Page 83 of Homebound

At my words, she jerks out a hand, panic flaring in her amber eyes. “No. Don’t leave me. That’s what he said,” she repeats over and over again as she curls in on herself.

I don’t know what he she’s talking about, but I’m back at her side in an instant, crushing her to my chest. “Hey, it’s okay, honey. It’s okay. I’m not going anywhere.”

She seems to go from feeling nothing to feeling everything. Her body starts to tremble, and her face contorts with panic. She clutches her chest, panting like she’s drowning in her emotions.

I’ve never seen her feel so much. She’s not like this with anyone else, just me.

“I can’t breathe,” she gasps, her voice rising in desperation, each word choked out between rapid breaths.

“In and out,” I say, my voice steady but filled with urgency.

Her entire body starts shaking as she stares down at the dirt and blood on her hands. “I can’t breathe! Get it off!” she screams, voice cracking like a whip. Tears stream down her disheveled face, carving rivers through the dirt.

I wrap her up in my arms, clutching her fiercely to my chest, and do something reckless because I don’t know how else to help—I drag us both beneath the stream of warm water.

Her, completely naked.

Me, completely clothed.

“Hey, you’re okay. I’ve got you,” I whisper, holding her tight as the warm water cascades over both of us.

She continues to sob against my chest, her shoulders shaking uncontrollably as the water washes away all the dirt, blood, and mess on her skin. I hold her tight, so damn tight, the water soaking my T-shirt and jeans, but I don’t care.

She needs me, so I’m here.

We sink to the concrete ground of the shower, her straddling my lap, and all I do is hold her, stroke her hair, rub her back as the water soaks her naked body, and all the while, I murmur “It’s okay, it’s okay” in her ear. We stay like that for so long, my fingertips shrivel into raisins.

But then, with a sudden movement, she kisses me.

It’s not so much a kiss as an urgent attack against my lips, and it’s wet, making her lips slide over mine. For a second, I’m so caught off guard that I can’t help but kiss her back, tugging the strands of her hair. Until I remember that the last thing I want is for her to regret anything that happens between us.

“Dakota, hey, hold on,” I say, pulling back slightly to cup her cheeks. Droplets of water cling to her dark lashes.

“Please, Wyatt,” she begs in a cracking voice. “Please. I just need to feel something good. Just let me feel something good tonight.”

She twists her fingers in my soaking shirt, pressing into my chest. She starts biting my neck, sucking, pulling my hair like she needs me, desperately. She’s making me ache for her, but this isn’t how I imagined this happening.

“Dakota, I can’t…” I let out a broken groan. “This isn’t how I wanted anything to happen between us. Don’t beg for me. It makes me want to give you everything.”

“Please,” she begs anyway. “It’s never… I’ve never…”

“You’ve never what?”

She sucks in a shaky breath. “It’s never meant something before, but you do. You mean something to me, and I just want you tonight.”

She presses little kisses to my stubble, and then she bites my bottom lip. She’s destroying my self-control with her pleas.

I feel like an absolute bastard when I get hard.

She notices and reaches down to unbutton my soaked jeans, but my fingers form handcuffs around her wrists. I can’t tell her to stop because part of me doesn’t want her to stop, even though we should. I’ve wanted her for so long that my control is in shreds. She seems to sense that I want this just as much as she needs this.

She grinds all over me as the water pours down beneath the blanket of stars. “Please, Wyatt.”

“I didn’t think it would happen like this,” I say through the shower rain.

She sniffs, and fuck, she’s killing my resolve. “Just… please?”

Her eyes fill with a pain that cuts deep. I can’t stand it, her being in pain because of me. She needs this, and I’ve never been good at denying her, but I don’t want to give it all up yet. “I don’t have a condom. We can’t.”