Catch Me When I Fall

by Jackson, A. L.

  “Your voice is the only song I hear.” He leaned down and plucked my earlobe between his teeth before he whispered at the flesh, “Soulshine.”

  My spirit shivered.

  He kept me pinned with those eyes as he reached down, guiding himself, the blunt head of him pressing at my center.

  A breathless whimper left my lips. A breath that Royce swallowed as he filled me in a quick, possessive thrust. Sensation blistered, the man so big, stretching me wide and filling me full.

  I could barely breathe, my breath gone and my heart lost.

  “Fuck . . . you are perfect. So perfect,” he grated through the softest kiss, the man always an enigma, dark and light, tender and raw.

  He searched for his own air, only finding me.

  My fingers sank into his shoulders, holding on tight as he began to move. Hard and deep and a little rough.

  Just like I knew he would be.

  Bliss. Bliss. Bliss.

  Every second.

  Every touch and nip of teeth. Every stroke and kiss.

  This man who consumed me whole, took me prisoner, freed my soul.

  I knew it as he watched down over me, his cock driving us both into madness, his eyes on me as our ragged pants filled the heated space between us.

  I’d never felt so alive.

  So right or whole.

  He reached up and gripped the headboard as his pace increased, hips slapping as he took me hard, the other hand winding down to stroke me into oblivion.

  Nothing left but this.

  This moment.

  Him and me. Me and him.

  That moment when you felt something searing together.

  A fusion.

  Forged by fire.

  Melted liquid that washed and spun and blended until it solidified into a different shape.

  Something better than it’d been.

  Us.

  His lips parted and his fingers strummed and his hips slammed.

  I felt him like a landslide. The sweeping of every cell. A gathering that shattered until I knew nothing but the pleasure I’d only found in this man.

  An orgasm ripped through my body. My head rocked back, ecstasy a desperate moan that bled up my throat, every nerve ending alive, shivering with a pleasure so intense we’d gone off the Richter scale.

  “Shh,” he murmured, kissing the sound away, muffling it as I moaned and writhed and floated away into some faraway place that only existed to us.

  “I’ve got you, Em. I’ve got you,” he mumbled through his kiss. “I’ve got you. I’m not going to let you go.”

  My body tremored and my walls clutched, and Royce was trying to subdue a groan as he drove faster. His thrusts became erratic and fierce, so deep and desperate that they sent pleasure rebounding for a second time.

  His hips jerked and snapped, and he clutched me like a lifeline. I felt the two of us falling.

  The air whipping around us as we tumbled to a sacred place.

  The man clinging to me as we plunged into the nothingness. Sped through the darkness.

  I could feel everything breaking apart.

  The foundation I’d known rocked.

  Obliterated.

  But I wasn’t afraid.

  I knew when we hit the bottom, he would be right there to catch me.

  * * *

  Darkness wisped like pale threads through the room, the night long, the quiet lulling us into a deeper peace.

  Royce’s arms were curled around my body, and I was tucked into the den of his chest. Secure and held.

  Our hearts thrummed at a hushed pace, contentment covering me in a blanket of euphoria.

  Royce hugged me closer and pressed a tender kiss to the side of my face. He exhaled. It sent a river of that energy rippling through the air. “I think we just defiled your childhood bed.”

  A smile pulled across my mouth as I snuggled down deeper into the well of his warmth. “I think it was worth it.”

  I could feel the force of his grin. “Yeah? Well the rest of the house might not be so agreeable.” Amusement blustered through his quieted tone, the man the lightest I’d ever felt him be. I wanted to hold onto that, too.

  His joy.

  Wanted to be partner to it.

  To feed it. Nourish it. Watch it grow.

  “You think they heard us?” I whispered. Redness bloomed on my cheeks, and I trailed my fingers over the intricate king tattooed on the back of his hand, knowing he was mine. Realizing I was right there. Waiting for his next play.

