Then, Earth Swallowed Ocean: A Dark Werewolf Romance (The Lindals) by Shiloh Sloane

Author:Shiloh Sloane [Sloane, Shiloh]
Language: eng
Format: epub, azw3
Published: 2022-10-30T23:00:00+00:00

Chapter 9

Lick the salt

Sadie wakes to Ridge carrying her somewhere, his strong arms holding her like she’s a small and fragile thing. Like she’s young, when she feels so grown. Her head is in the crook of his arm; a breeze whooshes past her bare feet. There’s a frozen moment between them, this brief time in which she doesn’t know where she is, why his skin is stained with that rust color, why she feels naked under the dusky pink of the setting Carolina sun, and he doesn’t yet know she’s awake, where the two of them have no cares in the world other than each other.

She puts her hand on his chest right over his heart. Feels the warm, broad plane of muscle there. She can’t remember the last time someone carried her. The last time anyone stood up for her, or took care of her, even.

Today, she spoke out against those men who threatened her. She doesn’t want to think of their deaths but she does think of that. Before she met Ridge, she was so very used to keeping her mouth shut. Now, boldness feels safe.

So comes the stinging thought that the setting sun means she only has a week and two days left to live like this, with him holding her without her asking, with him caring for her like she’s young the way she never quite got to be, with her finding the voice she forgot how to speak with. It sparks tears that catch in her throat. When she tries to hide them by ducking her face to his chest, he pauses his walking. Shifts her to where she’s got her arms wrapped around his neck and her legs wrapped around his hips. He kisses her temple. Strokes her hair.

She is naked, and he’s naked, and her dress and his pants are draped over his shoulder. At first she wants to ask him what happened to the church but she doesn’t really want to know. She smells something like a bonfire and sees smoke billowing into the sky. Bites her lip.

“How long was I out for?” she whispers, tracing the line of his brow with her pointer finger. He’s analyzing her. Reading words in the irises of her eyes and the curl of her lips that she doesn’t even know she’s written.

“Couldn’t be more than thirty minutes past my own waking,” he says in a low voice. “Was out cold myself, little fawn. After coming inside you like that, Christ.”

He squeezes her thighs as he holds her up. His eyes darken against the neon skies. It makes her feel like she’s flying, or falling from heaven. She’s just as familiar with either feeling as she is with sex itself.

“Is that common?” she whispers, not sure she wants to know. “Passing out after… Making love?”

She feels herself blush fiercely at the words and he grins. Kisses her lightly on the side of her jaw. Traces his tongue along the line of it. “No, Sadie.”

His breath and his lips send goosebumps down her spine and she shivers, holding him tighter.

Download

Copyright Disclaimer:
This site does not store any files on its server. We only index and link to content provided by other sites. Please contact the content providers to delete copyright contents if any and email us, we'll remove relevant links or contents immediately.