Sean

I pressed Anna against the tree, my hand in her hair, and my lips so close I could feel her breath. 

“Tell me to stop, Anna-baby.” 

The low growl was somewhere between a challenge and a plea. And then, just to remind Anna of what this was, what we were, my hand found hers, seeking the gold band.

But her finger was bare. Not even a groove on her skin. Like the last four years had left no impression.

“Tell me,” I repeated, tightening my grip so she’d know I was serious, that I’d take her right here, claim what wasn’t mine. What should’ve been mine. 

Anna held my gaze, fingers treading lightly up my arms, over my shoulders, and into my hair.

And then she pulled me down, and her pillow-soft lips met mine. “Don’t stop.”

Her tongue slipped into my mouth, twisting and tangling and blurring all the lines. But I wouldn’t cross over only to have her hate me, or herself. So, I let her steer the ship. 

When she guided me to her neck, panting in my ear and seeking the button on my jeans, I broke our connection. 

Her lids fluttered open, her emerald gaze dark with lust. “What?” 

“You ready for that tour?”

Anna studied my outstretched hand. Because she knew what it was. An invitation. A disaster. The point of no return.

And she took it.

This wasn’t how I wanted things to go down. Not that I believed that Anna would ever see this house, but when I indulged in the fantasy, I somehow thought she’d be more impressed. 

Instead, she’d trailed behind me as we went from room to room, hands clasped in front of her like she was afraid to touch anything. 

Maybe Anna was having second thoughts. Or maybe I’d only imagined the whole thing by the fucking tree and all she wanted to do was tell me to go straight to hell and then offer directions. 

And really, could I blame her?

Lost in thought, I topped the marble stairs and then headed for my bedroom to stow my backpack and her small suitcase, which I still had in my hand. 

Yeah, wishful thinking. 

Glancing over my shoulder when I realized Anna wasn’t following, I froze when I spotted her in front of the pictures lining the glass table in the alcove. 

Retracing my steps, I cringed when she dropped to her knees in front of the photo album on the bottom shelf. 

Brushing a hand over the leather cover with the picture of us encased in plastic, Anna looked up at me with questions in her eyes. “You had this?” 

I closed the distance between us as casually as possible. “Yeah. I found it when I was unpacking.”

A faint smile touched Anna’s lips, but she didn’t call me on the lie. Instead, she pulled the album onto her lap and then carefully cracked open the cover. “I wondered where it went.” She looked up at me, smiling. “I’m glad you saved it. I don’t have copies of these.” 

I crouched at her side. “Do you want copies?”

Anna went still, examining one of the photos from our prom. “If you don’t mind. I want to save them for—” She caught herself and then cleared her throat. “For old time’s sake. You can mail them to me or whatever.” 

Anna closed the cover, but before she could put the book back on the shelf, I scooped it up. “I haven’t seen these in a while. Let me drop this stuff off in my room, and we can take a look, yeah?” 

Nodding, she hauled to her feet, smoothing her hands over her wrinkled skirt. 

“Your house is gorgeous,” she said, peering up at me as we made our way down the long hallway. 

“You sound surprised.”

Anna laughed, and the sound struck a chord deep inside, a place where there was no music. Just her.

“You used an empty keg for a chair in our old apartment.” 

“True.” I pushed open the door to my bedroom. “But I can’t take all the credit for this place. I had a decorator.” 

I dropped the suitcase and my backpack on the small couch and then placed the photo album on the bed, hoping Anna would take the hint. I wanted her on that bed, branding my sheets with her peach scent and leaving strands of auburn hair on my pillowcase. 

Adjusting my semi hard dick, which showed no signs of cooperating, I dug around in the fridge behind the bar. “All I’ve got is Pale Ale up here. I’m sure there’s some Dr. Pepper downstairs if you—”

Whatever I was about to say died on my lips when I turned and found Anna on the bed, the album in her lap. She wasn’t looking at the pictures, though. 

Easing behind her, I brushed the hair off her shoulder. “I saved the best view for last.”

“You think the dam is the best view?” she asked quietly.

Banding my arms around her waist, I stared out at the water. “It’s my favorite view.” 

