Losing You (Stars On Fire Book 4) (30 page)

His hands loosened their hold and she slid to the floor.

“Yeah, for a few days now . . .”

Tom knew? What the hell?

“You didn’t think to warn me?” she roared, her anger taking over.

“No. I didn’t want to tell you while you were thousands of miles away. I’d wanted to tell you here, but then I saw you and you jumped in my fucking arms—I’m sorry. This could’ve gone a whole lot better.”

Ya think?

Lizzie realized something as she took a step back to think. “He didn’t know about us.”

Tom shook his head. “No.”

She didn’t know what to think about that. The growing noise level was getting to her and she rushed up the stairs to Tom’s bedroom. She tore her suit jacket off and paced the room, so many warring thoughts flying through her battlefield of a mind. Marc had been tucked into the far reaches of her mind, not wanting to think about him or how she felt about him, but now he was here and she had to.

She violently shook her head, fighting all her emotions.

He was home. And that made her want to cry.

“Lizzie,” Tom said, shutting the door behind him.

“I don’t know what to think right now or even how to feel about this. On one hand, I’m pissed that you didn’t say anything to me. But overpowering that is the fact that he’s back. He’s back . . .” she repeated, her voice breaking. “He looks good . . . healthy.”

“Because he is.”

“I wanted him to be okay for so long.”

“Me too, Bits,” he said, moving closer to her.

“Despite him leaving me, I never wanted to hurt him.”

“Of course you wouldn’t. My best friend wouldn’t be my best friend if she did.”

“But we did . . .”

“No matter how he found out about us, it was bound to hurt him,” Tom said. “The only way to not have hurt him would’ve been not to be together. So . . . the question is, Lizzie, do you want to be together? Do you want to stay with me?”

The complete and utter shock she felt at his words had her spinning around and looking at him. What was he saying? “Tom . . .”

“Do you want
me
?” Tom asked, his body right in front of hers.

“Of course, I want you, Tom. I just don’t know how to handle this.”

“I’m here to help you with it. You don’t need to run off. Just talk to me. I think that he made his bed and he should lie in it. He’s a grown man who made a choice that he knew would have far-reaching effects. His choices completely influenced yours. You can’t say at this point ‘what if’ because
it happened
. He made a choice. And because of that you made a choice—you chose me, and my life hasn’t been the same. My best friend whipped out her breasts in a dressing room, and I couldn’t look at her the way I used to. My eyes had been opened. Your choice affected mine because I chose to not close my eyes to you,” he said, pulling her against him. She lifted her face and looked into his fiery blue eyes. “All I see is you.”

His words pummeled into her.

All I see is you.

And in that moment all she saw was the handsome man before her.

“I see you, Tom,” she said, wrapping her arms around his waist.

His sigh of relief was followed by a smile. “Good,” he replied, completing the embrace, her body now flush against his. She had Tom.

That content feeling that washed over her changed when he tightened his grip on her. It changed for him too—his fiery eyes had darkened with desire.

“I missed you, Lizzie,” he said, lowering his head, his eyes on her lips.

“I missed you too,” she answered.

Then all hell broke loose. His mouth fused to hers while they moved clothing out of the way for their hands. Before she even made it to the bed, Tom had divested her of her pants and unbuttoned her blouse. He knelt down, his heated gaze on her as he pushed her breasts together and deliciously attacked them, sucking them, lapping at them with the flat of his tongue, before leaving them and moving back up to her mouth.

His hard-on felt like it pulsed against her inner thigh. She needed him inside of her. Now. She didn’t want to break this connection. Her period was due any day now. She knew she couldn’t get pregnant. Plus she trusted Tom implicitly.

So she made a decision. Grabbing his cock, she guided him to her opening and pushed up, enveloping his cock, and oh dear God, did that feel wonderfully different.

“Holy fuck, Lizzie,” he exclaimed as he froze.

“Don’t stop. Please. Don’t stop,” she begged, her eyes locked on his, so full of surprise as well as worry. “Tom. Please. We’re fine,” she said, squeezing his cock. “Oh, God, you feel so good.”

That broke the freeze and he drove into her entirely, both releasing a satisfied groan.

“Fuck.”

Then Tom unleashed himself on her, drilling into her body—her heart—with each powerful stroke until she completely shattered beneath him, the orgasm exploding out of her. His followed right after hers, his release filling her for the first time ever.

Collapsing beside her, his head cocked in her direction. “I could have gotten a condom . . .”

“I didn’t want to let you go,” she replied.

He sighed and his smile returned. “Next time you want to go bare you need to discuss it with me first. The consequences of it don’t just affect you.”

“I’m sorry . . .” she said, properly chastised. “It’s just that I trust you and my period is due in a few days. We’re safe,” she said, feeling the blush rush up her cheeks.

He pulled her to him and she snuggled up against his body, happy to be in this special place again, as his fingers meandered up and down her side. “I was afraid I would forget what your body looked like,” he said, trailing a finger down her arm. “I think we need to spend this weekend making sure I’ll never forget. You game?”

She kissed his chest and looked up at him. “Very.”

His smile lit up his face, showcasing his white teeth. “Good and as much as I’d like to stay here and start our weekend, I think we should rejoin the party. They’re probably wondering where we are,” he said, disengaging himself from her arms.

“Oh, they know where we are and what we’ve been doing,” she said.

