Fighting Redemption(43)

“Well,” she muttered, leaning over and running her hands over the lawn searching for the key. “I’m not telling you what else he says then.”

“Oh yeah?” Ryan launched himself at her, tackling her around the waist. He landed on his back with a thud, Fin falling on top of him. She scrambled back, straddling him. “I know ways to make you talk.”

Fin raised a brow at him, and he trailed his finger down the V of her top, careful to make sure it traced teasingly over the delicious swell of her breast.

She whipped her head around, peering up and down the street. “Ryan, we’re on the front lawn.”

“Whose fault is that?”

“Yours,” she moaned when he cupped both breasts in his hands, rubbing his thumbs over her nipples.

“Fuck,” he muttered, desire coiling tight in his belly. He ran his hands down the flimsy edges of her top. “I want to rip this thing off you.”

“Oh God. Don’t. You’ll shred my skin.”

He looked at her, aghast. “What have you done? Glued the thing to your boobs?”

“No!” She huddled down on top of him, and he bit back a groan at the warm weight of her chest pressing against his. “It’s taped on.”

“Really? So I get to unwrap you like a present?” Ryan ground his hips into her, liking the idea.

“Ryan!”

“Are you blushing, baby? Because your face looks bright enough to light up the entire lawn. We might just find the key after all.”

Leaning up a little, he caught her bottom lip in his teeth and nibbled lightly. He heard her breath catch before her mouth opened beneath his and her tongue slid inside.

Ryan groaned, his hand sliding up to fist her hair as she kissed him wildly. Breathless, he broke it off and pushed her away. “We need that f*cking key.”

After what he was sure was a lifetime of frantic searching, Fin jumped to her feet with a squeal, holding up the little silver key in triumph.

He stood and grabbed her hand. “Inside. Now.”

“No.” Fin started yanking him towards the side of the house.

“Where are we going?”

“The yard,” she told him, unlatching the gate and tugging him along behind her.

“Fin—”

“Shush.”

Their feet crunched softly against the sandstone pavers as Fin led him along the side of the house and around the low set timber decking.

When they reached the middle of the lush thick lawn, she pulled him in close. Breathing softly, Fin pointed upwards. Wrapping his arms around her waist, Ryan looked up into the black sky. “What?”

“The stars, Ryan.” She tilted her head, exposing the long sweet line of her throat as she looked up. “Do you know why they shine?”

He quirked a brow at her. “Am I getting a science lesson?”

“If you’re lucky.”

“I can think of other ways to get lucky right now,” he told her.

Fin rolled her eyes. “That was terrible.”

He chuckled softly. “I know.”

“Look up,” she said, sounding impatient.

Ryan did as he was told, his eyes falling on the twinkling stars.

“Have you heard the term a star is born? It’s not as romantic as it sounds, but it’s a process called nuclear fusion. You would get that, with it being the same process used inside weapons.”

He nodded and looked at her, but her face was still tilted upwards, absorbed in the night sky as she spoke. “And they shine because they have huge fusion reactors in their cores that release enormous amounts of energy. Did you know it can take a single photon up to a hundred thousand years to get from the core of the star to its surface? And the sun, which is the closest star to earth, takes eight minutes for its light to reach us? That means when you’re looking at the sun, you’re seeing it as of eight minutes ago. So these stars you’re looking at now …” She looked at him and frowned. “Look up, Ryan.”

Ryan tore his eyes from hers and focused once again on the sky. “We’re seeing those stars as they were centuries, or even thousands of years ago. It’ll take billions of years for one of them to die, yet Jake was gone in only twenty-seven of those.”

Ryan swallowed the lump in his throat her words caused. “What are trying to say, Fin?”

Fin looked at him, her eyes filling with tears. “That it doesn’t matter if you live a billion years, or just a short handful like Jake. It’s how bright you burn while living them that really matters, and Jake burned so bright it hurt my eyes.”

Overwhelmed, Ryan buried his face in her neck, breathing her in. “You’re so beautiful,” he whispered hoarsely. Pulling back, he cupped her face in his hands and looked at her fiercely. “You burn just as bright, sweetheart.”

Her eyes were wide and so full of love it made his heart ache. “So do you, Ryan,” she replied softly.

Lowering her gaze, Fin carefully peeled her top away from her skin and pulled it over her head. She took a step back as she shimmied out of her skirt, leaving him breathless as she stood in nothing but a scrap of black lace. “I want you out here, under the stars.”

“Fin,” he breathed.

She stepped out of her shoes and moved towards him, reaching for the hem of his shirt.