Make Me - Tessa Bailey Page 0,52

it was tempered with disappointment now. Sadness. And unfortunately, some significant sexual awareness that probably would never fade, now that she knew what their bodies could do together.

She watched as he picked up the T-shirt she’d thrown off in what had been an admittedly childish move. Just because she was angry with him and didn’t know where they stood, didn’t mean she should ditch his clothes in random spots. She hated feeling guilty for her parting shot by the pool. Really, she should own the statement she’d made because she’d meant it. Right now, though, she couldn’t help but crave their closeness from before. Before they’d been intimate. When she could lay her head on his shoulder and tell him everything on her mind.

Abby’s insides jolted when Russell shouted her name. Had he seen her? He wasn’t even looking in her direction. When he charged headfirst into the water, her confusion sunk into the yawning pit in her stomach. His voice sounded strangled as he called her name over and over, diving beneath the surface. Looking for her? Yes. He thought she’d gone into the water. As quickly as possible, Abby gained her footing and leapt from the rock onto the sand. Her still-sensitive ankle protested, but she paid it no attention, sprinting toward the water.

“Russell.”

The sound of waves crashing half swallowed her voice, but he would have heard her, had he not just dived below the surface once more. Abby had just reached the shoreline and splashed into the ocean when Russell rose with a strangled curse, water coursing down his back. He spun in a circle, obviously still searching the dark waves, hands moving furiously in the water as if he could peel it back and find her.

“Goddammit!” he shouted. “Angel, please.”

“Russell,” she said again, out of breath. He heard her this time—thank God—his entire body stiffening, before slowly turning to face her. The turmoil on his face made Abby stumble in her awkward attempts to reach him, but she pushed forward and threw herself at him without thinking. His big body was an unmoving block of ice, so she grabbed his shoulders and climbed, wrapping her legs around his waist and holding tight. “I’m sorry. I was on the beach. I’m sorry.”

Still, he made no attempt to hold her back. Tremors began to move through him, shaking them both where they stood in the churning water.

Abby buried her face in his neck. “Say something. You’re scaring me.”

“I’m scaring you.” The words were toneless, but she could feel his pulse thundering against her lips. “You were under the water.”

“No, I wasn’t.”

Russell’s entire body heaved a shuddering breath, then two powerful arms were crushing her against his chest. It didn’t matter that she couldn’t inhale; at least he’d come back to her from wherever he’d gone. “You keep doing this to me.” His whisper was furious in her hair. “Keep almost taking yourself away. What would I have done, Abby? What?”

Another shudder passed through Russell, and it sent realization coursing through Abby. An understanding that this man had made mistakes, maybe he would make even more, but his feelings for her were real. As real as hers for him. There was no room for a barrier between them at that moment, and she needed to take advantage. Find out why Russell would charge into an ocean for her but didn’t want a serious relationship. For crying out loud, from where she was standing, their relationship was more serious than most marriages she’d encountered among her parents and their friends.

“You don’t call anyone else angel.” She leaned back to meet his gaze. “I thought all the way back to our first hang out. Not a waitress, not my roommates. No one. You only call me that.”

She’d caught him at a weak moment, when he was still coming down off the imagined tragedy. It was evident in the way his eyes closed, his head tipped forward to rest against hers. “Yeah. I know.”

“Why would you tell me otherwise?” She swallowed what felt like a handful of pebbles. “Do you want to push me away?”

“You think there’s an easy answer to that?” The question burst out of him with the force of a gale wind, warming her face. “Yes and no. There’s your answer.”

“Why yes?”

Russell didn’t speak for a long stretch, just continuing to hold her so tightly, as if she might try and escape. They breathed together, bodies moving as one in a way that felt natural. How it was supposed