  “Nah.” It was a short, muted laugh. A complete lie.

  I cringed. “Oh my god. . . that is so embarrassing. My daddy is gonna kill me.”

  Those strong arms flexed as he pulled me tighter, so close I didn’t know where he started and I ended, our legs bare and tangled, our hearts synced. A beat in time that only belonged to us. He nuzzled his face into my hair, his words a slight, growling murmur. “You still think it was worth it?”

  I rolled around to face him, staring into those onyx eyes glinting in the threads of light that poured in through the window.

  I touched his face. “You are worth everything.”

  He gathered my hand, kissed across my knuckles before he twined our fingers together. “I want to be. I want to be worthy of you. Want to give you everything in this life.”

  “What if the only thing I want is you?”

  A grin played over his lush mouth, though there was something sad about it. “You have me, Emily. For the first time in years, I feel real. Like maybe I could be whole again.” Somberness stole through his expression. “You were the last person I should have fallen for. It shouldn’t have been possible for me to fall at all.”

  “Because you’re a representative of Mylton Records?”

  “Because my life is so much more complicated than you know.” Guilt spilled out with the words. “Have a history, Emily. Baggage.”

  I shifted, and he rolled onto his back. I angled up on my side so I could look down on this man who I still couldn’t really believe was lying in my bed. “What if I want to carry some of that baggage for you? Hold you the way you’ve been holding me? That’s what love is, Royce.” I traced my fingers over the inscription on his chest. “Maybe you forgot what love is or maybe you stopped believing that it was real. But you found it in me, just like I found it in you. We belong.”

  “I’m afraid you’re going to hate me when you find out who I really am.”

  “That’s not possible,” I rushed through a whisper. My hand spread over the pounding in his chest. “I know you.”

  He brushed his fingers through my hair, dark eyes fierce. “We’re going to take him down together.”

  “I don’t want you to get in trouble with your job when I do it.”

  Coming out was going to put two of the men I loved the most on the line.

  Royce and Richard.

  Hard, low laughter rolled out of Royce. “Don’t you worry about me.”

  “How can I not worry about you? I love you, remember?” An adoring smile tugged at my mouth.

  Royce pulled me to straddle him, that unyielding gaze on me. Though it’d gone tender. Soft, unrelenting affection that filled me to overflowing. He reached up and cupped my face in one of those massive hands. “I want to live for you.”

  I leaned down, my lips a whisper against his. “And I want to sing for you.”

  I could feel his smile beneath the softest kiss.

  “What song is it you want to hear, Royce? What can I give you?”

  He gripped me by both sides of the face. “Peace.”

  He looked up at me, awareness spinning through the space, energy alive.

  Want went slip-sliding across my flesh, as intoxicating as his hands that slid over my shoulders and down my sides to grip me by my waist. Royce lifted me, lining up his massive length with my center, and he slowly guided me onto his erection, the man hard and ready for me again.

  It pressed the breath from my lungs, a frenzy of need that cascade
d through my body.

  Eclipsing all thought.

  All reason.

  It chased out everything but the sensation of this man.

  Every cell aware.

  Every nerve alive.

  All of it burning for him.

  * * *

  Morning light spilled into my room. I stretched, my body so blissfully wrung out that I could have curled back up in my bed and stayed there forever.

  The sheets smelled like him. His powerful aura still hung in the room.

  Cedar and sex. Nothing but sweet, dominant man.

  A smile took to my face, and I pulled the covers to my chest, relishing in the memories of last night.

  He’d slipped out just before dawn, planting a kiss to my temple and a whisper of forever.

  “Soulshine.”

  Gnawing at my bottom lip, I tried not to dig too deeply into what that meant, and instead just focused on the fact that we had made it here. That we’d toppled our obstacles.

  Decided we were worth the risk.

  Fears trampled in a stampede of hope.

  For the first time in so long, it was the biggest thing I felt.

  Hope.

  A future waited out ahead of me.

