“What is it?” Stone asks as I distantly realize that he’s pulled off the road and is barely in his seat anymore.
I take a shaky breath, staring into his dark eyes, and as I truly take him in, I realize that wasn’t just a dream. No made-upnightmare could conjure eyes that familiar, that detailed. Those eyes . . . They’re the reason for the scar on the back of my head, the reason my thighs and stomach are covered in burns, the very reason I spent almost a year alone in a hospital, desperately trying to regain any semblance of a life. Those eyes took my only family away from me. They’re the reason Stone spent seven years behind bars. The reason the one man who always had my back believed that I’d betrayed him.
“I . . . I think I remember Ash,” I tell Stone.
He closes his eyes and pulls away from me, his hand dropping from my shoulder. “Fuck,” he breathes.
“He was your brother, and my—”
“FUCK!” Stone roars, pushing out of the Firebird and into the deserted country road. He begins to pace, the heaviness of his brother clearly weighing on his mind. He drags his hand down his face, trying to regain composure.
He told me earlier that his brother was dead. But if that was the night of the fire and the night Stone was arrested, then that means that out of the six men he killed that night, one of them was his brother, and he killed him in an attempt to save me. Only I slipped into a coma. I wasn’t there to have his back when he was arrested. I wasn’t there when he was put on trial. I didn’t come forward and save him the way he risked it all to save me.
Shit.
A heaviness weighs over me, and I push out of the car, my body still trembling from reliving the worst night of my life. I make my way around the front of the car, breathing in the fresh air. “Stone, I—”
“Were you dreaming aboutthatnight?” he questions, those dark eyes coming back to me, his whole body practically vibrating with rage. “The night Ash—”
“Yes,” I say, not truly knowing if we’re referring to the same night, but judging by the look in his eyes, I can only assume we are. “Did he rape me?”
Stone shakes his head, blowing out a heavy breath. “No, he didn’t get the chance. Not before I . . . FUCK!”
I step toward him, reaching for his arm, but he pulls away, clearly struggling with what he had to do to protect me. This is all on me. Maybe I fucked up. Maybe I allowed myself to be in that position due to naivety. I was young and trusting. Maybe I chose to see the best in Ash because I knew who he was before. Maybe I believed things could have been different, putting myself directly in the path of a man whose intentions were unimaginable to me at seventeen. It was my fault that Stone had to make the impossible decision between his brother and me.
Does he resent me? Is that why he’s been so hell-bent on hating me?
Tears fill my eyes, and I hastily wipe them away as Stone puts even more space between us. “I’m sorry,” I call after him. “I didn’t know. I didn’t mean to bring him up. It just . . . I’m starting to remember things, but I get it now. I get why you hate me so much. It’s my fault that—”
Stone whips around, his dark eyes searching mine as he steps right back into me, his hand grasping my waist and pulling me in against him. “You think I hate you?” he questions, horror thick in his tone.
“I can see that you do. I just . . . I’m sorry. I didn’t—”
“Riley,” he growls, a fierce longing in his eyes as he cuts me off, his tone igniting that familiar tension between us. Only now, it burns so much stronger than it ever has before, and there’s no longer anything standing between us. It’s just me, him, and the open road.
My chest heaves as he stares at me, almost terrified to cross that line. “Stone,” I whisper, my fingers itching to reach out tohim, to close the distance and take everything he’s been holding back from me.
He shakes his head, the need in his eyes like nothing I’ve ever seen before. It’s so raw and intense, filled with the kind of passion a girl couldn’t possibly ignore.
I hold his stare, not understanding what this is or what it means, only that I need it more than I need my next breath. “What is this?” I ask, searching his stare for any sign that this is all in my head as I reach for him again. “Stone, I—”
He clenches his jaw, and the tension between us finally snaps. “Fuck it,” he growls, closing the distance in a blink of an eye, his hands clutching my waist and pulling me in before his hungry lips crush down against mine.
He kisses me deeply, his lips moving against mine as though they were made for me, and his hands sink lower to my ass. I press into him, not nearly close enough, as the raw hunger explodes within me, and when he grips my ass tighter and lifts me, my legs automatically lock around his waist.
My body comes alive, pure fire burning through my veins as my lips move against his. I throw my arms around his neck, holding on desperately, but it’s not nearly enough. I need so much more.
“Fuck, Menace,” he murmurs against my lips, his tongue swooping into my mouth and driving me wild before walking us back over to the Firebird and sitting me on the hood.
He leans into me, one hand braced against the hood, the other firmly gripping my ass as he grinds between my thighs, letting me feel just how ready he is to claim every last inch of me, and damn it, he’s huge.
“God, Stone. I need to have you,” I say, breaking his kiss for only a moment.
His big hand curls around my neck, using his thumb to tilt my chin up until I meet his heated stare. “Do you have any fuckingidea how long I’ve waited to hear those words come out of your mouth?”
I shake my head, truly not knowing, but a sound in the distance has his gaze shifting from mine. A car is coming our way, and Stone lets out a sigh, disappointment shining in his eyes.
Seriousness settles between us, the fire from earlier still resting in my veins. He slowly shakes his head, his stare never breaking from mine. “I could never hate you, Menace,” he murmurs, looking at me as though I’m the most precious gemstone. “You have no fucking idea just how far I’d go to protect you. You’ve been my world since I was seven years old, and I’d kill men like Ash every fucking day if it meant keeping you by my side, whether they’re the only blood I have or not. You come first. I’m never letting go of you, Menace.You’re mine.You’ve always been mine, and no amount of time, distance, comas, or fucking prisons is going to change that.”
