Page 29 of Holding Onto You (Burnt Ashes #2)

I call back into the villa, “We’re heading out—getting food!”

Chace shouts something about saving him tacos, and Trey yells after us to bring him anything with fries. I just laugh and pull the door shut behind us, the soft click swallowed by the sound of music drifting through the trees.

Out here, everything feels alive.

The pulse of the festival is low and rhythmic, like the earth is breathing beneath our feet.

Strings of fairy lights crisscross above us, tangled in the pines.

Colored lanterns glow like low-hanging moons.

The scent of grilled food, spice, and Fall air is thick and warm, curling around us with every step.

Mac slips her arm around my waist, and I tuck her in close, my hand settling low on her hip as we walk.

We pass through a clearing where people are dancing barefoot, twirling beneath a net of lights and hanging crystals.

A soft beat hums through the air—electronic and dreamlike.

Around us, festivalgoers lounge in hammocks, sip cocktails from mason jars, and laugh as they light sparklers near the fire pits.

I feel a few heads turn. Eyes widening. A couple of phones lift—quietly. Subtle. No one approaches, but I can tell they know who I am. Who we are.

Some smile when our eyes meet. A few snap photos. But they don’t intrude. They just let us be.

Maybe it’s the vibe here. Or maybe it’s the way I keep Mac so close—my body a clear message that she’s not just a girl I’m with.

She’s it.

She’s mine.

Right now, we’re just two people, walking through a forest made of light and music and warmth. Her head tips up as she takes it all in, eyes wide, lips parted in awe.

I swear, I could spend a lifetime watching her look at the world like this.

We follow the smell of something grilled and sinful until we hit a row of food trucks nestled between trees. String lights zigzag overhead, casting a soft golden haze over everything. There’s music playing somewhere close—mellow guitar, slow and soulful.

Mac’s eyes lock onto a neon sign that reads Dirty Tacos and lights up like she’s just found the holy grail.

“Oh, my God. That’s it. That’s the one,” she says, tugging my hand like a child hyped on sugar.

I chuckle. “Didn’t even hesitate.”

“I know what I want when I see it,” she throws over her shoulder with a smirk that hits me square in the chest.

She steps up to order while I hover close behind her, fingers brushing the bare skin between her jeans and Braden’s hoodie—mine now, I guess, since it swallows her whole and smells like home. I rest my chin on her shoulder, breathing her in while the cook flips tortillas on a sizzling grill.

“You’re staring,” she murmurs without turning.

“Can’t help it,” I whisper against her skin. “You drive me crazy.”

Her laugh is low and soft, curling through me like smoke. The cook glances over, a little flustered as he hands over two foil-wrapped tacos.

“Sorry to interrupt…” He clears his throat, giving me a sheepish grin. “But are you… Logan Dale?”

Mac stiffens slightly, but I squeeze her hip and smile.

“Yeah, man,” I nod.

He hands me a napkin and a Sharpie from the counter. “My little brother is obsessed with Burnt Ashes. You’d make his year.”

I sign the napkin with a quick Stay loud. – L.D. and hand it back.

“Thank you,” the guy beams, clutching it like gold. “You guys kill it, by the way.”

“Appreciate it,” I say, grabbing the food and steering Mac gently by the small of her back.

We wander off to a quiet spot tucked behind a row of food tents where the trees hang lower, lights dimmer, casting everything in soft gold and shadow. There’s a hammock strung between two pines, and no one around.

Perfect.

We sit on the thick grass, backs against a tree, tacos in hand, music floating to us on the breeze. It’s messy, and we end up laughing, licking sauce off each other’s fingers.

But then something shifts.

Mac sets her empty wrapper aside, and I wipe a thumb across her lower lip, catching a bit of barbecue. Her breath hitches.

“Got it,” I murmur.

She leans into my touch like its instinct, like her body knows exactly where it belongs. And just like that, the space between us disappears.

I kiss her. Slow at first, coaxing. Her lips are warm, soft, still tinged with spice.

She climbs onto my lap like it’s second nature, straddling me right there under the pines.

Her fingers slide into my hair, tugging, tilting my head as she deepens the kiss.

My hands are at her waist, sliding beneath the hoodie, palms hungry for skin.

Stars blink above us, quiet witnesses.

“Eyes on me,” I whisper, voice thick with want.

She opens them. Bright. Unfiltered. Everything I’ve ever needed staring back at me.

