Page 89 of She's Like the Wind

“You don’t mind?”

“That I got to taste the best pussy on the planet?”

I punched him gently on his shoulder.

“No, baby. I don’t mind at all. I want you. I want inside you. But I want you…whole. Not just the body—but the heart and the soul and everything else you’ve got to give.”

Well, that does it.

Tears began to roll down my cheeks. He licked each one, as if he were taking my pain inside him.

“I’ll always wipe your tears, baby,” he vowed.

He rolled me with him so he lay on his back. I curled into his chest where his heart beat like a promise.

“I’m not unsure,” I whispered against his skin. “I’m just scared.”

He kissed the top of my head. “Me, too.”

“Why are you scared?”

“’Cause I love you, and I don’t think I could stand to lose you.”

I knew how that felt, and I wanted to tell him he wouldn’t lose me, but I wasn’t ready to commit.

Wow!

Now, I was the one who was afraid—and that made me understand him better. It was debilitating, this fear, and even though I wanted to ride through it, I couldn’t.

Is this how Gage had felt when I told him I loved him?

Is that why he ran? Not because he didn’t feel it, but because he did—so much it scared the hell out of him.

I didn’t want to run anymore. I didn’t want to be afraid. But I couldn’t rush my healing. And the good news, he didn’t expect that either.

“Goodnight, Gage.” I kissed his chest and let myself relax against him, feel the joy of being naked and exposed in all the ways that mattered with him.

We slept peacefully, the ghosts of the past giving us the night off.

CHAPTER 31

Gage

Ryan and Kayla were in New Orleans for part of the summer. They’d bonded with Naomi over boudin balls and beer at Lisette’s wedding, and now hung out with her at Aire Noire if they weren’t with me on a job site or with friends from high school.

Kayla twirled around on a velvet stool as she told Naomi all about how she was getting ready to audition forSwan Lakeback in New York, while Ryan peppered Kadisha with questions about social work and criminal justice reform.

I refilled glasses of iced tea and…yeah, I felt it.

Home. Not the house-on-a-lot kind. The kind you find in people.

“Okay, but hear me out.” Kayla held up a garment no sister of mine should ever wear. “You let me wearthis corset on stage at Juilliard, and I promise to send you professional photos and free marketing.”

Naomi laughed, warm and surprised. “I’m not sure the NYU Arts Council is ready for French Quarter burlesque.”

“Oh, they’re ready.” Kayla winked. “They just don’t know it yet.”

“You’re not wearing that.” I put her iced tea in front of her.