Falling into You

by Jackson, A. L.

  That thrill sizzled as the artists on the stage took their spots, this mesh of country and rock.

  I was pretty sure what was getting ready to transpire right then was gonna be straight-up musical history.

  Something special. Something you couldn’t experience anywhere else.

  Some of the world’s greatest talent standing on one stage and playing for the smallest crowd.

  Talk about intimate.

  Oh, but that was what it was. The way Royce looked at Emily in that moment. Their worlds colliding in a kaleidoscope of beauty.

  He took her in his arms.

  Love billowed in the breeze.

  Richard and Van both had acoustic guitars, and Lyrik West had an electric. The three of them played through the intricate notes that began the song.

  Soft and mesmerizing.

  Instantly entrancing.

  Their guitars harmonized, while Leif, Zee, and Hunter quietly drummed this rising beat that started off slow and gained in an escalating intensity.

  Leif played a bongo with his bare hands, Zee and Hunter with smaller drums that were perched between their knees.

  Rhys and Ash both had their basses, and A Riot of Roses’ bassist, Hunter, had gotten ahold of a cello.

  Shea Stone began to hum into the mic she held, while her husband gently played the acoustic guitar he’d strapped over his body.

  It was like Royce and Emily had their own personal symphony.

  Richard pressed his mouth to the mic and began to sing.

  That voice rough and sensuous.

  Wrapping around me like a dream.

  Shadows playing across his gorgeous, chiseled face, his cheeks cut in that severe, distinct fashion.

  Still the most beautiful man I’d ever seen.

  That voice twisted and rose and lowered, so thick with emotion I could taste it, Shea’s extraordinary voice wrapping with his as they sang this duet that curled and whispered and stunned.

  Singing about love.

  About cherishing.

  About never lettin’ go.

  Those sage eyes found me from the stage. The way they always had. As if he felt me. Two of us tied in this tangible, impossible way.

  Our connection thrummed.

  My love rising, coiling in the air, his meeting mine in the middle.

  My stomach tightened and my spirit shook.

  His voice, his words, his entrancing, dark beauty the only thing I could breathe.

  The cadence lifted and rose and heightened. The music becoming this driving force that shivered and shook and rumbled in the air. Their voices climbed and soared with it, and everyone on stage had begun to sing along with them.

  The song reached this crescendo that I was pretty sure left every single person there shaken.

  Changed.

  Impacted by the magnificence.

  My throat tightened, burning like crazy, my chest expanding in time. I pressed my hands against it, trying to keep my heart from bursting right out.

  The last note was held. It reverberated the ground and echoed across the fields until it trailed off on the last, tinkling notes.

  Everyone stood there gaping.

  Royce and Emily were melded together on the dance floor, barely swaying where they’d become one.

  “Royce and Emily would now like the rest of their wedding party to join them on the dance floor,” Shea said.

  Leif and Rhys hopped down from the stage. Leif went right for his wife and Rhys was grinning like mad when he took Maggie’s hand where she stood off to the side of the dance floor.

  Lincoln and Melanie joined them, and then those sage eyes were on me as the man climbed down from the stage and began to stalk my way.

  I felt like prey in that moment.

  His hunger wild.

  His need fierce.

  As fierce as the devotion that I could feel drumming from his every step.

  Hot hands landed on my hips and his lips landed on my jaw. “You have any idea what it’s like to be on that stage singing and look out and know the most beautiful girl in the world belongs to me?”

  Shivers raced.

  “Probably a whole lot of the same as looking up on that stage and knowing you belong to me,” I whispered.

  The rest of the band members remaining onstage began to play the megahit duet that Shea and Sebastian Stone had recorded together years before.

  A song I’d heard what felt like a million times and would never get old.

  This soft, seductive love song that filled my ears and struck a chord in my being.

  Richard pulled me into the strength of his arms.

  A bright burst of light flashed behind my eyes.

  Every nerve ending in my body sparked.

  He felt it.

  Groaned as he tugged me closer, up tight against all that hard, packed muscle that twitched and jerked.

  He led me deeper out onto the dance floor, whispered, “I just want to dance with the prettiest girl in the place.”

  And tonight—tonight, I was no longer afraid of being that girl.

  I curled my fingers into the lapels of his suit jacket, desperate to erase the space. For a way to cling to this feeling. To make it last forever.

  He pulled me tighter, wrapping me in strong arms. Where I knew I belonged.

  Shea’s voice lamented in our ears, her husband singing low.

  Daisy and Anna had joined the couples, the two of them holding each other by the hands and spinning round and round.

  Leif and Mia were lost in each other.

  Mel and Linc goofing around.

  Rhys had Maggie by the hand and was spinning her fast, catching her, dipping her, spinning her again.

  Peals of carefree laughter rode through the air.

  Joy. Joy. Joy.

  Richard spun me, too, only he stopped me when I was facing away and pulled my back to his chest.

  He held me there, rocking us slow, nuzzling at my neck. His lips brushed the shell of my ear.

  Chills spread.

