Keith found her in what used to be Ted’s room. It had been transformed into an office of some sort, full of fabrics, beads, and more accessories than Keith had ever seen. Andrea was sitting on an overstuffed chair under the window looking out onto the darkening back yard.

“Is that why you never visited?” Andrea whispered, her voice barely reaching Keith’s ears.

“Yes,” Keith declared, confirming her suspicions.

“Why are you telling me now?”

Keith took a deep breath, equally not ready and needing to expose the depths of his carefully guarded heart to the only woman who’s ever owned him. His ex-wife made it clear what she thought of him being in love with someone else. “I haven’t been able to forget you.”

She whirled in her seat, fiery anger flashing in her eyes. “Oh, so that’s what this is about? Come back and screw the widow so you can forget about me? Move on with your life? Well screw you.”

Keith stumbled backward as though she’d slapped him. If she had it would have hurt less than her assumption that he was only there for himself. “That’s not why I’m here, dammit,” he said, his own anger seeping into his words. “I moved back here for you. I’m not running anymore. I’m here to convince you that you belong with me.”

She scoffed. “Belong to you, more like it. I know about men like you. You’re not looking for a partner, you’re looking for someone you can control.”

“And what the fuck makes you think I could ever control you.”

“You can’t. I don’t belong to you, or anyone else.” Tears filled her eyes with her words, the pain of the day and the conversation stabbing a hot poker through her heart.

His expression immediately softened and he crossed the room to her. He crouched before her, looking up into her swimming brown eyes. She squeezed them tight and tears leaked out, making a run for it down her cheeks to her jaw and neck.

Andrea felt him shift, the slightest of movements, but her eyes stayed closed tight. When his big, rough palm touched her cheek she leaned into it, greedy for the attention, the affection. His thumb brushed the tears off one cheek and his tongue grazed the skin on the other, drawing a gasp from her lips.

“That’s the sound you made when I slid into you,” he said against her skin, his voice thick with emotion. “God, I’ve missed that sound.”

He continued to wipe and kiss away her tears, healing her heart in a way she never imagined it could be.

“Possessions can be lost. I don’t want to own you. I want you with me because you want to be. Because you need me as much as I need you.”

His words lit something inside her, finally releasing Andrea of the pain she’d carried like a cross for four years. She knew she’d always love Ted, that wasn’t ever a question, but she also accepted that Keith was someone she’d missed every day for 12 years. She didn’t want to miss him, or her life, another second.

Andrea turned her head to meet Keith’s lips. Their breath rushed out as they each poured everything they had into the kiss. Tongues caressed, teeth clashed, hands searched. When Keith lifted her from the chair and settled in it himself, bringing her down onto his lap, she couldn’t deny how much he felt like home.

“How is this possible?” Andrea mumbled, breaking their kiss to gasp for breath. “We don’t even know each other.”

“Yes, we do,” Keith insisted, dragging his large hand through her hair. “You wouldn’t have invited me to stay here if you didn’t trust me, didn’t know me on some level. We both listened to Ted talk about each other for years.”

Andrea cringed, almost imperceptibly, but Keith felt it.

“I know you still love him. You always will, I have no doubt about that. Us, this, isn’t going to be simple. If I could bring him back, I would.”

“Even if it meant we’d never be together?” Andrea asked, disbelief tinging her voice.

“In a heartbeat. He was my best friend. I stayed away when you were together because I wasn’t sure how he would take it if he knew you were the one I’d followed like a puppy on spring break.”

“But I didn’t even remember you. At least, not what you looked like.”

Keith nodded and scrubbed a hand over his jaw. “That’s the other reason. I knew it would kill me if you didn’t remember me. Either way, I was screwed.”

“You didn’t want to break us up,” Andrea said softly.

“No. I didn’t. I wanted you, but he had you. I’d never destroy what you two had. We had one night and it didn’t give me any right to you, no matter how badly I wanted to have rights to you.”

Andrea drew her hand over his face, the stubble on his jaw prickling her fingers. She leaned down to kiss him softly, their lips meeting in a tender kiss that said more than words ever could.

“You’re a better man than he ever said you were, and he was definitely your biggest fan. I’m sorry it was my fault you lost your best friend.”

“It wasn’t your fault. It was mine.”

“Why did you go to the cemetery today?”

Keith looked into her eyes, needing to see the trust she held there. She looked back, desperate to understand the man she was thinking of sharing her bed with. And her heart.

“I went to ask him if I could tell you. To get his permission and support.”

“Did you?” Andrea asked, her lips turning up slightly in the corners.

Keith shrugged. “I don’t think I really got an answer.”

Andrea grinned and wrapped her arms around his neck. “I’m pretty sure you got an answer. I was talking to him today about where I should go. I’ve been considering leaving town, but it feels like home here. I wanted to feel connected again. I asked him to help me figure out if I should stay here. I think you’re my answer.”

