Page 128 of Hold Me Until Morning

I wanted to hold onto it forever. That light. An embodiment of this emotion that made me feel like I was right where I belonged for the first time in my life.

Like maybe I’d stumbled on a new purpose.

Or maybe it’d been waiting out there for me all along.

I slowed, easing, before I fully pulled out, instantly wishing I could be right back in the fist of her again.

We both went limp and slumped, though I eased to the side so I wouldn’t crush her, and when I got myself together enough, I pulled her up onto the bed so we were lying chest-to-chest.

I ruffled my fingers through her sweat-drenched hair, stared at her through the shadows that played in the night.

She brushed the tips of her fingers softly over my lips.

And I knew it then.

I’d been missing a piece inside, and it was exactly in the shape of Hailey Wagner.

TWENTY-EIGHT

HAILEY

We lay in the duskiness of my room, silent as we gazed at each other across the three inches of space that separated us. Our breaths had evened, and our hearts were quieted, the only sound the contented hum of peace that whispered through the night.

It curled and enveloped and washed, heightening each time Cody brushed his gentle fingers through my hair. I wondered if I’d ever felt as satisfied at any other time in my life than I did right then.

With the warmth of this man covering me like an embrace.

With my body sated.

With my daughter and grandmother sleeping across the house.

Safe and secure.

And I wondered if that’s exactly what this felt like.

Safety.

Security.

A promise.

A place I could just be without the fears of what was to come. Without the questions and worries about where this might lead.

Without the guilt.

Most terrifying was knowing Pruitt was scared and backed into a corner. I’d hoped it’d be enough to keep him at bay forever, what I was holding over his head, a millstone that would sink him straight to the bottom of the ocean if I exposed who he really was.

It was the coward’s way. Holding onto his ugly truth like a vapid threat all while knowing what he was capable of. Knowing what I was allowing to continue.

I knew it was an affliction that would haunt me for all my days if I kept it secreted inside. Where the depravity would fester and rot before it spread out to corrupt every part of my being.

Cody reached and rubbed the pad of his thumb over the crease that pulled between my eyes. “You’re thinking awful hard there, darlin’.”

Unsure, I chewed at my bottom lip, trying to push it aside and fall into the easiness that Cody emanated. “I just…I didn’t think the two of us were going to end up here like this.”

It was a whole lot safer to let him think I was in a stir about the fact that I’d given in than to expose what I was really thinking about.

His brow arched with a tease, his sweet arrogance twisting into the rugged lines of his face. “Seems strange to me since I knew we were heading this direction all along.”

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