have stopped the laugh that came from deep in my throat. Reaching out, I slid my hands into her hair, gripping her skull in my palms. Jesus, she was so tiny compared to me. Her bruises were gone, and Forrest had removed the stitches across her ribs, but I’d never forget the way she’d looked when I’d found her that night—her face swollen and her shirt covered in blood. I’d mostly been able to put it into the back of my mind, she didn’t need me losing my shit every time I looked at her—but Jesus. The human body was so fucking fragile. Having her bare in front of me, slender and dainty, reminded me of that in glaring Technicolor.
“We can come up with a different way,” I said, running my lips down the bridge of her nose.
“I just want to get it over with,” she replied, her hands coming up to rest on my chest. “I can’t keep waiting for the next shoe to drop.”
“I’ll finish it,” I promised, pressing my forehead against hers. “You stay here, and I’ll take care of it.”
“If you thought that would work, you’d already be gone,” she said. Sliding her hands up my chest, she softly scratched her nails through my chest hair, up over my shoulders and down my arms, her hands finally coming to a stop wrapped around my forearms. “It’s going to be okay.”
“I got a bad feeling about it,” I replied, breaking my own rule about saying that type of shit right before things got messy. “Don’t do it, Cec.”
“I have to,” she said simply. “I promise, I’ll stay out of the way. I’ll be fine.”
“There’s no way to know that,” I spat, letting go of her to run my fingers through my hair. “You’ve seen how fast shit can go bad.”
Cecilia’s expression darkened. Before she opened her mouth, I knew she’d moved beyond trying to calm me and I braced.
“I do know,” she said, raising her chin. “We weren’t ready, and we didn’t see it coming. I can’t live my life waiting for that to happen the next time I let my guard down. I won’t.”
“I’d never make you,” I shot back. “There’s other ways to finish this.”
“Today?” she asked. “Because if I do this, Olive is safe today.”
I inhaled sharply, fury making every muscle in my body tense. I breathed in once, then twice, but it didn’t calm me enough to stop the urge to slam the side of my fist against the wall of the shower.
“Feel better?” she asked, not even flinching.
“What’s she gonna do without you?” I asked. “Somethin’ happens to you, and then what? All because you couldn’t be patient enough to wait for a few goddamn days so I could plan somethin’ different?”
“That’s not fair and you know it,” she spat back, her voice steadily rising with every word. “And if something happens to me, then you better buy some baby books so you can figure out how to change a fucking diaper.”
“I’m supposed to raise her without you?” I yelled back. “Are you out of your fucking mind? What did I tell you? I’m not leaving you again. Where you go, I go, goddamn it.”
I was still breathing heavily, my hand fisted in her hair when she lunged. I went back a step as her mouth hit mine, but within seconds, I had control of us both, pressing her into the wall of the shower, one hand still in her hair and the other gripping her ass. Her hands were everywhere, scratching down my back and digging into my ass cheeks, gripping my sides and finally rising to my shoulders. I boosted her up easily and groaned into her mouth as her legs wrapped around my waist.
As her hips started to roll, I ripped my mouth away. “We can’t do this.”
“I know,” she gasped, still grinding against me, “but I’m so close.”
“Fuck,” I breathed, kissing her again.
Shifting slightly, I held my breath as her pussy slid up my cock and back again, over and over. Shit. With every movement of our hips, I was more and more convinced that she wasn’t the only one who was going to get off. Pressing my face against her neck, I sucked the skin between my teeth, biting down slightly.
Cecilia hissed in a sharp breath as her hips lost their rhythm and she pressed down hard against me. The change in movement shifted us just enough that I barely slid inside, and I cursed as I