“I wasn’t talking to you, Lucy,” Mom told me with a note in her voice that had me pausing and turning to look at her.
“Then who? The twins are already in their room.” I glanced behind her at Dad, who was pulling our luggage inside.
“We have company joining us,” Mom informed me, her brown gaze going around the room as she tried to avoid meeting my eyes. “It was last minute.”
“Oh. Okay.” I was too tired to try to figure out what was up with her, so I turned back toward the bedrooms.
Four took up the west wing and two others were on the east wing. Mom and Dad always took one of the masters on the east wing, and because I knew how ‘affectionate’ they still tended to be, I was happy to have that kind of distance between their room and my own.
Hearing the twins excitedly talking about going down to the beach to play from behind one of the closed bedroom doors, I smiled to myself and took the one across the hall and to the right of theirs. I loved this bedroom. The bed was huge and the perfect combination of soft and firm, but the view from the bedroom’s private balcony was what had caught my attention the first time we had spent a week there. At night, when the moon was out, it glowed off the Gulf. The sight was always breathtaking and had always brought me a kind of peace that had been lacking in my life for too long now.
I was so distracted by the thought of bed and the view I would be taking full advantage of when I was less tired, that it took me a moment to realize the shower was already running. I paused halfway into the bedroom and looked around. There was a suitcase already on the ottoman at the end of the king-sized bed.
Groaning because I didn’t want to fight with whoever was joining us on our family vacation, but I didn’t want to give up my favorite room either, I marched the rest of the way to the closed bathroom door and knocked. When no one answered and the water continued to run, I opened the door a few inches and stuck my head inside. The room was full of steam from the shower so I couldn’t see much of anything. “Hello?”
No one answered so I stepped farther into the bathroom. “Hello?” I called out again.
The bathroom was large with a walk-in shower that had the most beautiful stained glass I’d ever seen, offering some privacy in case someone walked in on you. The shower head was the kind that rained down on you from the middle of the shower with several other heads that had the kind of power to release the tension in your shoulders and lower back.
When I still didn’t get an answer, I blew out a huff and knocked on the stained glass shower door. “Hey! This is my room. You’re going to have to switch.”
The water was instantly shut off and less than a full second later the door opened. The head that popped out of the shower was one that I hadn’t been expecting. Shocked, I jumped back a step, my heart already racing while my body responded to the sight of Harris completely naked and dripping wet.
Holy hell, he was the sexiest guy I’d ever seen.
“Hey, sweetness. Sorry, I didn’t hear you come in.” He reached for the towel hanging on the wall beside the shower and wrapped it around his narrow waist before stepping out.
I couldn’t seem to catch my breath. Even with his lower body covered I was reacting to him in the only way my body knew how. I was going up in flames and I was just standing there gawking at him. He hadn’t touched me, hadn’t kissed me, hadn’t even said one sexy thing to me. Yet I was ready to have a repeat of what had happened Monday morning, and this time I wanted to take my time exploring every inch of his body.
With my body going into hyper-drive in the sexual department, my brain was trying to make sense of his presence there. What the hell? No one had said he was joining us. He hadn’t called or texted me once in the last week. I’d thought for sure he had given up on us, yet here he was.
“Wh-what are you doing here?” I choked out through a very dry throat. Every drop of moisture had flowed south and was now soaking through my panties.
He shrugged his wide shoulders and my gaze followed several drops of water as they trailed down his abdomen—fuck, I wanted to lick his six pack—and disappeared into the towel. “You’re here, that means I’m here too.”
Stupidly, my heart turned to mush at his answer. Damn it. I wrapped my arms around my middle and tried to glare at him but knew it fell short. “You’re in my room,” I told him, trying to keep my voice firm, but it shook with the need I was trying so fucking hard to suppress.
