Kiss the Stars (Falling Stars #1)(49)

I gathered her up, held her close, and I made a silent promise that I would always be.

That this was different.

Tender when I slowly pushed myself into the sweet relief of her body.

She gasped, and her head rocked back on the couch cushion, her chest pressing into mine. I swallowed the sound, relishing in the feel of her blunted fingernails sinking into my shoulders.

Her arms tight around my neck and her heart a thunder that raced to meet with mine.

I edged back, watching down on her as I fucked her.

But I knew well enough this was different.

This was different than all those girls.

Knew I wasn’t ever going to be the same.





*



She nervously raked her teeth across her bottom lip, glancing up at me where she was curled up at my side with her head rested on my shoulder. Two of us under the covers in my bed. Her sweet body warm and alive next to mine.

Night pressed at the small window of my bedroom.

The sleazy sounds of Los Angeles howled through the darkness right outside the rundown building.

Sirens spinning. Gunshots in the distance. Shouts of hatred and abuse.

She just curled deeper into the safety of my arms while I pressed a kiss to her temple.

“Hi,” I murmured.

A timid smile pulled at her mouth, and she gazed up at me, tentatively playing her fingers across the satisfied thrum in my chest. “I never imagined this was the way my day would turn out.”

I squeezed her a little, the words I delivered close to a tease. “What, you didn’t expect to get a flat tire?”

A slight giggle slipped from her mouth. “I think I hit a little more than a bump in the road.”

I blew out a heavy sigh, shifted so I could spread my hand out over her cheek.

Sure I’d never spoken a louder truth in my entire life.

“Never could have anticipated crashing into you.”





Sixteen





Mia





The house echoed a hushed stillness, the windows darkened to a wispy calm from within, walls seeping with a resonating silence.

The hour deep.

Only hours until dawn.

But I couldn’t sleep. I guessed the worry and fear and dread were finally catching up to me. Wearing me thin.

It’d been four nights since the false alarm had rung through the house.

Tonight, I found I couldn’t remain locked inside that room for any longer, so I’d slipped out to the pool with a bottle of wine in search of peace.

That peace lasted for all of ten minutes before I heard the heavy engine roar as it came up the street and parked in the garage at the back.

His footsteps echoed from the other side of the wall as he came up the sidewalk. The gate buzzed, swung open, and he was there.

Emitting his own gravity.

He was wearing tattered jeans and another thread-bare tee, this one white and stretched taut across his strong chest.

“Mia . . . what are you doing out here this late?” The words were grated, scraping across my flesh like the seductive rake of teeth.

A shiver rolled down my spine, and I clutched my wine glass to my chest as I sat forward a little, my legs dipping deeper into the cool waters like it could halt the flashfire that lit in my body. “I didn’t realize I wasn’t allowed to be. Both you and my brother seem to think I need to be permanently locked in my room. I might as well be Brendon and Kallie with the way you treat me.”

Maybe it was a challenge. A gauntlet. A tease.

Anything to ease the tension that was banging between us.

He huffed a sound and looked to the side before bringing that penetrating gaze back to me. “Had I known you were going to be out here this late, I wouldn’t have left.”

Skeptical laugher rippled from my mouth, and I took a sip of my wine. “I thought you were here to play. I wasn’t aware that my brother had hired you as a body guard.”

“Maybe you’d be better off if he had. Seems it would have served a better purpose.”

“I don’t need a babysitter. I’ve seen plenty in my life. I’m not helpless.”

His head shook, his hair tossing shadows against the brick walls where the yard lights glowed across his face. “Never implied you were, but you have more important things to be living for than I do.”

There was something in his voice, the twist of a knife slashing his tongue that had me swiveling my attention fully to him. My eyes narrowed as I tried to make him out better through the lapping darkness. “Why would you say that?”

Blowing out a sigh, he glanced toward the wing of the house where my children slept. “I think we both know what’s really important in life, don’t we?”

My spirit clutched in an erratic way, and a thick, solid lump formed at the base of my throat.

“I know what’s important to me,” I answered on a haggard breath.

A smile tugged at his mouth. One that was utterly sad. Beautiful and dark and invading the space.

This man that was terrifyingly beautiful and devastatingly bad.

Written in the scars he wouldn’t allow anyone to see.

“Do you want to join me?” I asked, lifting the bottle of wine I had sitting on the cool deck beside me.

Blatant enticement.

Apparently, I was wanting a few more of those scars for myself.