“The guy got away with it. He fled the country with the money. My dad’s still bitter.” Wade pressed his lips against the top of her head, his breath warming the spot. “All the time I was growing up, my whole family had this thing about big businesses and rich people.”
“I know where this is going.” Shelby straightened, steadier now, and tried to pull away. “Don’t say anymore. I can’t take it again.”
Wade, who almost never swore, cursed and slid her from his lap onto the sand, so she was on her back. With a swift move, he shifted so he lay beside her, almost towering over her. His eyes glinted red with the light from the bonfire and held a hardness she’d never seen in him before. Determined.
“You’ll listen to me this time.” He leaned so close their noses nearly touched. “Do you hear?”
Too tired to do much more than lie there, she turned her face away from him.
“Shel, listen tothis.” He brushed away the tears running down her cheek. “I love you. It about killed me when you left.”
“Don’t you mean youlovedme?” She sniffed.
“I’ve never stopped.” Wade kissed her cheek. “I’ve spent all this time trying to figure you out and get to you again.”
“I wasn’t missing.” She looked at him.
“You might as well have been.” He pressed soft lips to her jaw and made a trail of kisses to her neck.
The last of her wall came crashing down. With a soft cry, Shelby slid her arms around his neck and pulled him closer. His mouth found hers. For four years she’d only existed. Now, in this moment, she came alive again.
“Shelby, sorry to interrupt,” Ava whispered.
When Wade broke the kiss, Shelby buried her face in his neck for a second. How humiliating. She looked up at Ava, ready to be the adult, and found the bodyguard struggling in the wind to keep a blanket up as a barrier between them and the others. Wade jumped to his feet and bent to give Shelby a hand up. Still a little wobbly, she clung to his arm.
“We need to get that fire out,” he said, “before a spark gets out of hand.”
“Already on it.” Ava started folding up the blanket. A few people threw sand on the bonfire, while others rushed to collect the food. “Shang’s checking on the weather forecast. He thinks that storm track must have shifted.”
