Runaway Heart (A Game of Hearts #2) (11 page)

“Sounds romantic.” I gagged, wishing I had a cover to hide under.

“Ahh,” he groaned, “it would have been had it not been for her father finding us around the corner of her flat. Ever since, I’ve never looked at a baseball bat the same.”

“Oh my,” I said, my hand flying to my mouth. “Did he… did he hit you?”

He smirked. “Who me? No bloke could keep up with me back then.”

“Nice,” I said, moving closer to him. “So… what about relationships. How many?”

His body stiffened. “One,” he said, his tone reserved, telling me not to pry. “Your turn.”

“Zero.”

His eyebrows went flat. “Ye’re joking.”

“Nope.” I stuck my chin out. “I told you… I’m not the dating type.”

“Geez.” He ruffled his hands through his hair. “And here I thought maybe I had a chance…”

His words trailed off as if he was joking, but something told me beneath the sarcasm was a smidgen of truth. One I didn’t want to acknowledge because, somewhere deep down inside of me, I wanted it to be the case. I wanted him to want me the way I wanted him right then.

“First time?” I asked, trying to deter my thoughts.

His ears turned red. “Ye’ll laugh.”

“Oh man… now you have to tell me.”

“Ugh! Why did I agree to this game?”

I playfully slid my finger down the curves of his stomach, circling around his navel. “I don’t know, because I was game for another round of fun. Not twenty-one questions.” I looked up at him as coyly as possible. “Still am,” I added, smiling when he swallowed thickly.

“I ran,” he said, his voice quieter than before.

“Ran?”

“Yeah. I was sixteen. Rebecca Whitford was beautiful and a
very
experienced eighteen year old.”

“And?”

“And… she told me it happened to every boy at least once in their life?”

“
It
happened?” I repeated, fishing for a clear answer.

“Bloody hell… ye have to know,” he said, sounding slightly uncomfortable.

I glanced down at my body. “I’m pretty sure I don’t,” I said, giggling.

“I spilled myself as soon as I slid in.” He groaned, burying his head into the mattress with a sigh. “That’s why I ran. I couldn’t have been more humiliated if I’d tried. She’d been nice, the lass, even offered to show me more, but I just couldn’t face her after that.”

“And here I thought I was alone in the sad story of my first kiss.” I couldn’t help but laugh.

“Yeah, well, I was young. It didn’t count.”

“I was seventeen,” I said, my mind flashing back to that first time.

“What?”

“My first time. Seventeen.”

“And?”

I shrugged. “And what? I didn’t go into it expecting what most girls expect. I read books. Lots and lots of books. I knew the basics of what to expect, and I went into it with a clear mind.”

“Sounds so scientific.”

“I was a closet nerd. What can I say?”

“Who was the bloke?”

I didn’t answer him at first, and that bothered me. It bothered me, because I was actually embarrassed to admit who it was. And I never got embarrassed over what a guy thought of me.

But Ed was different.

I didn’t like the thought of him thinking I was silly. Or stupid. Or average.

“Hannah? Ye have to tell me. I told ye mine. This is sharing circle time.”

He was joking, trying to loosening me up, and I appreciated it.

“Calvin,” I said, not looking directly at him.

“Calvin?” he sputtered. “
The
Calvin who shoved ye down and called ye flat-chested?”

“That’d be the one.” I pinched the bridge of my nose as I squeezed my eyes shut. “The way I see it,” I said quickly, trying to atone for my colossal mistake, “is every girl has a moment of weakness at some point in their life… just like you boys and your moments. I had something to prove with Calvin. Something to take back. My pride.” I looked over at him.

“And did ye get it?”

I smirked. “And then some. Followed me around like a puppy dog when all was said and done.”

“Can’t say I blame him,” Ed replied, the humor devoid from his voice. “Ye’re amazing, Hannah. Sexy. Funny. Smart. Tough as nails.”

“Yeah… I’m so tough when I’m hiding from a storm.”

“Everyone has fears,” he said, serious.

This guy was really going for the gold, wasn’t he? Part charm and good looks, but mostly just the kind of heart any girl would dream of catching. A heart any girl could feel safe enough to maybe tell all those deep dark secrets to.

