Page 71 of Attached At Heart
CHAPTER SIXTEEN
delaney
IWOKE WITH A jolt and flung the covers off. My pulse raced as I looked around, taking in my dark, unfamiliar surroundings. Salt air clung to my lungs as I gasped for a breath. Sweat tickled the back of my neck, probably from the heavy comforter I’d been cocooned in. My heart was pounding, but I wasn’t sure why. I registered the shape of the window, the moonlight streaming through it, saw the shadowed stretch of beach, heard the lull of the sea.
Honeymoon. I was on a honeymoon. In the Netherlands. With?—
A shout from the other room had me springing to my feet. That was the sound. That was the sound that woke me up.
And I knew who it was.
“Blake.”
His name burned with worry on the way up my throat, and I shot out of the bedroom to find him. He must be on the couch, butwhywas he on the couch? I was supposed to sleep on the couch tonight. Wasn’t I? Right after we watched—oh.
The credits ofThe Lizzie McGuire Moviewere rolling on the TV screen in the living room. I didn’t remember watching it. Confusion seeped through me, but I didn’t have time to dissect it. Not when Blake came into view, his body flinching at an invisible attacker, his face screwed up with desperation.
Oh, no, no, no.
“Blake,” I breathed, a soft coo as I rushed over to him and reached out to touch his face, wanting to soothe the pain there. The scruff of his five-o’clock shadow bristled against my palm as he panted, eyes squeezed shut. His bare chest rose and fell in quick, rapid breaths, close to hyperventilation. “Blake, it’s okay.”
My touch didn’t rouse him from whatever nightmare he was battling, so I lay down beside him on the couch, squeezing myself onto the cushions so I could fit against his body. So I could wrap my arms around him and bring him back to reality with a little shake.
“It’s a dream.” I said the words into the crook of his neck, hoping they would find their way into his ear. “Wake up, okay?”
“Delaney,” he choked—the first audible word I’d heard from him, and I hoped it meant that he was waking. But then he said my name again, and this time, it ripped from his throat in a cry.
“I’m right here,” I said, speaking more forcefully, trying to get through to him. I pulled back to look at his face, and it was in that moment that his eyes flicked open. He went still, deadly still in a way that terrified me beyond anything I’d experienced before. His pupils were dilated, dark, and distressed. They darted around my face, and I watched as the pieces flew back together, as his brain returned to reality.
“I’m right here,” I repeated before I continued to chant a mantra of things that I thought might help. That I thought might get through to him. “We’re on land. No one’s hurt. You’re okay. Everyone’s safe. I’m right here, Blake.”
“You’re here,” he echoed, his lips seeming to move in slow motion. “You’re safe.”
I nodded and wrapped my arms around his neck, tucking my head in to hug him. Hold him. And in an instant, he decompressed with a shuddering exhale.
“Fuck, Lane,” he rasped. He buried his head in my neck, breathing me in. “It was you.” I felt his lips brush against where my pulse was hammering. “It was you this time.” His tongue lashed out, flicking my skin like he needed to taste my heartbeat to know that it was real, and I couldn’t withhold a gasp.
“Everything is okay,” I said, but my voice was no longer steady. It shook with emotion I couldn’t name.
“Thank fuck,” Blake groaned, exploring the column of my throat with his lips. “Lane. Delaney.”
My head spun. “Yes?”
“Don’t you dare get in that fucking ocean,” he growled into the hollow at the base of my neck. Then he nipped at my collarbone, and a shiver erupted up my body. Blake didn’t notice. He was too busy dragging his open mouth back up to my ear, pressing hot kisses into my skin. I felt like I was being branded by his desperation. “Do you understand me? I don’t want you fucking near it.”
“I understand,” I whispered, even though I didn’t. I didn’t fully understand what had happened to him, and I really didn’t understand what was happening to me.
My body didn’t feel like it was mine anymore. It felt like part of it belonged to Blake and the way he was clutching me, touching me. Part of it ached with whatever he was going through. Felt untamed like the desperation I heard in his voice, like I had so much unexplained emotion coursing through me that I might burst at any moment. And I knew that if he started dragging his lips down my body again, I wouldn’t stop him. Ididn’t want to, even if I probably should, considering he wasn’t thinking clearly.
“It was you,” he breathed again. This time, I felt his nose graze my skin, following that same trail along my neck. “I wasn’t able to saveyou, Lane.”
My heart cracked at the agony in his voice. The final pieces of the puzzle snapped together, and I closed my eyes, gripping Blake harder.
“I’m safe,” I assured him while trying to ground myself. He was spiraling, and I wanted to be his anchor. But I didn’t feel like I could find the floor to stand on at the moment. “You saved me. You always save me, Blake.”
He took a deep, quivering breath before letting himself sink into my embrace. His body relaxed, gave in to the reality of this moment. That everything was okay. That I was here, and so was he.
“Please don’t leave.”
