Page 107 of This Wild Heart

Another thrust and my spine almost bowed under a sharp spike of pleasure.

One more, and I gritted my teeth at the ruthless build of it.

Almost there.

The shock wave reverberated through my entire being, nothing left untouched, white light behind my eyes while I milked the best release of my entire life, my head tipped back as I struggled to breathe. With tingling hands and a heaving chest, I groaned her name.

We collapsed onto the bed, her sweaty back against my chest, the shirt still bunched up above her waist. Her fingers trailed along my forearm, and I pressed a kiss to her shoulder.

Pretend you’re mine,I thought again.Pretend I know how to do this. Like I can be what you need.

Her phone rang again, and Anya groaned. “No,” she said.

I pressed my forehead against the back of her neck and exhaled a harsh puff of air.

“If it’s Bridges again, I’m going to lose my shit,” I muttered against her skin.

Anya extricated herself from my arms and tugged the shirt back down into place. I rolled onto my back and ran a hand over my face, the thundering of my heart not easing in the slightest even though my body had thoroughly come down from the unexpected sex. My muscles were lax, all the tension bled clean from my frame.

I would’ve fallen asleep right there if it wasn’t for that incessant ringing.

While she reached for the phone, I watched her face as she saw the screen and sat up when I saw the concerned furrow in her brow.

“It was my dad. He’d never call this late.”

Anya scooted forward to the edge of the mattress, and while she waited for him to answer, I reached down and grabbed my boxers, tugging them up over my legs, then lifting off the bed long enough to pull them all the way on.

Her dad didn’t pick up, and Anya chewed on her bottom lip as she stared at her phone.

“You think something’s wrong?” I asked.

She glanced at me over her shoulder, then nodded. “My dad usually goes to bed at like eight thirty because he gets up so early.”

Anya turned back to her phone and tapped out a text. Before she could do anything else, her screen lit up again, her sister’s name appearing on the screen. Anya picked up immediately.

“Violet, is everything okay?”

Violet’s voice was thick with tears. “Mom broke her leg; it was bleeding, and we could see the bone, and … and Dad had to go with her in the ambulance. Willa is freaking out, but I don’t know where Dad’s keys are, so I can’t drive her to the hospital and?—”

Anya stood, immediately reaching for her shorts. “Hey, deep breaths, okay? You shouldn’t be going to the hospital unless Dad told you to. What happened?”

My chest was tight, an uncomfortable feeling spreading through my limbs while I watched her set the phone down on the dresser and step into the shorts. I stood, pulling her suitcase out of her closet for her, unzipping it so that it was open on the bed.

She paused, giving me a wide-eyed look of gratitude. Her face was pale, and the tremor in her hand was visible.

“We were just messing around in the backyard. Mom and Willa were playing catch with a Frisbee, Dad was doing some yard work, and Mom wasn’t looking where she was going, and they started doing all that landscaping, you know? The big rocks and the retaining wall.”

“Yeah, sort of. They started that after I left.” Anya was pulling clothes from the closet and shoving them in her suitcase. I tugged my pants on and got out of the way, leaning against the doorframe while she frantically packed. “So she was running?”

“Yeah, I … I didn’t really see it, but she tripped over one of the big rocks and there was a pallet right behind it, and there was blood, and Dad yelled at me to call 911, and …”

The sound of crying filled the speaker, and I watched Anya with a pit in my stomach. She wasn’t even paying attention to what she was doing in her haste to get packed, shoving clothes in a messy heap. Her phone screen lit up again, and Anya darted over, eyes widening.

Anya stopped and set a hand on her stomach. “Violet, listen to me, I’m leaving Portland, and I’ll be there as soon as I can. Just watch a movie with Willa; she’ll be okay. Dad is calling me, so I have to go, but I’ll call you as soon as I get on the road.”

“Okay,” her sister replied, voice small and worried.

I ducked out of the room when she picked up her dad’s call to give her some privacy. The door wasn’t completely shut behind me, so I heard his voice before I left the room.

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