Heaven and Hell (Heaven and Hell #1)(138)

I felt my heart clutch and breathed, “Really?”

She smiled at me. “Kia, that man adores you.”

Oh God. I hoped so.

“Patience,” I whispered, hoping with everything I had, hell, everything I was, that Celeste was right.

“Indeed, ma chérie,” she whispered back.

We both heard the door open, we both twisted our necks to look between the seats and we both saw Sam sauntering our way. After his shower, he put on a pair of exceptionally and, no other way to describe them, deliciously faded jeans and another long sleeves rolled up, button up the front, lightweight shirt. This one a green so light it was nearly white.

He looked beautiful.

I smiled at him.

He smiled back.

Yep. Beautiful.

Then he made it to us, bent deep at the waist and touched his mouth to my upturned lips.

When he pulled back he asked, “Am I interrupting girl time?”

“Absolutely not,” Celeste answered then rose, murmuring, “but I need to powder my nose.”

Powder my nose. Totally, Celeste was so cool.

She slid a small smile between the both of us and moved to the house.

Sam moved to the railing.

I left my wineglass on the arm of the chair and moved to Sam. He delayed a nanosecond before his arm slid around me and he pulled me into his body.

“Walkin’ out, you two seemed intense. Is everything all right with Celeste?” he asked.

“She’s extremely concerned about Luci,” I semi-told the truth.

Sam sucked in breath through his nose, turned to face the ocean and let it out on a quiet, “Fuck.”

“Before you got to the beach today, Luci shared that she’s cut her trip to Italy short. She’s not going back. She’s staying here.” Sam’s eyes came back to me. “At Celeste’s advice, I’m going to find my time soon and have a direct chat with her.”

“That’d be good seein’ as I talked to Vitale today after I got back from the gym but before goin’ out to the beach and he said he tried a couple of times to broach it but in the end, pulled back. Spoiled her when she was a kid. Spoiling her now. Neither time is right to do that shit but this time, he should have more balls.”

“You’re right,” I agreed.

Sam, not wearing sunglasses, looked closely at me. “You think it should be me who talks to her?”

“I think that maybe she needs you as a safe haven so if I talk to her and it goes south and colors the way she feels about me, she still has you. So, no, I think it should be me who talks to her.”

He took in another deep breath and as he did it, his arm around me got tighter, pulling me closer and he noted gently, “Not gonna be pleasant for you, baby.”

“What she said to me in Italy, what Celeste said, I don’t know but I don’t think we should ignore the signs, Sam. So unpleasant or not, it’s time for someone to step in and that someone is going to be me.”

He nodded and his arm got tighter even as his body shifted closer and he asked, “You know what you’re gonna say?”

“I’m going to tell her to sit herself down a year ago with a Gordo who knew in a year he would be gone and ask her to tell me how Gordo would feel about how she is right now.”

At that, his arm got so tight, for a second, it cut off my air but for a lot longer, it made my heart race at what might have caused that reaction.

I didn’t get the chance to ask because Sam remarked, “Baby, you don’t know him, you can’t guide that conversation.”

“You’re wrong,” I replied softly. “I know, standing here right now with you, feeling the things I feel for you, this being so good, if I found out that I wouldn’t be here a year from now, I’d tell you and I’d mean it that I’d be hugely disappointed in you if you didn’t feel what you had to feel then pull your shit together and find someone else who it was good with. And from what I know of him, Travis Gordon would say the same.”

He’d been leaning us both into the railing but at my words, he straightened, taking me with him and what we were talking about evaporated and something else bloomed. And when it bloomed, it bloomed like a mushroom cloud.

I knew it looking into his face, it was intense but it wasn’t warm. It was hard and his eyes were glittering with something, anger, definitely, but something more, something deeper, something distressing. I also knew it because his other hand suddenly came up and plunged into my hair, immediately fisting.

And lastly I knew it when he rumbled low and menacing, “Do not ever say that shit again.”

Oh God.

I’d crossed a line.

“Sam –”

His neck bent suddenly so his face was all I could see.

“Do not ever say that f**kin’ shit again.”

Oh God!

“I’m so sorry,” I whispered quickly. “You’re right. I don’t know Gordo. I don’t know what he would –”

“No,” he growled. “You’re right. Gordo would say that. Gordo would be pissed as all f**kin’ hell Luci wasn’t pulling her shit together. What I’m sayin’ is, don’t you talk about dying. Don’t you ever, Kia, f**kin’ talk to me again about dying.”

What on earth was going on?

“Sam –”