Sullivan grins, then his features turn serious. Those deep brown eyes hold the answers to all the other questions I’m too afraid to ask.
“You can trust me, Gabby,” he murmurs. “I want to be the one you keep coming back to. I’ll protect you from every storm.”
“Why?”
His features soften at my question. He’s not pitying me exactly, but I can’t quite place the look in his far-too-perceptive eyes.
“Do I have to have a reason? Maybe I just want you to be safe.”
Tears sting my eyes, but I blink them away. “I’ve never had that,” I admit. “At least not since my parents died.”
“Gabby, I’m so sorry,” he whispers. “When did they pass?”
I bite my lips and look away from Sullivan’s intense gaze. I haven’t talked about any of this for so long. No one has ever cared to ask.
“I was seven,” I start. “We were all in the car, heading home after a family night out. It had been raining all day, but it reallypicked up once we left the restaurant. I don’t remember… I think it was a deer or something. My dad swerved, the car slid, and everything flipped upside down.”
I close my eyes against the memory of that fateful night. The crunching of metal fills my ears, joined by low rolling thunder from the storm still raging outside. Blood. So much blood. Visions of cracked windows and blinding rain flash across my mind.
“I remember pounding against the window for hours until my fists were bruised. I was trapped, and no matter how much I cried or screamed, my parents couldn’t hear me. No one could hear me. They were dead, and I knew I was going to die, too. I felt it. Death itself was sitting next to me in that car, waiting for me to give up. I was so confused when I woke up in a hospital bed.”
“Jesus, Gabby. I can’t imagine.” Sullivan brushes a few strands of hair out of my face, his eyes never leaving mine. It’s intense and all-consuming, the way he’s looking at me. Almost as if he thinks he’s going to put all the pieces of my broken heart together. The crazy thing is, he just might.
“My great aunt and uncle got custody of me. I found out later that it was mainly because all my parents’ assets went into a trust fund for me, and whoever was my legal guardian had access to it until I turned twenty-one. By that time, every penny was gone. When the money dried up, so did my great aunt and uncle’s love.”
“They spent your entire inheritance?”
I nod. “To be fair, some of it was used for my college tuition. My junior year, however, the funds ran out. I called my great aunt, but she just said it is what it is and not to bother coming back for holidays or summer break. That was it. Fourteen years of Christmases and birthdays and vacations meant nothing to them. I know now that my inheritance paid for every gift andtravel expense. I still don’t understand how they could just toss me aside when I was no longer useful.”
“Fuckers,” Sullivan mutters with a surprising amount of vitriol. I don’t think anyone has ever been upset on my behalf. “When was that?”
“Two years ago. I moved out to Denver and became a real estate agent shortly after. It was easy to take on more and more work when I shut everyone out, you know? I got lost in the paycheck and busyness of the corporate world. I didn’t think I was lonely until…”
“Until you saw a different way to live,” he finishes for me.
“Yeah,” I whisper.
Sullivan leans in close enough that our noses brush against each other. I gasp softly at the sensations echoing through my body with that simple touch. His fingers weave through my hair, and he holds my head in place while pressing his lips to mine.
I welcome his kiss, opening up for him and letting his tongue fill my mouth in slow, languid strokes. My hands crawl up his chest, and I hum with pleasure at the solid planes of muscle beneath my palms. I wrap my arms around Sullivan’s neck and pull him closer, needing more of his touch and taste.
Sullivan curls his free hand around my hip, holding me tightly as he devours my lips. I rock against him, my body humming with energy and wanton desires I was unaware I had.
He groans into our kiss, then pulls back, only to drop sweet kisses on my cheeks and forehead. This man. He’s everything I never knew I needed.
I’m blushing and breathing heavily, a bit lightheaded from the confession and my first ever kiss. Sullivan doesn’t skip a beat. He tucks me back into his side and adjusts the blanket so it’s covering both of us. Without saying a single word, he guides me to lay my head over his heart while he strokes my back.
I’ve never felt so safe and loved. As my eyelids droop and sleep takes over, the last thought in my head is that I hope this isn’t too good to be true.
5
SULLIVAN
Isip my coffee and gaze out the window, watching the first rays of sunlight flood through the mountains and into the valleys below. Unlike yesterday morning, I’m not dreading talking to my unexpected guest. In fact, it’s just the opposite.
Last night, I saw a completely different side of Gabby. I knew there was more to the woman than the cold shoulder she gave everyone, but I had no idea about the depth of her trauma.
Jesus, I rub the heel of my hand over my heart to ease the tightness there. The thought of my precious girl trapped in a car while her parents died in front of her… Fuck, it hurts knowing she ever felt that fear. It hurts even more knowing she’s brought right back to that place every time it storms. No wonder she reacted the way she did the day I pulled her out of her car. She must have been absolutely terrified.
