Gravity (Wilde Boys, #1)

by Sara Cate

The way I feel being punished by Nash scares me, and I think it scares him too. As if we’re punishing ourselves by punishing each other. And our only real crime is being the one who survived.

Then, without loosening his arms around me, he speaks. “I know you’re angry, but I chose you because you can handle it. You can handle him and me because you know the same pain we do. It was never about you using your body to lure him in, Zara. It was about you and that steel fucking heart of yours.”

Something pierces my chest as I stare up at him, and it’s like absolutely everything around us fades, evaporating into nothing and the world stops existing until it’s only Nash and me. My pain recognizes his pain.

“I’ve got you, baby. Nothing is going to happen to us.” My heart is pounding so hard it’s pulsing in my ears but not so loud I don’t hear him call me baby. It falls out of his mouth so naturally I am dying to hear it again. Nash doesn’t call me anything.

“Then, I’d hold you all night. I’d close every damn shutter in the house and pretend night never ended so I could hold you more.”

“When did this happen? I never saw this coming,” she whispers. I want to tell her that this happened a long time ago for me. Four years to be exact. The first time she stepped foot on my island, I was ruined. I made a promise to myself that I would never touch her because I knew then she’d fucking ruin me. She would be my downfall, my biggest distraction, and I was right. Even before we touched, I was helpless.

His smile comes easy, and it’s genuine, not the menacing one that I sometimes get. I can’t seem to keep my hands off of him. Seeing this happy version of the boy I started lusting after four years ago has me feeling all sorts of crazy things. Like how I could happily live the rest of my life like this. How I think this love I’m feeling for him is real.

“Exactly. I know whatever this is between us is fucked up, Zara, but I’m so fucking stuck on you anyway. I can’t seem to convince myself to let you go, but where the fuck do we go from here?”

On instinct, I want to cuddle up against him, feel his arms around me, kiss his neck. I need his smiling eyes on me like I need my next breath.

“What does that mean? Who am I to you?” I whisper, tears filling my eyes. Shoving my body against the wall, and pulling my face toward his, he attacks my lips with his as he answers. “You’re everything to me.”

Alistair puts a hand on his shoulder. “We said we were going to give her a choice.” “Well that was before we found out how quickly she would go back to shaking those tits on stage.” He’s staring at me as he says it.

“Thanks, Dad,” I mumble into my coffee and he snaps his head in my direction. I wait quietly for his reaction to see if he’s going to be legit offended or find it funny, but he just bites his lip and stalks toward me slowly, pinning me against the counter. Putting his hands on either side of me on the counter, he leans his face down to my ear. “If we’re going to play that game, get it right. It’s Daddy to you.”

Alistair is like a god among men, a king on his throne, and right now I have him panting my name.

“Don’t let me go,” I murmur into the crook of his neck. “I won’t,” he answers, and I don’t know if he means it like I want. I never want him to let me go, never.

This grief binds us, and I wouldn’t be who I am without them. We have to walk through this fire together, and I will hold onto them like this for as long as I can.