Her whole body tingled as she remembered the dream she woke up from. Apparently, the double whammy of running into Landon and talking about him all morning reminded her subconscious of the one night they spent together before everything fell apart. Her body relaxed back into her grey sheets as she let herself remember all the details for the first time in ten years.
He came home for a long weekend, and she jumped at the chance to be with him again. Things were strained since their year apart, and she wanted to fix it. She missed him constantly and hoped they could get back to being them.
He picked her up that night to take her to one of the parties around town. She couldn’t even remember whose party they went to. All she could remember was the way his eyes followed her, tracking her, all night. The weight of his awareness kept her hyper aware and more than a little turned on. When he slid his arm around her waist and asked if she was ready to go, she quickly agreed.
By the time they made it back to her place, she could barely contain her nerves. She was seriously lusting over her best friend. Someone she knew her entire life. Of course, she had dreamt about him before; she even touched herself and wondered what it would be like. She wasn’t dead. But this absolute awareness of him was something new. It made her senses tingle in a way her previous boyfriends never managed. And he hadn’t even touched her yet.
When they got back to the apartment she moved into with Sonia, she invited him up. It was something she never would have done when they were in high school. She wouldn’t have had to ask. He would have automatically followed her in. But she did ask, and he said yes.
He came in to tour her new place, and they sat on the couch to watch something on TV. She settled down next to him, and he wrapped his arm around her. Again, it was so normal and yet so surreal. She fixated on his thumb moving slowly across her shoulder and wished it would move a little bit more to graze against her aching nipples. Or the hand resting in his lap would push under her skirt and find her core where she slowly soaked through her panties from being close to him.
They sat there for an hour before he reluctantly got up from the new couch and told her he was tired, and he should probably get going. Simply reacting, she put her feet down on the carpet and grabbed his hand.
“Please don’t go. Don’t leave me again.” She glanced up at him in shock over what she said. “I’m sorry. Ignore me. I’m a little tipsy.”
He sank down onto his knees between her legs and took her hands back from where she tried to stuff them under her thighs. His thumbs slowly began to trace over her knuckles as he leaned forward, his lips whispering across hers.
As soon as she started responding, he took absolute control of the kiss, owning her mouth in a way she didn’t even know was possible. One hand let go of her hand to thread through the hair at the nape of her neck. He could angle her head where he wanted it as he deepened the kiss further. When he licked her bottom lip, she moaned, and he took the opportunity to sweep his tongue into her mouth.
His other hand snaked around her waist and pulled her to the edge of the couch, and her entire body pressed against his. She wrapped her arms around him, trying to pull him even closer, as they both fell into the kiss.
Letty’s imagination was both vivid and active, but kissing him was better than anything she could ever dream up. Every nerve in her body fired off as Landon moaned her name against her lips and slipped his hand under her shirt.
Suddenly remembering she possessed hands too, she slid one hand down his back as her other one sank into his thick, silky hair. As her hand reached his waistband, he moved away from her mouth. She started to sigh in regret until his lips swept across her ear lobe, then slowly down the column of her neck. She shuddered as they found the spot where her shoulder met her neck and lingered for a moment.
The hand buried in his hair was now desperately holding him to her. She knew if he got up and left her then she would shatter. He was her world. He always had been.
“Landon”
His head lifted from her shoulder to watch her find the words. He quirked an eyebrow and waited.
“Please don’t leave me again. I can’t do this without you. I don’t want to.”
“Scarlet,” he swallowed, “I promise I won’t leave you again. I love you to the stars. You are my starshine.”
She smiled down at him. “I love you too, Midnight.”
Where the first kiss started off tentative and gained momentum, the second kiss was manic with the years of pent up tension between them. His lips crashed into hers as she wrapped her legs around his waist. She rubbed her core against his hard cock through the layers between them to try and find some relief. She groaned in frustration as she realized she would need to separate her body from his in order to peel his clothes off of him.
Landon clearly realized the same thing because, without breaking their kiss, he unwrapped her legs and yanked her panties down. His thumb was on her clit before her panties even worked their way past her knees. She slid one leg out and wrapped it back around him. Before she could get the other leg out, he picked her up and started walking towards the back of the apartment.
She broke contact long enough to tell him to go to the first door on the right before she dove back into the kiss. It went unnoticed when he went to the left instead of the right. But she did realize it when he opened the door to the laundry closet. She waved her hand across the hall as she bit down on his lower lip.
He stumbled down the hallway a little further and opened another door. This one led to the bathroom. She wriggled in his arms for him to let her down to show him where her room was, but the press of his lips on her again had her close to exploding. She wanted more of him before she let go the first time. She wanted to be completely wrapped around him when it happened. And she was pretty sure she needed a bed to do that, preferably her own.
