With a few taps on my phone, their numbers were erased, the calls and texts were banned, and the previous threads were gone.
They no longer existed in my immediate life. I wouldn’t see their names on my screen again.
It was over.
“Heath?”
I looked up and, at the expression on Creek’s face, touched my cheeks and found them a little damp. I wasn’t sobbing or in hysterics. The pain was a dull, uncomfortable ache, and I hugged my middle as he hopped over and then dropped to his knee beside my chair.
“What happened? Did I hurt you?”
My eyes widened. “What?”
“My nightmares,” he said quietly.
I shook my head. “No. No, honey. I…I couldn’t sleep. I decided it was time.”
He swallowed heavily. “For what?”
“To end it. I blocked them all.”
It took him a second, but realization dawned on his face. “Your family.”
I nodded. I wanted to say more, but my tongue felt glued to the roof of my mouth, so I just shrugged helplessly.
He lifted higher, cupping my cheeks, and kissed me until I could breathe again. “I’m so proud of you, darlin’. So damn proud.”
The ache was a little less now. I held him for a long, long moment. “Pain like this kind of sucks. Like, a lot.”
He huffed a soft laugh. “Don’t I know it. But you’re not alone.” He pulled back after a beat, then lifted my hand to his lips and kissed my knuckles. “What can I do to help?”
I laughed. “Fuck me?”
I’d meant it as a joke, but his eyes suddenly went very dark, and he squeezed my fingers tightly. “Yeah? You’d want that?”
“God, yes,” I said, unable to be anything but honest. “I’m okay if we don’t, though, I promise. I don’t want to push you if you’re not ready.”
He looked down at where we were touching, then looked back up into my face and stood, taking me with him. He tugged me close. We were both a little unsteady on our own, but together, we were so damn solid.
“Come to bed,” he said, his voice heavy with purpose.
I felt a little breathless. “Yeah?”
His hand snaked down my front, and he cupped me where I was getting harder with each beat of my pulse. “Let me hold you. Let me love on you. Let me fuck you.”
It was the easiest yes I’d ever given in my entire life.
CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE
CREEK
I thought I’d be nervous as hell the first time, but I wasn’t. How could I fear anything when it felt so right? It might be my first time with a man, but nothing had ever felt so natural.
We kissed in between hops as we made our way to Heath’s bed, uncoordinated and yet completely in sync. All I wanted was to make Heath feel good. Seeing the devastation on his face had broken my heart, which in itself was an unfamiliar sensation for me. I’d never felt like this before. So soft inside, so achingly soft for this man.
We tumbled onto the bed, our mouths fused together, and I breathed him in, drank him in. His lips were soft and warm against mine, his tongue slick and sensual. Despite my earlier orgasm, my cock was all in again, though it felt different.
Our moves were slower this time, not fueled by the frantic urgency we’d had before but by something deeper. Yes, I wanted to fuck him and share that with him, but most of all, I wanted to feel close to him. I wanted nothing between us, our bodies connected as intimately as they could be.
