Rewind It Back (Windy City, #5)(120)

Because, yes, it’s fun to fuck, but we always end up here, kissing slowly, giving praise, letting hands roam and wander before they end up intertwined with one another.

I keep a consistent pace until I feel her starting to come down and once she does, the moment changes to something more tender. She wraps her arm around me as we kiss, and her fingers find her tattoo again while I keep a languid tempo with my hips. It doesn’t take long before I join her, falling right over the edge and coming inside of her.

She continues to run her fingers over the ink.

“You like that, don’t you?” I ask through hard-earned breaths.

She nods against me.

“You like that you’re permanently under my skin.”

“I love it. It feels like you’re branded and mine.”

“That’s because I am.”

Her smile turns possessive, which is well-deserved. I’m completely and undeniably hers.

Pulling back to rest my forehead on hers, I know we’re a tangled mess of damp bodies and shared breaths, but her hazel eyes are locked on mine trying to tell me something she hasn’t said in six years.

It’s okay that it’s one of those unspoken things. I know that Hallie loves me the same way I love her.

Slowly, tortuously slowly, I pull out of her and watch as my cum drips down between her thighs.

It’s fucking hot, seeing her full of me. It makes that possessive side roar to life when I clean it up with two fingers and push it back inside of her.

Lips on hers, I whisper, “Still mine.”

She kisses me as our breathing evens out until she giggles this cute laugh.

“What’s so funny?” With a smile on my face, I pull back to look at her.

“I’m absolutely freezing right now.”

Chuckling, I tug her down into the water with me as I fix my swim trunks, making a mental note to drain the hot tub tomorrow. But fuck it, it was fun and completely worth it.

I bring her with me to the steps but have her wait while I get out and grab a towel. Wrapping it around her naked body, I quickly carry her inside the house with me. I don’t care that we’re leaving a trail of water behind us, I start to take her right upstairs and into the warm shower.

She’s dotting languid kisses along my neck when she quickly sits up and looks around.

I pause halfway up the stairs. “What’s wrong?”

She takes in her surroundings before her attention is back on me. “What do you think of the house?”

Even more of the renovations have gotten done since I was home last. Walls have begun to get painted. Flooring will be installed next week.

I keep my focus on her and not on the space around us. “I love it.”

And you.

Her grin proves she’s so proud of herself and I fucking love that too.

She should be proud. Her designer eye, her time management, her organization. She is so good at what she does, and I don’t think she fully understands that yet.

Hallie renovating this place and putting her touch on every square inch of it is reason alone that I wouldn’t sell, but there’s plenty more reasons too.

She’s going to need a place to live once Wren’s house next door sells.

I need somewhere to stay when I come to visit her and my friends, but my stomach sinks when I picture Hallie living here without me. Living here alone. That was never the plan for this house. We were supposed to live here together. Rooms were supposed to be filled.

“Thank you for giving me the chance to do this,” she says quietly. “You basically let me design my dream home.”

This is her dream home, and that’s the whole fucking point. I don’t know how she hasn’t put the pieces together yet, but that’s the final and most important reason why I won’t sell. Six years ago, even after things fell apart between us, I bought this house for her.

It’s everything she told me she wanted, and there was a part of me that hoped if both it and I were here waiting for her, she’d somehow find her way home.





Chapter 38


Hallie


“Are you sure you’re okay?” I ask Rio as we wait around the kitchen island for dinner to be plated so we can carry it into the dining room.

“Of course I am.” He forces a smile on his face, running a hand down my back. “Don’t worry about me, Hal. I’m good.”

But he’s not. Rio has been quiet and unlike himself ever since he came out of Indy’s home office a couple of hours ago. It’s Sunday and he doesn’t go a Sunday without talking to his mom. Only today, she didn’t answer his call, and I can tell it’s bothering him. The strain in their relationship has been weighing on him for weeks, regardless that he thinks he’s doing a good job of hiding it from me.

Mia DeLuca, Rio’s mom, is such an integral piece of his life, and they’re barely communicating because of me. When they do get on the phone, it quickly turns sour when my name is brought up.

Watching it happen firsthand is making me even more understanding as to why he made the choices he did all those years ago. Twenty-seven-year-old Rio is struggling with them not getting along. It’s no wonder twenty-one-year-old Rio did what he thought was right by her when her life was falling apart.

I hate to see him hurting this way, but I don’t know how to fix it if Mrs. DeLuca doesn’t want to listen.