Wild Ones (The Lane) (19 page)

My lips tilted up of their own accord as I slipped my arms around his waist underneath his leather jacket.

“Yeah.”

“Good.”

“I love you.” I hadn’t even known it was coming but as soon as the words left my mouth, I knew that I meant them. Maybe more than I’d ever meant anything else.

For his part, Luke didn’t look surprised. Maybe he had always known.

“Yeah?”

“Yeah,” I repeated. “I’m better with you. Stronger. You know? You’re a damn mess and I’m—well, I’m a catastrophe mostly, but you make sense to me. You complete me. God, that sounds so cheesy, I know, but it’s true. It’s like a part of me was always missing before I met you, and I never knew it but now it’s not. Does that sound lame?”

“Yes.” But there was a grin on his face and I felt the one on mine widen to match it. “It sounds really lame but I agree with every lame word of it.”

I pinched his side and he laughed, the sound of it filling me up, warming me from the inside out.

“I love you too,” he said. “More than makes sense.”

“I know.”

His responding chuckle, deep with just a hint of that darkness of his that I was so addicted to, was ringing in my ears as his lips crashed down on mine in a way that had me curling my fingers into his shirt. Clutching at the material desperately, I stepped closer into the shelter of his body.

Minutes passed before we broke apart with ragged breaths that left my ribs aching and my head swimming. His forehead came down to rest against mine once again and his eyes, soft now in the faint streetlights, searched my own, asking a question I’d already given him an answer to. Still, because he needed it and maybe because I needed to do it, I nodded against him. The smile he gave me was devastating in its brilliance, and if I hadn’t already known it, if it hadn’t already happened, I would have fallen in love with him right then.

His hands slipped from my cheeks at the same time mine fell from his sides, and his fingers, strong and warm, caught my colder ones. With a look that sent fire licking up my bones, he turned back toward the apartment, pulling me gently alongside him. We’d only taken a few steps before he seemed to think better of it and tugged me closer, throwing his arm around my shoulder and tucking me into his side. I stretched a hand out, catching a snowflake in my palm almost instantly, and showed it to him. Though his eyes darkened a fraction of a second over the brace encasing my wrist, he gave me a crooked grin and kissed my temple.

Then I let him lead me home.

* * * * *

Watch for
Losing Streak
by Kristine Wyllys, the second book in The Lane series, coming soon.

About the Author

Kristine Wyllys—who usually answers to, “Hey, You! With the Hair!”—was born in the north and now resides in the northern version of the Carolinas. She lives in a farmhouse older than she is, with a bunch of property that makes her spontaneously break out in Dixie Chicks songs every time she looks out the back door. She’s got babies, books, a boy that she fell in love with at fifteen and a dog that might be a lesbian. She spends her spare time naming chickens after Harry Potter characters, reading everything she can get her hands on, breaking smartphones and blogging.

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ISBN-13: 9781426897870

WILD ONES

Copyright © 2014 by Kristine Wyllys

Edited by Deborah Nemeth

All rights reserved. By payment of the required fees, you have been granted the non-exclusive, non-transferable right to access and read the text of this e-book on-screen. No part of this text may be reproduced, transmitted, down-loaded, decompiled, reverse engineered, or stored in or introduced into any information storage and retrieval system, in any form or by any means, whether electronic or mechanical, now known or hereinafter invented, without the express written permission of publisher, Harlequin Enterprises Limited, 225 Duncan Mill Road, Don Mills, Ontario, Canada M3B 3K9.

All characters in this book have no existence outside the imagination of the author and have no relation whatsoever to anyone bearing the same name or names. They are not even distantly inspired by any individual known or unknown to the author, and all incidents are pure invention.

This edition published by arrangement with Harlequin Books S.A.

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