15. Chapter Fifteen

Chapter Fifteen

Remington

Pounding footsteps had me turning around, shocked as hell to see Hannah coming at me like a hurricane. She didn’t stop until we collided in my doorway. She bounced off my chest, and I grabbed her shoulders so she didn’t fall, but she shrugged me off.

Cheeks blazing cherry red, she shoved me. “How could you not tell me?”

“What? What’s going on, sweetheart?”

“Pfft, don’t sweetheart me, Remington!”

“Okay. You want to come inside and talk?”

“No.”

She shoved me again, and I let her move me so I didn’t wind up on my ass, where I suspected she was fully capable of sending me. The woman was strong.

“Tell me what’s going on.”

She tossed her arms out. “I threw a muffin at you—at your head .”

“A cupcake too,” I added.

“It was a stress ball.” She gave me another shove, though it wasn’t as hard as the first few. “Right at your head. How could you let me do that?”

“I didn’t have a lot of say in it, Hannah.”

Oh, her face lit up even more. She’d been pissed before. Now, she was a ball of fury.

“You’re so…so…gah!” She clawed at my T-shirt until she had a good grip with her fingers. “I called you heartless for not being here when you almost died . At any point, you could have told me why you hadn’t picked up your phone, but instead…why? Why didn’t you say anything?”

I took hold of her wrists, rubbing my thumb over her racing pulse. I allowed her to push me around more if I didn’t think she’d hate herself for it when the dust cleared. So I steadied her, keeping her still to give her the chance to calm down and get back to herself.

“’Cause I could see you needed to be mad at someone and let it be me. And let’s be honest, had I gotten the calls in time, I still don’t know that I would’ve come. I can’t say with any certainty.”

Her eyes narrowed. “You would have. I’m certain of that.”

I cocked my head, studying her. She was still boiling, but it had gentled.

“I might be as heartless as you thought, sweetheart.”

That earned me a groan. “Don’t talk nice to me now, Remington. I’m not ready for that.”

I laughed and let go of her wrists to hold my hands up in innocence. “I wouldn’t dream of being nice to you. Last thing I’d do.”

She didn’t laugh with me. Instead, her gaze locked on my mouth, and her body tensed. That was the only warning I had before she crashed into me, her lips meeting mine in hot, wet anger.

It was the underlying sweetness that had my mouth moving against hers before my brain caught up to what was happening. But even when it did, I kept kissing her because it felt too good to stop.

It’d been a long time since I’d had a woman in my arms, and that was where she was. I wrapped her up, pulling her flush with my chest, one hand bracing the base of her skull, the other at the small of her back. She was warm and solid, smelling like sunshine and sweat. And she fit against me like she was made to be there. Tall enough I barely had to bend. Strong enough I could hold her tight without worry she’d break.

The moan she unleashed when our tongues touched was both carnal and…pained. It was the pain that brought me up short as the reality of what was happening barreled back to the forefront.

Caleb had warned me she was fragile. Told me how rough she’d had it, and I’d promised to be careful. I’d seen her grief, had practically felt it, sharp as a knife, when we’d stood in Graham’s room together. I couldn’t hurt her any more than I already had, yet here I was kissing this woman without any thought to the consequences.

But fuck did she taste like the best dream I’d ever had. Wrenching my lips from hers wasn’t easy. It was picturing the tears I’d seen in her eyes that allowed me to pull myself away.

Hands on her shoulders, I put some space between our bodies, and it was crazy how unnatural it felt when I hadn’t known what it felt like to hold her until minutes ago.

“No, baby. We can’t do this.”

I really didn’t want to say it, but it had to be done. I wasn’t in a place to make promises to anyone, and Hannah deserved someone who was. I just hoped I wasn’t around when she found that guy. Now that I’d had a piece of her, it was going to be difficult to shake off.

Her hazy eyes met mine, slowly clearing. When they did, they went sharp, and the flush in her cheeks deepened.

“Right. I shouldn’t have—I’m sorry.” Her lips rolled over her teeth as she roughly shrugged me off. “I have to go.”

She spun away from me so fast she stumbled over her feet. I caught her elbow to help her straighten, but she yanked her arm from me, running down the porch steps.

“Hannah—”

She tripped again but managed to catch herself on the railing before throwing herself toward her truck. Swinging the door open, she flung herself inside and backed out in a cloud of dust and fury. I would’ve worried about her driving in this state, but once she got turned around, she maneuvered down the long driveway carefully.

She’d just needed to get away from me.

I stood on the porch long after she’d disappeared, my hands locked on the back of my neck, my heart lodged in my throat.

The last ten minutes had felt like a fever dream, but the lingering sweetness on my lips reminded me it had been very real. I’d had Hannah Kelly in my arms and her mouth on mine.

I didn’t know how it happened or what it meant.

What I did know? I’d fucked it all up, and it was on me to make it right, some way, somehow.