Kelsey straightened in her seat. “I-I think I need to tell you something.”
Chapter Eight
Connor
Six Years Earlier
“You should have let me pick you up.” Connor’s lips moved from Kelsey’s mouth to her neck as he mumbled the words against her skin. “Damn, I’ve missed you.”
Her fingers dug into his biceps through his winter jacket. “But then I wouldn’t have my car if you drove all the way to Richmond to pick me up. Besides the fact it’s a little ridiculous and wholly out of your way.” She tilted her head, giving him better access. “I’ve missed you too, Picasso.”
Connor pulled back slightly. “So my new nickname hasn’t lost its charm over the winter break, eh?”
“Nope.” She shook her head to add emphasis. “You’re gonna be my personal Picasso forever.” Her eyes grew wide, and she looked…everywhere but at him. “I-I mean, well, you know, while we’re dating, n-not like forever, forever. It’s just kind of a saying. Like—”
His hand covered her mouth. “Damn, I’ve missed your rambling, too.”
In between breathless kisses, she clamped her lower lip between her teeth and slid her hands under his shirt. “How much have you missed me?”
His flesh heated beneath her touch, fire flaring out from where her skin met his and consuming him from head to toe. “Kels…” He leaned his forehead against hers, trying to control his libido. “Are you sure?”
The soft tips of her fingers lightly stroked up and down his spine, stoking the already blazing inferno as she nodded slowly. “My roommate isn’t coming back until tomorrow.”
“Then why the hell are we standing out here in the cold?”
With an impish grin, she grabbed his hand and raced through the entrance of the dorm, up the stairs, and down the hall to the last door on the left. She let them in the room and locked the door behind them. Frenzied hands grabbed at clothes, her coat and his landing on the floor in a pile, quickly followed by shoes they kicked to the side. His lightweight knit sweater joined the pile before he took a step back.
His eyes drank her flushed cheeks, heaving chest, and sparkling gray gaze. “One word, any time, and we stop, okay?”
“I don’t want to stop.” She shook her head and closed the gap between them, her arms moving to pull him in again.
Connor took another step back, barely dodging her grasp. “And you have no idea how damned grateful I am for that, but if you change your mind in five minutes, hell, in five seconds, just say the word and it’s over.”
A single tear trailed down her cheek and shaking hands reached for his. “If you’re trying to make me fall in love with you, it’s a little too late, Picasso. I’m already there.”
He tugged her closer to him. “What did you just say?”
Rose bloomed on her cheeks, and she looked away for a moment. “I said I love you.”
He hooked a finger beneath her chin and lifted until her eyes met his. This time, reverence coated the kiss he softly placed on her lips. “It’s a damned good thing you had the guts to say it first, gorgeous. I love you, too.”
Their frantic need settled into tender caresses and gentle touches. Instead of ripping at each other’s clothes, he lifted the shirt from her gently, his mouth worshipping the freshly exposed skin before returning to seal with hers. Countless moments they lay knitted together on her small, single bed, kissing and exploring.
His hands dropped to her jeans, and he flicked open the button before sliding the zipper down. His mouth left hers long enough to check, “Still yes?”
She grinned up at him. “No, it’s still a hell yes.”
Connor groaned, his forehead dropping against her chest for a moment before he sat back on his knees and pulled her pants down. Once her creamy legs were bare, he kissed his way up one side, across to her navel as he continued his northern path, reaching her neck before he stopped to whisper softly, “Still love me?”
Her hips rocked forward, and she whimpered. “Yes, but you really need to lose some of these clothes.”
He chuckled and hopped off the bed, but just as his jeans hit the floor, so did his stomach. “Oh hell.”
Kelsey knitted her brows together, her swollen lips twisted to one side. “What’s wrong?”
The heels of his palms pressed into his eyes, and he searched his brain for the closest store. “Condoms. I don’t have any on me, and I’m pretty damn sure my roommate managed to steal the last few from my nightstand.”
Laughter preceded a whoosh that was followed with a slam and was enough to make Connor look up just as his girlfriend proudly displayed a strip of foil packets.
“I’ve gotcha covered, Picasso.”
Relief flooded his body, and he all but fell on top of her. “Have I mentioned lately that you’re a genius?”
A second bout of laughter melted into a moan as she locked her legs around his waist, and he responded by grinding against her through their remaining clothes. His lips found a spot at the juncture of her neck and shoulder that made her shudder in his arms, and he made a mental note to pay plenty of attention to that area in the future.
“I’d kind of prefer that you not talk at all and just keep your mouth busy in other ways.”
His hand reached behind her back and flicked open her bra. Never in his life had he ever been so grateful to have older brothers who gave him tips and tricks. “Your wish is my command.”
***
Kelsey
Six Years Earlier
A million scenarios had played out in her mind from a hot and heady hook up in the backseat of his Jeep to a posh hotel room on a night completely planned out for their first time together. And, although her dorm had registered somewhere on the more realistic side of the list, the actuality was far better than any fantasy.