Keith’s eyes narrowed and he caressed her face, drawing her closer. “You think he brought us together.”

Andrea shrugged. “Why not? He loved us both. He’d want us to be happy. That’s what my therapist told me for years. That he would want me happy.”

“He would. He does. And it sounds like he wants us happy together.”

“I think we could work on that.”

Keith nodded and pulled her close, his lips closing over hers to seal their deal.

Catch up on part one and part two!

“I feel like I’ve met you before, but I know that’s not possible.”

He simply watched her, waiting to see if she would figure out the truth about them. He’d hoped she would recognize him, but as he sat there waiting for her to discover who he was he almost hoped she wouldn’t remember. The longer he watched her the more uncertain she appeared about her declaration.

“Is it possible?”

“Anything is possible,” Keith answered, not revealing any more than she was asking.
“How have we met? You’ve never visited Ted. There’s no way we could have met.”

“Then I guess you have your answer,” he said, infuriating her.

“Why are you here?” she asked, changing tactics in an attempt to draw information out of him.

“You invited me.”

“You know what I mean. Why are you in town?”

“I came for you.”

Four simple words. Words that could mean anything. Words that turned her on more than she’d ever been in her life. She wanted him. Desperately. It’d been four long years alone, but no man had ever made her want the way Keith was sitting in her kitchen, eating her lasagna.

The heat in his eyes and the smooth sound of his voice was making her body tingle all over and she couldn’t think straight, let alone respond to what he said.

She collapsed in the chair across from him, waiting for him to explain. He didn’t seem to be in any hurry as he slowly ate the rest of the lasagna she’d served him. He looked comfortable in her house, something that left her belly feeling as unsettled as the rest of her.

When Keith finished his dinner he pushed the plate away gently and rubbed his stomach. “Thanks,” he muttered, meeting her gaze once more.

“Can I get you anything else?” she asked innocently. The second his eyes drifted from hers to scan the rest of her she felt the flush of embarrassment and excitement blend to give her the hottest of hot flashes.

“How about that drink?”

She nodded, unable to say anything with his eyes tracking her. She pulled out two bottles of beer and handed him one, twisting of the top of hers as she sat. The cool liquid chilled her heated body, until she saw him still looking at her.

“Where are you staying?” Andrea asked, desperate to find a conversation that wouldn’t leave her feeling like she’d stepped into the sun.

“I’ll get a hotel.”

“You don’t have one yet?” He shook his head and took a long pull of his beer. “Just stay here. I’d like the company.”

“You don’t want my kind of company.”

“Why not? I’d like to get to know you better.”

“Why?”

Andrea shrugged. The answers bouncing around in her head weren’t things she could say to him, but somehow she felt he would understand, and reciprocate, her desires. What she finally managed was, “You’re Ted’s best friend.”

“Try again, Andrea.”

“Excuse me?”

“I said, ‘try again.’ Ted has nothing to do with why I’m here. And I think you know that.”

“You don’t know anything about me.”

He shook his head as he drank his beer, draining the last of the bottle. He set it down on the table with a hard clunk and leaned toward her. “I know what your skin tastes like. I know the sounds you make when you come. I know what it feels like to have your body wrapped around mine. So you can argue, but I know more about you than you think.”

Andrea gasped at his words, at first not believing him, but seeing the unmistakeable truth in his eyes. She stared at him, wondering how in the world she didn’t remember him.

“How is that possible?” she asked, almost to herself.

“Spring break. Twelve years ago.”

All the blood drained from her face and Andrea wondered if she would pass out. She barely remembered the night, even the morning after. There was a guy, she knew that, and when she’d woken up next to him she was mortified that she’d slept with a complete stranger. The details of the night were fuzzy, but she always remembered throwing herself at him until he snapped and gave her what she demanded. Even through the fog of alcohol it was the best sexual experience of her life.

Instead of waking him up that morning, she took a mental picture of the sexy, naked, sleeping man with the tanned skin, tight ass, and broad back that she’d clutched in the throws of passion. His dark hair was a bit long at the time, but she couldn’t deny that it was the same hair she’d run her fingers through as his mouth settled between her legs and drove her crazy.

Staring at the same man, years later, in her kitchen and learning he was her husband’s best friend, was more than she could handle.

“I’m sorry. This was a mistake,” she said, running out of the room and away from the only man she’d ever fantasized about while she was with her husband.

Catch up on part one!

Keith got into his truck and drove the streets he’d grown up on. As a child he and Ted had spent their time outside, shooting baskets in the driveway, playing hockey in the street, and throwing the football at the local park. Their lives had consisted of sports, sports, and more sports until high school when women came into the picture. Keith was always more popular than Ted, but they both had their fair share of women.

