I could feel everything breaking apart.
The foundation I’d known rocked.
Obliterated.
But I wasn’t afraid.
I knew when we hit the bottom, he would be right there to catch me.* * *Darkness wisped like pale threads through the room, the night long, the quiet lulling us into a deeper peace.
Royce’s arms were curled around my body, and I was tucked into the den of his chest. Secure and held.
Our hearts thrummed at a hushed pace, contentment covering me in a blanket of euphoria.
Royce hugged me closer and pressed a tender kiss to the side of my face. He exhaled. It sent a river of that energy rippling through the air. “I think we just defiled your childhood bed.”
A smile pulled across my mouth as I snuggled down deeper into the well of his warmth. “I think it was worth it.”
I could feel the force of his grin. “Yeah? Well the rest of the house might not be so agreeable.” Amusement blustered through his quieted tone, the man the lightest I’d ever felt him be. I wanted to hold onto that, too.
His joy.
Wanted to be partner to it.
To feed it. Nourish it. Watch it grow.
“You think they heard us?” I whispered. Redness bloomed on my cheeks, and I trailed my fingers over the intricate king tattooed on the back of his hand, knowing he was mine. Realizing I was right there. Waiting for his next play.
“Nah.” It was a short, muted laugh. A complete lie.
I cringed. “Oh my god. . . that is so embarrassing. My daddy is gonna kill me.”
Those strong arms flexed as he pulled me tighter, so close I didn’t know where he started and I ended, our legs bare and tangled, our hearts synced. A beat in time that only belonged to us. He nuzzled his face into my hair, his words a slight, growling murmur. “You still think it was worth it?”
I rolled around to face him, staring into those onyx eyes glinting in the threads of light that poured in through the window.
I touched his face. “You are worth everything.”
He gathered my hand, kissed across my knuckles before he twined our fingers together. “I want to be. I want to be worthy of you. Want to give you everything in this life.”
“What if the only thing I want is you?”
A grin played over his lush mouth, though there was something sad about it. “You have me, Emily. For the first time in years, I feel real. Like maybe I could be whole again.” Somberness stole through his expression. “You were the last person I should have fallen for. It shouldn’t have been possible for me to fall at all.”
“Because you’re a representative of Mylton Records?”
“Because my life is so much more complicated than you know.” Guilt spilled out with the words. “Have a history, Emily. Baggage.”
I shifted, and he rolled onto his back. I angled up on my side so I could look down on this man who I still couldn’t really believe was lying in my bed. “What if I want to carry some of that baggage for you? Hold you the way you’ve been holding me? That’s what love is, Royce.” I traced my fingers over the inscription on his chest. “Maybe you forgot what love is or maybe you stopped believing that it was real. But you found it in me, just like I found it in you. We belong.”
“I’m afraid you’re going to hate me when you find out who I really am.”
“That’s not possible,” I rushed through a whisper. My hand spread over the pounding in his chest. “I know you.”
He brushed his fingers through my hair, dark eyes fierce. “We’re going to take him down together.”
“I don’t want you to get in trouble with your job when I do it.”
Coming out was going to put two of the men I loved the most on the line.
Royce and Richard.
Hard, low laughter rolled out of Royce. “Don’t you worry about me.”
“How can I not worry about you? I love you, remember?” An adoring smile tugged at my mouth.
Royce pulled me to straddle him, that unyielding gaze on me. Though it’d gone tender. Soft, unrelenting affection that filled me to overflowing. He reached up and cupped my face in one of those massive hands. “I want to live for you.”
I leaned down, my lips a whisper against his. “And I want to sing for you.”
I could feel his smile beneath the softest kiss.
“What song is it you want to hear, Royce? What can I give you?”
He gripped me by both sides of the face. “Peace.”
He looked up at me, awareness spinning through the space, energy alive.
Want went slip-sliding across my flesh, as intoxicating as his hands that slid over my shoulders and down my sides to grip me by my waist. Royce lifted me, lining up his massive length with my center, and he slowly guided me onto his erection, the man hard and ready for me again.