The Dark Rising by Lacey Weatherford Page A

whole, but it was definitely him, and even though he couldn’t physically remember he was still coming back to me.
    “It’s good to see you again, Vance,” I replied, moving my hands up to trail my fingers over his face.  I traced his brows, around to his cheeks and down to the masculine dimples next to his smile.  “I’ve missed you.”
    He bent to kiss me once more, holding me in his embrace for several long heated moments.
    I stood on my tiptoes so I could reach him better and he wrapped his arms around me, lifting me closer.  I put every ounce of my feelings into the kiss, not holding anything back, trying to show him what his declaration of love meant to me.
    He answered my intensity kiss for kiss, passion for passion until soft moans were coming from each of us.
    I lost track of time and space as our mouths tangled together, tasting, touching, and sighing as need coursed thickly between us.
    He pulled away from me, with reluctance, breathing heavily.  “Would you like to go home now?” he said, with a short quick breath.  He looked around at the heated rock we were standing on.  “It’s getting a little warm out here, if you know what I mean,” he added, quirking an eyebrow.
    “I do,” I replied, grinning.  “And yes, I’d love to go home with you.”
    He held my hand and he led me through the brush back to the motorcycle, stopping to kiss me breathless once again before we climbed on.
    A short time later we arrived at the house.  I got off the bike, removed my helmet, and magically motioned for the garage door to close, which placed us in total darkness.
    Before I could flip on the light, Vance suddenly grabbed me from behind, turning me to face him so he could kiss me again.  I wrapped my arms around him and he pushed me backward, never breaking his kiss with me while he moved in the general direction of the door.  My back hit the wall when we reached it, but he didn’t stop kissing me.  His hands were everywhere, in my hair, on my face, down my body, around my waist.
    I disconcertedly searched for the door behind me.
    “I love you,” he said to me in the darkness just as my hand found the knob, and I noticed his eyes were glowing again.
    “I love you too,” I replied, twisting the handle.  The door popped open with abruptness and we fell though the opening together onto the kitchen floor.
    I started laughing and he followed suit.
    “Are you okay?” he asked, his body strewn out across the top of me.
    “Yes,” I replied in a fit of giggles.  “Are you?”
    “I’m feeling pretty good right about now,” he said with his sexy grin smiling back at me.
    Someone in the room cleared their throat.  We both glanced up to find my dad standing over us with an amused look.
    “It’s nice to see things are getting back to normal around here,” he said.  “Surely though, there are better places than the kitchen floor.”
    I must’ve blushed twelve shades of red and Vance quickly hopped off of me, unable to keep the laughter from spilling out of him.  He reached a hand out, pulling me up behind him.
    “I would say I’m sorry about that,” Vance said, turning to my dad.  “But I’m not.” He pulled me up against him and kissed me lightly one more time before he reached out to smooth some of my tangled hair.
    My dad smiled at us.  “As weird as this may sound, I wasn’t unhappy to see it,” he replied with a knowing look.  “I hate to burst your bubble, but the two of you have company waiting.”
    I gave a sad sigh at the news, realizing we were going to have to wait until later to resume our previous activity and Vance let a small dejected sound too.
    “Tonight,” he whispered into my head and he gave me a quick hug.
    “So who’s here?” I asked my dad, reaching my hands up to remove the redness from Vance’s eyes.
    “Your grandma and Babs,” he replied, gesturing toward the living room.  “We’ve been researching this morning and we think we may have come up with