A Stone in the Sea(102)

Muted moans. A choked sob of pleasure.

My name. My name. My name.

She chanted it again and again, the drum of her song beating into me. Every inch of me tightened, pleasure building strong and fast.

I took her as deep as I could get her as this girl splintered in my arms, seeping into me, sinking fast to where I’d felt her slipping into since the moment I’d met her.

All that beautiful bliss broke, speeding through my cock and my heart and my mind.

Pouring into her, I came in the well of that sweet, tight body.

Some secret part of me was hoping it would take root.

That Shea would be tied to me forever.

She and I creating something good.

But I knew without a shadow of a doubt that we already were.

Fingers dug deeper into my shoulders as Shea searched for her breath, our bodies still alight in the passion that swelled between us, a buzz in the air, the energy refusing to let us go.

I pressed a closed-mouthed kiss to her lips before I pulled back to cast her an adoring smile. “I love you.”

The one she sent me back reached in to touch me all the way in my scarred heart, this girl fully seated within the cracks.

Right where she always belonged.

“I never needed anyone to love me until I needed you,” she said.

I brushed back the hair matted to her forehead, and I felt the frown grow on my face. I hated to go back there, but I knew this had to be resolved before we could move on with our lives. “My attorney got the article pulled.”

Swallowing hard, she nodded. “That’s good.” It sounded like it was hard to say.

I glanced to the side, building up, playing with a lock of her hair before I peered back at her. “Tomorrow I’m going to make a statement. I want the world to know you’re with me. No more speculation about you and Kallie. I’m going to tell them you’re my family now. They’ll hound us for a while with the news, but they’ll get bored after a while.”

Darkness skated across her features.

“Baby, I know it’s scary, but it’s the best way. The more we hide, the more they’re going to want to know. Let’s just get this out of the way so we can move on and put it behind us. We’re going to have to face it some time. We might as well do it now.”

She shook her head, like she was trying to silence me.

“Sebastian,” she whispered, and those tears just wouldn’t quit. “I want that, more than anything, for the world to know you’re mine. But there’s something you need to know about me before you do that.”

Dread curled in my stomach and I clung to her a little tighter. “There’s nothing you can say that will change the way I feel about you.”

Intensity swelled, working right back into a restless frenzy, and I knew…I knew I was now in the eye of her storm.

A counterfeit calm.

“What is it?” I demanded, just needing to know.

Wind battered the window pane, and I jarred with the sound of the doorbell ringing below.

Shea’s eyes grew round with worry.

I shook my head. “Leave it. Whoever it is can wait. I need to know what you’re talking about, baby.”

She hesitated, before the bell rang again, followed by a fist pounding on the door.

“Shit,” I muttered. That same anger blistered through me that I’d been subject to throughout the entire day. The sorry fucker who had the audacity to come knocking at Shea’s door, shoving microphones and cameras in our faces, was going to pay.

Shea wiggled out from under me and started to roll from the bed. I snatched her by the wrist. “This isn’t over, Shea.”

She grimaced as she looked back at me from over her shoulder. “No, you’re right. This isn’t over.”

She rushed to pull her pajama shorts back on, fumbled through the buttons of her sleep shirt while I was dragging on my jeans, because I sure as hell wasn’t going to allow her to face whatever bullshit was waiting for her outside alone. My bullshit. What I’d dragged into her town and into her life.

Guess maybe that statement I promised to make would be coming tonight rather than in the morning.

Someone pounded again and Shea jogged downstairs. I was right at her heels. I haphazardly raked my hands through my hair, trying to tame what I was sure were the telltale signs that Shea and I had just been going at it. Considering Shea’s mussed-up state, there wasn’t going to be much denying it anyway.

More fuel for the fire.

Fucking fantastic.

Shea hit the bottom floor and rushed toward the door. She stopped short to peer through the peephole.

A small gasp shot from her and she took a shocked step back, and her head began to shake in clear confusion as she warily inched away from the door.

I moved around her, pushing a hand out toward her as if to tell her to stay.