Jet (Marked Men #2)(87)

He put a hand under my ass to hoist me up higher and ran his other hand over my seriously unbrushed hair.

“It’s where I’m supposed to be. Good thing the teenager in the room next to yours took a fancy to those long-ass legs, or I would still be wandering around the parking lot. I was going to come to the hospital if you didn’t show up in another hour, but I figured here was a better bet, just in case things with your brother were really bad and you didn’t want me there.”

I buried my nose in the crook of his neck and just breathed him in and out. He felt so solid and real. I swore to myself I was never going to let him go again. He tasted salty from the Kentucky humidity and from my tears running down the side of his neck and into the collar of his shirt.

“I want you here.”

“Want to give me the key to your room so we can stop giving the nice family from Michigan a show?”

“It’s in my back pocket.”

I felt him digging around in the pocket of my cut-off jean shorts and his chest move up and down as he chuckled a little against me.

“I gotta tell ya, Ayd. I’m a fan of the South if this is what you’re gonna be wearing while you’re here.”

I had on cut-off jean shorts and my cowboy boots with a tank top, which was pretty much the uniform while I was home, and not really appropriate for Colorado, since the weather there never wanted to make up its mind. I felt him get the door open and move us inside. He kept his hold on me and sat down on the edge of the bed. I wanted to tell him it was probably gross and he should pull the comforter off, but more than that I just wanted him to keep holding on to me and make everything feel better.

“I’m so happy to see you.”

He rubbed the back of my neck and I closed my eyes and just let him soothe me.

“You could have called me at any time, Ayd. I would have been on the first plane out.”

“I don’t know what I’m doing, Jet. I don’t even know how I got this far alone.” I exhaled against his neck and felt him shiver. “I need to tell you some stuff and I need you to promise me that it’s not going to make you go anywhere when I’m done.”

I felt him tense a little under me but his hands stayed steady and his voice was calm when he replied, “I’m not going anywhere, Ayd. I just flew all the way across the f**king globe to be here. You don’t scare me, this doesn’t scare me.”

“That makes one of us.”

I pulled back so that we were looking at each other and wiped my cheeks with the back of my hand. He reached up and tucked some loose strands of my hair behind my ears and the gesture was so sweet, so caring it almost made me start bawling all over again. I took a deep breath and let it all unravel.

I told him about my mom. I told him about the trailer. I told him about the boys. I told him about the drugs. I told him about the sex. I told him about Mr. Kelly and school, and finally I told him about Asa. I laid it all out as bare and naked as I could. I pulled back the curtain to show him all the secrets that were hiding there. He never blinked, just kept watching me, kept those dark eyes on mine the entire time, and those halos around the outsides got several degrees brighter and sharper the more I talked.

I told him about being entranced by him the first time I saw him onstage. I told him about how bad I wanted him that first night he turned me down for being too good of a girl, and how that played with my head for months after, because I was no one’s idea of good. I told him all I wanted was to protect him, and that the idea of Asa being behind the studio robbery had sent me running into a blind panic, and that was why I had to make him go. I was trying to get it all out, explain all the decisions, either right or wrong, that had led me here. I was going to tell him that I missed him so bad, that I loved him, and that I never wanted him to go, but I didn’t get that far, because he just stopped me by putting his mouth over mine.

It was an effective way to stem the flow of words, and it also had the added bonus of making me lose my train of thought and settle more fully into his lap. He ran his hands up the outside of my bare arms and his rings trailed little paths of cool metal all along the skin.

“Ayden,” his tone was serious and his dark eyes were intent. “You never had to do any of this alone. I would have been there for you,”

I let my forehead fall forward to rest against his. This man, who was all metal and tattoos that bled out anger and frustration, really had the softest and kindest heart I had ever encountered in my life. Now that I knew how easy it was to snap in half, I told myself it was going to be my job to take care of it from here on out.

“I know you would have, but you’re here now when I need you the most, and that’s all that really matters to me. If you still want my forever, it’s yours, Jet. No one else has ever come close and you’re the only one I have ever wanted to offer it to.”

He lifted a dark eyebrow and grinned at me.

“You in love with me, Ayd?”

I closed my eyes and kissed him like he had just kissed me. We just made so much sense together even if we made no sense at all.

“I’m in love with us, Jet.”

That made him laugh out loud and wrap me in an even tighter hug.

“That’s even better. For what it’s worth, I shouldn’t have let hurt feelings and my own fears stand in the way of us being together. I knew you were a runner from the get-go, and I shouldn’t have been such a jackass and given up the chase so easily. Now that I know what you were trying to sort through all on your own, it makes me feel like even more of a pansy. Just a fair warning, if your bro pulls out of this mess, there is a good chance I might put him right back in that hospital bed.”