He was still pondering it when another message popped up, and he could almost hear the panicked desperation in Jules’s voice as he read it.

Please don’t let her hurt you again.

Wyatt held down the button until his phone turned off rather than acknowledge his sister, who had just put voice to his darkest fears and left him feeling open and exposed to the point that the pain in his chest doubled and his breathing fell shallow.

He tossed it on the bed with more force than necessary, and Tabitha shifted over him, as if sensing his sudden bout of anxiety at the thought of losing her again. She smoothed a hand down his chest, making it clear they still shared a truly unique connection that left them joined in far more ways than just the superficial sexual attraction that had always been crippling in its intensity.

“Are you okay?” she asked, her voice heavy with sleep.

He hated that everything in him tensed at the sound of the soul-deep exhaustion he could hear beneath her concern. It made him want to wrap her up in his arms and keep her safe from the world. He wanted to resent her for churning up his protective instincts so easily, but it just wasn’t there. Instead he just soothed a hand down the slender curve of her bare back, savoring the feel of her smooth skin.

He leaned down and kissed the top of her head, unable to help the action because her hair really was startlingly beautiful in the sun. “I’m fine, darlin’.”

She blinked up at him, studying his face intently for several long seconds before she whispered, “Liar.”

A smile quirked at the corner of his mouth. He couldn’t hide from her. He was anything but fine, but rather than confirm her suspicions, he just caressed her back once more. “Go back to sleep.”

She hummed. The sound was soft and sweet, and something that made the nostalgia almost overwhelming because Tabitha had always been a very quiet person. To others she was often hard to read, but Wyatt had always heard the unspoken message in those little sighs. He wasn’t even surprised when she pressed her lips to his collarbone next. He could feel the sheen of goose bumps travel over his skin at the brush of her breath, warm and featherlight against his chest as she continued to press soft, loving kisses against it. Her hand ran over his abdominal muscles and down to his waist as she shifted over him, giving herself better access to his body. His dick was already trying to come back to life again despite the two of them doing it three times before she’d fallen asleep.

He watched her, entranced as her eyes drifted close as if she were savoring touching him as much as he enjoyed letting her. Her hand slid down to his ass, cupping it as another soft sigh of indulgence slipped past her lips.

“I missed you, Wy.” The confession was barely audible, but he heard it, and he groaned in response.

He pushed both his hands into her vibrant hair, holding Tabitha to him with the thought that his sister was fucking crazy if she thought he was capable of handing this woman a stack of papers that would break his connection to her. He could feel it, a complete surrender to the hold Tabitha had on his heart, and he didn’t even fight against it. The poison was too sweet, too wholly addictive for Wyatt to complain about the pain it caused him to know he was never going to be free of the heartache loving her caused.

He didn’t release his hold on her as she moved lower, kissing and licking his fevered skin until he was shifting under her, hard and restless for the feel of her slick, tight heat once more. “Lemme love you,” he rasped when she nipped lightly at his hip bone. Then she cupped his balls, and his entire body jerked from the sensation. “Fuck, Tab.” He dropped his head heavily against the pillow and squeezed his eyes shut against the pleasure, robbing him of the image of her beautiful face hovering near his dick that was straining for another taste of her. She stroked him next, and he pushed his hips into the embrace of her hand with another low curse. “Shit.”

For one brief second, the thought that he hadn’t showered drifted into his mind. Tabitha didn’t seem to care as she took him in her mouth, tasting both of them on his dick. He could feel her hum of pleasure against the head of his cock as she sucked him, and it was as if the other three times hadn’t happened.

The bliss of her mouth on him made the need so blinding he felt it in every muscle in his body. He tightened his fingers in her hair as she took him deeper. He let out a choked sound of pleasure, because he’d forgotten how amazing it was to let her love him like this. How had he survived without it?

It didn’t take her long to have him sweating and pushing his hips up over and over again as she stroked and sucked him. Even if there were a few awkward moments as she reacquainted herself with the feel of him, it didn’t matter, because this was Tabitha touching him. Just being near her made him ache.