Instead of putting her down like she wanted, he pushed her into the wall next to the doorjamb of the bathroom. Clearly, they were getting their wires crossed. She started to tell him where to go when his hand slid back in between them, and he pushed a finger inside of her. Her head banged against the wall behind her as she reared back and almost lost it.
“Jesus. You are so wet.”
“I want you. Now.”
“No. I want to do this properly. I want to make love to you.”
“Ok. Later. Right now, I need you to fuck me. Please.”
Suddenly, his finger disappeared, and she sighed from the loss as her pussy clenched around nothing. Then, the vibration of his zipper coming down rattled through her before he was pushing his swollen cock inside of her. She wrapped her legs tighter around him as he shifted his hands under her ass and began to drive into her.
Neither of them said a word as they moved together against the wall. She knew she loved him. She had loved him since they were children. But this coming together was more than she expected. The absolute completeness was almost frightening in its intensity. She leaned her forehead against his as their breathing went from panting to ragged. She breathed him in as her entire body clamped down around him, and she flew apart. He groaned as he lost the rhythm and thrust into her one last time.
He shifted his hands to her back as he slipped out of her and let her feet slide back down to the floor. They leaned against each other as both of their breathing evened back out. She started to giggle as she realized her panties hung off one of her ankles and her shirt was twisted around her torso. He glanced down at her and started chuckling too. Soon, they hung on each other as they laughed about the ridiculousness of their situation.
“Just one question,” he said between bouts of laughter, “Where the fuck is your bedroom?”
The rest of the night surpassed all of her expectations. He made love to her until they both fell asleep from exhaustion. At some point, in the night, they made it to an actual bed, and when they woke up in the morning, they picked up where they left off.
They only stopped because Landon got a call from a friend askin
g him why he wasn’t at the basketball game. He kissed her goodbye and promised he would be back later. It was the last time his lips caressed hers.
Letty sighed as the memories continued to crash over her. Landon was her best memory and her greatest regret. She barely survived him the first time. But she was a different person now. She was stronger and tougher. She had survived tequila. She would survive this.
Chapter 6
The nap helped to give her a little clarity. She always knew Henry harbored a little something for her in high school. But it was completely harmless. And she assumed he grew out of it when they became better friends in college. Their friendship survived for well over a decade, and he never once made a move. Not that she wanted him to. Her interest in Henry was purely platonic. She depended on his friendship and nothing else.
The surprising part about the conversation at brunch was the conviction of her friends. Patty and Katie didn’t like Henry--she knew this--but she was surprised at how much they actively disliked him. She wouldn’t ignore her friend’s opinions. Not after Scott. Up to a point, she believed them. It was possible Henry held onto feelings for her from when they were younger. But she took offense to the implication he somehow sabotaged any part of her life because of it. She always believed he had her best interests at heart.
But what Sonia said about Landon and her was also true. They had been inseparable since preschool. And she trusted him absolutely, until Henry convinced her she shouldn’t. Even as he left her the last time, he insisted it wasn’t true. She wanted to believe him so badly. But Henry’s words played on repeat in her head: “Don’t let him keep walking all over you. Stand up for yourself and let him know he can’t treat you this way.”
Being more objective about it, Henry always said things like that to her. In high school, he told her Landon constantly told other guys she was off limits. Their freshman year in college, it was that Landon was off forgetting all about her. And any time she brought him up after their night together, Henry told her she was selling herself short and she needed to be stronger.
She pulled up in front of Henry’s little bungalow and put her head down on the steering wheel. What if her friends were right and Henry had simply been playing the long game? Granted, the longest game anyone ever heard of, but… What if he never really was her friend to begin with? If Henry lied to her, how did she reconcile the years she missed with Landon?
Katie and Patty seemed positive about Henry wanting something from her. And neither of them knew Henry or Landon before Letty introduced them. Their entire opinion of Henry was based on watching the way he acted around her, and neither of them believed he was a good person. What if they could sense something she was blind to?
The knock on her passenger window stopped her slow spiral. She turned her head to the side. Henry peered back at her through the window. His sandy hair fell into his eyes as he smiled at her.
“Are you going to come out of there? You’ve been sitting in front of my house for the past twenty minutes. It’s getting a little creepy now.”
Twenty minutes? Letty unlocked the doors and pulled herself out of the car. She stretched as she stood up and glanced across the car at Henry. She never noticed the appreciative gleam in his eye as he watched her.
“C’mon toots, come inside. I picked up some tea I think you’ll like.”
Letty followed him into his house and glanced around. Pictures covered every surface in his house. Pictures of his family and the places he visited lined the walls. But there were also a lot of pictures of her. How did she never notice how many pictures of her there were in his space?
“Why do you have so many pictures of me?” She hadn’t actually meant to ask the question out loud.
He laughed. “Because you’re my friend, and we seem to go on a lot of adventures together.”
True. There was a period of time when almost every vacation she took was with Henry. Mostly because money was scarce for her, and he always called her at the last minute offering her tickets someone else backed out of. He always said everything was already paid for, and he just wanted some company.
