I stayed with you…if people saw us together, how long to do you think it’s going to take before someone digs up my arrest record…or digs up yours?”
“Is our past the only reason you want to go back home?”
“Only reason? Syd, if the guys in the band, the press, or your fans find out about our past, it’s going to ruin your career.”
When he tossed his head back and laughed, I wanted to slap him.
“I don’t know what you find so amusing,” I spat. “There isn’t a damn thing funny about committing professional suicide.”
“Nobody’s committing professional suicide, angel.” He kissed me hard and gripped my butt cheeks, then stood.
I wrapped my legs around his waist and hugged him with all my might. “Where are we going?”
“Back to the lodge, to talk to Quinn.”
“About what?”
“You’ll see.”
“You can’t tell him,” I shrieked.
“Angel, I can do anything I want. I’m Syd fucking Wilson.”
“I know, but I’m just Caris waitress Burton.”
“Not anymore. You’re my angel,” he growled and kissed me again.
As we made our way back to the lodge, ducking limbs and dodging felled logs, Syd started singing my song but changed up the lyrics.
“I’ve spent all my time waiting for that second chance.” He paused and nudged my lips with his. “Tell me you’re going to give me a second chance, angel.”
“Second, third, however many it takes,” I purred.
He growled in approval and continued, “This is the break we needed to make it okay. There’s no more good reasons to feel not good enough…you’re all I want and need to be happy.”
My heart nearly exploded with happiness.
“If you’ll get me hard at the end of each day.”
When I rolled my eyes at his cheesy lyrics, Syd feigned insult, and I burst out laughing.
“I’ll be your distraction,” he cooed, continuing with his ad-libbed lyrics. “Give you earth-quaking release and send lava surging through your veins.”
“You already do, my love…you already do.”
“You’ll milk me empty, leave me boneless and happy, till I’m in a hot, sated coma. In the arms of my angel, we’ll fly far from our past. Spend our nights tearing up hotel rooms while we scream, groan, and gasp. There’ll be no more wreckage in our new life of blissful reverie. In the arms of my angel, we’ll find all the comfort we lost.”
“I love you.” My voice cracked and tears of happiness slipped down my cheeks.
“I love you more, angel.” Syd stopped and lowered my feet to the ground before pressing my back up against a wide tree.
He slanted his mouth over mine and swiped his tongue over the seam of my lips. I opened without hesitation, sucked his warm tongue inside my mouth, and swallowed his grunt of delight.
“Syd. Caris. Where the fuck are you guys?” Burk yelled.
“Cock-blocking motherfucker,” Syd groused.
“Over here. We’re coming,” I called out to the lead man.
“We could have been if you hadn’t given away our position,” he teased in a low whisper before nodding at the line of bobbing lights along the trees.
Obviously, Burk wasn’t the only one trying to find us. Syd clasped my hand and we trudged across the uneven ground toward the search party. We met up with Ross first, who clapped Syd on the back and sent him a grim and sympathetic smile.
“You had to kill him, bro. The FBI guys are still at the lodge and they concur it was self-defense.”
“I know, man.” Syd nodded. “I wasn’t upset about killing him.”
“Then what the fuck happened?”
“I’ll explain everything after shit calms down.”
Everything? A shiver of dread slid down my spine. Without a doubt, Syd needed to purge his soul to his family. But for purely selfish reasons, I didn’t want him sharing my sins with them. I didn’t want the newfound friendships I’d forged with them tarnished or tainted. Still, if it helped Syd heal, I’d swallow my foolish pride and live with their disapproval.
“How bad are McCoy’s men wounded?”
“Al took a bullet in the calf. They were loading him up in an ambulance when we took off to find you two. Tony got grazed. It’s just a flesh wound. The EMTs patched him up. Brad twisted an ankle jumping out of the tree, so the two of them are inside the lodge letting Susan and Gail pamper the piss out of them,” Ross drawled. “Cole snagged his arm on the tree stand when he jumped, but he just pulled a muscle. All in all, we survived a hell of a lot better than Zattman and his gun-wielding thugs.”
“Who and how