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The warmth of her small hand seeps into my chest as she settles it against my skin, covering my heart. “Lance,” she whispers. “Open your eyes, and look at me.”
I do, finding her staring diligently up at me. Her other hand smooths across the side of my head, down over my jaw. “It’s okay. I’m right here.”
I shake my head, barely able to stand steady on my feet as my throat thickens. “Scar.”
“It’s okay.” She keeps her hands skin to skin, her body pressed against mine. It’s as if she’s trying to shield me, protect me, from the fear I can’t hide from her, no matter how hard I try.
More thunder rumbles, and I clench my eyes tight, agitation thinning my lips at the knee-jerk reaction.Fuck.
“Look. At. Me,” Scarlet demands, grasping me by the back of the neck.
I want to look at her, need the warmth and safety and home I’ve only ever found in her eyes, but it terrifies me what she might find staring back.
I hear a cry from somewhere in the house, and my eyes immediately open. “Waverley,” I panic.
“She’s okay.”
“But—”
“Ellis,” she tells me. “She’ll go to Ellis before me, always.” She runs her hand from my shoulder to the centre of my chest. “Lance, you need to breathe. It’s okay. You’re safe.”
I drop my head forward, but she catches it with her own, forcing it up. I stare into her eyes, this woman who, despite all life has thrown at her, will stand here now, steadying my feet to the ground.
“I don’t deserve you,” I utter. “I don’t deserve to exist in this world whilst you walk it. I’ll never understand how—why.” I stand in the middle of the room trembling, desperately clinging to her. “Scarlet—”
“It’s okay,” she whispers again, her nose brushing mine. “Just let us be.” My lips drag over her nose, her cheek, skirting too close to her mouth. “You’re safe. Whatever you need, Lance.”
I flex my hands as they flatten against her back, smoothing over soft skin.
“Let us be,” she repeats.
I bring my hand up to cup her face, my fingers threading into the silky hair behind her ear. It’s been seven years since I’ve held her this close. Something deep in my chest surges at the thought. Regardless of circumstance, she’s here in my arms, dancing blindly with me tonight.
Charlie’s words scuttle around my brain.Make it right.
I lower my lips to brush gently over hers, and she shudders, brown eyes flicking up to mine.
I do it again, slower, deliberate, and then I lay my forehead back on hers, swallowing thickly as my cock pulses in my boxer briefs.
When Scarlet steps back, my heart constricts, and I fight the urge to drop to my knees and beg her to forgive me right here and now, to love me like I never left, while I promise her I’ll never hurt her again.
But she deserves more than a man at her feet, begging for forgiveness.
She deserves something I can’t give her because undoing what I’ve done is impossible.
“Careful on your leg,” she tells me gently as she pulls me by the hand into the bathroom. She doesn’t bother switching on the light, the moon our guide as it looms beyond the window. The shower is already running, warm enough a thick steam starts to gather around us.
My heart thuds against my chest, sweat still running down my back, as Scarlet pulls her vest over her head, dropping it to the ground and then stepping out of her pyjama bottoms.
I’m fixated on her as she peels my T-shirt from my skin, letting it gather at my ribs before tilting up her chin for me to lift my arms so that she can ease it over my head.
Silently, she kneels, removing my boxer briefs.
I fight the urge to cover my hard-on, wordlessly following her when she stands, relinks our fingers, and directs me to sit on the deep ledge in the shower.
I tip my head back, letting the water run over my face until she shadows the spray, droplets deflecting off her in rivulets and speckling my shoulders. She brings her body close, too close, until it’s all I can do but lift my hands to the smooth skin at the backs of her thighs.
My cock strains at the feel of her pebbled skin against my fingertips. After so much time, after believing I’d never hold her like this, at all, again. “I’m sorry,” I tell her, knowing she noticed my erection before. “It’s been a while.”