  “Look at you, Violet Ramsey. So fuckin’ sexy in this dress. Stealing my breath. Stealing my heart. It always belonged to you, and I’m begging you to never give it back.”

  His words spiraled around me, and I nodded my head and felt the thunder of his heart where it rampaged at his ribs.

  Severity rushed around us.

  Threading his fingers through mine, he curled my arms and pressed our hands against my chest, hugging me tight from behind. “Forever.”

  Then he extended our left hands out in front of us and brushed his thumb over the bare spot on my ring finger.

  Then I was choking over the affection that filled every crevice in my being when I saw what he held in his right hand.

  The ring.

  The ring that had been his grandmother’s. I hadn’t felt right keeping it, so I’d sent it certified mail to his mama rather than facing any of them to return it.

  I’d felt the loss of it ever since.

  “This has always belonged to you, Violet. Just like my heart.”

  I exhaled a shaky sigh, almost as shaky as my hands, barely able to keep it together when he slipped the ring back onto my finger.

  Then he spun me again and curled me into his arms. “You,” he said. “It’s always been you.”

  Thirty-Four

  Richard

  I laid Daisy’s sleeping form on her bed, tugging the shoes she’d danced in all night from her precious little feet.

  “She lived that wedding large, didn’t she?” I murmured into the dusky light that barely infiltrated her room, gazing down at the child.

  Warmth spread through my veins.

  Nothing but an intoxicating drug.

  Wanting more and more of it. So reliant on it that the thought of not having it made me think I just might die.

  Except this drug?

  It wasn’t artificial.

  It didn’t numb the pain.

  It just cut me wide open and let me feel everything.


  All this love that I’d been terrified to feel. To recognize. To hold.

  I glanced back at the woman who hovered over by the door, wearing that sexy-ass dress that’d had me hard the entire fuckin’ day.

  “I thought she was going to pass out right on the dance floor, she was so tired,” she whispered. “Mama tried to convince her to head back to the house with her, but she wasn’t having it.”

  “She wasn’t about to miss out on a bit of the fun,” I murmured quietly.

  “No chance of that,” Violet whispered, her sweet voice wrapping me in tendrils and ribbons.

  Woman a straight shot of lust to my veins.

  I glanced her way before I looked back at the child. “She’s incredible, Violet. Incredible because she has the most incredible mother.”

  That fact lodged itself in my throat.

  Heavy and dense.

  Pushing out.

  Knew I had to tell her.

  Just fucking tell her.

  The confession burned on my tongue, but I had no idea how the hell I would be able to let it out.

  Her head shook, thunderbolt eyes striking in the darkness, her subdued laughter full of self-conscious adoration. “Half the time I don’t know what to do with her.”

  “Pretty clear to me you know exactly what to do. She’s courageous, Violet. Feisty and sweet. Speaks her mind but also wants the joy for everyone around her. She’s a giver. She’s a fighter.”

  “You mean she’s a handful.”

  A light chuckle rumbled free. “That, too.”

  Nerves had her chewing at her bottom lip, and her gaze caressed over the sleeping child. “I’m trying. Trying to do right by her. The only thing I want is for her to grow strong. To feel love. To know she’s secure.”

  Her confession trembled on the last.

  I pushed to my feet.

  Violet stood across the room.

  Black hair twisted in these flowy knots and curls.

  Her silky skin glowing beneath that plush, rose dress, the plunging neckline teasing me with the delicious swell of her tits. But it was that ridiculously high slit that had nearly undone me.

  My fairy girl was nothin’ but a miracle.

  Magic.

  My moonflower.

  “So fuckin’ pretty,” I murmured.

  The ring I’d put back in its rightful place glinted and shined in the spray of moonlight that slanted through the window.

  Streaks of it lighting up her face.

  “So fuckin’ sexy.”

  I moved across the room with measured steps. Energy lit. A shockwave of electricity.

  It was like the flick of a switch.

  A shockwave that blinded.

  Violets and grace and the girl.

  Violet sucked in a staggered breath as I stalked her way, and I edged her out the door and into the hall.

  Her back thudded against the opposite wall.

  I took my fingertip and trailed it from her jaw, down her trembling throat, and let it trace down that lust-inducing line that dipped deep between her breasts.

  “Do you get it yet, Violet? What you mean to me? That you’re everything? That everything I’ve done is because of my love for you?”

  Her chin lifted. Those eyes on me. Letting me in. All the way down into their vast, staggering depths. “I trust you.”

  A groan rumbled in my chest.

  Wasn’t sure if it was because she shouldn’t, or because I was thankful that she did.

  That confession burned on my tongue again.

  Rancid, venomous fire.

  I swallowed it down and let it fuel the flames.

  Let it stoke the need.

  I trailed the pad of my thumb across her sexpot mouth.

  Girl a motherfucking fantasy.

  Impossible where she stood with her back hooked to the wall.

  A moan climbed her throat. I kept caressing my thumb along that lush bottom lip, gazing down at the girl who owned my world.

  Possessed me with a glance.

  Her heart beating this manic rhythm, mine picking up time.

  I took her left hand and brought her ring finger to my mouth, pressed the glittering stone to my lips. “I love you, Violet Ramsey.”

