When Sky Breaks: Burn & Break Duet Book 2

47. Sky

The soundof the front door opening spurs me into motion. I jerk mine almost off the hinges as I watch Trek hang his keys.

He faces me, cheeks flushed from the cold, and nods.

“Where is he?” I ask, a little breathless, wringing my hands in anticipation.

I have to see him.

I’ve never read the official fire report until now. Foster only said it was an accident. But when Trek and August confessed their secrets, accidental was out of the question.

My biological father was a smoker, a pack-of-day kind of guy. My job on most nights was to pluck the lit bud from his hands when he’d fall asleep on the couch before a cherry fell to the old carpet and sent our house up in flames.

For as long as I could remember, I believed I was the one at fault. For the one night, I didn’t check on my dad as he passed out on the couch from too many drinks. I went to bed upset my mom didn’t pick Chase and me up like she was supposed to. My bag sat ready by our front door. We were going to spend the night at a hotel with a pool. Excitement bubbled in my belly as I tucked my favorite and only swimsuit under a beach towel. The suit had Minnie Mouse on the front and a cute little bow on the back. We got it at a garage sale, and even though the elastic was thin and close to breaking down, I loved it.

However, it wasn’t a match lit by August that burned down the house, nor the bud of a glowing cigarette. It was a faulty power strip. Of all things, it was something innocuous, yet it created years of pain and heartbreak.

It truly was an accident.

August was innocent of this sin he carried around. It didn’t matter how many times I told him I forgave him. He still held onto the belief he was a monster for what he did.

My chest aches thinking about the boy who, in reality, was neither monster nor foe but a shining beacon of everything pure. He just wanted me safe and loved.

I didn’t need to see the report to forgive either him or Trek. I’m living proof that love isn’t simple. That good people can do bad things with good intentions. But I knew they both needed the undeniable proof to set them free.

“He’s outside. I told him I’d send you to his house, but he said no, he had to see you now.” Trek shrugs, but there’s no denying the lightness around him as he smiles.

“Feels good, doesn’t it?”

“What? Finding out I’m not actually complicit in a decade-old crime or the bit about reconciling with an equally innocent childhood friend?”

I sock him in the shoulder once I meet him in the foyer. He acts all wounded before draping his arms around my shoulders and squeezing me in a tight hug.

“Thank you for not giving up on us.”

I speak, my voice muffled by his sweatshirt. “I’m not a martyr, bud, and five years was kind of hardcore in terms of grudges, but I think deep down, I knew this point would come. Believe it or not, I was miserable without you two.”

After I peek in on a sleeping Foster, I run out the front door. August leans against his truck. His head is back, eyes pinned to the night sky, streams of warm air floating from his nose as he breathes.

Once I step in front of him, he brings his head down and roams my face with his mercury-gray eyes and a soft smile.

“Come home with me?”

All I do is nod because if I speak, I’ll cry, and he’s on the verge of crying himself.

He opens my door and closes it once I’m in, just staring at me with this expression I can only describe as a dreamy euphoria. He jogs around to his side and hops in, immediately lacing our fingers together before shifting into drive.

In the fifteen minutes it takes to get to his house, we don’t utter a word. But I watch him. The way he rolls his lip under his teeth and bites it before licking it. The way those lips brush over my knuckles every time we hit a stoplight. The little sighs coming from his chest.

Eventually, the euphoria morphs. Instead of slowing down at yellow lights, he’s gunning through them before they turn red. Barely tapping at stop signs, he’s lucky no cops are around to pull us over.

A grin slides effortlessly across my face. He’s releasing everything he held back because all he had was guilt. He’s finally free and he can’t contain it.

We crunch over the gravel on his driveway and bounce once he throws the truck into park. My own emotions rise to the surface. I watch as he springs out. I bite my lip and smile at him as he tears open my door.

With no explicit warning, I’m released from my belt, pulled from my seat, and dragged to his chest just as his lips crash into mine. All his pent-up emotions get funneled from his kiss to me.

He’s everywhere.

Fingers spear into my hair, tugging my head so he can drag hot lips down my neck and back up. Heat from his skin seeps through his T-shirt under his open jacket as he crowds me against the truck. The scent of his soap, the glint in his gray eyes, and the softness of his hair on my cheeks overwhelms me.

Yet I match him, energy to energy.

“I didn’t do it,” he whispers in between kisses.

“I know,” I murmur, clinging to his jacket to steady my weakening knees.

“I didn’t kill your brother.”

Fierce, passionate kisses send waves of arousal all over my body. I’m sensitive and wound up, my mind absorbing his reactions to the truth. “I know,” I repeat.

His forehead connects with mine. Hot breaths skate across my face, and his palms slide from my hair to cup my cheeks.

I open my eyes to his. There’s a shadow in those silvery depths and a tremble in his hands. “What’s wrong?”

