Stirring Attraction(3)

“We knocked a picture off the wall,” she said with a laugh.

He opened his eyes and glanced at the fallen frame lying facedown on the carpet. “I’ll fix it later.”

“But right now you have a hankering for an egg roll?” she asked, her tone light.

He looked at the face he knew by heart. Her blond eyebrows formed a pair of perfect arches. She’d probably spent a half hour, maybe more, in front of the mirror, plucking out the stray hairs. He’d watched her do it once, while lying on his bed. His gaze dropped to her lips, curved into a forced smile.

“No, Lily, I don’t want an egg roll.” He stepped forward and wrapped his arms around her. His naked body pressed against hers. She was tall for a woman. But compared to a man who’d played center for his high school football team? Her cheek pressed against his chest as her arms wrapped around his middle. “I want you,” he added gruffly.

Two days and two nights—­it would never be enough.

He felt her teardrops running over the hair on his chest. And he waited for the words—­then stay. She’d let them slip once and then quickly asked to take them back.

“Go ahead and cry, Lil,” he murmured, feeling damn near close to tears himself. “I’d take you with me if I could. Hell, I’d marry you tomorrow.”

“I know,” she said through a sob. The tears were like a river now, flowing down to his abdomen. “I know.”

Still, words didn’t change the fact that she couldn’t leave this town. Her roots were here. So were his. But he was tearing his up. And while his widower father leaned on him for help around the old farmhouse and counted on him to keep his wild little sister from messing up her life, it was nothing compared to Lily’s mother. Her mom had spent the past decade struggling with her multiple-­sclerosis diagnosis. And Lily had stood by her side every step of the way. She’d attended the local university and gotten her teaching certificate online so that she could care for her mom.

Dominic could silently curse the fact that the girl he loved was saddled with a mom who was losing the ability to care for herself more and more each day. And a dad who drank away his sorrows, rendering himself useless to the woman he’d married and to his daughter. But that wouldn’t change a damn thing. Lily’s life was here and he was moving across the country for basic training. And after that? The army could send him anywhere in the world.

“Maybe after you serve for a few years, maybe when you come back—­”

“I’m coming back for you, Lily. When you’re ready, and if you still want me, I’ll come back,” he said. “But not to stay here, in Forever. You know that, right?”

He waited for her answer. He refused to leave her here, in small-­town Oregon, hoping and praying for a future that would never materialize.

“I know,” she said.

“I’m not doing this for the money. Hell, the police force paid well. But I can do more.”

Be All You Can Be—­the slogan resonated with him. He’d known since high school that with the right training he could be one of the best. He could fight on the front lines. And if he had his way, if he succeeded with the option the army had given him under his contract, he’d become an army ranger. Hell, he would have tried for the SEALs, but he wanted to be an infantryman first, focusing on ground combat, not a sailor.

“I love you, Lily,” he said. “I’d wait to join up, but now that Josie’s heading to college and I don’t need to look out for her . . .”

He’d been waiting for this chance since they graduated from high school. He’d stayed to help his dad manage his wild little sister. And he’d tried to make peace with doling out speeding tickets and breaking up parties ­peopled with underage kids at the town’s university. But he couldn’t escape the fact that his own mom had died young and suddenly. He wanted to reach for his goals now. He couldn’t wait until life turned on him and took him out before he’d gone into the world and proved that he could do so much more.

“I just wish things were different.” She drew back and looked up at him. “And I didn’t love you quite so much.”

A jolt of electricity ran through him as if he’d touch a live wire. He felt like a bastard, but he wanted her love. He wanted everything she had to give.

“I want to serve, Lil. But I’ve never not wanted you,” he said firmly. “How much time do we have left?”

She rose up on tiptoes and glanced over his shoulder at the clock on his wall. “One hour.”

“Lie on the bed,” he ordered, breaking away from her teary-­eyed embrace. “And spread your legs. I’m going to show you how much I love you, Lily.”