Oh god, I’m such a bad liar, but I keep my gaze steady and am satisfied to see his expression falter.
“It wasn’t just a fling for me.” He takes a step closer, and I back away from his intensity until my butt hits the counter. His look is so sincere that I almost believe him. But isn’t that what players say when they want another hookup?
“I was deployed the day after you left. There was no way to reach you. You didn’t leave a number.”
It’s true. I remember how powerful it felt to be the one to leave first, to walk out of his room while he was still asleep without leaving any way for him to contact me.
I regretted that bitterly a few weeks later.
“It was a long tour and my last one. I got back nine months ago and I’ve been looking for you ever since.”
He takes my hands in his, and a jolt of warmth skips through my veins.
“You’re all I’ve thought about. This is our chance, Jodie.”
I try to look away, but I’m mesmerized by his intense gaze and the things he’s saying and the way he’s grasping my hands like his life depends on it.
I feel dizzy, and I’m not sure which way my heart is facing anymore. Every word Kieren says is what I dreamed he’d say to me, what I longed to hear during those long, lonely months when I found out Layla was on the way.
I went searching for Kieren. I tried to find him to tell him about the baby growing inside me. But his apartment was locked up, and no one answered the door any of the dozens of times I knocked.
His neighbors looked me up and down like I was trash asking about him. I assume he must have all sorts of discarded woman come looking for him. One neighbor took pity on me and told me Kieren had been deployed but no one knew where. I contacted the local Army base, but they wouldn’t give me any information.
My anger grew inside me alongside my baby. I felt discarded. I felt like a fool. I knew it was just a hookup, but I still imagined Kieren turning up and telling me something different.
There were long, lonely nights when I cried, hugging my growing belly, imagining Kieren turning up and telling me everything was going to be okay.
But he never did.
I had my baby. I learned to get by on my own. I learned that men really are only after one thing, that you can’t rely on them, and the only person you can rely on is yourself. And my sister.
I snatch my hands away from Kieren and force my voice into something light.
“It was a fling, Kieren, just a fun weekend. Thank you for that.”
Hurt crosses his face. I guess I just shot down his hopes for another hookup.
Before I can lose my resolve, I push my cleaning cart out of the kitchen. I have a daughter to think about now, and I will not fall for the charms of an older ex-military hero again.
5
KIEREN
My head’s still spinning when I get home that afternoon. Closing the apartment door behind me, I lean against the cool wood, trying to get my thoughts in order.
After months of looking for Jodie, she turns up in my office.
I don’t know where she’s been hiding. I’ve scoured every bar on the Sunset Coast. And just like that, she turns up in my office.
She looked like I remembered her, thick hair swept off her face in a messy ponytail. I remember what it felt like to have that hair wrapped around my fist as I kissed her swollen lips.
The memory of Jodie’s lips makes my dick twitch in my pants.
She was nervous in the bedroom, like a shy rabbit that I had to coax out of hiding, caressing her softly until she came apart under my touch, her body quivering against mine.
And when I entered her, it was pure bliss, her pussy so tight and hungry, her moans penetrating my nerve endings until I exploded underneath her, both of us climaxing too soon.
I thought we’d have time to make love again. I thought there’d be more opportunities to explore her body, to make her whine with pleasure the way she had when I first touched her.