“You wouldn’t know it from my end,” she said. “It’s been nine months, Memphis, and nothing. Not a text, not an e-mail, not even a damn postcard!” Her hands balled into fists, and she had to stop herself from beating them against his chest. “You just left me, Memphis! You left me, and maybe I deserved it—I know I didn’t handle things the right way and I hurt you, but you left me!”
Her voice broke, and Memphis pulled her to his chest as sobs shook her body. She pushed at him with her fists, but he held onto her until finally she stopped struggling and slumped against his chest.
“I swear I’ll never leave you again, baby,” he whispered against her temple, stroking her hair while she soaked his shirt with tears. “Trust me when I tell you that. As long as I’m with you, nothing else matters. Even when we’re fighting, it feels right. I only want you. I love you, Kennedy.”
She finally gave into what she wanted and wrapped her arms around his neck so tightly she was sure she was choking him, but in that second she didn’t care. There was no way she was going to let go; he’d have to pry her off him with a crowbar first.
But she didn’t think she had to worry—not if his hold meant anything. His arms were wrapped around her middle just as tightly as hers were around his neck, and he buried his nose in her hair, inhaling her scent deeply.
“God, I’ve missed you, beautiful,” he murmured.
A thrill shot through her at being called that again, and she grinned from ear to ear as tears slid down her cheeks.
“I’ve missed you, too,” she cried, laughing and sniffling at the same time. “I’ve missed you every single day, but everything you said to me that night was true. It was all my fault; I wish I could go back and change everything.”
“As strange as it sounds, I wouldn’t.” He felt her stiffen at the confession and quickly went on to explain, “I hate everything we said to each other, but I think it was what we needed. We needed to get it all out there and have our say, and maybe we even needed this time apart, as much as it hurt. I knew that you were the most important thing in my life before, Kennedy, but now . . . now I know I can’t live without you.”
“Well, when you put it that way.” She laughed and pulled back so she could look up at him when a thought occurred to her. “How did you know I was here?”
“A little birdie told me.”
“Vanessa.”
“Do you know anyone else who would interfere in our lives?” He laughed. “She told me what went down with you and Brooks,” he added, pulling away.
Reluctantly, Kennedy let him go, but kept her hands fisted on his jacket just in case he decided to make a run for it.
“Why didn’t you tell me you broke up with Brooks?” he asked.
“We weren’t talking, remember?”
He snickered and shook her hips. “You know what I mean.”
“I didn’t want you to think that because Brooks was gone, I was looking to automatically replace him with you. You have no idea how many times I had to stop myself from calling you.”
“I wish you had.”
“I was afraid to. I was afraid you wouldn’t want to talk to me,” she confessed. She tugged on his jacket and smiled up at him, remembering. “I saw the article.”
“You see all my work,” he reminded her.
“But not all your work features me.”
“Those were my favorite ones I took of you. I wanted to share them somehow.”
“Those were your favorites?” she asked, pretending to be insulted. “I received some pretty good ones in the mail a few months ago.”
He chuckled and pulled her closer to him.
“Well, those ones are my favorites out of the private bunch.”
“Does that mean you kept some?”
“I needed something to help with the frustration.” He wiggled his eyebrows, and she smacked his shoulder.
“Eww.”
He laughed and caught her hand, pressing his lips to her knuckles, over her palm, and then wrapped his arms around her waist again.
“So does this mean we can start over?” he asked. “Just go back to the way everything was before we fucked it all up?”
“I don’t think I can do that,” she told him.
Memphis pulled back and looked at her.
“What do you mean?”
“I can’t go back to the way we were before we fucked it all up,” she said. “Because we were just friends then, and I can’t be just your friend again, Memphis.”
A slow smile spread across his lips, and he slid his hands down to cup her ass.
“Baby, I had no intention of being just your friend.”
“Oh, yeah?” She smiled at him coyly and asked, “What are your intentions, then?”
“I intend to never let you go again. Ever. You should really just think about chaining yourself to me. Naked, if you must.”
Kennedy laughed.
“Anything else?”
He tilted his head toward her left hand on his shoulder.
“That finger looks a little bare. We should eventually do something about that.”
Kennedy tried to keep the goofy grin off her face and failed miserably.
“Anything else?” she asked, her heart fluttering in her chest to match the butterflies going crazy in her stomach.
“Well, while I’m not ready for three a.m. feedings and diaper changes just yet, I think we should definitely practice. A lot.”
“Hmm.” Kennedy dragged her fingers down his chest and slipped her hands inside his jacket, sliding it down his arms. “Practice does make perfect.”
“Kennedy, we’re already perfect when it comes to that. I just want an excuse to christen every room in this house.”
She giggled as his jacket hit the floor and then grew serious when she looked up at his smiling face.
“I love you, Memphis.” She had thought the words a thousand times, imagined what it would be like to tell him, but the high she got from finally being able to say the words didn’t feel anything like she had imaged it would. It was so much better. “I love you.”
She closed her eyes when Memphis cupped her face and brought his mouth to hers. She wanted to take it slow. To remember every press of his lips, every stroke of his tongue. She wanted the moment to last forever.
They stayed like that for what could have been hours, just holding each other. Neither said a word or made any attempt to move. It was just them, lost in a moment that had been building up for over a decade.
Table of Contents
Title Page
Copyright
About Author
Dedication
Ch 1
Ch 2
Ch 3
Ch 4
Ch 5
Ch 6
Ch 7
Ch 8
Ch 9
Ch 10
Ch 11
Ch 12
Ch 13
Ch 14
Ch 15
Ch 16
Ch 17
Ch 18
Risking It All Page 29