The Way Home (Lights of Peril Book 2) (8 page)

I can’t be
infuriated with him. He’s making conversation. He just happens to suck at it.

“Oh
, I don’t know. I guess I could describe it being like getting your teeth pulled without a pain killer. Or maybe having your insides ripped apart for hours upon hours with no definite end in sight? Who are you, Ace? Why would ever ask a woman that question?”

He raises his hands in surrender and I can see his biceps
flexing again through his shirt. How did I never notice this before? He’s a beautiful man.

We have finished dinner and I’m enjoying my third Mexican margarita
, thinking to myself that I have to come here more often. These things are delicious. Ace has moved to my side of the booth and is sitting close, but not close enough to express to others that we are a couple. He is staring at me and the alcohol is racing through my system now and his heavy stare is causing me to blush. He lets out a sweet small smile at me, knowing what his gaze is doing.

All of a sudden, as if someone is telling me to take a
timeout, my phone rings in my purse. I know who this has to be. I look away as I rummage through it, at the same time, trying to gather myself before answering. Looking at the caller ID, I find I was right. It’s Honor calling.

“Sorry.
I didn’t mute it because I wanted to be sure if Honor and April needed anything I could hear it.” He looks dejected, but nods in agreement.

Before I
get even a ‘hello’ out, he starts speaking, “Sadey, Patrick hasn’t stopped crying and he’s running a slight fever. April and I can handle it until you get home and we don’t think there’s really anything to worry about at all, but she thought you would want to know anyway, in case you wanted to call the night short and get home.”

“No,
thank you for the call. I’m coming back now. We just need to get the ticket, then we should be home in less than thirty minutes. Don’t do anything other than put a cold cloth on him, okay?”

“
Yeah, we got it. Be careful. No need to rush, he’s fine.” says the man with no children. When someone calls and tells you that your child is sick, a new baby, none the less, there is
always
a need to rush.

“Gotta go, Ace.
I’m sorry. Honor called to tell me he thinks Patrick is sick.”

“No worries, b
ug. Let me pay the ticket and we...” Before he finishes the sentence,
his
phone rings. Surely Honor wouldn’t have called him, too.

As he looks at his screen, his face pales.
“I have to take this. Can you take my wallet for the bill and I will meet you back here in five? I won’t be long.”

I nod
to him as I grab his wallet from his hand. He walks away and doesn’t look back to me as he heads to the front door. Once I look inside to find payment, I see an old photograph sticking out behind some other pictures and I gasp. It’s a picture of me. I’m at the club.

I remember the night
with great fondness, even if beyond my fondness, the hurt haunts me. This was the last time I ever saw Ace; the night of Hem’s tender proposal, the night I also told him he was going to be a father. The picture has me standing at the bar, getting Hem another shot of whiskey, of course. Mace and I are talking. Shame is wrapped up in her from behind, as he always is. I’m smiling at her and she’s scowling at something I’ve said. I grin to myself thinking it was probably something at her expense.

The picture is so beaten up
and looks like it has been handled often. My heart avoids beating for a moment, as I continue to notice that this is the only picture that hangs loose in his wallet.

I don’t make
a comment about the image as we are on the way back to the house. I’m worried about Patrick. He’s so little, and as a new mother, I’m concerned about every sneeze, and now he has a fever. I’m about to get out of Ace’s car as I turn in my seat to him to tell him goodbye.

He stops me before I can reach
for the handle. “Wait, bug. I’m walking you to the door. Don’t move.”

“Okay, I won’t move.”
He’s on edge. I can’t tell if he’s nervous or just being protective again.

Once we ge
t to my front door, I can see Honor through the window, holding a sleeping Patrick in the rocker. My boy appears to be completely crashed on Honor’s chest and Honor looks like he’s smelling Patrick’s hair. The smell of a new baby is truly spellbinding, I don’t care who you are.

Ace and I are
standing at my door. I’m waiting for him to leave now that he knows I’m safely escorted, but he doesn’t. He’s looking around the house, as if he’s expecting the boogey man to come charging at us, out of nowhere. I never got a chance at dinner to find out why he seems on edge.

“Sadey, thanks for spending
this evening with me. I had a good time.” His only dimple is highlighted by the porch light and his chiseled features look even more prominent. Beautiful man.

“Thank you for getting me out of this house.
I had a good time and I’m sorry about the abrupt ending.”

“Sadey, t
here’s a lot of things I need to tell you, things I know I should have told a long time ago, but didn’t. I just don’t know how, exactly.”

He moves my hair from my face, putting it behind
my ear. He has beautiful eyes, big and brown and full of life, just like mine once were. He leans close to me and through my alcohol induced state I lean into him, meeting him half way.

I feel his lips on mine and it isn’t u
nwelcome, just unexpected. It’s quick and innocent but it’s definitely the same lips I used to kiss before. He’s familiar and I’m clinging to that.

“Goodnight, b
ug. If you need me tonight to be here to help with Patrick, you let me know, okay? I can sleep on your couch again, it’s not a problem.” He turns from me to leave, heading back to his car.

“Why the picture?”
Unsure where the hell I’m coming from here or what angle I’m working as I blurt this out, but hell if I don’t feel like putting him on the spot.

“Shit.”
Turning around to face me again, he starts to walk towards me. He’s looking at me he runs his hands through his thick brown hair in frustration.

I’ve seen him bald, crew cut, and now he wears it long enough that it touches the collar of his shirt.
All looks fair the same on Ace, he’s a handsome man.

“Sade, you know why the picture, don’t make me say it.”

