A Love Lost to the Years novel · Chapter 7 of 24

Chapter 7: What the Terms Said

She didn't wait for the front door to close.

Annabel pushed him back against it, and the lock clicked against his spine.

"Annabel."

"Don't say the terms to me."

"I wasn't going to."

"Good."

She took hold of his lapels and put her mouth on the knot of his bow tie and pulled the end loose with her teeth.

He had never seen her do anything like it in seven years.

It undid him faster than the kiss had.

"You said you'd take the jacket," he said, and his voice was rough.

"I'm getting there."

She slid her hands under the black wool and pushed it off his shoulders.

It dropped behind him on the tile.

She went for his shirt next, the studs and then the buttons, with her good hand and the gloved one, and she was shaking.

That was what stopped him.

He caught her wrist, the bandaged one, and drew the long glove down her arm one finger at a time.

The gauze underneath had gone pink at the center.

He turned her hand over and kissed it, once, in the middle of her palm.

Her breath left her.

"Kenneth."

"I'm here."

"I know," she said. "That's the problem."

She kissed him again, hard, and he stopped being gentle.

He turned them both and put her back against the door.

She laughed, low and surprised, and her head tipped back on the wood.

He found the zipper of the black dress by touch and drew it down her back, an inch at a time, while she watched his face.

The dress went to the floor.

Under it she wore nothing but a thin black slip and a pair of heels she had been wearing for six hours.

"Leave the shoes," she said.

"I wasn't going to take them off."

He lifted her.

Her thighs closed around his hips, and she pulled his head down by the hair, and she kissed him all the way up the stairs.

He kicked the bedroom door open with his shoulder.

He laid her on the bed they had shared for seven years and had not shared for nine nights.

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