I wasn’t just any girl though. My secrets were the kind a good hug and some sweet words didn’t have enough power to erase.

I had to put the brakes on.

“So is that enough talking?” I asked, uncomfortable with where the conversation was heading.

He sighed, tracing his finger along the seam of my lips. “Not nearly, but I’ll take what I can get.”

We looked at each other, something passing between us that set my heart to a rapid pace. Understanding. Longing. Intimacy. Familiarity.

His eyes darted to my lips. “I want to kiss ye again.

My heart tripped over itself. I took it up a notch as my heart hammered against my throat. “I want to feel you inside of me.”

I watched his pulse quicken in his neck as his hands skimmed up and down my waist, his touch like tiny live wires, contracting every muscle in my stomach.

“I want to taste ye. Your mouth. Your breasts. Your…” He trailed off, his fingers moving back to the place I guided him to earlier, showing me just what he wanted a taste of.

A fever broke out along my skin as his tongue teased circles over my breasts.

“Yes, all of that.”

He groaned as I took him in my hand, sliding up and down his length. I grinned when his eyes clenched shut, and he stilled my hand. “Not yet, love.”

His entire body shook as he lowered himself down my body, not stopping until he pulled me in his mouth, using teeth and tongue that drove me further into a moment I never wanted to leave.

“I want to make ye come apart in my hands.” His husky words hummed against my sensitive flesh as my back arched off the mattress from his skillful fingers and mouth.

“Ed!” I cried out, my pace growing faster as my mind tilted off its axis into an abyss I wanted to pull him down into. My head pressed back against the pillow as every muscle in my body tightened.

“I want ye straddling me. I want to feel ye let go and ride me until I burst.” His words rolled over me like lava. His finger slid inside me and then back out, rubbing warmth around my opening as his lips teased over my nipple.

He brought me right to the edge and left me hanging there as he slid up my body and rolled us over.

I lifted my hips, guiding him into the aching frenzy he’d created, and then lowered myself on him with a moan I couldn’t hold back. He gripped my hips as I pressed into him, rocking with jerky movements. Every nerve ending in my body teetered on the edge of bursting, and then the world shattered around me.

Ed wrapped his arms tight around me. His hips bucked up as I pushed down, seating him so deep it felt as if he were touching my soul. My body tightened, coiling in the pleasure of being so thoroughly taken over.

He hissed when my muscles contracted around him. Shouted my name when his own release swept over him. My mouth opened on a silent scream I had no power to deliver because everything around me had gone to pinpoint blackness as another orgasm ripped through me.

I lay on top of Ed, unable to move. My body melted into him until I couldn’t tell my limbs from his. Until our eyes were heavy with sleep and our bodies were spent. Until I was nothing more than the feeling he gave me and the way my body reacted to his.

Until I knew I wouldn’t be able to come up for air again.

MY PALM ROAMED OVER HANNAH’S smooth backside until I got a good grip on her thigh, positioning her right where I wanted her.

Her breath hitched as her blunt fingertips pressed into my back, dragging a blazing path that spurned me on, driving me deeper… harder.

The soft catch of her breath, telling me I’d brought her to release again.

Her fingers diving into my hair, pulling me closer as her lips devoured mine.

I could call every single moment back, and shamelessly did, when my mind was left to wander, because she was like the storm that had taken over the island the night we lost ourselves in one another. She was wind and chaos, stirring awake emotions inside of me I thought I’d never feel again. Tossing them around in the cyclone of her laugher, her touch, and her presence and, just like the storm, she disappeared. Fizzled out.

Boarded the plane without a backward glance, or an inkling that she maybe felt the same.

“Ye’ve been wiping the same glass for the last quarter hour. I think it’s clean, mate,” Charlie said, pulling me from my thoughts.

I set the glass aside and picked up another, keeping my hands busy as he sided up next to me.

“Something’s off with ye. Ever since ye come back from Rum Cay. I can’t put my finger on it, but something tells me it’s a girl. Am I right?” he asked, nudging me out of the way to grab a clean glass.

I scowled at him. “Ye’re daft.”

He moved to pull himself a pint. “Oh, am I?”

“Ye bloody know ye are, mate. Why else would ye keep the pub open all hours of the night, workin’ yourself into the ground?” I asked, trying to spin the conversation ‘round to him.