“Say what? I guess I really don’t understand.” What the hell is he talking about?

“Sadey, I
’ve missed you, okay? I’ve thought about you. I missed being here, do you understand that? I missed being around you, touching you, holding you, laughing with you. I missed you before I even fuckin’ left town that night. You chose Hem, not that it was any kind of competition, but you were with Hem, I was never even given the consideration.”

I stand there, just looking at his face.
I’m speechless and I’m processing this, but at an alcohol induced pace.

Then he continues. “I love you.
I’ve always loved you. I never had a chance to tell you that before you and Hem ... the baby, the marriage … I had to leave. I love you and I’ve never loved
anyone
. Jesus Christ, I did not want to say it like this; out here, at night, when you’re distracted.”

Oh shit.
This is a lot to process and I’m a bit light-headed. I have no reaction. He sees this and becomes more nervous. “Sadey? Say something?”

“Of course you love me
. I know. You and I spent a lot of time together…” I’m cutoff in mid-sentence by a fiery faced Ace who just put his hand over my mouth to stop me from saying anything more.

As
my head spins since I’m still trying to catch up with his words, I don’t get a chance to react to him. The next sensation I feel is his hand withdrawing from my face and then I’m met with his lips taking my bottom lip, sucking it intensely. This is how he’s asking for full entrance.

I’m so wrapped up in
the feel of his touch against my skin, his familiar smell consuming me, and his tongue searching over me relentlessly, that I open slightly and he hastily devours my tongue.

He’s touching me
all over as fast as his hands can move. I feel his body flush with mine as he’s backing me up against the front door. He feels so good, so warm, and I trust him. I’ve always trusted him to do right by me, and I’m giving him this trust again, in the moment.

As he continues
to consume me, my stomach drops and my insides warm. One hand is behind my back, reaching underneath my shirt, lifting it as his calloused thumb is sketching small circles on my bare skin.

Finally e
nding our kiss, his mouth travels to my neck, licking at the contour at the end of my throat and from there he creatively wanders his way up to my left ear. The heat from his breath combined with his tongue working over my skin has my insides lusting for more.

“Fuck, Sadey, I want you.
I’ve wanted you since I fuckin’ met you. I think about you over and over; about being in you, on top of you, fucking you. Fuck me, the way you make me feel, it’s like I’m at a loss for control here.”

He’s eager for me
. I can feel his excitement pressing in his jeans; every single inch of it. “I want to feel you, baby. Let me inside.”

I know immediately he’s not talking about inside the house
. Not in the heat of this moment. I nod to him as he makes his play. On my porch, under the cover of darkness, as I’m pushed up against my own front door, I give Ace permission to explore my body as he has wished.

He lifts my short
pencil skirt with his other wrist, using his finger to move my already wet thong to the side and very gently runs his fingers over my clit, back and forth at a continued pace. There is no resistance hindering this motion. I’m wet.

Using his thumb, he brings
blood rushing to my swelling clit as he rubs it. He slides his fingers near my entrance, holding them there as he continues his thumbs momentum. His breathes become shallow, his words raspy and short. “Jesus, Sadey.”

He
knows how he’s making my body feel. I’ve not had to utter a word. The wetness tracing his fingers leaves me now with nothing to hide.

Using his knee
he brushes my thighs apart, inviting me to further open them. I’m grabbing the back of his shirt and my headrests on his shoulder, my face hidden in his neck. I’m breathless as I feel him moving his fingers in and out of me, rocking back and forth. My hips move of their own volition in rhythm, grinding against them, searching for sweet release.

“Oh God, Ace.”
It comes from me as a whisper. That’s all I can muster out loud.

Once I’ve given him a verbal cue of my arousal, he’s instantly more
assertive with his movement. Still holding me to him from behind, my breath pants against the skin of his neck, his arousal presses into me through his jeans, in a motion simulating penetration, again and again.

His fingers have
withdrawn and have moved under my top and yank my bra down. I feel him massaging my nipple between his fingers. Continuing his hip movements into me, he leans down and, not missing a beat, lifts my shirt, and sucks my breast in the same tender manner as he took my lip in his mouth. “Sadey, let me taste you. I fuckin’ smell you from here, please.”

I’m caught off guard with his words, but fuck I’m turned on.
I say nothing, not really knowing what to say.

“
I’m going to taste you. Grab my shoulders.”

The moment his tongue pushes inside me, I’m lost to my climax.
I grab at his hair, moving my hips in motion as he fights to keep them down in place. My neck and head are all I can control and with those I push my head back and rest it into the door, creating a very small, audible knock.

God, it feels so good to be wanted like this
; to be reckless, forgetting about every fuckin’ thing that engulfs me during my daily reality.

All good things come to an end.

I see the porch light flicker on and off outside through my closed eyelids. Now, rather than feeling like a sexy and wanted adult, I feel like a fifteen year old girl who just got caught with her boyfriend while getting felt up on the front porch, by her parents.

My face must reflect my horror
, because the moment I push Ace off me, I see that damn dimple again. He thinks this is funny, I think this is humiliating. Fuck, I can see my climax on his mouth. Oh my God, I am horrified.

“Go in
side, Sade. We can talk about everything later. You have my number. Call me soon, alright?” He’s trying to play this cool; however, his arousal is still at full attention in his jeans. 

“Alright
… when do you leave to go back to California? If you ever answered the question at dinner, I don’t remember it now, ya know? Sorry.”

My face is flushed
in bold display of lust and need, but now his face holds only annoyance for me and I wish it didn’t. Ace sighs seeing that I’m not going to just let him go without an answer.