Page 36 of Nights at Seaside
“But it does. They didn’t think I could handle it, and maybe they were right. That makes me a loseranda burden. Pete didn’t need to come after me when he was caring for our father. He already had so much on his plate. Grayson was worried sick because I was weak, and…If my mom was looking down on me, she would have been mortified.”
Sawyer gathered her in his arms and held her close. “You know what I think?”
“That you wish you’d never come into my shop for a tattoo?”
“No.” He kissed her forehead again. “That we are made from the same cloth after all. You lead with your heart, Sky. I lead with mine.”
“But my brothers—”
“They love you, Sky. I saw it in the way they teased you and watched my every move. Blue, too. They’re all proud and protective of you.”
“Because I’m weak,” she said in a deflated voice.
“Because you’re strong enough to be weak when you need to. That’s a blessing. Most people are so hardened to their feelings that they mask them. I see it every day in the ring. Heck, Sky, I do it every day of my life.”
“What do you mean? You seem to be in touch with your feelings. At least around me.”
He smiled. “I can’t escape my feelings for you, can I?”
She felt her cheeks flush, and when he lowered his lips to hers and took her in his arms, everything felt right, and good, andsafe.
“Do you hide your feelings from everyone else?” she asked.
“I’m a fighter, Sky. I can’t bring sadness or worry, fear, or even happiness into the ring with me. Fighting takes total focus and dedication. Everything else gets buried down deep. I think everyone does that on some level just to get through each day. It’s why I write songs, because the passion, the anger, the love, it’s all too much sometimes. I have to get it out.”
“Like your tattoos.”
His lips curved into an easy smile. “Yeah, like my tattoos. Only those are things I want to keep hold of, too. Those are feelings that will always be a part of me. They represent times in my life that I don’t ever want to lose. Good and bad.”
She gazed into his eyes as he leaned over her, and she wondered what stars had to align to bring them together—and what greater force saw past his fighting and past her dislike of the sport to something bigger than both of them?
He brushed her hair from her cheek. His eyes roved over her face, lingering on her eyes, and she swore she could see his emotions radiating from them.
“I see so much when I look at you,” she said softly.
“Tell me what you see.” His voice was silky smooth, like water flowing over her.
Sky had always seen emotions in colors, as she was now. The sensations had always fascinated her, but she was sure it was exactly what the universe wanted her to see. “I see shades of the color blue, and I feel…” She hesitated. The things she felt were so personal, so intense, that she was afraid to say them aloud.
He brushed his thumb over her cheek. “Tell me, sweetheart. What do you see?”
“I see devotion. Deep-seated. And honesty.” As she said the words they bloomed bigger, fuller, more meaningful and real. She reached up and ran her finger along his jaw. “And a lot of passion, which feels red to me. I get the sense of stability beneath it, but it’s not really stable. Like you’re standing in the middle of a plain and just beneath the surface the earth is shaking. And…” She traced the ridge of his cheekbone. “Lots and lots of orange and yellow.” She smiled, and curiosity filled his dark eyes.
“What do those colors mean?”
“That you’re powerful, creative, and emotional. Very emotional.” She pressed both hands to his cheeks. She’d been dying to really touch his face. To feel his energy. “I see other stuff, but it’s not colorful. Inner peace that’s tethered by something dark. Truth. And love, Sawyer. I feel like your entire being is so full of love, which makes sense since you’re fighting for your father. And when I close my eyes”—she closed her eyes and breathed deeply—“I see you searching for balance, like you’re walking on a tightrope.”
Her eyes came open, and pain was etched in merciless lines across his forehead, underscoring the longing in his eyes.
“How can you see all of that in me?” His voice was full of wonder, as his body shifted closer.
She raised her shoulders in response. She didn’t have the answers. She’d never seen or felt so much radiating from a person before, and her heart was racing with the magnificence, and intensity, of it.
“What do you see when you look at me?” she asked.
“A future.”
He lowered his mouth to hers, and Sky didn’t try to rein in her desires or to figure out if she was ready as his hands moved over her skin. His lips were soft and warm, his body safe and strong. As his mouth trailed along her shoulder in a sweep of slow, shivery kisses, heat spread from the tip of her head to the ends of her toes.