The fact cemented in her mind when his lips closed around a hard pebble, sucking it lightly. She arched her back into the fiery sensations racing across her chest from his mouth. And tongue. Heaven help her that tongue might be the end of her. “Should I be concerned that you managed to get my bra off with one hand on the first try?”
He laughed against her heated flesh before moving to the opposite side. “No, gorgeous, you should just enjoy my vast amounts of experience.”
She smacked his bicep and fought to construct a coherent sentence despite the thick haze of lust clouding her mind. “Do you think that’s a really good idea to say to your girlfriend at this particular moment?”
He rocked forward, pushing his hardened length against her and stealing her breath with the movement. He planted a kiss on the tip of her nose, somehow managing to make the moment both the most sensual and tender one she’d ever experienced. “I think that I am one lucky guy to have the hottest damn girlfriend in the world, who not only drives me wild, but makes me laugh. Even if it is slightly distracting.”
He kissed her as his fingers trailed inside of her underwear, centimeters from where she needed him most. Connor broke the kiss and cupped her cheek with his other hand. “Tell me what you want, gorgeous.”
“You.” The single syllable exploded from her lips with all the pent-up frustration boiling inside of her. “Connor, I need you.”
One digit slid inside her heated core, joined shortly by a second while his thumb found the tiny bundle of nerves that was throbbing for attention. Within moments, the coil that had wound itself impossibly tight exploded. She gripped his arms to anchor her to reality as she spiraled from the ecstasy his fingers created.
He kissed her forehead, her temple, her cheeks before landing on her lips. His hands disappeared from inside of her long enough to pull down her underwear and his boxers. With a final swipe of his lips across hers, he leaned over to grab a condom, ripped open the pack, and sheathed himself.
Hovering at her entrance, he brushed back a lock of her hair. “Are you sure, gorgeous?”
Warmth, that had nothing to do with the inferno of desire raging through her body, blossomed in her chest. Sh
e lifted to meet him and prove the sincerity of her words. “Yes, more than sure.”
He grabbed her thigh, hiking it over his hip as he slowly pressed into her, their exhales a harmony of bliss and need. He moved in and out at a steady, gentle pace, his mouth taking the time to lavish obscene amounts of attention on her body, bringing her to a second pinnacle she wasn’t even sure was possible, let alone this quickly.
Connor slowly ramped up the tempo, thrusting into her with increasing need, and Kelsey bucked her hips, meeting his thrusts with her own desperation. His lips found hers, and the passion-fueled kiss stole her every conscious thought that didn’t involve Connor or the place where they were joined.
Her nails dug into his biceps as he moved and sent her toppling off the cliff into a sea of ecstasy that managed to be deeper and more consuming than the last. Star bursts exploded in her vision, and his name was ripped from her lungs on a scream she was certain could be heard across campus.
He dropped his head close to her ear and growled. With a final thrust, his body shuddered against hers. “Dammit, I love you, Kels.” His voice was low and hoarse and exactly what she needed.
They lay together for several moments before he groaned and rolled off her. The cool air in the room whispered across her sweat-slickened skin, and she shivered as he disappeared into the bathroom. Seconds later, he was back at her side and helped her slide his sweater over her head before stepping back into his boxers and joining her on the bed.
He pulled the covers over them both before tucking her close to him and pressing a kiss to the crown of her head. “Doing okay there, gorgeous?”
Kelsey propped her chin on the hand resting on his right pec. “I’m more than okay. As long as you promise that can definitely happen again tonight.”
He chuckled in response, and silence filled the room as the sun faded in the sky outside, darkness covering everything around them. “You know I wasn’t just saying that so I could have sex with you, right?”
With only the sliver of light coming through the window from the streetlamp outside, she lifted her head and searched for his eyes. “You weren’t just saying what?”
His hand tangled in her hair, and he flipped her beneath him. “That I love you.”
Words were inadequate in that moment. Instead, Kelsey tugged his head close to hers and showed him with the depth of her kiss—followed quickly by a reignited passionate coupling—that she felt the exact same way.
Chapter Nine
Connor
Present Day
“This is never going to work.” Connor pushed the large exercise ball away with more force than necessary.
Kelsey sighed and put both hands on her hips. “It won’t if you don’t try.”
He squinted up at her through narrowed lids. “Exactly what part of this do you think is enjoyable for me?” Her eyes widened, and his brain screamed at him to stop, but once more the dam holding back the anger her abandonment had created cracked. “Having a broken body with plates, pins, and rods holding me together? Or would it be having the woman I planned to marry here with me every damn day in my home, touching me, but not being mine anymore?”
Her jaw dropped and pain flashed across her face, but the filter that kept the vitriol from spewing out was weakened. She took a step back from him.
Connor told himself to stop. No matter what happened between them, he loved her. The only reason he was still in such agony six months after she left was because he still loved her. Would always love her.
