over him and kiss his forehead. Straightening my posture, I stare down at him. This isn’t ideal for him. This place, the situation, but then again, Ilwaco wasn’t either. Sure, he had my grandparents there, and Athena’s family, but he didn’t know life with my dad. And as sad as I had been to leave my dad and Rhett to live with my mom, I knew at the time it was what my mom needed, and I went with it. Selfishly, I wanted my son to have the childhood I had here, in Westport, before everything changed.
My thoughts shift to Journey, easily redirected with her presence near. Slipping out of his room, I pad down the dark hallway to my room. I twist the knob quietly, unsure what will be waiting for me on the other side of the door.
She’s on my bed, naked from the waist up, amongst the messy sheets. Journey gives me a shy smile, working her jeans down past her hips. My heart thuds in my ears. Casually, I ease back onto the bed, watching her with rapt attention. Everything about her is delicate. Small, soft features from the gentle curve of her nose to her tender brown eyes. She’s delicate. Fragile. And I have no business being with her like this, knowing I’m only going to hurt her when she finds out the truth.
I think to myself, End it now. Tell her, but something stops me. It happens when she straddles my hips, her beautiful body perched on top of mine, and she’s looking down at me. Her hands move to my buckle. She unstraps the leather, undoes the button, and then the zipper. Moonlight baths her body in silver streaks, her hair gathered over one shoulder, creating a shadow on her cheek.
My heart thuds, it beat so loud I can’t hear it over my breathing. I move my hands from my sides to touch her breast. Thud. Thud. Thud. It’s an angry beat now. One telling me I’m in over my head. But this woman, she’s nothing I expected her to be. My thumb inches toward the bubbled edges of the scar down the valley of her breasts. It starts just below her collarbone and ends at her first visible rib.
Aside from the obvious bulge in my jeans because a naked woman is straddling my dick, I hadn’t realized it until now, but my breaths come out in ragged gasps.
Journey touches my hands over her, cupping her breast. “Heart transplant,” she whispers, emotion shaking her words. “In case you were wondering.”
I don’t say anything. I stare up at her, trying to find the words.
“Are you okay?” she asks, noticing my lack of reaction.
I can’t answer her. So I drop my hands from her chest to her hips. I roll her over, my body pressing into hers. I cover up emotion with kisses. At least then, I won’t say anything I might regret. I give what I can to those kisses. Everything. What she deserves, and maybe what I do. My life had been ripped apart, much like hers, at least I justify it like that.
Breaking the kiss, I get my jeans and shirts off. With our bodies pressed to one another, my touch turns rougher, a need I can’t explain driving me forward. My mouth finds the broken skin from the night before.
She whimpers when I suck, just a little. “It’s still tender.” She sucks in air with the words, threading her hands into my hair.
My body tightens, a thrill rushing through me. I’m at her entrance now, condom on, but I haven’t entered her yet. I press my lips to the hollow spot next to it. “What about here?” I grunt, my body shaking with need. I give her my weight.
Her breath expels in a throaty gasp, arching her body, and then her neck. “Anywhere you want. Just mark me with your touch.”
My dick jumps with excitement that she’ll let me make my mark on her, even if it’s only temporary. I move one hand to cradle the back of her head, and just before I enter her, my mouth covers a new spot, and I take a little bit more from her than I deserve. I feed the need inside me to have her blood swimming through my veins. She gasps, her legs wrapping around my waist, crying out softly in pain. She holds on to my shoulders as I drive inside her, relentlessly trying to fuck whatever this is consuming me