She dropped her head, her lips tightening, and she walked on, back into the house.
Soon.
Will dried off and walked over to the fire pit, holding out his hands to warm up. I descended the brick steps, making my way over to him.
“I got your letter,” he said, staring at the fire.
I quirked a smile, remembering the note I sent him a while back. Challenging him to find me. To face who he really was, and it wasn’t as Michael and Kai’s third wheel. Fuck them.
“You think you can stop me?” I stared at him over the fire. Is that why he was here? Doing Rika’s bidding and trying to arm Winter against me?
But his eyes danced with mischief even though he still wasn’t looking at me. “You didn’t think that beating I gave you was the end of it, did you?”
My smile froze, remembering the beating I let him give me last year, because I knew I deserved it. I’d knelt there, letting him hit me again and again, because I wanted to feel worse on the outside than I did on the inside, and for so many moments, I just wanted him to kill me. Just kill me, because I can’t take it back, and I can’t move on.
I’d almost killed him. And I wanted him to hate me so hard he would fucking murder me, and then maybe, after his anger was spent, he’d love me again. Whether I lived or died, he needed to forgive me for standing by and letting Michael’s brother do what he did on that yacht that night.
But I wasn’t the only one to blame for all that shit that went down two years ago after we got out of prison, either. I took my punishment for my part, but I wasn’t taking it lying down again.
And if at least a small part of him wasn’t willing to forgive me, he wouldn’t be here now. He wanted to be here. He hadn’t let it go, which meant he hadn’t let me go. Not completely.
“You missed me,” I said in a low voice.
He moved behind the flames, circling the fire slowly, and I did the same, following him.
“Didn’t you?” I taunted.
His wet jeans clung to his legs, and I noticed he’d added some more ink to his chest and arms since I last saw him.
But some things hadn’t changed. He was still dwelling on shit and still getting drunk and high all the time. He needed me.
A small chuckle escaped him as I caught his eyes again. “You were my heroin once upon a time,” he said, and his eyes disappeared behind the flames again.
I stepped again, moving around the fire and locking eyes with him again. “And you still like your drugs from what I hear.”
He shook his head, knowing full well where I got that information. “Fucking Rika.”
“Fucking Rika.” I nodded.
He moved again, disappearing, and I advanced, seeking him. His eyes on me when he dropped out of sight and still on me when he reappeared. His lips twitched and his gaze was charged with fury, rage, excitement, the blacks of his eyes small and sober, because he didn’t need that shit when he had me.
“Winter likes you,” I said, taking another slow step. “She seems to trust you. Why?”
“I have a way…with women,” he teased.
“I remember.” I licked my lips. “You were fun to watch.”
His breathing turned shallow, and I knew he was remembering all the shit we got up to back in the day. We had some fun.
Even without girls.
“You want to see me with her?” he asked. “Is that it?”
I laughed under my breath and cocked my head. “Not exactly.”
I shot off, catching him off guard, darted around the fire and slammed my palms into his chest, pushing him backward into the wall of the pool house. He grunted, hitting the brick with his bare back.
The rain started pummeling the awning overhead, and I raced up to him, ready to throw him down on the ground, but he bent over and barreled into my stomach, sending us both falling to the concrete deck.