Chapter 22 Amberly
AMBERLY
I couldn't catch my breath. I couldn't get my body to stop shaking. As I cried against Saint’s side, he pulled me closer. His fingers rushed through my hair, his voice filling my ears with his soft words.
“It’s okay. You’re safe with us. I’m not going anywhere unless you want me to.”
And his words caused me to cling harder to him.
I didn’t want him going anywhere. I didn’t want to be alone.
He was my only hope at getting my son back.
Well, our son back. I sniffled before I coughed.
He turned onto his side, pressing into me as we shared the same pillow.
His fingertips brushed away the tears from my cheeks, but some slid down the nape of my neck.
“You need to breathe. Just a bit for me, okay, Amberly?” he asked.
I relaxed into his voice. I pressed my leg between his thighs, feeling his warm strength encompassing me.
His arm slid around my waist as he splayed his hand across my lower back, pulling me steadier to him.
My body molded to him, giving way to him.
And as our foreheads fell together, his lips pressed the softest kiss against my cheek.
Before I sniffled again.
“It’s okay,” he whispered.
I shook my head. “No. It’s not. He saw you there. He took Mason. He’s going t—”
“No, he won’t. I’ll make sure that doesn’t happen.”
“How can you do that?” I asked, whispering.
He cupped my cheek, his thumb stroking my skin. My eyes found his as my body continued to tremble. Not because I was cold, but because I was scared. I searched his eyes for answers. For a plan. For a way to get our son back. For a way to get Mason in my arms again.
“They’re using him against me,” I said breathlessly.
“I know,” Saint said, nodding.
“They’re holding him captive. That—that’s the first time I’ve seen him face to face in almost—”
“How long, Amberly?”
“Three years.”
“Fuck.”
“They let me see videos. Hear his voice. But that was the first time I smelled the top of his head. Or felt him in my arms. Or felt his breath against my ear. Or played any games with him. I need my son back. You can’t let them kill my—”
His thumb slid along my lower lip, pausing my words in their tracks.
“They won’t kill our son. We’ll get him back, Amberly. I promise you that,” he said.
“Our son,” I whispered.
“Yes. Our son. But this next part is really important, okay?”
“Okay. What is it?”
“What did you and—Vlad?—talk about?”
“Vlad. Yes. Um, he was talking about his boss. About how I was situated in a prime position to get information and feed it back to him.”
“Probably Lars,” he murmured.
“Probably, yes,” I said.
“What kind of information?”
“He wants information on how you guys plan on retaliating. Probably where your secret stashes are, or whatever. Where your next hideout might be. Vlad was very specific on your short-term plans, though. Your movements. How you guys intended on protecting yourselves at this point and how you guys figured out about the motels. But—”
“But what?” he asked.
I shrugged. “I mean, when he saw you guys, I could have sworn I heard him say the deal was off. All of it. Which means he’s going to kill Mason, Saint. He’s going to take our boy away from us. We have to go after him. We have to do something.”
“Amberly, listen to me.”
“He’s our boy,” I whispered.
He cupped my cheeks and rolled me over, pressing me into the mattress.
I gazed into his eyes, mine dancing frantically between his.
His thumb stroked me as my body parted for him.
He slid between my legs, gracing me with his warmth as he blanketed me with comfort.
With strength. With a heat that made me shiver from the inside out.
“I know he is. Which is why no harm will come to him. I promise you that. We will do everything we can to get Mason back. You have my word,” Saint said.
“What if he’s already dead, Saint?”
It worried me, the pause he gave. It worried me, how much he had to rack his brain for an answer. It worried me, how long it took for him to draw in that deep breath of his.
“Men like Lars don’t like getting their hands dirty.
And they usually don’t like their right-hand men—like Vlad—doing it either.
Mason’s a child, which would make any man’s stomach curl.
Mason will exchange many different hands before any sort of fate like that even looms over his head. Trust me on this,” he said.
And even though I wanted to ask him why it took him so long to answer, I didn’t. I allowed myself to cling onto the hope he tried so desperately to feed me.
“Okay,” I said.
His forehead fell back against mine and the words poured from my lips like melted butter. Words I should’ve already uttered to him, especially with the kindness he’d already showed me.
“I’m sorry, Saint. I’m so sorry I didn’t tell you sooner. You were right. I should've come back to you. After my parents rejected taking me back because I was pregnant, I should’ve found you in school.”
“It’s okay. I promise, it’s okay,” he said softly.
“I should’ve come back to you and I didn’t and I’m so sorry. I keep running and I don’t know why and I just want to stop running but now Mason is taken and I need to run after him but you’re telling me not to and everything within me is just—”
His lips pressed against mine and the world stopped.
My words caught in my throat as his tongue slowly filled my mouth.
I moaned down his throat. My arms slid around his neck as my nipples puckered in all the right ways.
Goosebumps of joy fled up and down my skin.
My thighs contracted, anticipating his next move.
His hands caressed my body. His fingers slid through my hair.
He propped himself up onto his knees, spreading my legs even further for him.
And for once, I wasn’t afraid.
“I love you, Amberly.”
He murmured it so softly I wasn’t sure I’d heard him right.
His lips fell away from mine and my eyes shot open, searching his face for any sign of a joke.
He raised us, sliding his jacket from his shoulders.
He shed his shirt. His belt. He even unbuckled his jeans as I laid there, staring at him.
And when his hands fell back down to the bed, pressed into the mattress on either side of my head, my heart came alive.
“You—you what?” I asked.
He grinned. “I love you. From the first moment I laid eyes on you in that classroom, I loved you. From the first moment I tasted your lips in that stairwell, I loved you. I didn’t have a word for it then, but I do now.”
His hand crept up my shirt and electricity filled my body.
I rolled against him, my eyes fluttering closed as he worked his hand underneath my bra.
My nipple stood at attention for him. He tugged on it softly, causing me to moan out.
Involuntary sounds that made me wet between my legs for the first time since high school.
“Saint,” I whispered.
His lips pressed against my ear. “I love you, Amberly. And as God as my witness, our family will be together again.”
I rose up, capturing his lips with mine.
And when I did, our clothes came off in a flurry.
He ripped my shirt over my head. Tore my bra from my body.
I rolled him over, listening as he kicked off his shoes in time with me raking his jeans down his body.
We didn’t stop until nothing but skin clad our bodies.
We didn’t stop until we felt nothing but each other’s bodies against our own.
He wrapped himself around me, cloaking my back with his strong wingspan as my back fell to the mattress. Bouncing, as giggles fell from my lips.
Before his lips fell to my neck.
“Oh, Saint,” I moaned.
“I can’t wait to taste you,” he groaned.
“I want to feel you.”
And when he stopped kissing down my breasts, my eyes fell open.
Even I had to stop and think about what I’d just admitted.
This… thing. This… act, that had been tainted my entire life.
This thing that had hurt. This thing that had been forbidden.
I wanted this thing with him. All of it. Every single bit of it.
“Are you sure?” he asked.
I smiled at his words before I peeked down at him.
I ran my fingers through his hair, nodding as he gazed up into my eyes.
He rushed up my body, crashing our lips back together.
Stroking his tongue along the roof of my mouth as I spread my legs wide for him.
I felt his thick dick against my thigh, his precum tracing faceless images against my skin.
“Fill me up, Saint,” I whispered.
Then, he reached down between our bodies and grabbed his cock.