Dark brows arched over aquamarine eyes. “Really? This is usually the room I use when I come with my parents.” He grinned and took a few steps in my direction. I was so caught up in watching more droplets trailing downward that I didn’t think to move away. The next thing I knew he was right in front of me, his large hands lifting to finger one of the many curls that had escaped from the knot I’d pulled my hair into. “How pissed do you think your dad would be if we shared?”
My next breath escaped on a sigh full of all the need that was quickly raising my body temperature. “He’d probably kill you,” I murmured.
“Figured.” He dropped a kiss to my forehead and then stepped back. I just stood there, trembling with the desire only he could produce in me. “Okay, I’ll grab my things and take the room next door. But you have to share the balcony with me at night. I’m not giving up that view, sweetness.”
I couldn’t make my voice work so kept my mouth shut as I stood there watching him move around. I was still standing there when he went into the bedroom and pulled on boxers and a T-shirt. A million different things flashed through my head but only a few stuck out the most.
Harris was in Panama City.
For me.
He hadn’t given up.
Chapter 14
Harris
The condo was quiet. The twins had crashed not long after the Thorntons had arrived, and Layla and Jesse had gone to bed more than an hour ago. Even though I’d asked them if it was okay that I stayed with them at the condo, I’d been sure that Jesse would have tossed my ass off the balcony. I would have just gotten a hotel for the duration of their stay there if I’d had to. Instead, the Demon had shaken my hand, asked if I’d had a good flight and if I was hungry then disappeared into his bedroom with his wife moments later.
I was pretty sure he’d disappeared to get out of the line of fire. I’d asked Lucy’s parents not to tell her I was coming, that I wanted to surprise her. When she realized that Jesse and Layla had known I was coming, she’d huffed and gone to her room, slamming the door behind her.
That had been an hour ago.
Now I was sitting on the edge of my bed in the room next to hers, waiting on the shower to stop. I ached to be in there with her, but knew that we needed to talk before we took things that far again. I wasn’t going to fuck this up again. If I did, then I might lose her forever.
That didn’t stop my mind from picturing the water running over Lucy like a caressing hand. Didn’t stop me from imagining her rubbing her hands over every inch of her luscious body as I craved to do. With each minute the shower continued to run, my dick thickened even more. I was going to go insane if she didn’t hurry up in there.
The water shut off just as I raked my hands through my hair for the hundredth time. I jumped to my feet and quietly left my room. As I closed the door behind me, I couldn’t help but glance over my shoulder. Jesse was cool, but I wasn’t stupid. If he caught me going into his daughter’s room late at night, then he wouldn’t hesitate to throw me out via the balcony.
Her door was unlocked, so I stepped inside and silently closed and locked it. She was still in the bathroom, but the door to the balcony was open so I stepped outside. The lights in the bedroom were dimmed, and the moon was at the perfect position to glow off the water, causing me to suck in a deep breath at the beauty.
I wasn’t completely sure why this balcony was the best view in my eyes. My parents thought the best view was from the balcony off the living room. It had the same view from every room on this side of the con
do, but this one had always called to me. Now that I knew Lucy loved it just as much as I did, I understood the draw a little more.
Turning my back to the view, I waited for Lucy. The door to the bathroom was open now, letting out the lingering steam from her shower and filling the room with the sweet scents of her body wash. That sweetness mixed with the salty sea air was enough to make me dizzy. I grasped the rail behind me and sucked in a harsh breath.
Fucking hell.
Talk to her, you idiot. Don’t fuck this up. Don’t. Fuck. This. Up.
The voice of reason echoed through my head over and over again until she stepped into her room. From where I was standing I could see every inch of her. Every inch that was dressed in only an old T-shirt that fell to mid-thigh on her.
My T-shirt.
Holy fuck.
It had been so long since I’d seen that shirt, but I knew it was mine. I’d left it on the tour bus the summer Demon’s Wings and OtherWorld had toured together. Had she been sleeping in that shirt ever since? God, I hoped so.
