Page 47 of Back to You
Chapter 15
There were so many people. The coliseum where the concert was being held was packed. We were like sardines in a can that was way too small. I clung to Dane’s arm as we made our way up the stadium to find our seats. I didn’t want to lose him in this endless sea of human beings, because I was pretty sure it would swallow me whole.
Excitement thrummed through my veins. This was it. We were finally gonna see Brackenhyde perform live. Our seats were perfect—not so close that we’d go completely deaf, but we weren’t in the nosebleed stands, either. We got a great view of the stage—and of Sebastian St. Crow’s leather-clad ass.
I groaned. “How is he so perfect?”
“What?” Dane shouted back, pointing to his ears as the familiar chords ofTwo/Two/Threebegan blaring out of the amplifiers with a squeal of feedback. I grabbed Dane’s arm and leaned in closer, but Sebastian began to belt out the lyrics and everything else ceased to exist.
I swayed in place, singing my lungs out to the lyrics that I felt so deep in my soul. It was as if Sebastian had written them just for me. Like he’d reached into my heart and tenderly plucked the words from my tangled heartstrings, and created a masterpiece of art.
By the time the concert was over, I was on top of the world. My soul was effervescent, bubbling with happiness and excitement and a restless energy desperate to be released. So naturally, when we got back to the RV, I pounced.
“Thank you for one of the best nights of my life,” I uttered between hard, hungry kisses. He groaned in response and pinned me to the bed, caging me in with his body. His hands groped over me, while my fingers raked down his shoulders and back.
“My pleasure.” He nipped my jaw, smirking.
“Thanks for that, too,” I teased as I grabbed his cock, giving a tug. “Now if you would please,pleasefuck me? That’d be great.”
Let’s just say that he didn’t disappoint.
* * *
Irolled over in bed, stretching and savoring the soreness in my muscles. Mmm. I grinned up at the ceiling, remembering last night. It’d been perfect. Absolutely perfect. Getting to fall asleep snuggling my boyfriend was just the icing on the amazingly-moist double chocolate cake.
Mmm, cake.
“Good morning, sunshine,” I murmured when Dane stirred beside me. His face still half-buried in the pillows, he grunted out an unintelligible response. I grinned and patted his shoulder. “Sleep good?”
Lifting his head, he squinted at me, blinking a few times. He cast a look around the tiny RV bedroom, like he wasn’t exactly sure where he was. Then he dropped his head back to the pillows with a sigh.
“What’s wrong?” I asked softly, running my hand up and down his side.
“Nothing,” he said, brushing it off too quickly to be believable.
“Bullshit.” I knocked his shoulder with mine. “Spill the beans. What’s wrong?”
He turned his face away from me. “Just a dream.” He sounded so far away, like his mind had been trapped in the dreamscape he’d visited last night. His chest rose and fell on a sigh. I flattened my hand over his side.
“You wanna talk about it?” All of a sudden, it felt like he was slamming the doors shut on our connection, withdrawing in on himself when before, he’d been so open and accepting. When he didn’t reply, I tossed the covers back and climbed on top of him until I was straddling his chest.
“Dane. Look at me,” I murmured, speaking the words he’d used so many times when I’d shut down on him. His Adam’s apple bobbed up and down, but he met my gaze. “Talk to me. You look so sad and it’s kind of breaking my heart.”
“I…” He hesitated, his lip pinched between his teeth. He swallowed again. “I dreamed of Violet last night. She was right there, sitting next to me, and she was chatting my ear off. Just like old times.” His smile was faint. “I didn’t want to wake up. I miss her.”
An invisible band constricted around my chest. “I’m sorry.”
He closed his eyes. “I want to believe she’s happy, wherever she’s at now, but I can’t help but wish she was still here with us. That’s why I got this, so I’d always have a piece of her with me.” He touched his chest, or rather, the tattoo that was inked into the skin there. It was a flamboyantly-styled purple heart that trailed off into a heartbeat.
Violet’s heartbeat, I realized with a pang.
This was territory I wasn’t sure I was ready to cross, but Dane looked so damn broken. “The day that Violet died…” I trailed off, unsure of where to go with that sentence. Luckily for me, Dane picked up where I left off.
“It’s a blur. I don’t really know what happened after the cops left. I was… I was in shock. How do you react when the human being you literally shared a womb with was just… Gone?” Tears leaked from the corners of his eyes. Tears he didn’t bother wiping away.
“I thought I was dying. Some drunken asshole hit her and kept right on driving. They told Mom that she’d been dead for awhile, which meant she’d died alone in that ditch, and who knows how long it took? I don’t think it was instant. It might’ve even been something the goddamn paramedics could’ve fixed, but fuck, Hols. Then when we came home and I realized you’d left? You were both gone, just like that?”
“I’m sorry,” I choked out, my throat tight and aching. “I-I should’ve been there for you.”
