Have you been looking for someone
To fill up what you’re missing
Who is it who’s gonna stop you
From the circle that keeps going ’roundTremors rumbled, and my eyes were racing, latching onto the next slip that had been left ten feet ahead.
My soul hinged on eternity.
My life a spiral
You sent me spinning
I’ve lost control
Now I’m questioning everything I think I knowI kept moving forward.
Compelled.
Hooked
Chained.
I already hit rock bottom
Waiting to catch you now
It’s you, little mind-wrecker
Trippin’ me up long before you could knowI guessed I really was tripping when I edged forward and picked up the next slip that waited close to the open sliding door that led out to the patio.
I’m in a free fall
Don’t let me drown
Years spent wasted
Waiting on you to catch up to me
Catching up to youTension rippled, energy stretched taut.
Pulling between us. Heart in my throat, I stepped outside onto the patio that overlooked the city.
A negative-edge pool lined the back, the bright teal-blue of the water looking as if it poured off the side, a canvas of city lights that seemed to stretch on forever.
That million-dollar view that made this place worth more than a small fortune.
But it was her . . . Emily, that was the sight.
The view.
The only thing that mattered.
Staggering, gut-wrenching beauty.
Mind-wrecker.
She sat on a stool facing out over the city, wearing a white backless dress that showed off all that silky flesh, blonde curls mounded on her head, a few tendrils dripping down to caress her skin.
My guts fisted in a shock of lust while my spirit screamed for its match.
My chest filling to overflowing.
Love rushing out.
Soulshine.
She had a guitar balanced on her lap, and she was singing softly.
Singing slow.
The last words I’d written and left on my nightstand five nights ago. Written when I couldn’t sleep.
My soul crushed with how fucking bad I was missing her.
I never knew what it meant
I thought my heart was breaking
Turns out it was only making room for you
So catch me
Catch me when I fall
I’m right here
Waiting for you to catch me when I fallHer lithe body rocked as she strummed the mesmerizing melody.
She clutched my soul and made me stumble forward a step as she continued to sing our song that had finally been synched.
Years spent wasted
Waiting on you to catch up to me
Catching up to you
Years spent wasted
You were waiting for me
I never knew what it meant
I thought my heart was breaking
Turns out it was only making room for you
So catch me
Catch me when I fallShe looked back at me as she sang the last, the chorus slowing, her eyes filled with a trust I thought I’d never deserve.
So catch me
Catch me when I fallJade eyes shimmered in the moonlight. “Will you, Royce? Will you be there for me? To catch me when I’m fallin’? Will you be my life’s song?”
It slammed me like a landslide.
The intense love I had for this girl.
Her presence all around me.
Cherries and the sky and the breaking day.
The sun climbing over the darkened horizon.
Blinding and bold.
I moved for her.
Purposed.
Each step desperate in its possession.
Desperate in its surrender.
Because that’s what this was.
Possession.
Surrender.
Chills flashed across the skin of her bare back. Goosebumps raced in time with the shiver that rolled through her gorgeous body.
Anticipating my touch.
I edged forward until I was standing right behind her, my chest heaving with the pants that jumped from my lungs. My heart careened as I leaned forward and dragged my nose up along the column of her neck.
Inhaling as I went.
Sweet, sweet, sweet.
Every cell in my body clutched. My words were rough at the shell of her ear. “I want to see you fly.”
“I think I’ve been flyin’ since the moment you walked into my life,” she whispered into the night, into the shadows that lapped from the pool and tumbled across the stone deck.
My hand spread out over the front of her neck, drawing her back. Her pulse ran wild beneath my touch. “It’s me you set free.”
Her head shook. “No, Royce. It was you who gave everything to set us free. I know what you did. Why you came for me. You saved me. It was you in that hotel room. And I know what you did for your sister. You fought for us. I know what you did for the band, too.”
Energy trembled. “I’d do it all over again, a million times,” I told her, mouth moving up and down the column of her throat, unable to stop myself.
Not wanting to.
Surrender.
“I need to know one thing, Royce. I need to know if it is real. If what you feel for me is real or if it’s some sort of twisted pity? If you got caught up in the act of protecting me from Cory?”
Teeth grating with restraint, I shifted her around on the stool. Struck by the magnitude of this girl. Her face and those green eyes and her blinding soul.