  Lessons that had prepared me. Wounds that had fortified me. Moments that had added up to teach me what really mattered.

  What I really wanted.

  With that realization, I sat up. A piece of paper crinkled on the bed next to me.

  My heart skittered in a race of anxious nerves, and I reached for the ripped scrap of paper, my eyes moving over the words that had been added to our song, the strains of the chorus becoming a melody in my head.

  I’m in a free fall

  Don’t let me drown

  Years spent wasted

  Waiting on you to catch up to me

  Catching up to you

  I clutched the sheet of paper to my chest. Cherishing the words.

  Cherishing the man I’d never expected.

  Had never seen coming but had come at the perfect time.

  Bursting with emotion, I reached over to my notepad and tucked the slip inside before I tossed off the thin covers, pulled on a pair of shorts and a tee, and twisted my sexed-up hair into a loose knot on top of my head.

  I padded out into the hallway. Voices lifted from below, the smell of bacon and biscuits rising up to fill my senses with the most intense form of familiarity.

  Home.

  And I knew . . . I knew that’s what I wanted.

  To build one.

  Something beautiful and strong. Carved out of the cracks of both of our lives. Constructed by our deepest scars and our innermost desires. Fortified when given to the other.

  I went into the bathroom at the end of the hall, brushed my teeth, and for a second, I stared at my reflection in the mirror.

  Bright pink cheeks, eyes wide, lips swollen.

  My chest squeezed with affection

  I unlatched the door so I could head downstairs. Halfway out, I tripped over my feet.

  Royce was right outside the door.

  The man wore a sleepy grin and no shirt, and my tummy was doing crazy, needy things, shivers racing and that pink on my cheeks heating to an inferno.

  With a smile ticking up at the corner of his mouth, he edged forward, stealing my breath, filling my lungs, those eyes knowing and playful when he murmured, “Morning, gorgeous.”

  My teeth clamped down on my bottom lip to keep myself from going giddy. “Good mornin’.”

  “You sleep okay?” Affection, all mixed up with a dose of amusement, danced across his face. I figured I’d better play along.

  “Oh yes . . . the best sleep I’ve had in a long, long time.” I drew it out, acting as innocent as I could.

  “Hmm. Something must have worn you out.”

  I lifted my chin, gave him a smile. “No, actually, I was resting up because I figured I was just gettin’ started.”

  A smirk took hold of his face. So decadent. A promise of the most delicious sort of sin. His voice dropped an octave, so deep and slow. “Is that so?”

  I nodded erratically.

  He angled down, faster than I could make sense of it, pinning me to the wall. He rocked his hips forward, his hard, massive erection straining behind his jeans.

  I gasped at the sensation.

  “Don’t say you didn’t ask for it,” he warned.

  Need blazed a path through my body. This was so not good for first thing in the morning, right out in the open in my parents’ house.

  Still, I couldn’t help but pitch my head back to meet his eyes, to taunt him a little in the way he was taunting me. “I’m not asking for it. I’m beggin’ for it.”

  Dropping his forehead to mine, he groaned a needy sound, though I could feel the force of the smile that was splitting his face. “What I’m going to do to you, sweet girl.”

  “I can’t wait,” I murmured back.

  When a door slammed from somewhere downstairs, I jumped, then grinned, figuring it was best to detangle myself from him before I let the moment get carried away. “I’ll see you downstairs.”

  I started to walk off.

  He smacked my bottom.

  Jumping in surprise, a high-pitched squeak flew from my mouth.

  Without slowing down, I whirled around to glare at him from over my shoulder. Totally feigned of course.

  He just cocked a smirk, the man never letting me free of the clutches of that gaze as I headed to the first floor using the main set of stairs. I hit the landing at the living room.

  Laughter bubbled into the air, loud and a little obnoxious, and there was no stopping my smile as I pushed through the swinging doorway into my mama’s kitchen.