Lucy moved toward the French doors of the balcony, turning off the lamp that was dimming the room as she went. I gripped the rail harder to keep myself from grabbing her the second she stepped outside.
This far up, the glow of the moon was the only light to see by with all the lights off in her room. It gave the entire moment a dreamlike feel to it as I watched her step outside. She didn’t move toward the rail immediately, but paused. She closed her eyes and breathed deep, as if she was letting herself relax for the first time that day. My cologne must have given me away, because she opened her eyes and looked right at me.
“Hi,” she murmured almost shyly.
“Are you wearing anything under that, Lu?” Fuck, why had I asked that? Now all I could do was picture what she was—or wasn’t—wearing under my old shirt.
She shrugged and crossed the distance to the rail, putting herself less than a foot from me. I saw the smallest ghost of a smile on her lips before she bit down into the plump bottom one. “What are you doing here, Harris?”
“Trying to keep my hands to myself, mostly.” She turned her head, meeting my gaze and I tried to remember what my plan had been for tonight. “You’re here, sweetness. That means I’m here too. I’ve wasted enough time, Lucy. Too much fucking time when we both could’ve been happy instead of slowly dying without each other.” Even in the moonlight I saw how she flinched. “I’m sorry, so goddamn sorry.”
“Is that how it felt for you too?” she whispered. “Like you were dying without me?”
“No,” I told her honestly. “No, it wasn’t like I was dying. I was dead, Lucy. I was dead without you.” Releasing the rail, I lifted a hand to push her damp curls back from her face and cupped her chin. “I woke up each morning, hating myself because I’d fucked up. I ate because Nat would yell if I didn’t. I went to work because there was nothing else to do but lie in bed hating the world. And I fell into bed at night, wishing I could go back in time and change everything. On the outside it might’ve looked like I was alive and breathing, but on the inside I was fighting for each breath I took and not giving a damn if I took it or not. My heart was shriveled up and just lying in my chest, completely dead because you weren’t there to make it beat again.”
I felt her shiver, saw the tears fill her eyes, and couldn’t have stopped myself from kissing her right then even if I had a gun pointed at my head. Wrapping my hands around her waist, I lifted her. She didn’t seem to be able to stop herself either, as her fingers dived into my hair, holding me right where she wanted me as she met my lips with a hunger that burned us both.
She tasted like heaven and hell mixed in one. So sweet, so enticing, and I couldn’t have what that taste was offering. I had to hold back, had to give her time to think, and for me to show her that what we had was forever. I loved this girl more than anyone else on the planet and I needed her to understand that before I let my dick get in the way.
My heart was trying to explode out of my chest and my hands where already exploring her curves. There was still a part of my brain that was trying to remain sane and I was fighting to hold on to that one tiny piece before I screwed this up. I wanted inside of her. Wanted to make up for all the lost time when we could have been together.
A loud cackling laugh from the balcony a few floors down had us pulling apart and I’d never been so happy to hear such an annoying sound in my life. Sucking in one lungful of air after another, I pressed my forehead to hers and prayed I didn’t nut off in my shorts. Right then the smallest breeze would have set me off.
“You should go to bed, Lu.” Even as I said it, my hands tightened on her ass. Thank fuck she’s wearing panties. That thought had barely whispered through my head when I realized her panties were drenched. I would’ve had to be a saint to hold back from the feel of her wetness coating my fingers right then. If she didn’t leave in the next ten seconds, I was going to devour her. “Please, go.”
She shook her head. “I can’t. I’m where I want to be.”
I buried my face in her neck, trying to calm my throbbing body down. “I’m not strong enough to keep my hands off you if you don’t go inside, Lucy.”
“But I want your hands on me,” she breathed at my ear, completely shattering the last of my control.
“Hell,” I groaned but didn’t try to fight it a second longer. Lifting her higher, I carried her into the bedroom and shut the French doors behind us.
