Sanctuary Found (Pelican Bay, #2)

by Sloane Kennedy

“Newt, what’s our rule about letting people hurt us with words?” Isaac asked as he held my gaze. “It don’t count if they don’t know our middle names,” Newt declared.

Cause if they don’t care enough to know our middle names…” Isaac began. “…they don’t care enough to be nice,” Newt finished.

Part of me wanted to let him off the hook, but it was the voice that was still ringing in my ears–Newt’s voice–that had me closing the distance between us and drawing the slim young man into my arms. Please don’t let him hurt Isaac and me anymore.

“Are you both scared of me?” I froze when his finger came up to trail my cheek gently. “Tell me who he is, Isaac, and I swear, he’ll never touch you or your brother again.”

I didn’t see any kind of foundation makeup, but it looked like he was wearing a little bit of blush. That, or something was naturally causing his cheeks to pinken. God, if it was because of Sawyer, I was just going to lose it.

“But you’re the only person I’ve never wanted to stop kissing. You’re the only one who keeps me awake at night as I imagine what it would be like to be inside you. You. Not Isaac the man or Isaac with the makeup or Isaac, the guy who wears women’s underwear. Just you.”

I want to know how the fuck it’s possible to feel so much in so little time. So tell me, Isaac, what does that make me? Gay? Straight? Bi?”

I’d thought I’d needed a label for what Maddox was, but gay, straight, or bi, I just didn’t care anymore. What he was, was mine. At least for the moment. And if I got my way, he’d be mine for as long as I could manage to keep me and Newt in Pelican Bay.

My body was his and not because he’d paid for it. But because I wanted him to have it. He’d earned every piece of me by accepting every piece of me.

Sexy underwear or granny panties, doesn’t matter.” I couldn’t help but smile at the last part of his comment. “I’d turn you on in granny panties?” I asked. Maddox smiled and kissed me. His mouth hovered against mine as he whispered, “Baby, you turn me on just by breathing.”

His eyes held mine for a moment like he was trying to figure something out, then he softly kissed me and said, “Just so you know, Isaac, when it comes to you, I have absolutely no intention of playing fair.”

“I want to know that a part of me will always be with the man who’s managed to steal my heart.”

“If you won’t let me be with you, Isaac, then I want you to at least see me every time you look in the mirror, every time you feel the weight of these against your heart. That’s me there. Cherishing you, protecting you… loving you.”