He swallows and shutters his eyes closed, a pained expression marring his beautiful face. “How long have you known?”

My spirit wants to crumble from the look of utter despair clouding his features. I shake my head, my fingers tightening on his jacket, forcing him to look at me. “Not long. I opened the files after dinner, then went and immediately told Trek.” I study him further, the war on his face tearing me apart. “Did you think I only forgave you because I found out you’re innocent?”

He turns his head away, his jaw flexing as his eyes close once again.

I grab his shoulders and tug until he faces me, my heart exploding in my chest. “No, August. I didn’t need any report to forgive you. Even if I never, ever read that file, I’d still be here with you, loving you. I’m so happy I found it because you needed it more than me.”

He tracks the truth in my eyes and sags his body, curling into my embrace. His breath ghosts against my neck, ragged and full of relief. “What about the file on your mom?”

Even still, he’s thinking of me instead of what he just learned.

“I don’t want to talk about her. There was nothing important in it. Right now, I want to be here for you.”

Cold air bites into my cheeks, but it’s dulled by August’s heat. He dips and lifts me by the back of my thighs, and I wrap my legs around his waist as he carries me up the steps of his porch.

“I love you,” he pants out as he blindly inserts his key into the front door. It finally opens and I hear the clink of keys on the floor as he tosses them to wrap a hand around the nape of my neck, holding me there as he kisses me.

“I know, baby.” The smile in my voice is unmistakable.

My back hits a wall near the kitchen, rattling a picture frame. I gaze at August, who’s staring like I’m some apparition that might disappear at any moment.

“I didn’t think this feeling would ever go away. The guilt was there no matter what anyone said. You forgave me, and yet I still couldn’t shake it. I would’ve spent my entire life proving to you I’m worth it, but I’m not sure I ever would’ve believed it.”

I grip his head tightly between my palms. “Believe me. You’re worth it.”

He nods, his jaw tight with a need that’s slowly unraveling. The shock has worn off, and now the man underneath the guilt is coming to the surface.

And he’s set his sights on me.

A second later, I’m ripped from the wall and propped up in the middle of his kitchen island. I watch as he stands back and his chest heaves, his eyes on fire.

He’s not going to hold back anymore.

“I love you.” His voice turns rough as he peels off his jacket and flings it over the back of a stool. “So, fucking much, Sky.”

“I know.” I’m panting and filled with a giddy nervousness for what’s coming. My palms, slick with sweat, slide across the marble.

August has always been good in bed. But seeing the raw energy sparking from his body as he looks at me through fresh eyes makes me almost melt onto the floor.

I want him to consume me.

“Good. Now, take off your pants. I want to see you. You’re wet for me, aren’t you?”

A shiver runs down my spine, and I jerk my chin up and down as desire streaks through me. Desperate and needy, I slip my shoes off and shove them over the side of the island. They land on the floor with a thud. I slide the waistband of my leggings down my thighs, and my core tightens as August’s eyes darken.

But he doesn’t move. He follows my movements as if transfixed.

“Good girl,” he says once I’ve flicked them away and onto the floor. “Pull your panties to the side, Shortcake. Let me look at you.”

There’s always been a razor-thin edge of assertiveness to August, and it’s clear he’s exercising all that aggression now. I’m more than happy to oblige and hook a finger through the leg of the lacy panties I’m wearing and pull so I’m exposed to him.

The cool air of the room touches my most intimate parts, and there’s a ravenous look on his face as he says, “Fucking perfect.” August inches closer and sinks to his knees.

My heart twirls and spins in my chest, heat infusing my cheeks. I’m soaked and probably leaking all over his countertops. With warm hands, he slowly palms my ankles, caressing my skin as he glides up my legs and parts them, his thumbs circling the crease where my hips and thighs connect. The tenderness in his touch is nothing compared to the desire coiling under the surface.

“August?”

He flicks his gray gaze to me and arches a brow.

“I want you to fuck me with all you got. Please,” I rasp, “don’t hold back.”

With a quick movement, he drags me to the edge of the countertop by the back of my thighs and I squeal, gripping the sides tightly, my feet planted, knees and elbows bent.

He tears the thin, lacy material in half before diving in with the most wicked lick to my center. My back bows instantly. He was the last man that went down on me and he takes no prisoners.

August owns my body, swirling his tongue around my clit before sucking it into his mouth. The stubble lining his jaw scrapes my skin, the delicious burn following. He licks and teases me at a torturously steady pace, winding me into a tight wire.

I pant and swear, grabbing his hair in one hand, holding onto the island with the other.

“You taste as good as I remember,” he growls, lapping at my obvious arousal, sending more sparks throughout my belly. But it’s when he slides in two fingers and curls them along the top of my walls do I really come undone.

