Page 69 of Rescued Hearts

From the corner of his eye, he saw the smile fade from her face. Then she dropped the fork on the ground and grabbed his balled fist.

“Gray…my god. You weren’t just in the air at the time that ship sunk, were you? You saw everything.”

His jaw clenched. He turned slightly and shook himself, trying to cast off the heavy weight in his chest. But Honor shifted out of her seat and dropped to her knees in front of him. Staring into his face, she covered both of his fists with her soft hands.

Her touch grounded him a little, brought him a bit closer to home.

“Tell me.”

His voice came out as gruff as if he’d inhaled all the smoke from that blaze. “I was in the air. Watching them die. I could do nothing. For months after, I was still enlisted. I tried to work through it, but in the end…I just couldn’t anymore.”

She didn’t say anything at first, only wrapped her hands tighter around his, anchoring him.

“I felt weak when I came home. All winter I watched the other vets in therapy dealing with similar issues. That’s when I realized…I’m not weak.”

“No,” she said fiercely. “You’re not. You’re the strongest man I’ve ever met.”

His throat burned hearing the sincerity in her words.

Her voice came out softer now, a whisper of calm in the tumultuous sea churning with the sinking ship in his imagination. “You couldn’t help them. And that’s the worst part. You’re a protector, Gray. But your hands were tied, and you couldn’t help.”

“The bonfire—”

“Is a trigger. I understand. But it’s different, and you don’t have to think about the past. I’m here, Gray. I’m with you.”

She talked him through the moment with patience and understanding, just as he did for her when she got on horseback.

“Focus on me, okay? And on these delicious marshmallows.”

“Because I need a little sugar in my life?”

She huffed out a watery laugh that made his heart flex hard on a new realization, one that didn’t take a long, hard winter and a lonely spring to figure out.

He couldn’t imagine life without Honor.

Chapter Sixteen

Honor wrapped her legs around Gray’s strong hips. In the glow of the battery-operated twinkle lights she had strung over the bed in the back of her van, his eyes glittered.

It wasn’t an ordinary glimmer of lust. It was different.

Passion? Yes. Desire? Absolutely. Love?

Her heart fluttered at the thought that he could feel the same way she was feeling about him. Everything about their short time together had been magical. Even the hard parts—his trauma and her fear born of the possibility of Sully being in town—didn’t detract from that…because they had each other.

She gripped his strong shoulders and pulled him down on top of her. “Join us together, Gray. Fill me.” Her voice wavered with the emotions coursing through her body.

His stiff cock head brushed through her curls, over the sensitive bump of her clit, down her slick folds. In one swift thrust, he sank deep. They didn’t need to hold back out here—there was nobody to hear them or to care, and her low moan cut off on a cry as he began to claim her body in long, powerful strokes. The muscles rolling under her fingers sent her into a sensory overload she never wanted to end.

And the way he kissed her… She was drowning in this man and didn’t want to surface. Her body clamped around him with each thrust. The rough sounds in his chest drove her wild, and she dug her fingers into his spine, urging him on and on and on.

The light beading of sweat along his tanned muscle stole her mind, and she lost herself in Gray’s lips, tongue, hands…cock.

Her orgasm rushed up first, swallowing her in one gigantic wave of ecstasy. He followed, heat spurting inside her walls and his groan vibrating through his chest. As they thundered to the end, her mouth never left his.

When the kiss gentled, he finally lifted his head. The look in his eyes was the same as it was when they started. Passion? Yes. Desire? Maybe that was lessened by his release. But love?

She wanted to believe it. She wanted to believe it so bad.

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