Catch Me When I Fall (Falling Stars 2)

A tremor rocked the ground.

Attraction and greed.

Her lips parted under the force of it before a frown took its place. “I just . . . I want you to know I would do anything for the boys. For the band. I love them, and I want the best for everyone, and I want you to know that I’m trying to get over this hurdle so I can be what they need me to be.”

“What about what’s best for you?”

“What’s best for the band is what’s best for me. They’re my family. I believe in what we’re doing, and I don’t want to lose sight of that. And now you’re here.” Her voice trembled. “I know we didn’t meet under the best circumstances, but I want you to know that I am tryin’. I don’t want you to think that I’m being difficult for the hell of it. Bratty and petulant and arrogant. You’ve been nothing but fair, and I know the offer is fair. More than fair.”

Fair.

What bullshit.

Like she was the one who owed me an apology?

“You have a right to be skeptical. People get deceived all the time.”

A half smile quirked at her mouth, worry threaded with all her glowing, outright hope. “Like that first night?”

There she went . . . offering an olive branch. A bridge for us to cross to meet in the middle. Giving me the opportunity to explain myself.

Emitting forgiveness like it was a sweet fragrance.

I couldn’t remain standing still for a second longer.

Tension swelled.

Rising between us.

I moved that way, stalking slow, my bare feet on the hard ground. I came right up to where she stood, my shadow covering her whole.

Like there was any chance of me standing anywhere else.

She rasped a shocked, needy breath, and her hands flew up to steady herself on my bare chest.

Fire flashed.

Fuck.

That was a mistake.

But I couldn’t move. Couldn’t do anything but dip down lower to ensure she was listening.

“I would never take advantage of you. Never.”

The words were rough.

Scourges of a promise.

I prayed they were the truth. That I could fucking pull this off without hurting her more.

But looking down at her? I knew that I already was. That my thirst for vengeance was crushing sound reason.

I shouldn’t be doing this.

Wanting her in a way that I didn’t deserve.

Feasting on pure, innocent beauty.

Still, I was stuck, unable to move away from the face that stared up at me, her scent invading my mind and my senses.

Her short fingernails scraped my flesh.

They moved over the ink imprinted on my chest, tracing over the hawk wings that fluttered in sync with the ragged rhythm of my breaths, right over the raging thunder that battered at my ribs to the words inscribed there.

I’d purposefully placed them there so I’d see them every morning when I looked in the mirror.

A warning not to fall.

Love is the heart’s greatest deceit.

“Do you feel that?” she asked. So quiet. So unsure.

“What?” I growled, wrapping an arm around her waist to tuck her closer.

“This feelin’ like I know you in a way that I shouldn’t. Like we’re connected in some way that we can’t see. Like we’ve been tied somewhere in the past. I felt it that first night, and I’ve felt it every night since.”

Like the selfish fucker I was, I let my nose travel across her temple, inhaling her delicate scent.

Cherries and the sky.

“I think you’re searching for something that isn’t there.” It came off my tongue like a demand, hard and praying that she would think better of this and get the fuck out of there before I lost my mind.

Did more damage.

“And maybe what I’ve been lookin’ for is standing right here.”

“You don’t know what you’re asking for, Precious,” I murmured at her ear. I trailed my lips across her skin, tracing down her neck and scrolling over her delicate shoulders.

Kissing across the soft, seductive flesh.

Emily whimpered and dropped her head back to grant me better access. “I think what I’m askin’ for is you. Can you hear it? The way my body is calling out for you? It shouldn’t be possible. It shouldn’t. But I can’t stop the way I’m feelin’. I couldn’t stop it then, and no matter how hard I’ve tried, there is no stopping it now.”

A little piece of me died right there.

Maybe it was one of the threads that hung onto her so fucking tight.

Snip, snip, snip.

Like maybe there was a chance of my getting free.

I shuttered my heart against the thought.

“I want you so fucking bad it hurts, sweet girl. You have me so spun up, I’m forgetting who I am.”

“Or maybe you are just discoverin’ something new.”

There she went with all that belief. Seeing something brilliant and good buried in the bad.

She should be terrified. But she was holding onto me like I might be able to offer her something better.