“You make it so damn easy to fall,” she breathes, rocking against me, her heat already pulsing through the denim between us.

“And you make it impossible to stop,” I growl, dragging my mouth down her neck. “You feel that, baby?” I roll my hips up into hers.

Her answer is a moan, soft and broken, fingers fisting in my shirt.

The world falls away—just her, me, the stars overhead, and the sound of our hearts slamming against each other’s ribs like they’re desperate to trade places.

She rocks against me again, slow and aching, her breath catching in my mouth.

“Mac…” I groan, my grip tightening at her waist. The denim of her jeans rubs against me in the best kind of torture, her body molding to mine like it was made to.

“Don’t stop,” she whispers, her lips ghosting across my jaw. “Please.”

I slide my hand beneath her hoodie, dragging my palm along the warm skin of her back, and breathe her in like she’s the only air I need.

“Baby…” I murmur against her ear, voice thick with want. “If we do this here, you gotta promise me one thing.”

She stills slightly, her breath stuttering. “What?”

“You can’t scream my name loud enough to scare off any of the wildlife?” I smirk, letting my teeth graze her lobe. “We’ve got trees, stars... and a few hundred people a stone’s throw away.”

She laughs—wicked and breathless. “No promises.”

That’s all I need.

I grip her hips, sliding my hands around to the button of her jeans. “Lift for me.”

She does. I ease her jeans down slowly, savoring every inch of revealed skin as I press kisses to her stomach, her hips, her thighs. I hook my fingers into her lace panties, glancing up.

“Eyes on me,” I growl, my voice low and reverent. “I want to see you fall apart.”

Her breath hitches, and she keeps her gaze locked on mine—wide, hungry, filled with heat—as I kneel before her in the shadows of the trees, pulling the lace down inch by inch. I kiss the inside of each thigh, lingering, my lips dragging along her skin.

“You’re a goddamn masterpiece,” I whisper, voice breaking as I rise to my feet, my hand cupping her cheek.

She helps with my belt, her fingers trembling, lips swollen from my kiss. I press her back gently against a thick tree trunk wrapped in fairy lights, her hoodie still clinging to her shoulders, and I slide into her with a groan so deep it rattles through my chest.

Her body arches, her lips part on a gasp, but I grip her jaw gently.

“Eyes, baby.”

She watches me like I’m giving her the moon and she’s never seen it before. We move together like it’s always been written in the stars—this rhythm, this fire, this love that’s anything but gentle but everything she deserves.

Her release crashes over her like a wave, her breath catching, her nails digging into my shoulders.

When I follow, burying my face in her neck, holding her tight enough to feel every beat of her heart, I know this isn’t just sex.

Mac’s my forever.

She’s draped over me now, soft and boneless, her breath still catching as it warms the hollow of my throat.

We’re tangled together beneath a canopy of stars, the earth solid beneath us, and nothing else exists but the quiet beat of our hearts and the slow return to breath.

Her hoodie’s hitched around her waist, my shirt is somewhere behind us, and I don’t care about anything but the weight of her body on mine.

The warmth of her. The scent of her skin—salt and cedar and something that’ll ruin me for life.

The fairy lights overhead blink lazily through the trees, casting her skin in soft gold, her hair like fire in the night. She shifts slightly, curling closer, her leg hooked possessively over mine. Her fingers draw idle circles across my chest, and I swear every one leaves a burn.

“You cold?” I murmur, tucking a loose strand of hair behind her ear.

“A little,” she breathes, her voice still dazed. “But mostly… I just feel full. In every way.”

That. God. That right there. My chest aches with the weight of her words. I press a kiss to her temple, then one to the corner of her mouth.

“Mac…” She hums, eyes barely open, her smile lazy and content. “You’re it for me,” I say, low and certain. “There’ll never be anyone else. Not in this lifetime. Not in the next. You’ve always been it. Since the second you walked into my world and made everything else fade.”

Her breath hitches, and she tilts her chin to look up at me. Her eyes shimmer under the stars, wide and full of something that steals the air from my lungs.

“I mean it,” I whisper, brushing my knuckles across her cheek. “It’s you. In every lyric I write. In every breath I take. I’m ruined for anything less than you.”

Her smile breaks, slow and breathless. “Then I hope I never stop ruining you.”

I let out a soft laugh, burying my face in her hair. God, I love this woman. With everything I have and everything I am.

The music in the distance fades into the background, a distant heartbeat of the festival. But here—beneath the stars, with her wrapped around me—the world is perfect.