Page 150 of Beyond the Blue Horizon
Body aching to sate the need she evoked.
And if that’s all it was?
Need?
Lust?
Attraction?
That’d be cool. I could handle the deal I proposed last night.
Some orgasms dashed with a little help until she got on her feet. Until she felt confident that she could stand on her own. Until she overcame whatever fear had her trapped.
But it was the longing that had been kindled way down deep that was the real fuckin’ problem.
Heart keen on something it couldn’t keep. That same heart I’d always believed was dead.
And now it found it the prudent time to spark to life?
Maybe it was all just part of the penalty.
Torment meted because of my sins and selfishness.
My chest squeezed in a vise.
I deserved every bit of that torment.
And still, I was chasing it down as I followed Piper through our small town.
The storm was picking up gusto as the wind began to scourge and the snow began to pelt.
Piper made the first right and then another onto Culberry, basically making a U out of 9thstreet to wind back around in the direction of The Sanctuary.
People rushed with the storm, their heads ducked between their shoulders as they hurried to their cars that were parked along the main drag.
The road was packed at this time of evening, and headlights speared through the darkness that had quickly fallen. Christmas lights that were strung up on the eaves of the trendy buildings twinkled with the approaching holiday.
My chest squeezed at the thought of Finn. How damn excited he’d been when I came in with that tree. Wanted to put that same look on his face time and again.
I followed along behind Piper, who apparently had discovered the items I stashed in the backseat considering she was headed directly for the motel.
The sky was a heavy, gloomy gray above us, though the snow sparkled and danced beneath the streetlamps.
I didn’t know what it was that drew my attention to the opposite side of the road.
Why a single set of headlights could pilfer my attention and send adrenaline sloshing through my veins when I couldn’t make out anything other than that.
Instinct, I guess.
That thing that had kept me alive for all these years.
But I could sense it.
Evil suddenly crawled like sludge through the air.
Sour and overripe.
My gaze snapped to the left as a vehicle passed me coming the other direction.