Mansfield Dam towered in the distance, just inside the window frame. Anna’s parent’s cabin sat on the other side of that dam, tucked away in a small inlet. The best days of my life were spent there, with her. And when I’d proposed to Anna under the willow tree on her seventeenth birthday, I’d promised to build her a house with a view of the dam. 

And I did. She just didn’t know it.

For over an hour we sat in silence, fingers entwined, my chest pressed against her back, watching the breeze blow across the water. My stomach tightened when the sun dipped below the tree line, the invisible clock in my head ticking louder and louder. 

“Stay with me tonight, Anna-baby.” I kissed her temple. “One night.” 

Her back straightened and she looked up at me with a heavy-lidded gaze. “Why?”

Because I want to live inside you. Wake up with you in my arms. Watch you drink coffee and eat pancakes. And then do it all over again.

Blowing out a breath, I went for honesty. “Because I miss you.” 

Anna scooted away from me, and I squeezed my eyes shut, biting back a string of curses when she hauled to her feet. I’d pushed her too far, asking for something she couldn’t give. 

But then I heard the snick of her zipper.

Eyes locked on mine in the fading light, Anna wiggled out of her skirt. “One night. And then I can’t see you again, Sean.” 

It was a hollow victory. Like eating cake without the frosting. But damned if I wouldn’t take it.

I tried for that carefree smile I could usually conjure on command. But I only succeeded in a small curve of my lips. “Okay, baby.” 

Anna slid under the covers while I toed off my boots. She was still wearing the baggy T-shirt I’d loaned her this morning at the hotel. 

Was it only this morning?

It felt like time was moving too slow and too fast. Probably because I was cataloging every second.

Easing on top of her, I pressed a kiss to her lips, drowning in her sweet scent. Her fingers dug into my wrist when my hand slipped under her T-shirt, and I pulled away, sobered by the thick clouds gathering in her emerald eyes.

“What is it?” She snagged her lip between her teeth but said nothing. Resigned, I rested my forehead against hers. “Anna, we don’t have to do this.” 

I wanted her so fucking bad, I could barely say the words without choking on them.

“It’s not that,” she finally said, her voice quavering. “Four years is a long time. We don’t know each other anymore. Not like this.”

I blinked, astounded. “You don’t know me?” I slid my hand to her knee, fingering the one-inch scar that she got from the fall she took when we were hiking in the hill country at sixteen. “You sure about that?” 

Maybe it was true for her. But I’d never moved on. Everything about Anna was fresh in my mind. Her scent. Her smile. The way she looked at me when she tipped over the edge, it was all there.

Anna blinked, her plump lip firmly entrenched between her teeth once again.

Holding her gaze, I rose to my knees and then stripped off her T-shirt. My lips found hers for a quick kiss as I worked the tiny clasp on her bra, nestled in the valley between her perfect breasts.

Peeling away the lace, I said, “Let me see if I can change your mind.” 

Anna’s back bowed when I sucked her nipple into my mouth, and she jerked, gasping, as I scored my teeth across the stiff peak. I’d forgotten more than anyone else would ever know about Anna’s body. Including the fact that she liked a little pain with her pleasure. Not a lot. Just enough to feel.

Groaning, she fisted my hair. Hard. And I smiled then because Anna knew what I liked too.

I just had to remind her. 

Abandoning her needy breasts, I worked my way south, lingering at her navel piercing, which, thank fuck was still there. I gently tugged the barbell with my teeth while I slid her panties over her hips. 

“You like that, don’t you?”

Anna writhed against me while I teased her with my tongue and my teeth, blazing a trail down her belly and past her hips. I settled between her thighs, hiking one leg over my shoulder. 

Home. I was almost home. 

As I moved lower, peppering kisses over her smooth skin, my lips grazed a thick scar above her mound, and I froze.

Anna went stone still as I ran a finger along the jagged ridge. 

Resting my forehead on her stomach, I swallowed the lump of regret. Any fantasies I’d entertained about this being anything more than what it was, a final gasp, a goodbye, a period at the end of the sentence that was us, evaporated into the chasm between our past and our present.

Because there was no future. Not now.

“So,” I curved my hands around her hips, my thumbs tracing small circles over what wasn’t mine. “Did you have a boy or a girl?”