Page 187 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
My bike rumbled through the silent night as we kept a slow pace. Cold wind whipped at my face, lashing across the bare portions of my skin, though I’d never felt this close to burning up.
I feared whatever had gone down between me and Piper at Otto and Raven’s had shifted something intrinsic inside me.
Had breached a place that I couldn’t fuckin’ let her. And there she was, invading every crevice of my being.
Piper eased down the drive, and the concentrated thick of trees fell away as the road opened to the big lot that fronted the main portion of the motel. She continued down the smaller lane that dipped back into the forest before the two small cabins came into view.
I spotted Jonah doing a sweep of the perimeter, his flashlight bobbing through the darkness as he searched for anything amiss.
I found solace in it—the fact that Alicia and Lucy were being watched when I clearly was losing my footing. Slipping from my purpose and drawn toward something that I never expected.
Piper eased the small SUV into the spot beside Unit B, and I pulled my bike to a stop directly in front of her cabin.
I killed the engine.
Silence rushed in to cover the roar.
In it, I could almost hear the thunder of her heart from where she remained in the car.
I sucked for oxygen.
Clarity.
Or maybe I was just looking for some kind of resolve since it was clear I was traveling the most disloyal, treacherous path. But there seemed to be no other destination.
No other place to go but striding up to the driver’s side door of the Volvo.
I cracked it open and was instantly hit with a rush of this woman.
Light and life and that sweet cherry-blossom scent.
She looked up at me with those arctic eyes.
Peering into them was like touching a vast blue horizon.
Like gazing at the sun rising and setting at the same damn time.
“Hey,” she whispered, her voice uncertain. Apparently, neither of us knew what we were doing.
Chained by this thing that strummed between us like a brand-new life beat that hummed in our blood.
“Hey,” I murmured.
I stretched out my hand.
She took it, teeth chewing at that plump bottom lip as I helped her out. Woman driving me out of my fucking mind with that slight action that told of her own insecurities and questions.
I wanted to be the one to wipe them away.
The one to hold her fears.
The one who stood in front of every threat.
She climbed out, and I let my palm slip to her defined cheek before I glided my fingers into the silky strands of her white hair.
Doing nothing but staring down at her beauty.
Wanting to keep all of it for myself.
