The Body Finder

CHAPTER 16

VIOLET HATED THE ANGRY TEARS THAT BURNED her eyes as she stumbled over an unseen rock on the ground in front of her.

She wished that she could just go back in time, to that moment. She wished that she had just gotten in his car when he’d commanded her. Even as angry as she’d been at him, she couldn’t help thinking it would have been better than this…this lonely walk through the chilly darkness, berating herself with second thoughts and what-ifs. Better than the rejection that seeped like venom through her every pore.

She hated Jay at that moment, for making her feel so vulnerable and weak. She wasn’t supposed to be that girl, she had never been that girl before…needy…and pathetic.

By the time the car was pulling up beside her, she didn’t have time to wonder why she hadn’t noticed it before. She hadn’t heard the sound of the tires across the ancient asphalt with its gravel-filled potholes, or even noticed the headlights that blanched the blackness into pale shadows.

She turned her head sideways, squinting slightly, to get a look at who was inside.

When she saw him there, behind the wheel, she stopped walking, trying not to look so thankful as she blinked away the tears.

She heard the door opening, and before she could catch her gratified breath the driver was out of the car and she was in his arms.

She wanted to breathe, to inhale his lethally musky scent, but she couldn’t find the air around her. She was suffocated in the strength, the warmth, of him.

Time seemed irrelevant at that point; it could have been seconds or hours. It didn’t matter. She didn’t even realize she’d been crying again until he pulled away and leaned down to kiss her wet cheek.

And then his lips moved softly, gingerly, tracing a path to hers. Electric shock waves, which started below her stomach and shot upward, made her tingle and burn as his mouth caressed hers.

She’d imagined this moment so many times, dreamed of him holding her like this for so long.

Violet sighed, sinking farther against him, forgetting herself…forgetting her anger and her hurt, losing herself in the moment.

Jay kissed her, hard, and long, and deep. And she kissed him back, matching his intensity. He banished any trace of doubt that might have remained.

Violet was acutely aware of her own heartbeat, fluttering in strategic pulse points throughout her body, and echoing its heady rhythm through her veins. She was flushed and shivering at the same instant. She could smell the intoxicating heat coming off him in waves.

When his mouth left hers, she felt bruised and raw. She could still feel his touch on her lips.

He looked down at her, his eyes as glazed as her own, his voice thick with barely restrained desire. “Get in the car, Violet.”

This time instead of sounding like a granite command, it sounded like warm silk wrapping around her. And instead of bristling against it, she just nodded as she stared at his beautiful face, unable to think of anything but the wonderful things his lips had just done to her.

They didn’t move for a long moment, they just stood there, looking at each other. His gaze moved to her mouth and then lazily back to her eyes, as if he were memorizing her.

Somewhere in the distance, but probably closer than it seemed, Violet heard a car driving away. But she didn’t bother looking up, because she had other things on her mind.

Jay had come back for her.