“Not gonna work, laddie. I know something’s got ye woolgatherin. I’ve known ye too long not to notice. So… who is she?” He brought the glass up and took a long swallow as he leaned against the bar and crossed his legs.

Oh good, he’s settling in for a chat,
my sarcastic inner voice piped up.

“Leave off with it, yeah?” I untied the apron from around my waist and tossed it beside the cash register.

“Leave off? Mate, I’ve seen ye at your worst. Hell, I’ve talked ye through it, but never have I seen ye walk around with your damn head in the clouds like ye’ve been. It’s like ye’re here, but not.” Charlie tipped the half-full glass in my direction.

I shouldered past him. “My heads not in the clouds.”

His hand shot out, planting firmly against my chest. “All right. I’ll leave it. For now. But do us both a favor… whatever it is that’s eatin’ ye up, figure it out before it consumes ye.”

I walked away with his last words ringing in my ears.

Figure it out. Yeah, bloody, right.

If I could do that, then I wouldn’t keep having flashbacks of the time I’d spent with Hannah. I wouldn’t be craving the ghost of her touch just to keep her near me.

After the storm broke and the airport opened back up, Hannah caught the first flight home while I stayed behind to wait for Phillip and Maggie. They’d cut their family vacation down to come home and deal with the mess left over from the storm. They’d took it all in stride too.

Even the mattress left in the hallway, because I couldn’t bring myself to move it.

I lost track of the apologies they insisted on making every time I turned around, until, finally, I decided they had everything under control and I needed to get back home.

Little did I know leaving Rum Cay was the equivalent of leaving my heart outside my body.

In a nutshell, I had it bad.

And Hannah? She was gone.

Life sucked.

That was two months ago.

November blew in with blustery winds. Snow and the occasional ice storm ravaged the countryside as they always did in the wintery months. The heavy winds and pelting sleet were the worst because, when I closed my eyes, it transported me back to when I’d held Hannah in my arms. The one time I could say I had my arms wrapped around the possibility of love.

For a brief moment in time, it felt like I’d connected with the other half of my soul.

It wasn’t just the sex. Though, impossible not to think about, it was more. There was a connection between the two of us. An impossible one, but one nonetheless.

And I’d let her go, keeping to the unspoken promise we’d made. To the ‘magic’ I’d created for her, for us, inside the flowery confines of our makeshift tent.

I’d let her go, because it was what she wanted. And it damn near ripped my guts out.

So many times I’d reached for my phone to call Maggie and find out how Hannah was doing. To ask for her number so I could call her and hear her voice again. Every single time I teetered on the edge, I’d sharply pull myself back. If Hannah wanted something more, she would have told me. Knowing she could so easily walk away without a backward glance broke me more than I was willing to admit.

The only thing I could do, and did do, was trudge forward. Head down. Heart armored back into place. As if it never happened. Except that it did, and there wasn’t a thing I could do about it when my memories flooded through me with no chance at locking them back up.

The trigger for it, I’d realized, was the sound of high winds and rain. Inconsiderately enough, all it did in England was rain. And when it wasn’t raining, it was snowing. There wasn’t a damn moment’s worth of peace inside of my head, or out of it, leaving me nowhere to hide from it all. And, the further I sank inside myself, the more prominent the heavy feeling of desolation had become until one day, I snapped.

“I think I need to find a bloody girlfriend, mate,” I said, scaring Charlie so badly, he dropped a full pint on the floor. The glass hit the rubber mat under my feet, splashing the front of me with beer before it bounced into the back wall of the bar with a heavy thud.

“Ye don’t talk for months on end, and when ye do decide to, ye bloody scare the shite out of me? Damn ye, Ed,” Charlie said, hands on his hips as his eyes bored into me.

I merely shrugged.

Charlie’s hands fell from his hips as he shook his head with a laugh. “It’s about time, mate. I’d wondered when ye’d come ‘round.”

“I had a lot to think about.” I tried my best to smile.

“Well, let me give ye more to think about. What are ye looking for? A nice set of tits? Maybe a round fat arse to—”

“Stop.” I waved my hand to cut him off. “I just said I think I need to find one, not that I was ready to paint the town in debauchery.”

