“I—You—” I lift her from my lap and scramble to my feet, making for the door.
Darkness swallows me as the sound of waves crashing floods in. I drag in a long, agonizing breath. It’s been a lifetime since I’ve wanted someone this way.
As much as I adored Ava, we never had this torturous chemistry. Where not touching her, not claiming her torches me, burning me to cinders. I could disintegrate to ash without her. It’s too much.
It’s dangerous.
It’s—
I groan.
Fucked. I’m fucked, that’s what I am.
I’m incapable of putting distance between us, if I have a choice.
I haul my ass toward the beach, praying Evie stays put in the hut. I drop onto a cluster of rocks, tilting my face up to the moon. Maybe this is my penance for everything that went down when I was younger. Finding the woman my soul talks to, only to be too old, too broken.
Evie is sunlight. She’s vibrant and bursting with life, even if she hides it away from the rest of the world most of the time. I see it when she thinks nobody is around. When she thinks nobody notices, I do.
To have her wrapped around me, to take what I want would be my own undoing. We’ve already gone too far. Haven’t we?
The waves roll in, keeping time with my bruised heart. Hell, even now the thought of Evie leaving cracks me wide open. Another curveball life thought was a great idea to toss at me. Timing’s never been my strong suit. I kill another hour on the rocks trying to figure out a life where we all get what we want. Coming round full circle to no solution for the third time, I push off the rock and trudge through the sand. Walking along the beach, I let the breeze cool my frazzled nerves.
I came to the hut to put distance between us.
Because it’s the right thing to do.
Never before has the right thing felt so fucking wrong.
The moon is high in the sky when I turn back, heading for the hut. The door is ajar when I make it back. I find Evie sleeping on the bunk on her side, room for me beside her. Dappled moonlight spills in through the window and illuminates her elegant face. She’s in her T-shirt and panties. A blanket covers her legs, but they have tangled their way into a mess.
Tugging my shirt off, I lie beside her. Turning onto my side, I brush a stray piece of hair behind her ear, and she murmurs in her sleep. Her pretty pink lips curve as she moans. She rollsaway from me, and I slide an arm over her belly and tug her into my body. Her head turns, back arching as if on autopilot with my touch.
As if her soul heard mine, even in her sleep.
I breathe her in, tucking this moment away as a memory I will treasure for the rest of my life.
“Cal?” she moans.
“Yeah, baby girl.”
“Where’d you go?”
“Nowhere, mo nighean. Go back to sleep.”
She hums, her body pressing in a little more.
Fuck me.
A moment later, her breathing settles, and she’s sound asleep again. My forehead tilts to press into her hair, and I close my eyes. Happiness is a man wrapped around the woman he loves.
The—
Jaw feathering, I tamp down the groan that’s painfully filling any cavity it can find.
I swallow hard, trying my best to dislodge the stone that grew in my throat with that last thought. I know, this time round, it’s going to hurt. More than I’ve had to endure before. Because despite our short time together, this woman has cracked open my seized-up heart, revived it, and sent it to bloom. With her elegant ways, her fiery streak, her tenderness. Something my hard old heart needed more than I will ever admit.
I needed her.
