“You could check some of the fire stations in the area, they always seem understaffed.” The night air sent a shiver through me. It was a little crisper than it should've been for midsummer.
“You cold?”
“A little.” I should've packed a shawl or light jacket, but I hadn't planned on being by a lake after midnight. Especially not with Mal...
Mal took his leather jacket from the bike and unrolled it. Standing behind me, he wrapped the jacket over my shoulders. His hot breath raised the tiny hairs on the back of my neck. I swallowed hard and stopped breathing when I felt his strong hands slide under the oily leather and over my stomach.
There was nearly no light pollution and it was a clear, beautiful night. It'd been so long since I'd been out of the city. I hadn't remembered there being this many stars. Although it was impossible, I imagined they came out just for us. A column of refracted moonlight even seemed to point directly at us, like we were meant to be there, together, on that one night.
Champagne, moonlight, the sounds of hidden birds and water swells cresting against quarry walls, and long lost love... It was perfectly romantic.
And I was perfectly drunk enough to forget about years of anguish from his leaving.
Almost.
“Why did you abandon me, Mal?”
“I had no choice.” His words were low enough that they were almost just vibration in my ear. “I didn't know half of what my mom did until years later. I—” He had to stop and reorganize his thoughts. I could hear the difficulty in his voice. It was a hard thing for him to lay bare. “Shit. Where do I even begin?”
Why didn't you ever call or write? You were gone so many years after you turned eighteen, a legal adult. Why not reach out to me then? What was so wrong with me that you had to stay away for so long?
Did you really love me, or was that a lie too?
I had so many questions...
“Last time we were here, before officer Danvers found us, you said nothing could ever have kept us apart.” The air between us was deathly still, I could hear his heartbeat. It was slow and loud and strong.
“I would have given anything for that to have been true.”
I didn't press him any further. It was crazy, but part of me worried that if he told me everything right then, I'd hate him. Everything was too perfect to ruin the moment with too many questions. I wanted to know everything, of course, but just once I wanted to live in a fantasy I'd been creating since we were kids.
I just wanted a perfect night with the Mal I loved eight years ago. In that moment I didn't care that it might all be a lie. I just wanted that little bit of hope. Was that so wrong?
“We're here now,” Mal turned me around. Reflected moonlight danced in his dark eyes. The serene scene stretched out behind us. “Isn't that all that matters?”
Chapter 6
Kait
We were finally together. That was all that mattered. At least for the moment.
Mal tore off his fitted shirt. My stomach tightened at the sight of massive, defined pecs and shoulders. The sprawling tattoos that covered his torso and arms made his tan skin seem to glow in contrast. There were eagles and knives, acronyms, numbers and even few names. There were so many, but they all seemed to share the same theme.
“You were in the Marines too,” I said, my eyes feasting on the all the various symbols and designs that blanketed his wall of muscles.
Mal didn't answer, he just tossed his shirt.
Mal had changed so much. He'd always been the boy of my dreams growing up, but what I saw now was so much more than that. Here was a man unlike any I'd ever seen before and that thrilled the hell out of me. The thought of his touch made my skin tingle.
I found myself reaching for the sculpted notch below his ribs. My eyesight was obviously failing me, but maybe if I touched him everything would make sense. Men couldn't really look like this, everyone knew that cover models were all photoshopped.
I traced each valley between his rippling abs all the way down to the V of his hips. I didn't stand a chance, it wasn't even fair!
“How are you even real?” I was twenty-four and my dating life was pathetic. My brother and his friends always scared off the bad boys that liked me. All that was left were the safe wimps. Guys that were handsome enough, but never excited me in any way.
Mal was the only one to ever make my blood boil, in the best and worst possible ways. I may have loved him and then hated him, but I've always desired him.
I couldn't tear my eyes off his amazing body. His hip bones stole my attention until I saw the bulge of his cock snake down his leg. Shit! I never realized Mal was so hung. My pulse rang in my ears like a downpour on a tin roof. After he'd left me, I'd masturbated wondering what this moment would've been like.