Coming to her again and again.
Addicted to the feeling of that connection. Needing her skin against mine. A promise that she was fine, knowing all of this was coming to a head, her safety right there in the palm of my hand.
Possession swelled. I would never let what happened yesterday happen again. We had to find these assholes.
I felt her stir, could feel the beat of confusion that rippled down her spine when she remembered she was lying in bed with me. I felt the force of her smile as she shifted closer.
Wrapped in the well of my arms.
I loved that it was her first response.
What came naturally.
One of those smiles.
Gently, I rolled her onto her back, the girl so fucking stunning with sleep still heavy in her eyes and the sting of my kisses still plumping her lips.
Couldn’t help but reach out and touch. Relishing in that instant burn that raced through my being.
“Morning,” I rumbled.
Shyness peeked up at the corners of her mouth, redness on her cheeks, those eyes tracing my face the same way mine had been tracing hers. “Best morning ever.”
She reached out, touch tentative as she traced her fingers across my lips. “It’s the first morning in my life that I’ve ever gotten to wake up lyin’ next to you.”
A growl tore out of my chest.
I couldn’t help it. The way her saying it made me feel. Like a goddammed king.
Grin riding onto my face, I scrambled to crawl over her, attacking her with a bunch of kisses all over her face.
Only thing I wanted to do was shower her with my love. With some reprieve. With some of the belief she’d always rained on me.
Faith squealed in surprise. Laughter climbed into the air and bounced off the walls.
Free.
Exactly the way I was determined to make her.
“Jace, what do you think you’re doin’?” she wheezed. Frantic giggles started to roll from her when I started tickling her sides.
I couldn’t resist.
Couldn’t resist from provoking that sound.
Joy.
“What do you think I’m doing?” I teased her, tickling her harder and smacking a bunch of kisses to her chin and chest as I did.
She flailed and swatted at me, trying to catch her breath.
“I think you’ve gone and lost your mind, that’s what I think you’re doing.”
Pressing my mouth up under her jaw, I slowed my assault. “No, Faith. I’ve gone and lost my heart.”
On an exhale, her fingers stroked into my hair. Softly. Coaxing me to look at her. “Funny . . . ’cause you found mine.”
I slowed, staring down at her, brushing my knuckles down her cheek. “Lost mine a long time ago. Been searching ever since.”
She tucked her bottom lip between her teeth. Awe swept through her expression. “I’m so glad you came back to find it.”
I leaned forward and pressed my lips to hers. “Me, too. Me, too.”
I pulled away before I let myself get distracted. Body hard, nudging at me to go that direction. “Come on before I keep you in this bed all day.”
“Sounds like a fine idea to me.”
I gripped her hand and gave a little tug. “As much as I like the sound of that, I’m pretty sure that girl of ours is going to be pounding on your door in a minute or two.”
Yup. There I went. Making those claims.
Ours.
Surprise streaked through her eyes before the emotion shifted.
Sheer adoration took its place.
God, I wanted to be worthy of that. Of the way she was looking at me like I was good and right. Like I was everything.
Nerves spun, and I shoved them down.
I’d face all that tomorrow. Today . . . today was about us. And I was finished wasting time.
“This way,” she whispered with her little, awed voice, her tiny hand wound up in mine.
She tugged at me, quietly padding forward as she led me through the thicket of spindly trees that edged the back of the property.
As if it were a secret. As if we were stepping into a different world.
A magical one.
Lush green grew up on all sides, the narrow trail hugged by shrubs and bushes and a variety of trees as we got closer and closer to the brook that trickled over the smoothed rocks beyond.
The sound of it filled my ears. The memories fierce where they beat through my mind.
That peace was compounded by the energy blasting into my back. A steady, burning pulse.
Thrum. Thrum. Thrum.
Every one of Faith’s footsteps behind us was like fuel that reminded me of my purpose.
“You hear that?” Bailey rushed low, looking at me from over her shoulder.
Swore to God, the child hitched my breath.
Stole the air right out of my lungs.
Dimples and chubby cheeks and chocolate eyes.
Filled with wonder.
Faith.
“What is it?” I murmured back, just as quietly as we cut deeper into the copse of limbs and trunks and thick leaves.
Sunlight speared through the dense canopy above, sending glittering rays through the crannies and cracks, as if straining to find their way to the damp ground floor.
Lighting in the heavy humidity clinging to the air.
A kaleidoscope of iridescent colors scattered across the ground to merge with the scent of mud and grass and summer that wisped and churned in the slight breeze that blew through.
“A dragon,” she whispered, faking the shudder that ran through her body. “Is a bad one.”
The lightest laughter billowed from behind.
Joy. Comfort. Light.
“A dragon?” I whispered back, catching on to the child’s game. “I hope your unicorns are around.”
“Don’t you see them? They ev’where.”
A bird rustled through the branches above. My eyes grew wide. “Is that one?”
“Yes. Did you see it? It got pink wings, Jacie. She fwies so high.” Excitement billowed through her voice.
“I saw it,” I told her. “We better hurry and help her.”
I swung Bailey into my arms, wondering if it wasn’t because I couldn’t stand the thought of not holding her any longer.
She squealed when I hugged her to me and then she quieted like she’d just realized she’d slipped out of character.
“Be super quiet.” Those brown eyes were wide with her play. Lost in her little world. “We got to sway the dragon.”
Faith’s energy flowed. Quiet as our play and as fierce as Bailey’s belief.
I would.
I would slay all of them.
Faith wandered the edge of the rose garden.
Silently.
Lost in thought.
Wearing this yellow sundress that made her shine. The girl was like a torch that burned in the pitch of night.
I’d been on a blanket in the grass with Bailey under that big shade tree that grew up at the edge of the magnificent house.
We’d played by the stream for more than an hour before Bailey had decided she was hungry. But it had to be a picnic, she’d insisted, the little girl seeming unwilling to let go of the day we’d spent out under the sun.
Faith didn’t seem to mind all that much, either.
It felt like we’d stepped into a reprieve. A time-out. A moment given to make sense of the direction we were stampeding toward.
Like all of us could feel it.
The rumble coming from underneath. Coming closer. Growing stronger.
Bailey was humming under her breath, a few words coming out here and there as she played with her dolls and books, caught up in her own little make-believe world with the Beast propped up in the middle of it.
I brushed my fingers through her hair, and she turned to grin up at me before she slipped right back into that sweet imagination that ruled her mind.
Part of me was wondering if that was what I was doing.
If I was lost in my own imaginary world. Pretending I could stay here. Be a part of something beautiful.
I’d rarely had anything beautiful in my life.
Every second that I had? It’d been wrapped up in one single woman. The woman who lightly brushed her fingertips across the satiny petals, her face cast up to the sky as she swayed.
Sunlight pouring down.
I got the distinct feeling she was gathering it. The girl taking on that energy.
A reflection that glowed.
Beauty.