He found himself hovering on the edge of oblivion for a long while. The time they spent together earlier gave him the ability to really enjoy everything about this moment, and he was able to truly appreciate it in a way he hadn’t when he was younger. The hot rush of pleasure. The pulse of desire that made it impossible to think about anything other than the image of Tabitha’s lips stretched wide over his cock. Her short hair brushing against his stomach. Her smooth, capable hand sliding up and down his length in a steady rhythm that was pushing him toward a release faster than he realized.

He was so caught up in everything that when his climax did slam into him, it was so hard and fast it startled him. He shouted in warning and loosened his hold on her hair, but that was all he could manage before the energy that had been building finally exploded, hazing everything around him with the velocity of it, and then he was pulsing in her hand and shooting in her mouth. Just like it was before, Tabitha seemed to enjoy his taste as she sucked greedily, suspending the bliss for what felt like an eternity, because that had always turned him on like crazy.

He was still humming in the afterglow when she released him and kissed her way back up until she was draped over him once more as if the episode had never happened to begin with, but Wyatt wasn’t going to let something that mind-blowing go without reciprocating.

He shifted their positions and rolled over with Tabitha until she was curled into his side. He buried his face into the curve of her neck and placed a kiss against the steady thump of her heartbeat that was faster than normal and told him what she wasn’t going to voice out loud. His pressed his lips against the shell of her ear and reached down between her legs that she parted without him asking. He slid his fingers between the small triangle of red hair, finding her wet for him. “Are you sore?”

She was quiet before she confessed in a disappointed whisper, “Yes.” She grasped his wrist, squeezing softly. “I’m sorry.”

“Don’t be sorry.” He traced the outline of her sex, making her breath catch. “I can be gentle.”

“You don’t have to—”

“Hush,” he scolded, still teasing her lightly. “I like touching you. I like listening to you too.”

Her breath hitched once more, and she tilted her head forward from where it rested on his arm. She lifted her leg, draping it over his thighs behind her, opening herself wide to his exploration.

“Are you gonna come for me, Tabby?”

She gasped with pleasure, before she let out a shuddering sigh and nodded.

“Tell me,” he pushed, because he never believed it was good for her to be so closed up about what she wanted from life. “Tell me what you want.”

“Make me—” She paused for a long moment, as if searching for the right words. When his touch became more insistent, moving up to rub against her clit, she shuddered. “Make me feel good, Wy. Please.”

It wasn’t bold and brassy like he would’ve said it, but that was okay. She told him what she wanted, and he was intent on giving it to her. His touch was never more than soft and light, making the rising tide of ecstasy slow and profound. By the time she came, Tabitha’s skin was dewy with pleasure, her breathing labored, her little moans turned to gasps and broken phrases of desperation begging for more and more until she suddenly stiffened in his arms. Her body shuddered. She was no longer quiet and reserved as she let the tide wash over her. Wyatt held her, feeling as if his heart was swelling until the point that it might burst with how deeply he cared for this woman.

He held her after it was over, his arms so tight around her small frame he was likely crushing her as he tried to hold her close enough to keep her from slipping away again. Yet even in the afterglow, he knew how very unlikely that was. She didn’t want to be in Garnet, and he had six generations’ worth of obligation that said he was supposed to be sheriff until the day he died. He had a whole town that counted on him to do the job he was born to do, and it wasn’t something he could just walk away from—even for her.

In the end, it became too much. There was no easy solution, so Wyatt gave up. He fell asleep with her. Even in his dreams, he recognized it was the first peaceful rest he’d had in a very long time.

Wyatt didn’t want it, but without his permission, his heart started beating again.

It had always beat for Tabitha.

* * *

The Storm, A Heroes of Sapphire County Novel by T.C. Rennoc

Tabitha stared at the new title to a book that had been nothing but a blank page for the past year and half. Her publisher had been beyond pissed with her for a long time now over the extended case of writer’s block. Her fans even more so.