foot slipped off the pedal and my ankle caught in the chain. I lost my balance, and the bike skidded in the loose gravel. I went down, scraping my knee.

  “I was with my older cousins, Meghan and Madison that day, and they’d ditched me for some boys down the street playing basketball in a driveway. I sat in the street, holding my knee, crying when one of the boys came over to me.