Breaking Even (Sterling Shore 5)

He grins over at me, and I reach over and take his hand, wishing I could just climb onto his lap. He pulls his hand back as he turns onto the road that takes us home, but I hope he doesn’t plan on taking me to my house.

“So you’re not angry anymore.” It’s not a question. It’s just me recapping his words and slowly processing it all.

His smile only grows as he pulls up to his side of the curb, parks, and turns the car off. My eyes lift to find his house as he answers.

“No. It started off subtle. I thought maybe you were just a fun distraction, but the more time I spent around you... I kept changing, and I didn’t even know it. I’ve never laughed as hard as I do with you. I’ve never been laughing and pissed at the same time. I’ve never smiled so much as I do when I see you, and I’ve never felt so damn good about being me. You make me enjoy being me.”

My tears drip for a new reason, and I finally give up and cross over the center console to be in his lap, leaving my towel and his jacket behind. He grins as he pushes his lips against mine, and I cling to him for a minute before pulling back just enough to speak.

“I guess that makes us even,” I murmur softly, watching him tilt his head questioningly. “You make me enjoy being me, too.”

His responding grin could slay me if I wasn’t already completely and utterly his.

***

RYE

Perfect. No one could have ever been more perfect for me, and fate dropped her off right across from me. Maybe this is my reward for the shitty cards I was dealt. All I know is that I don’t want to lose her ever again.

I honestly can’t believe I was able to tell her about everything, but more importantly, I can’t believe how free I feel right now. I can breathe so easily, and for the first time since I can remember, there’s nothing holding me back. From anything.

“Will you come inside?” I ask her as she hugs me a little tighter.

“Yes,” she says in a near whisper.

I swear I could never get tired of holding her like this.

“Will you stay the night?”

She grins as she kisses my neck, and I pull her closer, letting her do that divine thing with her tongue against my skin, imagining her doing that somewhere else, especially since I know how heavenly that mouth is.

“Yes,” she whispers again.

“And tomorrow morning, afternoon, and night, too?” I ask in quick succession, smiling as she giggles against me.

“Yes, yes, yes.”

I open the door, but I don’t let her go. Instead, I keep her held to me, and she clamps those small but strong legs around my waist as I carry her toward the house.

“Have you been with anyone since me?” she asks, surprising the hell out of me with her seemingly random and offensive question.

“No. Of course not. Why would you ask that?”

She just grins again, but I’m confused.

“I want to feel your piercing,” she says with that sultry voice that makes my knees wobble.

If she doesn’t want me to drop both of us to the ground, she can’t say things like that when I’m trying to walk. She laughs when she sees what she’s doing to me, and the sound reverberates and carries through my bones.

I never would have been able to do this with anyone else. But she’s done so much to me—for me.

Getting the door open while holding her is a pain in the ass, but I refuse to put her down. The more I struggle, the more she smiles.

“I missed you,” I murmur against her grinning lips, feeling my stupid smile grow as well.

“Good,” she says simply when I finally get the door open.

“Good?”