Echoes of the Heart - Casey, L.A. (digital ebook reader .TXT) 📗

“Well, yeah, I can,” Risk replied. “You and him are very close now compared to what I remember of you both.”

“We are,” I agreed. “But I wasn’t about to let him just give me a four-hundred-thousand-pound cottage. It’s tiny but the location is what makes the property value so high. Michael wouldn’t take a penny over fifty thousand, though. I tried to work out a deal to triple it, but he refused.”

“Why did you fight him so hard on it?”

“It’s just the way I am,” I shrugged. “I’ve always had to work for what I had and even though it’s not much, I earned it. I guess I felt like I was robbing Michael if I just accepted the cottage from him. Paying him, even though it was such a small fee compared to the house’s value, made me feel better. Like it was well and truly mine.”

“So that little place is all yours?”

“Yep,” I smiled. “I love it more than ever.”

“I think you should invest in getting taller door-frames,” Risk commented, his eyes crinkling at the corners. “It’d be nice not to have to duck every time I came by your place.”

Was he planning on coming by often? I was too chicken to ask.

I snickered. “I’ll add it to my to-do list.”

We walked down to the very end of the pier and we both leaned against the railing and stared out at the ocean of darkness. In the distance, the lights of a ship could be seen, as well the flashing red light of a buoy. A wisp of light coated the waterfront for a second or two before disappearing only to return. I glanced over my shoulder and smiled at the lighthouse before I returned my attention forward.

“You always smile when you look up at the lighthouse. Why?”

“Because it’s operational,” I glanced up at Risk. “When the light of the lighthouse is working every night, it makes me happy because if someone gets lost out on this side of the ocean, they can follow our light all the way to Southwold where they’d be safe. That light is a beacon to someone’s darkness.”

“If everyone thought like you did, Cherry,” Risk nudged me with his elbow. “There would be fewer wars.”

I smiled, then I closed my eyes and hummed with content. Listening to the gentle clash of the waves on the beach not far away, and the slosh of the water against the support legs of the pier gave me a sense of peace that filled me from my head all the way down to my toes.

“It’s so easy to forget the world when you’re out here,” I opened my eyes. “It feels like I’m in another world when I’m here at night, kind of like being free . . . you know?”

When I looked up at Risk, his body was turned so his hip and arm rested against the railing but instead of gazing out at the blanket of black water, he was watching me. There was something in his eyes that made my heart skip a beat and caused my throat to run dry.

“Why are you looking at me like that?”

“Because I wanna kiss you.”

I jolted as if I was electrocuted by the force of his words.

“What?”

My voice was a hair above a whisper and even to my own ears it was filled with disbelief. Risk didn’t reply to me, he just continued to gaze at me as if he wanted to take me in his arms and kiss me until my knees threatened to buckle.

“Risk.”

“Don’t you wanna kiss me?” he asked. Christ, he looked and sounded so vulnerable when he asked me that question. “Because I really wanna kiss you, Cherry. So fucking much. I can’t stop thinking about it.”

I heard his words as if he screamed each one.

“Don’t do this to me,” I trembled. “Don’t tease me like this.”

“Tease you?” he repeated. “I’m a second away from begging you to let me taste you again.”

He stepped closer to me, so close that I had to reach out and grab his forearms just so I would have something to hold on to.

“Risk,” I swallowed. “I don’t think this is a good idea. We’re supposed to be friends—”

“Yes or no,” he interrupted, his eyes searching mine. “Just say one of those words. That’s all you have to do, Frankie.”

My mind was screaming to tell him no. To holler that no good would come from us kissing, but my heart and body were demanding I say yes. For years I had dreamed of what it would be like to kiss him again, to taste his lips, to feel them against mine. To be wrapped in his strong embrace and have his touch and smell invade my senses once more. My heart beating against my chest was the only sound I could hear for a moment, until I replied to his question and surprised both of us with my answer.

“Yes.”

Risk didn’t need another word, he dipped his head and covered his mouth with mine the second I gave him the green light to do so. His arms went around my body as quick as a flash and suddenly I was hoisted up into the air then my behind rested against the railing around the pier. I didn’t have time to gasp with surprise. My hands instinctively went to his hair and the second his tongue pushed inside of my mouth, I moaned so loudly that he squeezed my hips painfully in response. He was between my parted thighs and through his jeans I could feel his hardened length snugly pressed against my heat.

I was so overwhelmed with his touch, his very presence, that I felt tears slip from my eyes and slide down my cheeks. Risk moved his mouth from my lips and he kissed away my tears without a word spoken. He was frantic with his movements, but gentle at the same time. It was like he felt what I felt, disbelief that