“Might do ye some good if ye did.”

Charlie darted out of the way when I popped the bar towel at him.

“I’m doing this on my terms, mate. Don’t get any ideas,” I said, making sure he understood I wasn’t on the prowl for a pair of spread legs. No matter how willing the girl might be.

I hadn’t stooped that low in my misery.

“WHEN I SAID I MIGHT need a girlfriend, I didn’t mean for ye to take it on as your own personal agenda to find every eligible girl in town,” I shouted into Charlie’s ear over the sound of feminine voices that threatened to make my head explode.

Charlie beamed back at me. “What do ye mean? This was a brilliant idea if ever there was one.”

“Might be ace for you, mate. But all of this,” I said, gesturing around us, “does my head in.”

“Which head? Looks like the lassie at the end of the bar would work ye over right and well.” Charlie picked up his hand with a slight wave in her direction.

I should have known better, but, before I could stop myself, my eyes connected with the girl he spoke of. There was no other way to put it.

She eye-fucked me.

Hard.

I jerked my gaze from hers. No way. “She’s all yours, mate. I like my dick right where it is at the moment.”

Charlie busted out laughing as he went about helping me behind the bar. He was in all his glory. Girls. Lots of girls were at the bar for a ladies’ night Charlie put together with the incentive of half-priced drinks and entertainment.

I’d yet to see what entertainment he’d cooked up.

Besides the sultry looks tossed my way and the blatant invitations to have a go in the back room, the night wasn’t a complete wash. I’d made more tips than I had any other night in the pub.

The energy seemed to shift from a fun-loving atmosphere to something heavier. I couldn’t quite put my finger on it, but the closer the clock got to ten, the more the air seemed to shrink around me until it almost became impossible to take a full breath.

It made me edgy.

Ten minutes later, I understood exactly why when the doors to the pub opened and in walked two muscular men shrink-wrapped in outdated tracksuits.

“Who the hell is that?” I asked Charlie over the squeals of what could only be called orgasms in the making.

“That’ll be the strippers, mate!” Charlie shouted over the hormone-drenched drones.

I dragged my hand down my face, hoping he was kidding. “Ye hired male strippers?”

“Yep.” Charlie stuck his chest out with a beaming smile. “Figured the odds would be in our favor, being twenty to two, or four if ye count us in.”

“But ye hired strippers?” What the hell was wrong with the man?

“Keep up, will ye? Yes, I hired two male dancers. They prefer to be called that, ye know, and the two of us, mate, will be reaping the rewards in say—” He held his wrist up, looking at his watch. “Thirty minutes from now.”

Charlie slapped me on the back with a laugh, and then left me standing behind the bar, dumbfounded.

“Ye look as shocked about this as I am.” Her voice caught my attention and had me turning in her direction.

“That’s because I am,” I answered with a shake of my head.
God save me from my idiot friends and their not-so-brilliant ideas.

The girl was cute. Petite, ye might say. Almost pixyish with her black hair cut at an angle to her chin.

“I might have to strangle my sister for this,” she said. The hint of embarrassment on her cheeks gave her a youthful look as she moved to get away from the mass of women converging on the two men moving closer to the bar.

Surely, they weren’t going to—

One of the two vaulted up onto the shiny surface, pointing in the direction of the back corner. Before I could rescue the stack of napkins between his planted feet, the music belted from the speakers, and his pants came off in one smooth jerk.

I had two choices. Pretend the dental floss in his arse crack wasn’t shaking right above me, or move.

I moved.

So did he.

Down the bar he went. Straight toward the girl who’d spoken to me only a millisecond before. She had no idea. She couldn’t know, because her head was down. But that didn’t stop him from squatting, knees on either side of her head.

I was embarrassed for her.

Especially when he grabbed her hands, hauled her up on the bar, and then proceeded to slide her in front of him and grind himself against her.

Her hands never left her face and, when he realized she wasn’t getting into his dance moves, he left her standing all by herself on the bar in what appeared to be complete humiliation.

A heavy sigh worked all the way from what felt like the bottoms of my feet as I held my hand out to her. She must have seen it from between her fingers, because she took it like a lifeline and jumped down beside me behind the bar.