“Tell me you’re okay.” It came through gritted teeth, and I knew he was barely hanging on to a quickly unraveling string. “Tell me you’re with me. Me.”
“I’m with you.”
Because he’d captured all of me.
Taken.
Possessed.
He slowly withdrew before he slid back in. He wrapped an arm just under my breasts, the other winding up at the side of my hair. He tugged me a little to the side, his mouth coming down on my exposed neck, nibbling at the skin, trailing my chin. Oh so soft as he brushed it against my ear.
“Do you have any idea what this feels like? Being in you this way? Fuck…so fucking good, Blue. No girl should feel this good.”
He struggled for a breath. “But it’s more. You. Trusting me. Letting me take. Fuck…just wish I could give. Do you hear me? What have you done? What have you done?”
I’d fallen.
He began to move in a hypnotizing dance.
Slow and fierce.
Careful and abandoned.
Pained and perfect.
That energy rose up on all sides. Billowing and blistering and building.
The entire world dropped away, and we were in a free fall.
It was the weightlessness that felt so good. No thought given to the ground that would come up so quickly. No consideration for the sharp, jagged rocks waiting to pierce us when we landed.
Lyrik released his hold from under my breasts, his hand so hot against my stomach as he rocked into me, our bodies lost to a heedless, reckless rhythm. Callused fingers played across my lower abdomen, drifting lower until he spread me, stroking my clit.
“Lyrik.”
He melted with me until I was lost. Until my head spun with dizziness and my body burned with bliss. Until I was shivering and pushing back against him, wanting more when I wasn’t sure how much more I could take.
Until just like he said, the only thing I knew was his name.
Lyrik.
Lyrik.
Lyrik.
I screamed when I came, falling apart in his arms as he clung to me, holding me up as my bound hands went weak in the same moment as my legs.
His hips jerked and his body bowed around mine.
He shuddered and groaned.
“Blue.” The whisper caressed like the wisp of a silken sheet.
I sagged against him and he quickly loosed the tie he’d made in my bra and freed my hands.
I crumbled in his hold. Carefully, he shifted to lie us down in the middle of my bed, never letting me go. Up against all his hard and heat and mystery, I curled into a ball. He buried his nose in my hair, exhaled into the night. “My brave, beautiful Blue.”
Silence took us over, the only noise the faint whir of a passing car in the distance, the cold air pumping in through the vents, and the erratic beat of our pounding hearts.
God.
I felt it.
Felt it as if it’d become detached.
Physically removed.
That tightly held roughened exterior gone.
Shredded.
That girl I’d run from for so long relieved, as if she’d lain in wait amongst the deepest roots. Dormant for the winter. Blossoming beneath the sun. Sprouting new growth.
Freed.
Lyrik squeezed me closer, and I could feel his hesitation, a suppressed turmoil that pressed against the warmth enveloping us. Like an echo of my own fear and hope. “Come with me to California tomorrow.”
Shock froze me, but he continued on, his words pouring out as if maybe he wanted to stop them but couldn’t. “We’re heading out early and I’m going to visit my family before the show Anthony has organized for tomorrow night. Come with me. Shea’s gonna be there one last time before the baby comes. I want you there, too. Stay the weekend. I’m not ready to let this go.”
“This?” I hazarded the question, no longer able to camouflage how raw he made me feel. The things he made me want. “Us? Or the sex?”
His swallow was jagged. “I’m not sure anymore.”
In confusion, I lifted my head and looked at this volatile man where he lay silhouetted in the glow of moonlight. This boy who I could no longer view as bad.
But I knew.
I knew the words coming from his mouth made him more dangerous than ever. I blinked and tried to orient myself. To find solid ground, even if it was Tamar Gibson who was finding it.
“Who is she?” I whispered as softly as I could to keep him from freaking out. Softer still to hide the jealousy the memory of her wrapped in his arms had flared.
But it was the one thing I needed to know. If I was laying it all on the line. If I was letting this go beyond this night.
I needed to know.
I could feel it trembling. Pulsing in the air. The stir of energy.
Grief struck in his expression, and he cupped the side of my face. “She is the culmination of every mistake I ever made. My every regret. Everything I’ll never forget.”
Like a fool, I nodded as if I could accept it, as if that alone wouldn’t crush me, and let him wrap me in the comfort of his arms, my face pressed into the inked skin of his neck.
Our hearts matched pace, the beating slow as we drifted in the false calm.
He pressed his mouth to the top of my head, the words muted and slurred as he neared sleep. But still, they cut me straight through.
“If my heart was mine to give, I’d give it to you.”