Page 217 of Things We Hide from the Light

My laugh was half hiccup. “I think it has something to do with the idiot asshole thing.”

He started to sway with me, side to side in the rain as the reflection of streetlights danced over rivulets of water trickling into the gutters.

“You know this is crazy, right?That’swhat we should be freaking out about instead of all our stupid baggage. I’ve known you only a few weeks,” I reminded him.

Nash rested his chin on the top of my head. “Doesn’t mean this isn’t real. My parents met, fell in love, and got engaged in three months.”

“They were happy? Before?” I asked.

His hands shifted on my back, pressing me closer. “Yeah. We all were. Before they got married, Dad got 0522 tattooed on his arm. May twenty-second. Their wedding date. He said he knew even before it happened it would be the happiest day of his life.”

“Wow.”

“When we were kids—before—we all celebrated that day like it was a national holiday. Hell, their wedding date is my PIN number. I never changed it. It felt like the only way I could hang on to those good times.”

“Maybe…” I began, but emotion made the words stick. I cleared my throat and tried again. “Maybe your good times are yet to come.”

“If I haven’t fucked up my chances already.”

“Nash—”

“No. Listen to me, Angel. I’m so fucking sorry. I let you walk out that door, but that’s as far as I’m willing to let you go. Please don’t take another step away from me. Please be patient with me.”

“Nash, I wasn’t trying to leave you. I was trying to give us both some space.”

“You ran,” he pointed out.

“I was trying to give us both a lot of space very quickly,” I amended.

“You’re cold,” he said, noticing my shivers. “Come home with me.”

I could feel the shift in gears from wounded soul to take-charge hero.

“Okay.”

“Thank God,” he murmured. “I was afraid I’d have to pull a Knox and carry you back.”

He ledme straight to the shower. After carefully undressing me and then himself, Nash guided me under the hot water. He followed me in and we stood there, my back to his front, letting the hot water take the chill out of our bones.

His hands were gentle as they combed through my wet hair and slid down my body. Soothing. Reassuring.

I felt raw, vulnerable. And when I felt the brush of his erection against me, I felt a new kind of warmth spiraling through my body. I wanted to reach out and touch him, to make him feel as good as he made me feel. But I understood that he needed to give. So I surrendered to his touch.

He stroked and kissed his way up, then down my body. And when he turned me to face him, I found him on his knees in front of me.

Those callused hands pressed me against the tile wall.

He watched me with solemn eyes as he slid one hand from my ankle up to my thigh. Our gazes held in a way that was so intimate it made me tremble. Hooking me behind the knee, he draped my leg over his shoulder, baring me to him.

My head thumped against the wall, breaking our eye contact.

Steam rose around us, but I barely noticed, because Nash used two fingers to part the lips of my sex.

“Such a pretty pussy, Angel,” he said, his voice barely audible over the water.

Gah.Who knew the law-abiding man with the shiny badge would be such a dirty talker?

It was the last coherent thought I had before his tongue traced everything his fingers had just bared. My knee went week and nearly buckled at the first swipe of his tongue. Every muscle in my body seemed to contract at the same time as all my consciousness coalesced to the nerves at the apex of my thighs.