Page 47 of Tripped By Love

Marco

HARD LESSON LEARNED

“My strength goes out the window

When I hear your voice

And I can’t say no.”

Performed by Kenny Wayne Shepherd

Written by Stegall / Maher / Shepherd

She’d tasted like heaven. Like thesweetest chocolate and a hint of cinnamon bleeding together. Like earth and skies, fire and wind blended into an intoxicating mix that would forever be scalded into my memories.

Tastes a man could lose himself in craving for the rest of his life.

I wanted her.

Not just wanted…I coveted her. Wished for her to be mine more than I’d ever wished for anything in my godforsaken life. More than I’d once wanted a military career. More than wishing I could undo the one damn night that had ended it all.

Her eyes were lit with the same flames blazing through me as she watched me from the chair at the other end of the table.I dare you to stay, those eyes seemed to be screaming at me. She’d gone all-in. She’d doubled down and gambled it all. But she shouldn’t have risked it with me. I wasn’t worth the potential loss.

If I had an ounce of honor or self-preservation, I’d walk out the door and never step foot inside it again. But I couldn’t. Not only because of Hardy hanging around and threatening to come back, but because my soul wouldn’t let me. It was shrieking at me to do as she silently demanded?to stay. But if I mentioned Hardy as a reason to do so, she’d be furious with me. It would be exactly the duty she’d spoken of before. Duty that she hated being, but it was a duty nonetheless.

I wouldn’t?couldn’t?listen to the snickering voice at the back of my head saying it was possession and not duty that called me.

Cassidy seemed to be able to read everything that went through me. Every word and thought that whispered inside my brain. Her eyes narrowed, and she rose from the table, steadying herself. I was as proud as I was regretful that I’d made her legs weak with our kisses.

She headed out of the kitchen, looking back at the last minute.

“I don’t want your protection, Marco. I don’t need it. I just want you.”

And then she walked down the hall without a glance back.

???

There was plenty of food for breakfast in my apartment, and yet I dragged Jonas out of bed at the crack of dawn to head into The Golden Heart Café. I’d tossed and turned on the pull-out couch in the living room all night after having given Jonas the single bedroom for the summer. I was used to the couch. I’d spent many nights on it while guarding Brady before he’d met Tristan and moved in with her. So, it wasn’t the thin mattress or the frame poking through that kept me awake. Instead, it had been the kisses and moans that had followed me from Cassidy’s house.

And now my body was demanding to see her again.

I was ridiculous enough to use my foster brother as a shield. I could have left him alone and gone to breakfast on my own, but I was afraid of what I’d do when I saw her again. Afraid that the flimsy barrier I’d try to reconstruct would melt away, and I’d wrap her in an embrace that would stun and surprise every customer in the place.

It wasn’t Cassidy but Willow who seated us at a booth at the back of the restaurant. This wasn’t unusual either. When Cassidy was at work, she rarely left the kitchen. Except, she always popped out to see me when I showed up, and today she didn’t.

“What can I start you with this morning, Marco?” she asked.

“An extra-large coffee, the Spanish frittata, and the pomegranate coffee cake,” I said. “Thanks.”

“And for you?” Willow looked at Jonas, and my brother seemed dumbfounded. I couldn’t help the smirk that covered my face. Willow was a beautiful woman, and Jonas was all teenage hormones.

“I’ll have the same,” he finally stuttered out after I kicked him under the table.

“Since when do you drink black coffee?” I said once Willow departed.

“Is that what I ordered?” he asked, dazed.

I was unable to contain my laugh. He glared at me before turning to take in the restaurant with the fountain in the middle splashing quietly and the windchimes dangling from the tree as it sprouted from the water.