Page 29 of Splintered Memories (Ember Hollow Romance #2)

He still didn’t stop. He continued to lower his head, tilting it slightly until that terrifying, beautiful mouth of his skimmed the top of my collarbone.

A shiver vibrated through me, so violently my knees quaked. I might’ve sunk to the floor if he wasn’t pressed up against me.

“You’re safe, Emy,” he murmured, pressing a soft kiss against the sensitive dip below my clavicle.

My eyes closed, relishing the feel of his lips and his words .

“Let go.” He kissed the delicate skin between my neck and shoulder. “Let go.” His lips brushed my neck, working their way up in soft, gentle touches. “Let go.” He kissed the underside of my jaw. “It’s safe.”

Each murmured mantra uncurled a finger of that mighty fist inside my chest. I couldn’t fight it anymore as I lost my grip on that red ball of flames. I was hanging by a finger, panting and trembling as August’s lips found the corner of mine.

“Let. Go.”

And I did. Those final words unfastened that last finger, and I lost my grip on everything.

Heat ravaged me, bursting out from my chest in scalding waves.

They were too hot and too intense, and I didn’t know what to do. I wasn’t ready for the years of pain that had been locked up tight inside me. I wasn’t ready for that decimating hurt, and I grappled for the one thing that felt the safest.

August.

I reached for him. My arms wrapped around his neck and with one slight turn of my head, my lips found his.

I crushed myself against him. My hands trailed up into his hair, gripping tight as my mouth moved against his. He tasted like everything I’d imagined…like sweet mint gum and spice and something else. Something just him.

His warm hands cupped my face, his rough calluses sending pleasant shivers over my skin.

I needed more.

I pressed myself against him, straining to get as close as possible as some of my engulfing heat merged with his .

My mouth parted and his tongue gently stroked mine, tentative at first, but more bold and comfortable with each movement of mine.

A groan rumbled low in his chest, and my stomach tightened, something coiling low in my core.

My teeth sank into his lower lip, and I softly sucked. He shivered against me. Those big, strong muscles trembled under my simple kisses.

August’s hands slid from my face, gliding down my neck, caressing every dip and curve along my sides.

Those big hands lingered on my hips before they reached around and cupped my backside.

Before I realized it, he’d lifted me up.

I reflexively wrapped my legs around his waist, my back still pushed up against the wall.

I deepened our kiss, opening my mouth to him and taking in every sensation that rippled from his touches. Our mouths moved in a practiced, graceful dance, as if we’d done this many times before. It was as if we were made for this very thing.

My fingers fisted tight into his soft, dark-blond hair; my nails bit into his scalp as our kisses turned frantic.

There was a sudden shift, as if one, or both, of us realized this would eventually have to end.

We couldn’t live in this blissful bubble of warmth and pleasure for long before getting burned.

No, I wasn’t ready.

My legs tightened around his waist. My hands fell from his hair, and I all but clawed at his back, trying to keep him close. So close I could hardly breathe.

My mouth devoured him relentlessly until I realized that he had stiffened against me. His mouth was tight and hard against my swollen lips .

I whimpered. The sound should’ve sent embarrassment through me, but instead there was only desperation.

“Emy.”

August said my name against my lips, and it tasted like salt.

“Please,” I choked out, refusing to pull away from him. “Don’t stop.”

But the words were sharp and bitter, and I realized that it wasn’t salt I was tasting on my lips. It was tears.

“Emersyn,” he said, his voice soft and gentle as he pulled away. “It’s okay.”

But it wasn’t okay.

I couldn’t look him in the eyes as that pleasant, passionate heat rippled up my spine, morphing into the beast of flames I’d been trying to beat back—pain.

My head fell against his shoulder as tears fell free and without abandon down my cheeks. Years and years of hurt that I’d locked away washed over me like the aftershocks of a cataclysmic earthquake.

Vaguely, I was aware of the tension in August’s body loosening. One of his arms locked around my waist as he rubbed soothing circles up and down my back. He pulled us away from the wall.

I wasn’t sure where he was taking me, but it wasn’t far because he lowered himself down after a few strides. I stayed wrapped around him, my arms gripping him to me in a vise as I buried my face in the crook of his neck.

His scent invaded me as I cried, wrapping around me like a soothing blanket of comfort.

He shushed me, his fingertips trailing up and down my back as sobs racked through me so violently I was surprised I didn’t crack a rib.

“You’re safe,” he repeated, his words a warm promise whispered against the shell of my ear.

For the first time since I could remember, I believed that.

Forgotten, at least for this moment, was the fear. Forgotten were all my defenses and my carefully locked-away emotions. This moment between us felt almost…sacred, like he was giving me a place to lay bare all my darkness and weakness and ugliness without judgment or turning away.

At least, that was what I hoped, because that’s what I did.

I let go.

There were so many tears.

I cried for my brother. I cried for Delainey, the sister I loved and who was taken away from me too soon.

I cried for the home I’d built for myself and lost to flames much like these.

I cried for the little girl who only wanted her mother to love her unconditionally.

I cried for the little girl who had to learn to hide her pain from the one person who was supposed to take care of her, who was supposed to kiss away the hurt and not cause it.

I cried for the person I could have been.