Page 33 of Nothing to This (Nothing to… #8)
Standing in Kye’s bedroom doorway, she watched her baby boy sleep. Safe. Calm. She’d taken the security of their life for granted. Would she ever be able to tear herself from that spot or take her eye off him again?
Lost in thought, she hadn’t known anyone was approaching until two hands squeezed under her arms to pull her back into a tight embrace against a solid body.
“How is he?” JD asked her, resting his chin on the top of her head.
Settling her arms over his, she stroked his forearms, grateful at least for his attempt at comfort. “Asleep,” she whispered. “I didn’t think he’d ever close his eyes… but as soon as he did, I wanted him to open them again.”
“Come on,” he said and tried to draw her away.
Clinging tighter, she fought to pull him back. “No, he needs us near.”
“And we’ll stay near,” he said. “We’re going to your room. We’ll hear if he moves or shouts and I have security at every door.” Still, she was reluctant. He kissed the top of her head. “You need a moment to breathe, sweetheart, that’s all. We’ll come right back in a minute.”
Giving in, she turned against him, wrapping both arms around his waist while he scooped his around her shoulders.
It had been years since the kids needed to be lifted and laid everywhere. Yet without her daughter, her arms were bereft. She couldn’t handle them being empty.
JD steered them into her bedroom and guided her to the bed, sitting them both on the edge. For a minute, he held her, probably taking as much comfort as he was giving.
“I’m scared to ask if there’s news,” she whispered.
“Nothing new,” he murmured, still holding her to him, tucking her hair away from her temple with a fingertip at the same time. “We’re going to find her, Ry. I won’t stop until we have them both in our arms again.”
He meant it and she believed in him, in their family. That didn’t stop her missing her baby girl.
“Baxter?”
“They have him in custody; they’re questioning him.”
Just the idea that someone she knew, who she’d been intimate with, could be involved made her so sick that guilt became overwhelming.
Not knowing was worse than anything. No ransom demand had come. No call from kidnappers. The park site had been searched once, twice, again maybe. She didn’t care how long it took, they needed a lead, needed to be doing everything in their power to locate Sky.
“I’d give them anything, Ry. Shit, babe, I hate feeling like this. I’m letting you down, all of you down, and I—”
“Shh,” she said, sitting up straight to touch his lips. “You’ve been my rock, JD.”
“There’s nothing I wouldn’t do for you,” he said, taking her hand, caressing her face. “Nothing.”
Sitting there, not long ago, she’d wanted to console him, and now she was the one in need of consolation. Rising, she touched his mouth with hers. Urging higher, she parted her lips and eased her tongue forward, begging for a stronger taste.
Sliding her hands onto his shoulders, she climbed over to straddle his lap and rocked herself against him, kissing him harder.
“Oh, you’re better than I remember,” she murmured. “How can that be?”
Breathing in through her nose, she kissed him again, pouring her need into him. If they could forget. If—
The span of his capable hands gripped her waist. Yes, that sensation was security, solid certainty.
He tipped his head back to break the kiss. “Please don’t make me say no to you, Siren.”
“Don’t,” she whispered, seeking his mouth again, though it held back. “Don’t say no, baby. I want this.” With a hold on his forearm, she skimmed his hand up, trapping it between hers and her breast. “Make love to me, JD.”
“Shit,” he hissed through gritted teeth.
She stole his mouth but the kiss didn’t last because he leaned back like before.
“Ry, you’re vulnerable.” He clenched his jaw.
“Fuck, babe, I want you so bad. Soon as we have Sky back, ask me again and I’ll—” Pushing off his lap, she got to her feet, full of pique.
He caught her wrist before she could walk away.
“I was trying to tell you in the park, Ry, I want this to last… You don’t want to have sex; you just want to feel something other than the gnawing hollow despair eating at your guts.
I know it, because I feel that way too.”
He wasn’t wrong.
She swiped away a tear when it cascaded down her cheek. “We’ll never be whole without her.”
“Listen to me,” he said, grabbing her other hand and pulling her back down to sit with him. “We are going to get her back. Our family will be whole.”
More tears fell as a sob escaped her. “I can’t breathe, JD. When I think about what they might be doing to her.”
Holding her face, he brought her forehead to his. “You’ll drive yourself insane thinking like that. Just think about getting her back, about holding her again. Come here.”
Climbing onto the bed, he laid them both down. Letting the tears win, she clung to him as he held her tight, stroking and soothing her.
If it hadn’t been for JD, she wouldn’t have had the resources to mobilize such a full-scale search so quickly. Grateful for him, she couldn’t blame him. Still, some part of her wondered… Would this have happened if the world didn’t know the identity of Sky’s father?
Until her baby came back, she wouldn’t make sense of anything. Their lives would never be the same, because as soon as she got Sky back, she’d never risk losing her again.