Spring break their junior year of college they went to Florida to party with other friends. The first day Keith spotted her, the conservative woman with the one piece bathing suit that did nothing to hide curves that made his mouth water. Ted had his own conquests, having accepted his short, skinny body and learned to use it to his advantage, and never saw Keith’s dream woman.

Keith tried to catch her attention but nothing he did ever seemed to matter. Then their last night in town he saw her out. She’d been drinking, something he knew from watching her all week she didn’t do. He rescued her from a overly friendly guy on the dance floor and offered to take her back to her hotel room.

She hung on him like curtains on a rod and tried to kiss him. He knew it was because of the alcohol and refused, but she was persistent. Halfway back to her hotel she ground herself against him and begged him to make her feel good, saying she’d find someone else if he wasn’t willing.

Keith tried to be good, but he was afraid of what she would do so he led her back to his hotel room. As soon as the door closed behind them she was on top of him, kissing him, rubbing against him, letting her hands wander over him. He resisted as long as he could, but something inside him snapped when he imagined her leaving his room to find another man to touch.

He kissed her back with an urgency he’d never felt before, or since. His lips blazed over her skin, tasting the sunscreen she’d religiously applied and the softness of her skin. She pulled her clothes off to reveal the curvy figure he’d been dreaming about all week and he didn’t have a prayer of holding back. He had to have her. And he did.

He tasted every inch of her skin, and when he plunged into her tight body he knew he’d found perfection. Her moans were the sweetest sounds he’d ever heard and when she came with him he knew he’d never be the same. He had to have her forever, or as long as she’d let him. She owned him, and he wanted nothing more than to own her as well.

But the next morning Keith woke up alone. The sheets next to him were cool and all her stuff was gone. He knew her name, but nothing else about her.

It was two years before he saw her again, and when the picture of his childhood best friend’s new girlfriend came across his email Keith couldn’t breathe. He spent two days drinking before he committed to letting her go, never telling either of them that they knew each other. That was why he skipped the wedding and never visited. If she remembered him it would crush Ted that he’d kept the secret. If she didn’t, it would crush Keith.

After Ted died, Keith couldn’t stay away. He grieved for his friend and wanted to let Andrea know she wasn’t alone. When he saw her again all the memories of their one night together flooded him, even though it’d been eight years. It took him four years to be able to face her again, to come back and have enough composure to talk to her.

At least, he thought so. Seeing her again, especially at Ted’s grave, knocked him harder than he’d expected. He wanted to take her up on the offer to stay, but he knew it would test every ounce of his decency to be under the same roof as her. Still, he had to see her again.

He pulled down the street he grew up on, noting how much the neighborhood had changed. His parents had long since retired and moved to warmer climates, but Keith stopped in front of their old house anyway.

Lost in his memories he didn’t notice her approaching from across the street. When Andrea knocked on his window he was startled. She held her hands up in a surrender type of pose and his mind flashed back to the way she looked beneath him, her hands in the same position, but pressed against his chest, her body welcoming him in.

Keith blew out a deep breath then rolled the window down. “Yeah?” he asked gruffly.

“I saw you sitting out here. I’ve got plenty of food left if you’d like to come in for dinner. Or a drink.”

“I don’t think it’s a good idea.”

“Okay. I just didn’t want to be alone,” she half-whispered the sentence as she turned away.

Immediately feeling like an asshole he called, “Wait.” She paused in the middle of the road, not turning back to him, but not leaving either. “I’ll come in.”

“Okay,” she said softly, still not looking at him.

Keith got out of his truck and followed her across the street. Inside the house he’d spent too much time in as a kid, he stomped behind her to the kitchen he knew as well as his own mother’s. Ted’s parents treated Keith like their own child like his parents did to Ted. It helped that their mothers were close friends as well.

“I had lasagna if you’d like some, but I can make you something else instead.”

“It’s fine,” he grumbled, forcing his eyes from her perfectly rounded ass and legs that he remembered wrapped around his hips.

Andrea worked through the kitchen mesmerizing Keith with her movements. When she slid a plate overloaded with lasagna in front of him he couldn’t deny the intoxicating scent of the food, or of the woman.

As he dug into the food, hungrier than he’d realized after driving all day, Andrea watched him. There was something about him that was more familiar than it ought to be. The only thing she knew for sure was that he disliked her, although she had no idea why.

“Is it okay?” she asked, his opinion mattering to her more than she wanted it to. There was something comforting about cooking for someone besides herself, and she wanted Keith to be happy.

He answered by way of a grunt and a nod, and she dove in.

“Why do you hate me?”

He choked on the bite he’d just shoveled into his mouth. After a minute of coughing, followed by more gulps of water than any normal person could handle, he turned his crystal blue eyes on her. She saw the naked desire in his gaze and her breath caught in her throat.

