Page 18 of One Merciful Moment

"Is this what you wanted?" he asked harshly.

"Yes." Barely coherent, she panted. "God, yes."

All the days and weeks of living with him shattered into a million pieces, flooding her with a desperation to connect. To be one. To bond.

He drove into her harder, and she held her breath, straining against the climax building. She wanted to wait. She wanted to come. She wanted to chase the feelings and own them.

Her pussy spasmed. Deep inside her, she shuddered. Her thighs involuntarily clamped around him as her orgasm grabbed her.

He buried himself deep inside her, body shuddering, face in her neck, her name on his lips.

She cupped the back of his head. For a long time, only their breathing filled the house.

Her fingers moved lazily in his hair. His mouth was against her throat, her pulse hammering under his lips.

She had sex with Boone.

Staring up at the ceiling, she waited to see if guilt would attack her. But nothing came except the drowsy relief of having really good sex.

Chapter 11

Boone

––––––––

Boone woke up before sunrise. The house was quiet except for Ashley's soft breathing beside him.

Everything was changing too fast. The ache wasn't pain anymore. It was fullness, locked away inside him for years.

He rolled out of bed, dressed quietly, and stepped outside, needing air. The morning was still. The sky was pale and unmoving, as always.

But everything felt different.

He felt different.

He headed toward the grocery store, where Copper and the others were already gathered. Vaughn spotted him first and lifted his chin. Finn rubbed sleep from his eyes. Moe paced in front of the door.

"You're late." Copper studied him.

He shrugged. "Overslept."

"You don't oversleep." Copper's eyes narrowed.

Boone stayed quiet, refusing to give him anything to speculate on. The heaviness in his chest and the warmth of waking beside Ashley had his thoughts circling back to her. No one needed to know what happened between them.

Copper approached him. "Something's different."

He stiffened. "Nothing's different."

Copper huffed out a breath. "I've known you for a long time. You've been steady as stone since the day you showed up here. But right now? You're... unsettled."

He hated that word. When he'd been dealing drugs on the street to support his habit, people called him unsettled. Even the judge had said he'd never get clean. That there had to be something broken in him to use and sell heroin and fentanyl at the same time.

He shook his head, pushing those thoughts away. He couldn't remember the last time he'd let the past surface. It was a long time ago.

"Is it Ashley?" Copper asked quietly.

Boone refused to talk about his private life, but he didn't need to say anything. Copper's expression shifted.