All harsh lines and broken beauty and mystery.
My eyes caressed, taking all of him in, the stunning bulk of his imposing body, gaze trailing across his full, full lips that were a little crooked on one side, on to the old scar that split through his right eyebrow, and the trace of another at the bottom of his chin. There was a new scar high up on his left cheekbone, a row of stitches standing as evidence of his stand for me.
No, this man was not perfect.
Just beautiful and dark and a little bit frightening.
The one who’d led the chain of events that had finally set us free.
“You see me, Shea?” The grating question slammed me like a full body blow.
Powerful.
Unyielding.
A force I could never resist.
I’d thought I’d had no time for distractions. No place for interference or disturbance in Kallie’s and my secluded, lonely life.
But he was the one I didn’t know I’d been waiting for.
Slowly I turned. My body was basked in moonlight while Sebastian remained obscured in the fluttering shadows that flitted like strobes across that gorgeous face.
“Yes,” I whispered, swallowing around the emotion that rushed.
I’d never seen anyone so clearly.
The one who was willing to give it all.
“Won’t apologize.” His voice was a hard rasp, and his eyes flashed. “Did it for you. Would’ve died for you. Killed for you. Rotted in that cell if I had to. As long as it meant you and that little girl are safe.”
He had been willing to give up everything for Kallie and me so we could live in peace.
Just like my mother had done.
After everything, she’d offered herself up and knowingly taken Sebastian’s place. The state had dropped all charges against him late this afternoon when the evidence my mother provided had steadily mounted against Martin.
Kenny Lane had scrambled to find favor on our side and pushed the legal envelope, citing a convoluted trail of self-defense. To keep Kallie away from the media frenzy, Anthony had picked him up and taken him to his place to shower and change out of his bloodied clothes.
And now Sebastian was here.
Some would say it might be too little too late.
That the acts she’d committed were unforgiveable.
But I’d make a case there was no such thing.
Where there is repentance, there is always room for mercy.
No.
I wouldn’t visit or forge bonds broken long ago.
But I would no longer cling to bitterness and sorrow.
I was giving thanks and letting it go.
Sebastian took one step from the shadows into the light.
God.
I’d thought there’d never been a more brutally beautiful man.
And it was true. But that savage beauty was so much greater than the surface. And I didn’t just see it. I experienced it.
Selfless loyalty.
Flawless faithfulness.
This powerful man willingly becoming vulnerable for us.
My heart beat frantically. Wildly.
A stampede of desire and an onslaught of lust.
Devotion and passion.
Absolution.
“Come here,” he commanded, voice low and seductive.
As if I could ever say no.
Slowly, I approached. Inhale. Exhale. Breathing him. Breathing me.
He cupped my face, thumb caressing the pulse point on my neck. “Shea.”
I watched the thick bob of his throat as he stepped back and stared down at me, hands gathering the silky material of the nightgown at my hips. Slowly, he peeled it away. Cool air skimmed my naked flesh. My hair fell in waves around my shoulders and tumbled down to brush over my breasts.
Goosebumps scattered, the man managing to touch me everywhere when he wasn’t touching me at all.
A sharp gasp fell from me when he picked me up, one arm around my bottom and the other sliding up my back to grasp onto my neck.
I wrapped my legs around his waist.
“Shea.”
That pretty, pretty mouth slanted over mine.
Savage.
Raw.
Unrelenting.
Demanding tongue and nipping teeth.
He poured his desperation into me, relief and salvation and deliverance.