“Rowan,” he groaned. “I’m not touching you.” It was all he wanted.
“I’ll touch myself and wish it was you,” she replied, her voice husky with desire.
He’d done so well at pretending for months that she could never want him this way. That his obsession was one-sided. Sure, Hugh had seen her watching him, but he assumed it was because he constantly made an ass out of himself around her. He’d felt like a pervert for wanting such a young woman. Hehadn’t dared entertain her wanting him. Jesus, it still didn’t change things. She was too young to recognize he wasn’t what she needed.
He had to be stronger. Why, then, was he not stopping this?
She leaned back against the wall, arching her back slightly to make her breasts stand out even more. No matter the number of chastisements heaped upon his conscience, he couldn’t look away. He could not pull his gaze from her body. Then she shocked the hell out of him. Rowan looked him in the eye and slowly ran the fingers of her right hand across her breasts, ripping a groan from his throat when she squeezed her nipples before sliding down the flat plain of her stomach, slipping beneath her shorts. She was bare beneath, he knew personally. Was she...was she going to touch herself? Make herself come? While he fucking watched?
Rowan only continued to consider him as her fingers slipped lower. She widened her stance. Hugh saw her hand moving side to side, then up and down, in and out. Her pants roared in his ears. The bathroom could be burning down around his head, and he wouldn’t have looked away. His right hand drifted toward his swollen flesh, pinching the head once. He was about to release himself, but Rowan was watching him intently. She moaned, “Yes, Hugh.”
As her movements became more frantic, Hugh couldn’t stop from pumping himself in return. They never stopped watching each other. Rowan’s mouth had curved in an almost painful expression. She was close, so close. Hugh stroked faster and faster. His balls were tight, and he could feel himself tipping over the edge. As Rowan screamed his name, Hugh painted the glass walls in streams of white. His body bowed in a perfect pain, his legs shook, barely holding his weight. That was the most erotic moment of his life, and he’d only touched himself.
His most sensual experience was with a woman younger than—Damn it!He stood straight, ashamed about what he’d done. Hugh flinched at seeing Rowan’s perfect breasts still on full display, swearing as she slowly pulled her hand from between her legs, wishing simultaneously that she was completely naked and thankful it was one less visual he had to endure during his sleepless nights.
Rowan never said another word. She bent down to retrieve her top from the floor, her breasts swaying with the movement, and slipped it easily over her head. He saw her tattoo clearly then. A triskelion disk and a tree, probably to represent her name. She gave him a smile, small but enough to show off her gorgeous dimples.
Dimples that he only wanted her to show him. If she were his alone, Hugh would demand she only smile for him.
It was painful to remember that she would never be his, and he would never be hers.
She turned and left. His cum still marked this moment of folly.
2
DUBLIN, IRELAND—MAY
Rowan’s thoughts were all jumbled. She thought she was dreaming, but she also thought she was awake. Her eyes wouldn’t open. Asleep. Her mom and dad just hugged her. Dreaming. Her parents were dead. A car wreck. Reality.
She would do anything to have them back. To run her fingers through her mother’s long black hair, a testament to her proud Native American heritage—just like Rowan’s. To see her hazel eyes crinkle at the corners when she laughed, teasing her Irish dad about his brilliantly white skin hurting her eyes—just like Rowan’s.
She really should try to wake up, but Mom and Dad were holding her hands now.
“I love you, my sweet little Rowan tree,” her mother whispered, clasping Row’s hand to her chest.
“M'iníon. Mothaím uaim thú,” her father spoke as he kissed the knuckles of her other hand.My daughter. I miss you.
“I’m glad you’re here. Raven, River, and I miss you so much. Can you stay longer? So they can see you too?
Rowan knew this was a dream, but even so, she’d never want her sisters, her best friends, not to see their parents again. Thethree remained strong after the death of their parents because they chose to. They chose not to allow depressing shadows to linger. They expected each other to share when one of them was going through a rough patch. To catch one another when they stumbled.
Rowan focused again on her parents. They were now standing against the far wall in whatever room this was. She felt hot tears leak from the corners of her eyes, knowing they were leaving. Of course, they couldn’t stay. This was only a dream. They smiled once more before disappearing.
Damn it. Rowan hated how alone she felt. Even in her dreams, she ended up alone.
She sighed, feeling sorry for herself. But...there wassomereason Rowan needed to wake up. A meeting? Hair appointment?
She stopped trying to pry her eyes open when she remembered a story her mother used to tell her at night sometimes. The story of why she and Dad chose Rowan as her name. Mom said it was because rowan trees have deep roots and are resistant to frost and wind. They are slender but hearty. Small but mighty. Dependable. Just like Rowan was, she’d said. Another tear slipped free, tracking down her temple. She loved that story.
Finally, the warmth of too many blankets forced Rowan to open her eyes. Unfortunately, that small victory only led to confusion. She was in the white room from her dream—the lovely one with her parents. She loved dreaming about them. She and her sisters believed it was Mom and Dad’s way of sending their love.
This was not her bed.
“Rowan, oh God, Rowan!” Raven was crying and holding Row’s right hand to her chest, red-eyed and hiccupping in her distress.
“Oh, God, Row. I love you. I love you. I love you. We’ve been so scared,” River wailed, her sister’s hands clasped tight to her thighs.
There was rustling and what sounded like a door opening before someone shouted, “I need a doctor in here now!” Rowan couldn’t see the speaker through the black curtains of her sisters’ hair, but there was no doubt that the voice belonged to Hugh.
