Tightrope

Chapter 10

Previously:

"Can, how could I say--" his mouth came down on hers hard, claiming her. Her hands slid up his chest to wind around his neck, and she stood on her tiptoes to reach him better. He still tasted the same, and she whimpered into the kiss.

The tears that had been threatening to fall since she first laid eyes on him ran down her cheeks in streams as they kissed. She sobbed into his mouth, and he swallowed her heartbreak. "Thank you, Sanem. Thank you," he said against her lips. He held her face gently in his hands and wiped her tears away with his thumbs, his lips never leaving hers.

He was whole again.

She was home again.

***

"Can," Sanem pulled away and looked into his eyes, bringing her hands back to his chest. Her right hand lay over his heart, and she felt the familiar rhythm against her palm. The eyes of the boy she loved were in the face of a man she didn't know, and she was trying her best to rationalize how she came to be in his arms, yearning to feel his mouth on hers again, when her boyfriend had just proposed to her less than an hour before.

"I feel like this is where I belong and where I absolutely shouldn't be," she said, smoothing her hands across his chest to his arms. "I feel like I know you better than anyone in the world, but I don't know you at all." Her eyes followed her hands as they continued their path down his arms, feeling his muscles through his sleeves. He stood completely still and let her touch him--he barely dared to breathe. He didn't know what she'd do, but he didn't want her to stop touching him. His eyes looked at her now just like they did the last time they saw each other, when he came to her window to bring her flowers after his mother had caught them together in their treehouse. "All I've wanted for the past nine years is to have you back," she said, taking a deep breath to calm herself, "and right when I start to finally move on, you show up." She looked up at him.

"Sanem, I didn't have a choice. I tried--"

"You left me," she said, her voice was still shaky, but her accusatory tone was unmistakable. His hand shook as stroked it over her hair in an attempt to calm her. The inclination to touch her was second nature, but he still couldn't quite believe she was standing in front of him.

His thumbs wiped her tears from her cheeks and he leaned down to kiss her eyelids and her face. The warm softness of his lips against her face broke something in her. Her hands ran up his chest to hold onto the back of his neck; her fingers dug hard into his muscles there, needing to reassure herself that he was really there and she was really touching him. He was solid under her hands.

"It's been so long," she said. "I've wanted this for so long." She slid her hands forward to hold his face and she pulled him down to her lips again. Her fingers scratched through his beard; she loved the softness of it under her hands, and the roughness of it against her face. He wrapped his arms around her back and curled his body around hers, lifting her off her feet to hold her up against him. Her arms snaked back around his neck as she kissed him hungrily. Kissing him now was so different--everything about him was overwhelming--his size, his voice, his looks, his attitude, his eyes, the way he touched her and his mouth moved against hers. She felt like she was drowning, and she was happy to let him pull her deeper.

Sanem's hands moved greedily over Can's body, wanting to feel all of him at once--there was so much of him to feel. Her hands still remembered the landscape of his body, but there were so many new hills and valleys to explore, and she wanted to learn everything new about him.

Can's mouth devoured her; he was starving for her. She was a woman now, and her new curves had his hands wanting nothing more than to touch every inch of her. He was just aware enough of their surroundings that he had the presence of mind to walk back to the bathroom with her in his arms. He kicked the door shut and spun them around to back her up against the door. He reached around her and locked it and then let her slide down his body to stand on her feet. His hands spanned her back and they slid down to her waist and around to her grasp her hips. She ran her hands down his back to his ass and squeezed him.