“Oh, fucking Christ, that feels—don’t stop, please don’t stop,” I practically cry, my body writhing.

While he pumps his fingers in and out of me and teases my clit, his other hand reaches under my shirt, tugs my bra down, and pinches one of my nipples. My system can’t handle all the sensations, and I buck wildly, chasing the feelings his mouth gives me.

“That’s it, that’s my girl. Ride my face,” he rumbles, the vibrations rolling through my lower body as he swirls his fingers in me, giving one more hard flick to my clit with his tongue.

Stars burst behind my eyes and I grab onto his hair, pinning him in place as I detonate. My muscles lock, and my mouth opens in a silent scream as I pulse sharply, him gently licking me before I go boneless on the marble.

Slowly, he pulls away and stands, my body and mind mourning the loss. But his face. Oh god, his face is so feral and so full of want I clutch the edge of the island for emotional support.

I intake a sharp breath once his lips meet my bare stomach, and he places searing kisses up my torso and tattoo while he rips the shirt over my head. Next is my bra, tossed to the side with the rest of my clothes. I’m incredibly exposed and panting while he’s still fully dressed, his cock straining in those jeans.

“I want…” The words get stuck as I watch the man in front of me, gray eyes wild and… free.

“What do you want, Sky? What do you want me to do to you?” he says before taking a nipple in his mouth and biting it softly but with enough tension to send a bolt of lightning to my core.

I wet my lips and swallow, almost at a loss for words, as he circles the other nipple with a finger. “I want you inside me. And I want it hard and fast. I don’t want you to think. Just take me.”

There’s a growl of approval in his chest right before he lifts me off the island and spins me until I’m bent over on all fours on the living room floor, my nipples dragging along the cold, hard surface.

August has never taken me from behind, and my skin pebbles in goosebumps as he lays over my back and whispers into my ear, his clothes an abrasive comparison to the hot, smooth flesh I want to feel. “Are you ready for me?”

Fingers thrust into my hair, lifting my head so I can hear every lust-laced word he says. “I’m not nineteen anymore, but even then, I had so many thoughts of fucking you from behind just like this.”

I shiver when he drags his other hand down my spine and over my ass before running through my folds and teasing my overly sensitive clit. “Me too,” I whisper, feeling the cool air return as he stands.

“I can’t wait to fill you with my cum. You’re fucking mine, Shortcake. Do you hear me? Mine.”

The whoosh of fabric and the burr of a zipper lowering heighten even more of my senses. I want to touch him and see him, but without that sensory input, I grow wetter in anticipation.

“I’ve always been yours.”

Soon, he’s curled over my spine, threading a hand once again tightly in my hair at the base of my head, his face dipping to place an open-mouth kiss at the nape of my neck. He can likely feel my pulse flying a hundred miles an hour.

Then he lines himself up at my entrance and thrusts in. A guttural groan leaves his chest as a moan flutters past my lips.

I’m so full, panting and wincing as I adjust to his size at this angle.

He pulls out and flexes back in, this time slower and deeper, sending my hips forward. The moan I release is unhinged as I stretch around his thick length. A strong hand grips me at the waist as he drives in with long, sure strokes, hitting that fucking spot every time.

I’m so sensitive, so wound up, it won’t take long. I back into him, chanting out praises, listening to the rhythmic slap of our skin. “Don’t stop, don’t you dare stop,” I rasp out, clawing at the floor as he issues more punishing strokes into my body.

“Then beg for it. Damnit, let me hear you cry out for it.”

I inhale quickly through my nose once his fingers snake around and down my stomach toward my clit. He’s right there but teases me by going no further. His thrusts are deep and I try to seek the purchase of his fingers. Only a few grazes of his calluses and he’ll send me over the cliff.

“Give me what I want.” He’s inches from my ear, his chest molded to my back, and his strong thighs bounce off mine with every thrust.

My hard nipples scrape against the planked floor as chills erupt all over. “Please, August, please. I want to—I want to come all over you. Please.”

At my breathy cries, August groans and rubs my clit the way I like it.

My core coils and finally springs open, sending me tumbling as I climax again. I stiffen in his arms, bowing my back as my contractions take over. It’s utter euphoria as August presses his thumb into my clit, extending my orgasm, my body trembling.

“Oh my god, fuck,” I wheeze, wilting.

August pulls out and gathers my limp body in his arms, but I put a palm to his damp chest. “Wait, you didn’t?—”

He shakes his head, his hair sticking to his forehead, his eyes still blazing with need. “I want to look you in the eyes when I do. I’ve spent a long time fantasizing what it would be like if I ever got to spread your body open wide again with no guilt over my head. You’re fucking stunning, and I want to see it on your face as I split you apart one more time.”

Dragging in a much-needed breath, I swallow and bite my lip at his admission. He can do whatever he wants to me when he talks like that.

“Then what are you waiting for?”