Pieces of Us (Confessions of the Heart 3)

If he’d ever get over his past. If I could ever forgive him for living it.

Where did that leave us?

He blew out a sigh. “Come on, let’s go inside.”

I cast him a soft smile, unable to stop myself. “We’d better. The boys are probably raiding the refrigerator by now.”

I took the hand he extended. Heat sizzled up my arm at the contact.

I didn’t know whether to chastise myself for thinking it felt so right.

He ushered me inside, and Benjamin was on the floor in front of a console with a huge TV sitting on top of it, pulling out a video gaming system.

“Maxon said we could play, Mom! He’s got Mario Cart. It’s the coolest game in the world. You want to play with us?” Dillon shouted.

I glanced at Maxon. Feeling out of sorts. Wondering how I was supposed to fit into the shape of his world.

He nudged me. “Go on, sit down, relax. I’ll start dinner.”

“You don’t have to take care of me.” Another defense.

He inched closer, his breath a warm caress across my face. “Let me. I want to.”

For a moment, I hesitated, and then I gave, toeing off my shoes and settling on the couch.

Tucking my knees to my chest, I tried to pay attention to the boys who started playing a video game.

But my attention kept getting caught up on the man in the kitchen, his big, powerful body adept there, too.

Dicing the vegetables, tossing them in the heating oil, the scent of garlic and onion rising to the air.

His face intense yet at peace.

Shoulders rigid but demeanor welcoming.

I found myself standing, drawn, the way I’d always been, moving that way.

Energy washed, a lap across my bare feet, throat getting wobbly as I edged up to his side and leaned my hip up on the counter beside where he worked.

“Miss me?” He lifted a brow, half his attention on me and the other on the food he was prepping.

A light giggle escaped.

Talk about a shift in the mood. But I loved that about him. The lightness he could wear when the heaviness threatened to pull us under.

“Not even for a second,” I teased right back. “I just came over here to make sure you knew what you were doing. Wouldn’t want your cooking to make my kids sick or anything.”

Something coy played all over that sexy mouth, dimple denting at the side. I had the stupid, reckless urge to reach out and taste it.

There was that fork. Coming up faster.

“Huh. I would have sworn your heart just started beating harder. You sure it’s not something else that has you coming this way?”

“Nervous about the food,” I retorted, though my words were getting low and wispy. I blinked through the haze of need that was suddenly clouding the air.

I cleared my throat. “Who knew you could cook. That smells delicious.”

“All kinds of things you don’t know about me.” He winked.

Okay, so that was kind of what I was worried about. The unknowns. Who he’d become. Was he different than this beautiful surface that he was showin’ me?

He tossed in some strips of chicken. “I hope you like stir fry. Easy and fast.”

“Anything you make would be just fine.”

“How long have the two of us been settling for just fine?”

The shift in his tone came out faster than I was prepared for. This easy, cocky boy flipping a one-eighty.

Blue eyes flashed.

Savage possession.

I reared back in surprise.

And there was nothing I could do but whisper the admission into the dense air.

Unable to stop it.

Not sure I wanted to keep the reality of it from him. It needed to be said. “I’ve never been just fine, Maxon. Though I’m sure you were. Plenty of company to keep you warm at night.”

I didn’t mean for the bitterness to come through. But it was there.

Before I could make sense of it, he had me by the upper arms, and he spun me around, backing me into the counter and out of view of the boys. He towered over me, so powerful, muscles of those arms twitching with restraint.

Heat instantly exploded in the middle of us.

Flames raking at my skin.

I struggled to find a breath beneath the impact of him, but the only thing I managed to do was gulp down his presence, overflowing my lungs with the promise of sex and dominion.

“You think I was ever fine for a second without you? That my heart ever beat right? That my spirit was ever at peace?” He edged even closer. “Not for a second, Little Bird. Can’t fly without you by my side.”

My head shook slowly. “You’re wrong. You could always fly. Soar higher than anyone.”

My moon in the darkest sky.

“You just forgot to remember you had wings. That you had the power. I believed in you. Believed in us. You gave me away, Maxon. Why? For what?” I almost begged, moisture clouding my eyes with the way he was looking at me, with the scars that he’d left ripped open wide.