With her friend’s opinions still fresh in her mind, it sounded a little weird now. Once or twice, it could be coincidence, but as many trips as they took? Not likely.
She took a deep breath. He was her friend. He had never done anything to cause her to doubt him. But Sonia hated him. Like actively hated him. And Sonia didn’t hate anyone. If she didn’t like you she put you right out of her mind. She genuinely didn’t care. And the way Katie and Patty reacted with agreement when Sonia accused Henry of lying to her still pinged around in her head.
She turned her attention to Henry. Really looked at him. He took an eager step closer to her as her eyes ran over the length of his body. When she made it back to his face, his eyes were hopeful in a way that caused her stomach to knot.
She put her hand out in front of her as he took another step closer. “Henry. Stop.”
He stopped in his tracks and tilted his head to the side. “What’s going on with you today? You didn’t even tell me you were coming over.”
“I needed to talk to you. I need to ask you something.”
Hope lit his face again. “What is it? You know you can ask me anything.”
“Do you have a crush on me?” she blurted out.
His entire body went completely still as he stared at her. “No,” he said slowly. “I don’t have a crush on you.”
Letty’s shoulders relaxed. “Okay.”
He took another step closer to her. “What brought this on? Tell me what’s going on.”
“I ran into Landon last night.”
He snorted. “That guy? Holy shit. How long has it been?”
“Really long. He said we should talk.”
“And let me guess. You haven’t heard from him since?”
“No… But it hasn’t even been 24 hours.”
“Whatever. You won’t hear from him. That guy is a user. You’re stronger than this.”
“Why do you always say that whenever I bring him up?”
“Say what?”
“That I’m stronger than this? I know I am stronger. I don’t need you to keep telling me.”
“Why are you getting angry?”
She dropped her arm. She didn’t even realize she was pointing at him. She rolled her shoulders back and relaxed her hands.
Sonia, Katie, and Patty were her best friends. But Landon was the person she trusted most in the world for a majority of her life. And she spent the last ten years believing Henry over all four of them because she was too scared of what a relationship with Landon could be. The realization absolutely floored her.
She kept her relationship with him separate from everyone else for a reason. Partially because they simply didn’t get along, but now, she began to wonder if it was also because she didn’t want her other friends calling him out.
In her musing, she stopped paying attention to him and lost track of where he was in the room, until his hands landed on her arms. Of course, they had touched before, but this seemed different. The slight tightening of his hands felt almost possessive.
She tried to take a step back and shake his hands off of her, but he simply moved with her. When she lifted her head to tell him to stop, his mouth crashed down on her lips. She froze as she tried to process his lips moving against hers. Unsure of what was happening until he thrust his tongue into her mouth and moaned. Then, everything clicked back into motion, and she pushed him away from her.
“What the fuck are you doing?” She wiped her hand across her mouth.
He moved back into her personal space again with a predatory light in his eyes that was completely new and a little frightening. “Isn’t this why you came over? You ask me if I had a crush on you, but I don’t. I’ve been in love with you since we were in high school. Why do you think I’ve done all of these things for you?”
“What have you done for me, Henry?” she asked cautiously and tried to shift
away from him.
“Everything. I protected you from Landon over and over again. I kept him out of your life even when you couldn’t see what he was doing to you. And I tried to get you away from that bitch Sonia as much as I could.”
“What did you do Henry?” she asked again.
“You don’t need either of them. You have me. I’m all you really need.”
“Henry. What did you do?”
“I got rid of him. He was always there. Always messing up my chances with you. And just when I thought I could make my move he showed up again, and you slept with him. Why would you sleep with him? You didn’t hear from him for a year. I made sure of it.”
Letty jumped when he grabbed her arms again. A few years ago, she asked Katie why she didn’t like Henry. And she said he scared her, and he seemed borderline abusive. Letty laughed it off at the time and never brought it up with Katie again. But in this moment, she completely understood what Katie meant.
“And you believed me when I told you. You picked me over him. It means you love me too.”
“Landon never talked to you about sleeping with me, did he?” she gripped her keys tighter in her hands.
Henry huffed. “No. He never told me anything about you. But I knew he had slept with you. I heard your voice in the background when I called him that morning.”
“You were the friend who called him to remind him about the basketball game?”
“Of course. I knew the two of you had gone out the night before. I was actually at the party, but you never even noticed me. I called you the next morning, but you didn’t answer your phone. So, I called him instead, and he was still at your place.”
“And when I called you back?”
“I told you he had been bragging about you. And you believed me. For once, you believed me. Because you love me.” Henry’s smile took on a crooked slant as he bent over to kiss her again.
Letty turned her head, so the kiss landed on her cheek. She twisted out of his grip and firmly pushed him away from her. Her fingertips brushed across the door knob when she felt Henry’s hands wrap around her upper arms.
Love Lost in Time Page 3
