Page 26 of Anchored to the Storm

At that moment, I prayed to feel his pain. I wanted to suffer with him. Any way I could, since I couldn’t be with him.

One prayer was answered when I felt Sarah’s little back expand underneath me, and I swear I could suddenly breathe better myself. It was like her air was my air. I whispered, “Thank you.”

We stayed connected for a few minutes before she said, “Ethan?”

I lifted off our huddle. “Yeah?”

She stared up at me, appearing as if about to tell me something, but stopped when she caught my gaze. I couldn’t stop. Her tears under and around her eyes sparkled like hundreds of tiny diamonds in bright sunlight. They illuminated already stunning light eyes.

Sarah let out a little gasp. “You didn’t think I was ugly in the shower.”

I blinked to be free of the siren-like hold she had on me. “W-What? N-No, but I don’t think of you like that.”

Her expression hardened. And then she went off the rails. “You want to stay away from me? After all this time?”

Her words were making no sense. “What are you talking about?”

Next thing I knew, I was on my back, my PJ T-shirt in her fists. “I’ve waited so long for this. Why can’t you see that?”

Her crawling on top of me, bent legs at my side, I was baffled. “What have you waited for?”

“You!”

Touching her hips, I tried to quiet her so we wouldn’t wake up the house. “Shh.” However, I was struggling not to be affected by her intimate touch and words.

“I have loved you for so long.”

My mouth gaped. This just couldn’t be true. She loved Caleb. “Sarah, I’m so confused.”

“Me too.” She sounded as if I couldn’t have broken her heart more. “You don’t want me.”

I tightened my hold on her hips. “No. Nothing could be further from the truth, but when you came here, you were so young. Then—” I had intended to say, ‘then you fell in love with Caleb,’ but never got the chance.

Sarah growled, “I’m not too young anymore,” before slamming her lips to mine.

That kiss had absolutely everything that mattered in the world fading away. Only Sarah existed. That kiss was a possession. One I willingly surrendered to.

When she started to bite my neck? Blackout. Next thing I knew, I was on top of her, between her legs, and wanting to find a home that had nothing to do with my foster one. I wanted to crawl inside this young woman and never leave.

But her gasp, an inkling of her feeling pain, had an instant guilt taking over. From under me, she grabbed her mouth, wincing in pain. Oh no! “Sarah—” But then the same relentless physical pain crashed into me. Oh fuck! I grabbed my mouth and fell over and rolled off her bed.

Sarah, dear brave Sarah, held her mouth while crawling down to check on me.

Holding my face because it was about to explode, I swore, “I will never kiss you again. I’m so sorry.”

Still holding her mouth as if her teeth were falling out, she cried, “Never say that to me again!”

I vowed through immense shame, “With everything your heart is going through right now, the only way I would ever kiss you again is to save your life.”

She reached for me as I crawled away. She even followed me out the door as we stumbled to our feet. I was shocked to bump into Gage, who was, unbelievably, also holding his mouth. Next to him were Finn and Sebastian. All holding their mouths.

They took one look at me, then Sarah, then all started pointing fingers and speaking at the same time. It was chaos:

Gage touched my neck. “Di she bi’e you?”

What?

Sarah defended herself, “I don’ bi’e!”