He lazily slipped in and out of me a few more times while I stroked up and down his arms. When he opened his eyes, my breath hitched.
It was the lightness I rarely got to see. All the shit he had seen, the loss, the deaths—it was wiped away for those few seconds he was in my arms. Then he was kissing my bruised lips again, but this time it was gentle and sweet, a slow warmth bringing us back down to where we needed to be.
When he stopped kissing me, he rolled onto his back, one hand beneath his head while the other brought me with him and kept me locked against his side. We lay still and silent, while our breathing slowed and we got our emotions back in control.
I lay my cheek on his chest, my hand resting on his abdomen, drawing little circles. “I got us in some serious shit.”
He huffed and I felt his hands in my hair as he caressed me. “None of this is your fault. They handpicked Connor. You’re collateral. No matter what decision you made, it would’ve been the same outcome. All of it was to make certain Connor became theirs and to make certain it stays that way. What we need to find out is why him.”
“You think we can ever bring him back?” I knew Deck wouldn’t lie to me and I held my breath waiting for his answer.
“Even if we did, I don’t know if you’d even recognize the man anymore, Georgie. Connor was a good guy. He cared about every innocent life in this fuckin’ harsh world. He’d have given his life for a perfect stranger. Shit, he risked his life for strangers every day. Countless times he risked his life for some kid caught in the middle of a shit storm. That was him.” He hesitated and I tilted my head to look up at him. “Babe, chances are he doesn’t want out now.”
I tried to swallow, but my throat was so tight it hurt. Tears filled my eyes and it was for the loss of Connor because he had died the second they took him. My brother was dead and that was what Deck was preparing me for if we ever saw him again.
“We need to read his journal.”
“Yeah,” I whispered as I kissed his chest.
“We lay low for now. We plan. Then when the time is right, we go after them.”
I moved up his body until my mouth was inches from his. “Promise me you won’t let them have you, too.”
“Can’t make that kind of promise, Georgie.”
I closed my eyes and nodded.
He kissed the single tear that escaped. “Babe, I waited ten years for us. I’ll do what it takes to keep us together.” He kissed the tip of my nose. “And only one person can ever truly have me, Georgie, and that is you.”
Sunday brunch, four weeks later
“SWEETPEA?”
“Rainbow,” Deck replied.
I laughed and smacked him in the chest. He started calling me that when I dyed my hair again. I knew he didn’t like the blue, so I surprised him a few weeks ago. Now, I had pink tips with a few stray strands of purple. “You need a bigger terrace.”
Deck’s brows rose and his mouth twitched which had me standing on my tiptoes and kissing the corners. His arm hooked around my waist and he drew me hard against him. He whispered in my ear and shivers sprinkled like blooming wildflowers across my skin. “Penthouse with a plunge pool not big enough for you?”
I was being sarcastic and he knew it. I pretty much lived here now. Actually, we were looking to rent out my place since I was never there. There hadn’t really been a discussion on where we’d live. It was Deck telling me I was moving in and me conceding because shit, who wouldn’t want to live in a penthouse with a plunge pool? “Not really. Is there something above a penthouse? Something a little nicer. More … I don’t know, classier.”
He snorted and bit the lobe of my ear. “Yeah, it’s called Heaven. And you’re not going there anytime soon. You’ll have to make do with our lowly penthouse.” I loved that he called it ours. He nodded to the terrace where our friends were. “And they don’t mind the new location of our Sunday brunch.”
“That’s because they’re too scared of you to say anything.”
He growled, but it turned into a chuckle.
“Sweet mother of fuck. Deck chuckles? I need to blow a horn. We need an announcement.” Crisis, the bass guitarist of Tear Asunder, sauntered into the kitchen grinning ear to ear. “Guess no more grabbing her perfect ass. Have to make do with Haven’s, only single chick left in the group.”
I laughed because touching Haven was off-limits. First of all, Ream would kill him because Haven was his twin sister and Crisis was a cocky, arrogant womanizer. Secondly, from the limited times I’d met Haven, I was betting she’d snap his neck if he even tried it. The girl was cold, like ice cold, although it was deceiving considering she looked like an angel.