Page 88 of What Hurts Us

The clouds in his eyes broke with a flash of lightning. He leaned down, sucking my lower lip between his teeth. “Come with me.”

“Where?” I hummed out as he ground his cock between my legs. He released my mouth with apopand latched onto my neck—biting, nipping, teasing, and sucking. I caught a glance at the bedside clock. “It’s almost midnight.”

“Won’t be gone long,” he clipped as he teased the sensitive skin behind my ear. “Put on something warm. Something you can ride in.”

30

CALLUM

Ilet go of one handlebar, reaching behind me to squeeze Layla’s thigh as we cruised down an open stretch of two-lane back road. Her body was sandwiched tight to mine, and the front edge of her helmet dug into my shoulder blade. The wind around us snapped like an icy whip. The headlight danced on the asphalt, and the sputtering growl of the engine sliced through the silent darkness.

I love you, Callum Fletcher.

My God, I was a lucky son of a bitch. There was nothing I had done to deserve Layla Mousavi. But for some reason, the universe and a handful of meddling women saw to it that we found each other.

When the fog cleared, I had to get out of that bed, or I would have given her birth control a run for its money.

Taking the Harley out for a cruise cleared my head in ways that nothing else could. Feeling the barely restrained power of a machine under complete control of my body kept me in check and slowly leached out my adrenaline.

I knew this stretch of road like the back of my hand. Layla leaned with me as we took a tight left up to the lookout. Her legs tightened around mine when I opened the throttle and let the bike do what it was made to do.

We gained elevation, scaling the gentle incline until coming to a stop on a gravel shoulder wide enough that it had lines, now faded with age, for parking spaces.

“Where are we?” Layla asked, taking her helmet off and shaking out her glossy black hair.

I snapped the kickstand into place with the heel of my boot. “Occoneechee Mountain.” I cut the engine and yanked off my helmet.

In the daytime, the dense forest was painted in the sunset colors of autumn. But at night?

Galaxies.

Layla’s breath fogged around her lips as she looked up at endless stars. “Wow.”

“It’s like looking into your eyes,” I said quietly, gravel crunching underfoot as I pulled her back into my chest. “Every time I look at you. I see the universe. The stars in your eyes. Lightning in your laugh. Sunsets when you blush. The moon in your smile.” I pressed a kiss to the top of her head as we stood at the edge of the lookout. “All of it.”

I knew what I felt for her was real, but I had been burned by meaningless ‘I love yous’ before. Empty words from empty people.

I wanted to say it back to her. I rehearsed it in my head, over and over. But every time I tried to get the first syllable off my tongue, I clammed up.

“I feel it, too,” I murmured. “What you feel for me … I feel it for you.”I was a bumbling idiot. Why couldn’t I say three tiny fucking words?A growl of frustration escaped before I could stop it. “I—” I rested my forehead on the back of her head in exasperation.

“Don’t say it yet,” she whispered, turning to drape her arms around my neck. “Don’t say it because you think you’re supposed to. I don’t want it out of a sense of obligation.”

“What do you want?” I asked, ghosting my lips over hers.

“Show me,” she said simply. “Show me how you feel.”

I wanted Layla at that moment more than I had ever wanted her before. I wanted to surround her like a shield while she peeled back the callouses on my heart and made me bulletproof. She had the gentle touch of an angel, healing wounds I couldn’t see.

Even with her thick jacket on, the gravel would bite into her back. Laying her down wasn’t an option. I could brace her against the horizontal wood poles of the fence, but in the dark, I couldn’t be certain that they wouldn’t snap, sending us careening down the mountain to an untimely demise.

“Do you trust me, honey?”

There wasn’t an inkling of hesitation in her voice. “With my heart and my hurt. With all of me.”

I knelt in front of her, unlacing her boots and wiggling them off of her feet. I stood and thumbed the zipper of her jeans. “These have to come off.”

I felt the curve of her smile as her mouth pressed against mine. “You gonna arrest me for public indecency?”

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