Relishing.
We stepped under the warm spray, our bodies bare, and I swore I thought maybe it was that moment when our spirits were freed.
His kiss was slow and tender as he washed my hair, his touch even gentler as he lathered a washcloth and carefully ran it over my body.
Something about it felt…cleansing.
As if we were leaving old promises behind and stepping into new truths.
Our truths.
We rinsed, and I could feel the moment slow as he turned off the shower and reached out to grab a towel.
He ran it over every inch of me.
In praise.
In adoration as he knelt at my feet.
I clung to him by the shoulders. “Zee.”
“Alexis.” It floated over me like a song. He straightened, swept me into his big arms, and carried me to my bed where he slowly crawled over me.
He threaded his fingers through mine and held me close as he nudged my legs wider and pressed into my body.
Every movement felt in opposition to earlier when we’d both been undone.
That was a plea.
This was a promise.
He looked down on me while the world spun around us. Shifting and changing and binding.
“Fall with me,” I whispered.
He leaned down, lips just brushing mine, and Zachary Kennedy murmured his truth.
“I already jumped.”
Chapter Thirty-Seven
Alexis
I jerked up in bed, disoriented, blurry eyed as I squinted and tried to make sense of what’d pulled me from the most perfect kind of sleep.
Zee was in the middle of my bed, spread out, face down, naked.
So insanely sexy.
Totally out and completely at peace.
I bit my lip, overcome by the well of emotion rushing to the surface at seeing him next to me.
I tore my attention from him when I was prodded again by the sound I realized had pulled me from sleep—my doorbell ringing again and again.
Quickly, I eased off the side of the bed, grabbed a robe, and slipped it on. Tying the belt into a slipknot, I padded across the hardwood floors and clicked the bedroom door shut behind me so Zee could remain asleep.
Once in the hall, I hurried to the door and popped up on my toes to see through the peephole.
Shock stumbled me back two steps.
Then I shot into action, working the lock and ripping open the door.
“Avril, what are you doing here?”
She wasn’t even supposed to know where I lived. But still I was surging forward and wrapping her in my arms. Hugging her tight.
She hugged me back before she unwound herself and put a few inches between us. Her face was pale, body too thin, clearly anxious. “I needed to talk to you.”
I shook my head. “Why didn’t you call? How did you even know where I live?”
This was the one privacy I’d asked of her. My sanctuary away from the ugly realities of the rest of the world. My safe haven.
“I’m sorry…I went to the library and used a computer to find your address. I needed to talk to you. In person.” Anxiously, she peeked over her shoulder. “By myself.”
“Why?”
“Craig.” She whispered the word like a dirty confession.
I sucked in a shocked breath.
She’d never once said his name. She didn’t need to explain or clarify who she was talking about. I already saw it in her eyes.
“What did he do?”
She twitched. “He…he keeps asking about you. Asking me to call you.”
Guilt blanketed her expression.
“It’s always been money, Alexis. When he makes me call you.”
Horror filled the harsh breath of air that pitched from my lungs. “You…it was never for you.”
She looked so frail in my doorway, her shoulders slumped and her body worn from the lifestyle. “Everything I have is his. Don’t you get that? I keep trying to tell you.”
I blinked through the torment. “What did you do, Avril? What did you do?”
Her laughter was empty. “I sold my soul to the devil.”
Grief nearly dropped me to my knees. “Avril.”
She shook her head and backed away. As if she needed to keep space between us. “I just…I needed to warn you. To tell you he keeps talking about you. Asking questions. He sees an opportunity, and I think…I think he’s looking for a weak link. For a way to get to you. For a way to draw you into that world and keep you there. And I’m pretty sure he knows that’s me.”
Fear twisted through my spirit. “What does he want from me?”
Her mouth pinched in regret. “I don’t know. I think he’s angry that you got away that night. That he didn’t make you pay for what he believes you owed him. And if he looped you into this life with me? That would be quite the jackpot, wouldn’t it?” The words on her tongue were sharp with disgust.
Nausea pooled in my stomach.
Never.
Shaking, I stretched my fingers for my sister. My twin. This broken girl who had always been my other half. “Just stay…we’ll figure it out. Whatever you think he has over you, he doesn’t. It’s not right. It’s not legal. He can’t own you.”
Sadness rippled through the dawn as she looked away. “I could stay, Alexis, and you would do everything you could to help me, and you know I’d just end up right back down there, anyway. I’m not worth it.”
She looked back at me. For the first time in a long time, her eyes were shining with resolve. “Just…stay away. I call you, don’t listen. Know it’s a lie.”
The energy shifted, building in intensity, fierce and savage.
I jerked my head to look over my shoulder.
Zee was standing at the entry to the hall, wearing nothing but his underwear, every inch of him straining with the clear need he had to protect me.
I had thought this house had been my reprieve, but it was Zee who had become my safe place.
Avril startled. “Oh.”
I looked back to her. “We can protect you.”
She stumbled back, her gaze wary as Zee started across the floor.
“Avril,” he said, “let us help you.”
She fumbled a couple more steps back. “Protect her.”
Then Avril turned, stumbled down my steps, and bolted.
Chapter Thirty-Eight
Zee
“I need to see him. Know he’s safe.” I squeezed the phone so tight I was pretty sure I could hear it crack.
“Ten thousand.”
I was done. So fucking done.
“You think I’m just gonna hand over ten grand? Always knew you were nothing but a greedy, selfish bitch, but this time you’ve gone too far.”
Pretty sure she’d crossed that line when she’d sold her house. The house I’d bought for them. To keep them safe.
“You know everything comes at a cost. You want to see him, it’s ten.”
I gritted my teeth, gripping at the back of my neck as I stormed around my loft, trying to rein it in. “He’s not a fucking pawn, Veronica.”
“You know how it works.”
“Not anymore, it doesn’t. I’m done. I’m going to see him, and you aren’t going to stop me.”
She laughed. “Don’t fuck with me, Zee. You should know better than that.”