  “I love you, Richard. I love you with all my soul.”

  I swooped her up. She squealed in surprise, and then she wrapped her arms around my neck and melted into me.

  I carried her into her room. The whole time, I kissed her slow and desperate.

  I wondered if she could feel the apology.

  The truth that I’d take it all back if there was a chance that I could. The truth that it didn’t matter what happened when I told her, I would fight for her.

  She whimpered and sighed, that honeyed tongue playing and dancing and teasing against mine.

  Strokes and licks.

  Desire lapped and sizzled and flamed.

  Growing in strength.

  I only stopped long enough to shut her door and click the lock before I set her in the middle of her room. “Let me look at you.”

  “I think you’ve been lookin’ at me all night,” she teased.

  A rough chuckle curled up my chest. “Not possible to pay attention to anything else when I’ve got heaven staring back at me.”

  Heat crept up her chest and splashed her cheeks.

  Girl so fucking sexy and so fucking sweet.

  “You wreck me, Violet. Absolutely destroy me.”

  “You ruined me the first time you touched me.”

  “Hope you’re good with me touchin’ you time and time again.” It came out a warning.

  She breezed out the wisp of a sigh. “I’m just fine with you ripping me apart while you’re keeping me together.”

  There she was.

  My wife who wasn’t shy to ask for what she wanted.

  To give it just as good as she took it.

  Lust burst in my blood. A dam breaking way and sweeping away all control.

  Need overwhelming.

  Crushing.

  Guts tied up and body aching to get lost in this girl.

  “Gonna devour every inch of that delicious body,” I muttered, voice scraping the heated air.

  Energy banged against the walls.

  Trembled underfoot.

  “You better.” I heard it for what it was. A demand.

  My hands drove into her hair, and I jerked her mouth against mine in a punishing kiss.

  She returned it, this girl giving me her all.

  My hands found her neck, and I rode them all the way down to tease at her nipples through the clingy fabric. “This dress. This fucking dress, Violet. You are killing me, baby. Can’t handle how bad I want you. Every second. Every day. Not ever gonna let you go.”

  “That’s good because I won’t let you leave me.” She pushed her hands to my chest and ran them up under my jacket, shoving it from my shoulders. I twisted out of it and let it drop to the floor, my hands rushing back to grip her by the hips.

  I tugged her against my throbbing cock. “Feel that? What you do to me?”

  Violet whimpered, and she started jerking through the buttons on my shirt. “I want to feel it. Want to feel it all.”

  Yes-fucking-please.

  My hands slipped down, all the way to that slit, getting greedy where I palmed her thigh. Hooking her leg around my hip, I slid my hand up higher until I was getting a good handful of her ass.

  I rubbed against her.

  “Richard. Please. Need you.” She made it through the last button of my shirt, her palms flat as she raked the material back to expose my chest. She immediately dove in as I shrugged the shirt the rest of the way free, girl frantically kissing across the canvas of art.

  Fire streaked.

  This flood of devotion that careened and crashed.

  Overcame every obstacle. Made me sure we could make it through what was coming and coming fast.

  That possession rose with it. Purposed protectiveness. Truth that I was going to do whatev
er it took to take care of her. To be there for her no matter what happened.

  My spirit clutched at that.

  Daisy’s face flashing through my mind.

  I blocked it out.

  Not tonight.

  Not tonight.

  I would tell her tomorrow.

  Tonight—we needed this.

  I slipped my hands up her back and found the zipper of her dress. I peeled it down. The sound of it sparked in the air.

  Electrified.

  Every molecule charged.

  A second away from when we would completely combust.

  I dragged the straps of the dress from her shoulders and pulled it down, letting the entire thing pool at her feet.

  Holy fuck.

  “You really are trying to kill me, aren’t you?”

  Violet stood there in this one-piece body suit. White lace and satin. The thinnest strip of material making up the straps and barely covering her nipples, the fullness of her breasts peeking out on both sides. Plunging down to go with the rest of her dress, so deep her belly button was exposed.

  It rode high on her hips, her ass bare.

  “You like?” she asked, standing there in only that and her high, high heels.

  I choked through a needy laugh. “I am not okay. Turn around.”

  Violet obeyed, turning around in a slow, tempting tease.

  The bodysuit was backless, the slips of fabric that had covered her tits getting thinner and thinner until they were nothing but spaghetti straps that went over her shoulders and down her back. Those two straps T’d into one strip that disappeared between the lush cheeks of her ass.

  I pressed my hand to her upper back and pushed her down. Her hands flew out to catch herself on the mattress of her bed.

  With her bent over, I spread both palms over her bottom and squeezed tight. “You got any idea how perfect you are? What it’s like to be standing like this looking at you?”

  She wiggled in my hold.

  I nearly died right there.

  She shifted so she could look back at me, thunderbolt eyes filled with hunger. “I need you, Richard. Need you right now. Need you in a way I’ve never needed anything in my life.”

  “You already have me,” I promised, letting my fingertips part her cheeks, following the line of the strip. “So pretty,” I murmured.