But once the avalanche started, every roadblock he attempted to throw up crumpled beneath it. “Because let me tell you something, Kelsey, a damned thirty car pile-up couldn’t hold a candle to the kind of pain you caused when you left.” He rolled forward the few feet to close the distance between them. “Care to let me in on exactly why that all went down? Because I still don’t have a freaking clue.”
Kelsey’s mouth opened and closed. Her slate eyes filled with tears that managed to slice through him even though his own agony was still so raw and palpable. “I…”
A stupid thrill of hope sang through his veins. The same indomitable belief that had propelled him every morning to fight for her to talk to him in the first few days and weeks after she left. A small part of his heart held firm that if she’d talk to him, even now, they could work everything out.
Her eyes moved from his to something just beyond his left shoulder. She swiped beneath her lower lids and shook her head slightly. “This isn’t the time or the place for this, Connor.” He began to protest, but she held up a hand, silencing his words. “Some really important things have happened since I left, and…I’ve wanted to talk to you for months about everything.”
That single sentence did a better job of stealing the very air in his lungs, much less any possible response.
“You deserve the truth, and I’ll admit that I was a coward of the worst kind to bail without giving you any sort of explanation.” She crossed her arms in front of her and gripped her biceps like she was creating a wall between them. “How about we amend the truce?”
His stomach twisted into an uneasy knot. Once he’d fully believed he knew what to expect from Kelsey. They were so perfectly in tune he would have predicted her every move with confidence. But now? He sighed. “What kind of amendment are you proposing?”
Kelsey swayed slightly on her feet for the briefest moment before dropping to her knees beside his chair and collecting his hand in her shaking one. “You work harder.” When he started to protest, she lifted her brows. “I know you, Connor Carlisle. I know when you are focused and giving something your all, and that sure as hell isn’t happening right now.”
He frowned at her but closed his mouth. She was partially right. Being a stubborn, grumpy pain in the ass was taking a lot of his energy that could have been focused on the exercises she diligently led him through.
“If you do that, if you give this everything you’ve got, I…” Tears formed in the corners of her eyes. “We’ll talk. As Kelsey and Connor, not as patient and physical therapist. Listen, I’m not trying to blackmail you; this is a conversation I’ve wanted to have with you for months. One you deserve. But I want your ass out of this chair and I want you to have the life you deserve, so if I have to use it to motivate you, then I will.”
Connor glared at her but gripped her fingers tighter, reveling in the connection he’d missed. “That’s not fair.”
She shook her head. “No, it isn’t. And I’m an ass for suggesting it, but you deserve better than to give up. You deserve better than this damned chair.” Her gaze fell to where their hands were joined. “You deserve better than me.”
Before his brain could catch up to everything she’d said, she released her hold on him, got to her feet, collected her bag, and sprinted out the door.
Once again Kelsey left, and once again he was staring at her retreating back, completely unable to muddle through the whirlpool of tempestuous emotions she’d swirled inside him. Everything from anger to hope to indignant rage to stupid, infinite love churned.
But, in spite of it all, a small smile managed to curl his lips.
***
Kelsey
Present Day
Kelsey popped the small, round pill free from the foil packet and swallowed it along with the oblong one with a small glass of water. Her eyes fluttered closed on a sigh as she finished her morning routine.
More than the exhaustion, more than the pain that came with every erratic and unpredictable cycle, the layer of irritation she laid on Connor constantly was the driving force behind her first doctor’s appointment. The subsequent avalanche of overwhelming emotions she was completely incapable of processing, the ones that led to her making the worst decision of her life, had dragged her into a pit of depression.
A few weeks after she left, the fog began to clear, and she immediately regretted everything but couldn’t figure out where to begin. She’d driven past his house dozens of times, unable to find the words, incapable of
knowing where to begin.
Instead, she had driven away each time, promising herself she’d have the strength to approach him, to beg for forgiveness, to try to explain. The next time. The devastation of the accident opened a door she wasn’t prepared for but couldn’t help but appreciate.
She curled into the corner of the couch lining the far wall of her small living room and stared out the window of her third floor apartment. She pulled her feet up onto the cushion and rested her forehead on her knees. A tear trailed down her cheek unchecked.
Sitting upright, she rested her spine against the arm of the chair and slid her phone from the pocket of her scrub top. Her fingers flew across the glass, typing out a hasty message.
Kelsey: When are you coming home?
Within seconds, her sister responded.
Tobi: One more day in Paris, three in Florence, then we will be home. Holding up okay?
Her heart ached. Tobi was more than a sister, she was her closest friend, and right now Kelsey irrationally cursed the honeymoon that kept her thousands of miles and three times zones away. Even though she didn’t really at all.
Which was why her response was far more chipper than she truly was.
Kelsey: Better than expected. Will chat when you are stateside. Love you, be safe.
A random thought dropped into her brain, and she drew her lower lip between her teeth, rolling it around as she did the same with the idea in her mind. With a sudden burst of energy, and before she had the chance to chicken out, she jumped off the couch, snagged her keys, and sprinted out the door. She followed the familiar roads until she turned left up the long driveway.
Meant To Be Family (Meant To Be Series Book 3) Page 6