Page 6 of Fall for You (Second Chances #7)

Ronnie

T his was a bad idea. I wasn’t sure why exactly, but I knew it to be true. Every time Alana gave me that ‘dare you’ look it had ended with me being pushed way out of my comfort zone. And sometimes getting grounded.

One thing I knew for sure, I should be staying far away from Alana, not spending more time with her.

When I’d grabbed her earlier to keep her from falling, it had knocked me on my metaphorical ass.

The instant our bodies touched, all of my resistance had started to fade.

I’d wanted nothing more than to turn her around and kiss her until we were both breathless.

And if my mother hadn’t interrupted us, I might have done just that.

Fifteen minutes later my fear that coming to the corn maze was a mistake was confirmed.

We were lost. Hopelessly lost. My parents had bragged that they’d made the most complicated corn maze ever for this year’s Fall Festival, but after being around these mazes for thirty years, I figured there wasn’t a corn maze that could defeat me.

What was that saying about pride going before a fall?

“I swear we came down this way already,” Alana said, turning in a circle as we ran into a dead end. She studied me for a moment. “You don’t know how to get out, do you?”

“Sure I do,” I liked.

She raised one eyebrow skeptically.

“I have no idea,” I admitted.

“Should we split up?” she suggested. “It’s going to be dark soon and I swear I will have a breakdown if I’m trapped in a dark corn maze.”

We hadn’t installed the lights yet so it would definitely get dark in here quick. The shadows around us were already lengthening.

“I’m going to climb up and see where we are,” I said. “Give me a hand.”

I walked over to a ‘wall’, my hand going to the tightly packed stalks of corn.

“What do you want me to do?” Alana asked.

“Put your hands together like this,” I said, demonstrating by threading my fingers together and lowering my hands palm up in front of my hips. “I’ll grip your shoulders and step into your hand, then you push me up if you can and I’ll see what I can see over the corn.”

Alana just stared at me like I was crazy.

“We’re wasting daylight,” I said impatiently.

Shaking her head, Alana set down her bag, braced her legs apart, and threaded her fingers together.

Stepping closer, I put my hands on her shoulders, placed one foot in her hands, and bounced up so I could look out over the top of the stalks.

I had a brief glimpse of the way out, which wasn’t too far away, and then I lost my balance, and I was falling.

Alana tried to catch me, but the impact of my weight was too much and she crashed to the ground, falling onto her back with me on top of her.

We both grunted as the air escaped our lungs.

“Did you see anything?” Alana asked, her voice breathless.

I glanced down and realized that our faces were only a few inches apart. Somehow we’d landed with our breasts evenly lined up, legs tangled together. She felt soft beneath me. My nipples started hardening, and it wasn’t because there was a chill in the air.

Fuck my life.

Our eyes met and we just stared at each other for a long, heated moment.

Then Alana lifted her head, and I lowered mine, and our lips crashed together in a kiss.

Everything inside me stilled, all my focus on the sensation of finally kissing this woman again.

It had been twelve years and no doubt we’d each had a lot of experience since then, but it still felt perfect. It felt like coming home.

Alana shifted, and then I was the one on my back, her body draped over mine as she took control.

The kiss turned hot as her tongue explored my mouth.

I met her just as eagerly, my hands sliding down her back to cup her ass, giving it a firm squeeze.

I’d always loved Alana’s ass, it was the perfect combination of muscular and round.

“What are we doing?” I murmured as we broke apart to take a breath.

“I don’t know.” Alana’s voice was muffled by the way she was kissing her way down the side of my neck.

Then her mouth returned to mine and we were kissing again. My grip on her ass tightened, grinding her hips against mine, while Alana’s hand slid between us to cup one of my breasts over the fabric of my shirt.

I moaned against her mouth as she squeezed my breast. It felt so good, but I needed more. I couldn’t get close enough to her despite the fact that we were plastered against each other. My entire body was humming with arousal.

It had never been like this before with anyone else.

For years I’d told myself that the passion I’d felt with Alana was just a combination of newness and teenage libido.

Sure I’d had sex many times since high school, some of it quite good, but it never had this level of intensity, this heat, this sense of rightness.

And that freaked me the hell out.

I tore my lips away from Alana’s, turning my head and gasping for breath.

“What’s the matter?” she asked.

“We shouldn’t be doing this,” I said, giving her a little shove.

I felt almost panicked.

Alana rolled off me and I pushed to my feet, then reached down to offer her my hand. She hesitated, then grabbed my hand, holding onto it a few seconds longer than she needed to in order to get upright. We adjusted our clothes in silence, then Alana looked around for her abandoned tote bag.

“I guess I should be heading home,” she said, her gaze on the ground. “My mom’s going to want her car back.”

Now that I knew the way out of the maze, I led us to an exit, and we made the trek back to the little store by the main house where Alana had left her car.

Neither of us said a word the entire time.

For my part, I wasn’t sure what to say. Kissing each other was a mistake, but we were both responsible for what happened.

Alana paused as we reached her car.

“Well, thanks for showing me around,” she said, still avoiding my eyes. “I’ll text you once I figure out a good time to come take pictures. I need a day that’s sunny enough. And we need to figure out how to get that sign outside your road painted too…”

Her babbling trailed off and she finally looked at me and sighed. “That kiss --.”

“Was a mistake,” I interrupted.

“Except it didn’t feel like a mistake at the time,” she rejoined.

I couldn’t argue with that.

“Nothing can happen between us,” I said firmly. “I’m not going to be your vacation fling.”

Her eyes flared. “Do you think this is a vacation for me? My whole life blew up in New York and…”

She paused as if she realized that she’d said too much. It only made me more curious to know what had happened back in New York. It had to be bad if she was hiding out in the small town she’d avoided since she graduated high school.

“I didn’t mean for that to happen,” she finally continued. “The kiss I mean.”

I shrugged. “We were both there. Doesn’t make it right.”

“Yeah, okay I get the message. No more kissing.” Her gaze pinned on me. “Look, I know I hurt you all those years ago Ronnie, and I swear if I could go back and handle things better I would.”

She took a shuddering breath. “I know that I can’t get a re-do, but we were good friends once. Best friends. I’m only in town for a couple of months while I figure out my next steps, but I’d love if we could be friends again.”

When I didn’t answer she said sadly, “I could really use a friend right now.”

For a second I thought she was going to cry, and that was what broke me.

“Fine, we can be friends,” I said. “But we both need to keep our hands – and our lips – to ourselves.”

“It’s a deal.”

She held out her hand to shake and against my better judgement I took it. My skin hummed everywhere it touched hers.

“How about breakfast tomorrow, friend?” she asked, adding a slight emphasis to the last word. “We used to love our breakfasts together.”

“At the diner?” I asked.

“Of course.”

“Will you tell me what happened in New York?” I asked.

She was silent for so long I was sure she would say no. “Maybe not tomorrow. But soon. I promise.”