With meaning, her brown eyes drew thin. “You realize I see the same thing when I look at you?”
I flinched but she continued, “Maybe both of you are the missing piece…what the other has been looking for.”
I forced the off-handed laughter. “Come on, Shea. Let’s not pretend we all don’t know what’s happening here. That boy’s just looking for a little fun while he’s in town. Who better to pass it with than me?”
I shot for the blasé, badass girl Shea’d worked with for years behind the bar. The one who took shit from no one. The one who was game to play as long as she won.
But who the hell was I fooling? Because I had the overwhelming urge to touch my throat. To soothe the way it throbbed when I said it.
She just rubbed a tender hand down her swollen belly. “Sometimes fear shouts so loudly it drowns out everything else.”
Well, I sure as hell wasn’t fooling her.
We both turned our eyes to the beach. There was no mistaking her apprehension as she watched Lyrik with her daughter in the ocean. They’d gotten deep enough the waves lapped at his waist.
The little girl squealed and clapped and kicked in her excitement.
I wondered if it was torment for her to watch, for her to feel out of control, knowing how easily she’d lost hold of her little girl in the waves around this time last year. Thank God Sebastian had gotten to her in time.
“How do you let it go? The fear?” I asked.
A mix of unease and comfort traveled over her. She lifted a shoulder. “I think it comes to a point where you have to allow hope and belief to outshine the fear. Because I don’t know if the fear ever truly goes away. We all feel it. It’s up to us how we handle it. We can hide or we can live.” She looked over at me, her tone emphatic. “And I want to live.”
Emotion welled and wound with the discomfort already lodged in my throat. I swallowed over it as I watched the man who shouted all that hope and belief but somehow couldn’t hear it himself.
Sebastian stood at the edge of the waves. He hollered at Shea, “Get that sweet ass down here and take a swim with me.”
Life lit in her expression. She leaned forward and yelled back, “Believe me, no one needs to see that. I’m just fine right here.”
He scoffed. “You lost your mind, baby? You’ve never looked better. Now get down here before I come up there and throw you over my shoulder.”
Giggles rolled from her. “All right, all right, I’m coming.”
Wow. The guy really had to twist her arm.
I laughed lightly as she pushed to her feet with a little more difficulty than she used to have. “Come on, I’m not going down there unless you do, too.”
Shaking my head, I snagged my camera and joined her. No doubt, I wasn’t going to get out of this.
I wasn’t sure I wanted to.
Our footsteps thudded against the planks of the boardwalk.
Night had drawn near, clouds deepening to a fiery pink where they hugged the horizon. Waves rolled in, growing stronger than before as the storm encroached, rising from the south.
I set my camera on the blanket spread out by the fire Anthony was building. Kindles grew hot. Flames jumped and licked as they climbed toward the sky. Coming to life.
Lyrik had passed Kallie off to Sebastian since neither of them were willing to let her stand on her own feet.
My heart rate sped when he turned around as if feeling my approach.
Waiting for me.
Ink covered his chest and stomach, scrolled all the way down his arms and onto those hands I wanted nothing more than to feel on my body. Droplets of water dripped from his jet-black hair and those eyes were severe. Pinned on me as if they could see nothing else.
My breath stuttered.
He looked so dark and wicked.
Daunting, vicious beauty.
But I recognized more.
Energy swirled, stirred up by the sea. Drawn, I peeled off my tank and jeans and edged out into the lapping waves.
Lyrik didn’t look away.
Cool water hit my feet and climbed higher and higher up my legs as I slowly made my way to the man who stood waiting for me.
So ridiculously tall.
Striking.
“Come here,” he said when I was within two feet of him.
I squealed when he shocked me by grabbing me and pulling me deeper into the waves. He wrapped me up in his arms and buried his face in my neck. “There’s my girl.”
And I fought for reserves. For my shields. For the barriers. Because for so long I’d believed vulnerability was my enemy.
I felt it greater now than I ever had.
Not in the way Cameron Lucan had made me feel.
No.
I felt it in a way that was profound.
Life-changing.
As if an unsure hand was holding my heart precariously.
A heart that could be nurtured or crushed.
Lyrik had become so capable of both.
He broke the intensity by lifting me then tossing me into the air. Water swallowed me, and I sank to the bottom before I propelled myself up. I swiped back the drenched hair sticking to my face.
“Lyrik!” I sputtered and shouted. I gave a good punch to his stomach. “You’re such a jerk.”
But there was no anger.
No venom.