Page 24 of Bring Me Back
I want to bury my face in the sand and die at thatquestion. This man pulls the deepest, darkest secrets out of me, but I’m embarrassed to admit this one for the first time. He pauses, his eyes searing through mine as he waits for my answer. All I can do is shake my head, understanding dawning on him. Something that almost looks like anger flashes in his eyes as a growl builds deep in his chest. His hands clamp around my upper thighs, pulling my legs apart until I’m spread wide in front of him, his grip tight and unrelenting. I can feel each of his fingers pressing into my flesh, somewhere between a squeeze and a claw. The pressure intensifies, and the pads of his fingertips seem to sink in, creating permanent indentations on my skin. I’ll carry his marks forever as long as I always get to feel this way.
“Mine,” his voice is dark and severe, a claiming. There’s only a second for me to catch my breath before he devours me. His mouth locks onto my core, sucking hard before he soothes me with gentle strokes of his tongue. Fire blazes instantly in my chest, a tightness growing there unlike anything I’ve ever felt before. The man is determined to suck the soul from my body, and I’m afraid he might actually succeed.
“Fuck, Beck. Oh, god! Don’t stop, don’t stop,” I chant, my fingers scraping across his scalp. I pull his face closer into me, I can’t help it. This feeling is too good, too perfect for me to have any semblance of control over the rest of my body.
He licks and sucks, lapping at my corelike a man starved for years. I want to dissolve into him, race through his veins like I’m the only thing capable of giving him life. I’m sure if you asked him, he’d tell you that was already true.
Heat rolls down my spine. I swear I can feel a searing light trailing slowly through my body, building, burning hotter and hotter. It crackles in my veins, feeds on my panting breaths, on his name whispered from my lips, on the feeling of his skin against mine. Every spark is a promise that I am his completely.
“Come for me, pretty girl.” He commands, and my body obeys without permission or warning.
Fire consumes me, my eyes going hazy as I melt against his hands and mouth. The man is a fucking weapon of mass destruction, and I’ve been decimated. I am nothing but rubble and ash. When he finally comes up for air, he’s panting, a wicked smile painted across his lips. God, he is so much more than I ever envisioned he’d be.
Before I can stop them, tears fill my eyes, spilling over my lashes and across my cheeks. I will them away, desperate to keep him from watching the walls I’ve worked so hard to build around my heart crumble. I can’t hold back the sob that silently rocks my body. He jerks back, still looking up at me from between my trembling legs.
“Did I hurt you? What’s wrong, Will?” he says, his brows creased in the center the way they always dowhen he’s worried. Fuck, I never imagined in my wildest dreams I could feel so much for someone, but not be able to explain it.
I shake my head slowly, the tears falling freely. My first instinct is to cover up, to run and hide and never let anyone see this part of me again. But what if? What if this is exactly where I’m supposed to be? What if this is exactly how you’re supposed to feel when you feel it with the person you’re meant to be with?
“I just, I don’t know,” I sob. I can feel this feeling perfectly clearly, but my mind can’t seem to articulate that at all.
“Look at me. Did I hurt you?” He asks, framing my face with both of his hands, nothing but concern in his eyes.
“No, definitely not.” I say, taking a deep, shaky breath. “I just never imagined this is what it was supposed to feel like. Physically, emotionally, I always knew nothing was ever right before. But this? I never dreamed it was supposed to feel like this. And now I’m just so fucking disappointed in myself for ever accepting anything less. For ever allowing…” my words trail off as I dissolve into a puddle of tears. What a fucking mood killer I am.
Warmth engulfs me as Beckett picks me up, cradling me in his lap like I’m fragile. I’m sure right now I seem like a ticking time bomb, who knows when the next wave of emotion will set me off. I wait for the momenthe tries to redirect the situation back to the potential sex I just ruined, but it doesn’t happen. Instead, he holds my head against his chest with one firm hand while the other strokes up and down my leg soothingly. I listen to the steady thrum of his heart beating in his chest, the sound settling every wild instinct I have inside me. I’m falling and flying all at once, not destroyed but rearranged, somehow softer.
We linger in the afterglow, the quiet warmth between our two souls a comfort I’ve never known before. We share the silence of something beautiful that burned but, for once in my life, did not harm.
fifteen
“I give it six months,”Everett says, not bothering to look up from the drawing he’s working on.
“You think he’ll last that long? I give it more like three,” Eli replies, both of them having this conversation right in front of me like I’m not standing right here.
“You’re both wrong,” Ember says quietly, flipping a page in the manuscript she’s working on from the chair across the lobby of Grovewood Ink.
I won’t entertain them, and I know it’s pissing the guys off. Instead, I just busy myself with updating the security camera feeds and sending all the footage back to my system at home for review later tonight. I’ve sifted through thousands of hours of video at this point and haven’t seen anything out of the norm. But it’s no surprise that not a single dime has gone missing since I discovered the initial problem. Whoever is responsibleknows it’s just a matter of time before we figure everything out.
“We are never wrong, Sparky,” Everett says, his sister rolling her eyes at the childhood nickname he uses for her.
“Okay, don’t make yourself look like an idiot now, Ev,” Eli replies, placing a kiss on his wife’s head and walking back into his station.
We’re supposed to be having a staff meeting, but that quickly devolved into taking bets about my love life.
“Put them out of their misery, Helo. Tell them I was right from the beginning.” She smirks to herself, knowing there’s no doubt she’s right. “Tell them three months is a gross exaggeration because you already have a plan.”
“If I were going to propose to Willow, I would never reveal my plan to anyone. Or my timeline for said plan,” I smile, knowing I’ve had a plan in mind for almost as long as I’ve known her. Hell, if I’m honest, I think I’ve been in love with her as long as I’ve known her.
“I think we’re all overlooking the giant fucking wooly mammoth in the room here, guys.” Everett says, finally looking up from the flames he’s shading. “Will is already married.”
Ice and rage burn through my veins at the thought that Willow belongs to another man on a technicality. In reality, I know she doesn’t. And maybe she never did, knowing without a doubt he never deserved her.She belongs to the moon and the stars and all the beautiful, wild things in the world. She took those parts of herself back the day she left him. I only wish she could see that. The pencil in my hand snaps, and everyone’s eyes shift to me. I hadn’t even realized I was gripping it that tightly. Clearing my throat, I drop the pieces into the trash next to the counter and continue my work.
“There must be some way for her to file for divorce without him knowing where she is, right? I know there are things in place to protect people in situations like this,” Ember asks Eli quietly.
“There are things in place to… to protect victims of domestic violence,” he replies quietly, and the words pierce through me like broken glass, ripping me to shreds.
Victim. Domestic violence. Things I would never have associated with the strong, capable woman I know Willow to be. I want to destroy something. It’s been years since I felt such uncontrollable anger, but I want to tear this city apart until there’s nothing for miles that can possibly hurt her ever again. I finish uploading the last of the footage and shoot off a text to Breaker.
