Forgotten Luca (The Four 1)

I ran my fingers through Remy's hair as he spoke. He seemed calm. Too calm. Whatever had switched on inside of him when he’d learned that we'd found Violet's great-aunt, it seemed to have switched off entirely as he talked about the circumstances that had taken him home.

"What happened after that?"

Remy shook his head. "Nothing, really. After my mom told me they didn’t have any money to give me, she asked me to leave. Then my dad was there. They wouldn't even let me inside the house. I didn't really understand what they were saying. I guess I was kind of desperate because I begged them to let me come home. They said they couldn't do that, that they had to protect my brothers and sisters from what I'd done. What I'd done. That's when I knew they didn't believe me, not the part about me being kidnapped, anyway. All they saw was that I was a junkie and a whore. I turned and never looked back."

"Did you ever talk to anyone about it? Aleks?"

Another shake of his head. "I couldn't. If I said it out loud, it would be true. It would mean my family didn't really want me. It was something else I would have had to fight. Like the drugs, the people who’d taken me, Les, all the guys I’d sold myself to…"

"Me," I reminded him because I belonged at the top of his list.

Remy was quiet for a long time, but then he pulled back a little so our eyes could meet. He reached out to run his thumb up over my cheekbone. "You're the reason I kept fighting, Luca. That day in that house when you walked into the room, I was done. I was ready to die. I was ready to beg you to kill me. You gave me a reason to keep going. And yes, I hated you for not coming back for me and maybe that drove me to fight even more, but I think that was what I needed."

"Remy—" I began to say but suddenly he leaned in and kissed me softly, cutting off the argument I'd been about to make that I wasn't deserving of any kind of forgiveness or understanding.

The kiss was light and quick, though the impact was anything but.

"He was your son, Luca. You had to find him. You wouldn't have been able to live with yourself if you’d chosen me over him. I wouldn’t have been able to live with it, either." Remy's words were gentle but firm at the same time.

"I swear to God, Remy, I did look for you. Even when I had to stop, I didn't. Every picture that came across my desk of the kids my brothers and I were able to help, I looked for your face. I wished for it with everything I was," I admitted. My voice sounded tight and desperate. I'd meant to comfort him, but somehow he'd turned the tables on me and he was the one doing the reassuring.

"I know you did," he whispered and then he kissed me again. I told myself to be satisfied with the simple kisses, but this time when he made a move to pull back, I found myself following. I closed my mouth over his and heard him let out what I chose to believe was a sigh of relief. I ran my tongue over the seam of his lips and when he opened his mouth in surprise, I dipped my tongue inside.

Remy jerked, but didn't pull away. He held perfectly still in my arms as I tentatively explored his lush mouth. When my tongue came into contact with his, he let out a little whimper. I forced myself to pull back, to give him the space he needed and to try to get my raging body under control. I tried to remind myself that I shouldn't have been kissing him in the first place, but then he was following and it was his mouth on mine, his tongue seeking entry. I groaned under the onslaught and opened eagerly for him. I had no clue if he’d been kissed like that before, but there was a certain level of hesitation in his touch that told me even if he had, he hadn't necessarily liked it.

Our tongues began to slide along each other's as we found our rhythm. I struggled to keep my desire in check as I let him set the pace, but when he pulled back enough to whisper my name desperately, I lost it and grabbed the back of his head so I could draw him back down to my mouth. I slanted my lips over his and hungrily consumed him. Then I was moving us so I was pressing him back into the mattress and my upper body was covering his. He let out a sexy moan and put his arms around me. I kissed him until I was dizzy with it, and even then, I only stopped long enough to let him catch his breath. I used the unwanted reprieve to explore his jawline and the column of his throat with my lips and tongue until he was the one gripping my hair so he could pull me back up to his mouth for more.