Rein In (Willow Bay Stables #3)(24)

It all seemed to make more sense now, the dutiful fury behind yesterday.

I closed my eyes.

“I’m sorry,” he promised.

It felt like a promise, anyway.

Resting my head against his shoulder, I tried to stop the tears from falling. “Why are you sorry?”

“I’m sorry that I’m a man with blood on his hands,” he whispered. “Someone with a light as bright as yours shouldn’t spend her days in the dark.”

Lifting my head, I let my hands find their way to either side of his hard jaw.

“Then let me show you the sun.” I sat up and my lips found his.

He met mine with a near decade of sorrow, and I took it.

There was no hesitation from him in this kiss, not the way he had been that evening in the kitchen.

He was sure of this kiss, and I was sure I had enough light for the both of us.





“THEN LET ME SHOW YOU the sun.”

The wounds on my heart practically bled onto her lips as we kissed.

I didn’t know if one person could have enough light for two people, but she sure gave me hope.

Hope.

It had been so long since I’d felt it that I barely recognized what it looked like. I had been missing out. Hope was such a beautiful thing, and hope with Aurora… well, it was something else entirely.

Her hands slid from my jaw up into my hair, and I pulled her closer.

The warmth of her bathed over me and instead of pain, all I felt was the heat.

She was that exact moment you open your eyes after a bad dream. She was the fraction of a second when you realize it was just a nightmare. You’re awake now, and everything will be okay.

How could one person be all of that? She’d have to be an angel.

With our bodies pressed together in that little back booth, I kissed her for all the years I lived in the shadows, because with her lips on mine, my soul no longer felt eager to return to them.

Just a little longer in the sun would do no harm.

I turned, pulling her into my lap and fisted my hands in the long, white blonde of her hair. It held as much magic for me as the wings of an angel or the halo of a saint.

“Excuse me?” Someone somewhere called out to us, but I ignored them.

Tilting her head back, I took her mouth with every demon I possessed, letting them dive to their death on her lips.

Nothing so dark could resist her, and she welcomed them.

Her light burned everything around her, including me.

“I’m sorry but…” Someone tapped my shoulder.

They’d have to drag me from this booth by my hair to get me to stop kissing her.

“Miss,” the voice scolded.

Aurora dragged her mouth from mine. She blinked her eyes open, once then twice, her breathing labored and heavy.

I let my forehead rest on hers, and the muscles in my arms tightened around her.

“Yes?” she asked the voice that had interrupted us, but she didn’t move, not even an inch.

“I’m going to have to ask you to leave,” the voice, which I now recognized was male, said in a hushed tone.

My lips turned up, and the smile that spread across them was involuntary.

“Okay,” Aurora spoke, breathy and unevenly.

Sliding a hand from her hair to the side of her neck, I lifted her chin ever so slightly and took her mouth with mine, again.

She didn’t hesitate, her arms wrapping around my neck, pulling me closer. With ease, she met my pace. Where I ebbed, she flowed, and my heart danced a riot in my chest.

To kiss a woman is something every man should wish for, but to kiss an angel, that was something most wouldn’t even dare to consider.

When our lips finally parted, I could barely breath. My head felt dizzy and my skin was on fire.

“You really have to leave,” the man hissed.

Aurora blushed crimson as she shimmied off my lap and out of the booth. Her lips were swollen from my kisses, and her hair was a mess from my hands.

“I’m sorry.” She nodded in the direction of the man while she grabbed her bag from the opposite side of the booth.

Snagging my sunglasses from the table, I pushed them onto my nose and stood to my full height above the waiter. He watched me, eyes wide. I was nearly a foot taller than him, much larger than I appeared sitting down.

My arm found its way to the small of Aurora’s back, and I guided her into my side.

“I’m not sorry,” I told him. “Not in the slightest.”

Her hands covered her face, and she hid in the side of my chest as I walked us out of the restaurant.

Now that I’d held her so close, it felt impossibly cold not to have her next to me.

“Rhys.” She laughed when I caged her against the hood of her truck.

I nodded, burying my face in her neck.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her hands running up the front of my chest.

Lifting my head, I looked down at her and frowned.

“You’re shaking,” she whispered.

I raised a hand from where it was pressed and held it between our faces. It was practically vibrating. My whole body was.

My inexperience gutted me as I watched the man I thought I was visibly quiver.

“It’s been a long time…” I didn’t know how to say it.

Her hands moved from my chest and wrapped around either side of my shaking body.