“I don’t hate you,” he growled, his eyes never leaving hers.

She knew he wasn’t lying.

How does one move on from losing the love of their life? That’s what Andrea wanted to know. Every year on the same day, she took off work and spent the day at the cemetery. She packed a picnic lunch and sat on his grave, talking to her late husband, Ted, who was taken from her too early.

Ted was the love of her life. A man who swept her off her feet when she’d just about given up on love. Andrea’s life changed the day she met him, and was destroyed the day he died. Ted was riding his bicycle to work one morning and someone spilled their coffee on their lap. The driver swerved, not paying attention to the road as the hot liquid burned through his clothes, and struck Ted, killing him instantly.

In that one moment, everything Andrea dreamed of vanished. Along with her hopes and her heart.

Four years later she was sitting on his grave, sharing her life with the man who wasn’t there to hold her hand through the hard days and kiss away her tears. She promised to love him forever and knew she’d never find another who would make her feel the way Ted had.

“I love you,” she said, kissing the headstone that marked his resting place. As Andrea turned to go she startled, shocked to find a man standing nearby, watching her. But more than his presence, what shocked her was that she recognized him.

“Keith?” she asked hesitantly. She’d only met the man once, at Ted’s funeral. Still, there was no mistaking his tall, muscular frame and piercing blue eyes. He was the polar opposite of his childhood best friend, where Ted was shorter, nearly Andrea’s height, and thin, Keith was big enough that people backed away as he approached. Even at the funeral Andrea noticed his chiseled good looks and air of confidence, but standing a few feet from the man, alone, he was even more overpowering.

“I didn’t mean to intrude,” he said, his deep, rich voice wrapping a soothing balm around her forever shattered heart.

“It’s okay. I was just going to get dinner.”

“How long have you been here?”

“After breakfast. I spend the day with him every year.”

Keith nodded as if it made perfect sense, something no one else in her life had ever understood. Her parents had pushed her into therapy after the first year passed and she still hadn’t moved on, but especially after they found out she spent the day with her dead husband.

“Do you remember me?” Andrea asked, unsure what to say to the man she’d never really spoken to. For as close as Ted and Keith had been as children, when Keith moved away from their hometown, and Ted’s life moved forward with Andrea, the two didn’t see each other. In the six years Andrea and Ted were together, Keith had never visited, not even for their wedding.

Keith nodded, not saying a word, just staring at her. His eyes seemed to drink her in, cataloguing each of her features as though he’d never get the chance to look at her again.

“Where are you staying?” Andrea asked, growing more nervous with each passing second they stood watching each other. No man besides Ted ever had the ability to make her nervous, but the butterflies were impossible to ignore as she looked over the impressive man before her. He’d always seemed familiar to her, but was sure it was because of all the stories she’d heard of their childhood, not to mention the pictures Ted had of the two of them.

“I got a place,” he said gruffly, not giving any more details than he had to.

“You’re welcome to stay with me if you need somewhere to stay.”

A single shake of his head betrayed his finely crafted indifference. “Not a good idea.”

“You’re Ted’s best friend. Why wouldn’t you stay?”

“Because you’re Ted’s wife,” he answered, as though it explained everything.

Andrea heard the pain in his voice but wasn’t sure what caused it. “I’ll go so you can spend time with him. It’s nice to see you again. If you need anything while you’re in town, you know where to find me.”

Keith nodded once and watched as Andrea brushed off her jeans and walked to the car parked in front of his. He hated feeling the way he did, which was why he’d gone to see his best friend, but he couldn’t stop the desire he felt for the man’s wife. When Andrea got in her car and pulled away Keith turned to the grave she’d been sitting at, facing his best friend for the first time in over a decade.

“I’m a miserable fucker, man. I want nothing more than to bring you back and here I am fantasizing about your wife. I hate myself, but God dammit, I’m in love with her. The moment I saw her again I knew I had to make her mine. And now, four years later, I still can’t get her out of my mind. I know she doesn’t know who I am, but I want a chance to tell her. That’s why I came back. I need to tell her who I am, Ted. I need to be with her. And I need to know you’re okay with it.”

Keith ran a hand through his silky, brown hair. He meant to get a trim before he moved back, but he never made the time. The edges of his hair brushed the collar of his black t-shirt, but he didn’t care anymore. The only thing he cared about was finding a way to tell Andrea that they knew each other, and to convince her to give him another chance.

“She’s still in love with you,” Keith told the headstone. “She’s as devoted as she ever was. I had her for a night, a night she doesn’t even remember, and you had her for a lifetime. I need her, man. You know I do. I pray you’re okay with this. I can’t stay away any longer. I won’t.”