Marc

“Fuck!” Marc screamed into the night.

Though he knew that Lizzie had let him go—he still had the text she sent—Marc had never imagined this outcome.

Her with Tom.

His best friend with his girl . . . or his ex-girl.

And it fucking hurt to find out like he had. Like a freaking baseball bat to his gut. To see her lips on his, his hands on her ass.

Marc turned at the sound of footsteps and saw his brother and Marty walking over, glad they were here.

“You want to go?” Clark asked when they got to him. Marty stood silently by his side, his support unspoken.

“I . . . I don’t know,” Marc answered, rubbing his hands over his face. What he wanted were answers. “Did you know?” he asked his brother and friend.

“Not a clue,” Marty said and Clark agreed.

The two men hung with him outside in silence. Marc wasn’t ready to go back in yet. He wasn’t ready to face this. The dream of Lizzie and him together had been his goal, but that had been absolutely slaughtered tonight. And he didn’t know what to do. Not only did he really lose Lizzie as his girlfriend, she was with Tom.

He turned to his brother. “
Now
how do I keep both of them in my life? How do I do that?” he ranted and when Clark didn’t answer, Marc spun around to leave, but stopped when he saw Tom heading his way.

“We’ll be inside,” Marty said as they left him to talk with Tom.

“Marc . . .” his best friend spoke as he approached him.

He studied the man’s face who had welcomed him back just a few days ago, who had said he was glad to have Marc back. And then he thought about what he just saw in the house and Marc got angry.

“You couldn’t have told me when I saw you a couple days ago? Or even before she arrived and said, ‘Hey man, while you were gone, Lizzie and I started seeing each other.’ Was it some sort of punishment for me leaving? Is that what it was? I
know
what I did, I know who I hurt, and it almost killed me to leave my brother and my friends, to leave her, to leave my best friend who always had my back. I told her I knew that with me leaving that I had basically destroyed any future we may have had. I
knew
she’d move on, but what I didn’t know was that my best friend basically led me off to slaughter by not fucking telling me that he was with my girl!”

“She’s not your girl.”

“I fucking know that—now!
Fuck!
” Marc shouted and turned away from Tom, not wanting him to see that his eyes had sprung a frigging leak. Angrily, he swiped at the stupid tears. “I didn’t think I was going to lose my best friend too.”

Tom grabbed his bicep and spun him around. “You didn’t lose your best friend. I’m right here. So damn happy that you’re alive and well and back home. I’m sorry about how I handled this, but I’m not sorry about Lizzie.”

Marc shrugged his arm out of Tom’s grip and took a few steps away. His world was spinning off its axis and he didn’t know what to do. Normally he’d go to his best friend and Tom would give him advice. It was funny but Marc still wanted it from him.

“It’s like I’m spinning around aimlessly in space, no idea which way is up or down. I have absolutely no clue what to do. In the past, I know what I would’ve done. Shit got hard, I got wasted. I don’t do that anymore. So, I don’t know what to do!”

“You do what you’re doing—talking to me. You talk to me until that desire to go back to old habits fades away. Do not go back to them.”

Marc heard the plea in Tom’s voice. It was hard not to miss and it worked. It dug in like planned. And with Tom’s next words, it dug in even deeper.

“I don’t ever want to see you on some hospital bed, slipping away from me because it became too much for you. You can
always
talk to me, Marc, regardless of Lizzie. I will always stand by your side.”

“Except when you didn’t,” Marc pointed out. Tonight, a prime example.

“Marc.”

“Can you just go?”

“No. I won’t.”

“Fine. I’ll go,” he said and stalked past Tom and headed back into the house, needing to find Clark and Marty so they could get out of there.

As Marc entered the kitchen, he ran right smack into Lizzie coming from Tom’s office.

Fuck . . . couldn’t he just get out of here?

Without an apology, he moved past her, but his name spoken by her stopped him. He didn’t turn around because he was unsure of what he’d say, how he’d react to actually having a conversation with her.

“Please turn around,” she said, just loud enough for him to hear, her voice turning on his tears.

He did, breathing hard not to break down at the look in her eyes. The hurt he caused still in those beautiful mossy depths.

“You’re back?” she asked.

He nodded curtly because his voice had been lost somewhere between Tom and her. They stood there just staring at each other, even though they had so much that needed to be said.

God, he loved her. This woman who saved him, who showed him a love he’d never thought he’d ever get, let alone deserved.

And she was no longer his. She was Tom’s.

Marc moved towards her, about to take a step towards his future.

“Is he good to you?” he asked, his eyes stuck on hers which quickly filled with tears.

“Yeah, he is.”

Marc nodded his head a couple times, trying to keep control of himself, but he almost lost that battle when her tears broke free.

“Good. You deserve that,” he spoke and reached out and put the outside of his hand to her cheek, his thumb skimming down until he stopped right below her lower lip. “Bye, Elizabeth,” he said quietly and walked away.

Marc

September 2009

“Marc, come on,” Tom urged. “Please come to this party. I haven’t seen you in forever.”

“I just talked to you two days ago and before that, it’d been just a day,” Marc replied.

“On the phone. I haven’t seen you in person since the night of my last party.”

The party where Marc had learned about Lizzie and Tom. Where he could have spiraled out of control if not for the constant calls and messages from Tom. He knew what Tom was doing—proving his friendship—and Marc was so damn thankful for it.