  Melanie was there, sitting on the counter, swinging her legs over the side. She grabbed an apple from the fruit dish and started tossing it into the air. “Well, well, well, look who’s awake. Sleeping Beauty in the flesh. I heard things got interestin’ around here last night.”

  Oh yeah, they got interesting, all right.

  My mama looked over at me from where she was scrambling a big skillet of eggs on the stove. The lifted scowl knitting her brow emphasized the river of wrinkles mapping her face. “Good mornin’.”

  I couldn’t tell if she was watching me with worry or speculation or because she was itching to give me another one of those talks about safe sex she’d brutalized me with when I was twelve.

  Turned out, sex with Royce was anything but safe.

  All concerns tossed right out the window. Consequences be damned.

  I was pretty sure I’d be content to live out my years in his aftermath.

  “Mornin’,” I managed, shuffling into the kitchen and trying to pretend as if my entire world hadn’t just gotten tipped upside down.

  Set to right.

  Nothing the same but somehow feeling as if it was exactly how it was supposed to be.

  “Coffee’s ready.” Mama pointed at the pot as if I might have forgotten where she’d kept it for the last thirty years.

  I beat a path for it. “Thank you.”

  I grabbed my favorite mug and filled it with the steaming brew, bringing it to my mouth to take a sip.

  Melanie grabbed the almost-empty container of vanilla creamer. “You want some of this, or did you get enough cream last night?”

  I spewed out the coffee I had in my mouth, spilling half the cup onto the floor in the process. I swiped at my mouth with the back of my hand, flustered, heat racing to my cheeks and horror filling my belly.

  “Melanie, what is wrong with you?” I demanded beneath my breath, glancing to the swinging door and praying my daddy hadn’t overheard.

  She rolled her eyes. “What, you think you’re going to keep that news under the covers? Because we all know that’s exactly where you were rolling around with Royce last night.”

  My mouth dropped open. “That’s it. Your BFF status has been revoked.”

  She rolled her eyes again. “Sorry, but you see
m to be missin’ the forever part. You’re stuck with me.”

  “Not if I kick you to the curb.”

  “No thanks . . . I’m fine right here.” She crossed her legs and lifted her cup to her mouth as if she didn’t have a care in the world.

  Warily, I let my attention slide to my mama. It wasn’t like I was a child, but this was her house and yesterday was the first introduction she’d even had of the man. And things had been . . . rough.

  Mama arched a brow. “Well, if you want to keep secrets, you should probably do things in secret. You think I didn’t hear him sneaking out of your room at the crack of dawn this morning? You forget your old mama is up to welcome the sun.”

  I cringed. By the way she was looking at me, I was pretty sure she’d heard him go sneaking in there, too. “I’m sorry.”

  A soft smile graced her mouth. “What are you apologizing for? It was a rough night last night. You aren’t the only one who needed comfort.”

  “Yeah, like poor Nile,” Mel piped in, feigned concern in her voice. “I bet he was wishing for someone to kiss his boo-boos. Poor thing.”

  “You heard about that?” I asked.

  She scoffed. “Whole town has heard about it. Nile gettin’ his ass handed to him by some city boy. Guy will probably never show his face again. Especially considering he got his nose busted good.”

  Mama tsked a disappointed sound. “Well, Nile has been spoutin’ enough nonsense that he should have known he was eventually going to get what was coming to him. That boy has always had a sweet tooth . . . wanted his cake and to eat it, too. Think he can mess around on my daughter, and when he doesn’t get her back with a snap of his fingers, get aggressive? Oh no. I’m not about to stand for that.”

  “Seems someone else wasn’t about to, either.” Melanie cocked a brow toward the ceiling where there was some light banging on the floor. I could almost see him, dressing in front of the mirror, pulling on one of those tailored suits.

  Or maybe fitted jeans and a tight tee.

  I couldn’t decide which way I liked him best.

  I guessed love blotted out those sort of lines. It was the whole sight of him that left me undone.