The AC was blasting, causing us both to shiver after the humid heat from outside. I laid her down in the middle of the bed and followed her down as I pulled my shirt over my head. Before I got lost in another kiss, I had just enough sense to toss my wallet on the bed beside us. Reaching for it, she tossed it across the room where my shirt had landed.
“Don’t need that,” she assured me, already breathless. “I’m on the pill.”
“Thank fuck,” I growled. “I lost my head the other day and forgot all about protecting you. But I loved being inside of you bare, sweetness. That was pure bliss.” Her face pinched up and I knew exactly what she was thinking. “No, Lucy. I’ve never done that before. No one has ever made me lose control like that. I’ve always used protection. You’re the only one who has ever had the power to drive me that crazy.”
“I’ve been jealous of all your girlfriends since I was eleven,” she confessed in a slightly sulky voice and even though it was harder to see her now that we were inside, I could easily make out the little pout to her kiss-swollen lips.
I bent and kissed the pout away. “There was never a need to be, sweetness. Before you, I’d never had a girlfriend. All those girls in my past are just that. My past. They don’t matter. Never did. Only you, Lu. Ever. You are my present and my future.”
“Harris,” she breathed and I heard the tremble in her voice, knew that she was close to tears.
Those tears were enough to cool my throbbing body the few degrees it needed and let me grasp on to the control I so desperately needed. Fucking hell, her tears were a million times worse than Trinity’s. I would do anything to keep her from ever having to shed another one. Moving to lie beside her on the bed, I pulled her head down onto my chest and stroked her hair while she cried.
Her right arm was tucked between us, but she put her left across my chest, her hand right over my heart. I covered it with my own, my thumb stroking over the back of her hand until I connected with her leather bracelet. She’d been so hurt that she’d covered up the one thing that had brought me what little peace I’d had over the almost six months we had been away from each other.
“I love you,” she whispered on a shuddery breath.
Fuck. Tears burned my own eyes. After what had happened in my office on Monday, I hadn’t thought she would ever say those words again. She’d accused me of not loving her, and I knew she had only said it because she was pissed, but what she had said had cut me to the bone. I’d never kept from her how I felt. I understood why she would think
it, though. After what had happened in January I could see exactly why she would think those poisonous things.
And I was going to make sure she never had a reason to think or believe that bullshit ever again.
I pressed a kiss to the top of her head, continuing to stroke the back of her hand once again. “I love you, Lucy.”
I stayed there, holding her and soaking up the peace that having her so close brought me long after she had fallen asleep. I didn’t dare close my own eyes for fear that if I woke up in the morning this would have all been a dream. I wanted to memorize the sound of her breathing while she slept. Wanted to imprint the feel of her body against mine so that I would never forget it.
It was nearly three in the morning before I untangled us and quietly made my way back to my own room.
As I started to open the door, the one behind me opened and Layla stepped out of her sons’ room. Her eyes went straight to my bare chest. Fuck. I’d forgotten to get my shirt. Then her gaze went to the partially closed door to Lucy’s room. A frown wrinkled her forehead, and she lifted a brow as she turned back to me.
“We were just talking,” I was quick to assure her.
The wrinkle evened out and she nodded her head slowly. “You two need to do a lot of that, I think.”
“Yes, we do.” I rubbed a hand down my face. “Thank you for letting me stay. I know this is a family vacation and—”
Her hands lifted, cutting me off mid-sentence. “Stop. You’re family, Harris. You always have been. Somehow I always knew you would be a big part of Lucy’s life one way or another. I hope things work out for you two.” She took a step closer to me, her eyes turning cooler than I’d ever seen them on Layla Thornton. “But if you hurt her again, it’s not Jesse you have to worry about. It’ll be me.”
I believed her completely but knew I would never have to worry because I wasn’t ever going to let Lucy go again. “I won’t ever hurt her again, Layla. You have my word on that. I love Lucy. I want to marry her when she’s ready.”