Locked In Silence (Pelican Bay 1)

He lowered the phone and nodded. “The orchestra in London travels all over Europe every spring doing performances. This year they want to do something new. They want to showcase a couple of performers who would do solo performances in each city. They’ve asked me to be one of the performers.”

I expected him to tense up, but he smiled broadly and quickly nodded.

“Wait,” I said with a laugh. “I’m not finished.”

His chest rumbled and there was the tiniest bit of sound to accompany his laugh.

“I was wondering if you might consider coming with me.”

He did tense a little then, and I knew why, so I quickly said, “I know it would be hard for you to leave the center, but I have some thoughts on that.”

He nodded for me to continue.

“While you were checking on Gentry tonight, I asked Sawyer if there was any chance he’d be interested in helping out, since he doesn’t plan on opening up his practice until next summer. I also thought we could see if Isaac was interested in working here for a while. If not, we can hire a couple of really good people. You work too hard as it is, Dallas-”

It was his turn to cover my mouth with his hand as he typed one-handed on his phone.

Yes.

The simple word had my heart surging with joy. “That’s it?” I asked. “Just like that?”

I never left Pelican Bay because there was no place to go. But my place is with you now, Nolan. Where you go, I go - whether it’s for a few weeks or for the rest of our lives.

“Really?”

“Illy.”

“Love you so much, Dallas,” I whispered, then I kissed him. His phone hit the floor right before his hands came up to cover my back, then he was rolling me onto the bed beneath him. Within minutes, he had us both naked and he was reaching for the lube. He grabbed a condom too and held it up for me, but I shook my head. Dallas had gotten tested as part of his pre-operative bloodwork and I’d taken advantage of the walk-in clinic at the hospital to do the same. And while we hadn’t actually talked about when we’d lose the condoms, I knew it was something we were both ready for.

Dallas tossed the condom away and then he began working me over until I was writhing beneath him. He kissed me as he began pushing into me, likely to swallow my cries of pleasure since we had houseguests. He made love to me slowly, driving me to the edge over and over again before backing off. By the time he began fucking me past the point of no return, I could barely breathe. Neither could Dallas, but luckily for a whole other reason than a problem with his throat. I clung to Dallas as I came, and moments later when his release scorched my insides, he whispered his love in my ear and I didn’t admonish him for it.

Because I would never get tired of him saying the words to me, whether he did it with his voice or his body.

I’d hear him either way.

Always.

Chapter Twenty-Two

Dallas

It took me two days to figure out where Maddox had gone and I’d cursed myself for my stupidity more than once that it had taken me that long to begin with.

The drive to the house by the lake was hard for me, since I hadn’t been up the winding road even once after my father had died.

There’d been no need to return to the house I’d shared with my parents and my brother because Maddox had inherited it. I’d just assumed he’d sold it, but when my family’s former neighbor, Mr. Zimmer, had stopped by the center in search of a new cat to keep his other cat company, he’d let it slip that he’d seen Maddox at the house a few times in the past couple of weeks.

In the two days since Maddox had done what he’d promised and fixed everything, I’d been inundated with visitors at the center. Most had been there merely to gawk or extend their apologies for having assumed the worst about me. Others had taken me up on my comment about having many animals in search of their forever homes. After years of solitude, I was, admittedly, not handling the sudden change well. Fortunately, Nolan had known what it would do to me and he’d often rescued me from visitors by slipping in the fact that I was still recovering from surgery and needed to rest. He’d also managed to talk Isaac into helping deal with all the people who were interested in adopting a new pet. Nolan had played it smart and framed the request so that it seemed less about us helping Isaac and more about him helping us.