Drowning to Breathe (44 page)

It was part of the evidence that had been found stowed away in Martin Jennings’s safe. Proof he’d been responsible for the assault on her.

Yet another charge the scumbag had fallen to. He’d been so full of pride and pretention, so narcissistic, he’d kept it like a prize in the safe in his office.

Shea gazed down at it when I pulled back. “It’s so beautiful.”

I kissed it again. “Even more beautiful on you.”

She just smiled, tilted her head, like her awe of me went as deep as mine went for her.

Still was hard to make sense of. Someone wanting me for me.

All bullshit and money and fame aside.

She didn’t want it.

She wanted me.

“So what’s this surprise?” Shea’s eyes suddenly glimmered with mischief, a flash of excitement.

I fished my phone from my back pocket and thumbed into the file, keeping one hand on her side. I quirked a smile up at her as I turned the speaker as loud as it would go and set it on the counter at her side.

Then I pushed play.

The soft strum of my acoustic guitar.

She gasped when she recognized the song. Eyes that had been looking at my phone swung up to meet mine.

Adoration and grace.

“Sebastian.”

Fingertips felt along my face, fire to my skin and comfort to my spirit.

She pressed her mouth to mine. Nothing obscene. Just the pressure of her lips as wonder poured free.

God, she was sweet.

So damned sweet.

The chords deepened a fraction, a shift of the music like static electricity scattering through dense air.

That pounding, pulsing energy.

It was the polished song that’d seeped from us on our wedding night. Like it’d always been hidden somewhere inside the two of us, waiting for the right moment to be cut free.

The one she and I had mastered then sat down with the rest of the guys and recorded it months ago, before we made the permanent move back here to Savannah.

You
would be on our album releasing in two months.

Sunder
featuring Shea Stone.

No.

Not Delaney Rhoads.

Just like she’d told Martin.

Delaney Rhoads had died a long time ago.

This song was nothing like what
Sunder
normally put out. There was no anger or hate. No screaming lyrics or smashing beat.

It was slow reverence.

Creeping awe.

Love.

Pure, unadulterated love.

From my phone, my voice wove with the chords. Deep. Naked. Exposed.

You.

Came like a storm.

In the distance.

Coming closer.

You.

Took me whole.

Broken pieces.

Mended perfectly.

Leaning in closer to my girl, I began to quietly sing along with the elevating chorus that played from my phone, my raspy voice a low, pleading rumble.

Our breaths mixed on ragged pants as we got lost in the promise of the words.

Don’t want to look back.

Don’t want to move forward.

Just want to stay.

Right here with you.

Forever.

Just want to stay.

Right here with you.

Forever.

My nerves pinged like lightning bolts, a zing of ecstasy striking me through when her siren’s voice slowly lifted into the recording, low and sultry, Shea singing
With you forever
three times over. A layered, honeyed harmony, her voice braided through mine.

Redness rushed up Shea’s neck when her melody infiltrated the space. Delicious color paintin’ her cheeks in innocence and modesty dabbled with awe. Ever so subtly, she began to move her mouth, tipping her face up toward mine as I sang down to her and she sang up to me.

Didn’t matter how many times I’d heard it. I still felt my axis shift when the chorus drifted out and into the delicate frame of her verse.

You

Like standing in quicksand.

Slowly sinking.

Deeper and deeper.

You.

All I was missing.

Lonely hollows.

Completed flawlessly.

I wound Shea’s hair up in my fist, tugging her head back as I hovered over her, nose-to-nose, breath-to-breath. Intensity that would never dull blistered between us. Voices deepened in the same moment they gained power, twisting and twining as the momentum escalated, the roll of the drums and the beat of the bass, a pounding furor that trembled in the air and vibrated from our tongues.

Don’t want to look back.

Don’t want to move forward.

Just want to stay.

Right here with you.

Forever.

Just want to stay.

Right here with you.

Forever.

When the song hit the bridge, Shea’s voice rose above mine. Her time to shine. Bold. Glorious. Gushing beauty. A river of serenity. A voice unlike anything any of us had ever heard.

Be still, right here with me, for eternity.

Be still, right here with me, for eternity.

A shining star always so content to hide.

But no.

Not today.

Not tomorrow.

Not when the world got a real taste of this amazing girl.

What would it bring?

I didn’t know.

It was like I could feel the clock ticking down on my days with
Sunder
.

So much had changed in the last year. All of our lives were going down paths none of us had anticipated. Karl Fitzpatrick had warned me settling down with Shea would be the downfall of
Sunder
.

Maybe it had, because none of
Sunder
really knew were we stood, each of our lives taking paths none of us had anticipated.

Truth was?

I’d rather be
right here
.

Making beautiful music with my wife.

Reveling in the truth of our words.

Savoring in the tenor of our kisses.

Relishing in the crescendo of our bodies.

I’d rather be right here.

Writing the lyrics to an everlasting song.

The End

Thank you so much for reading Drowning to Breathe! If you enjoyed it, if you’d consider leaving a short review on Amazon, it would mean the world! Writing brings me more joy than I could ever describe, and a reader like you picking it up and falling in love with my stories the way I do is the most incredible feeling. From the bottom of my heart, thank you for taking giving my characters your time!

Keep loving and keep reading ~ Amy

Watch for more
Bleeding Stars
novels, coming soon from A.L. Jackson

Where Lightning Strikes
~ Lyrik West

Through The Storm
~ Austin Stone

Embers and Ash
~ Ash Evans

Whispers in Winter
~ Zee Kennedy

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Other Books by
A.L. Jackson

Bleeding Stars

A Stone in the Sea

The Regret Series

Lost to You

Take This Regret

If Forever Comes

The Closer to You Series

Come to Me Quietly

Come to Me Softly

Come to Me Recklessly

Stand-Alone Novels

Pulled

When We Collide

More Bleeding Stars Novels Coming Soon

Where Lightning Strikes

Through the Storm

Embers and Ash

Whispers in Winter

Also Coming Soon from A.L. Jackson

Hollywood Chronicles
, a collaboration with
USA Today
Bestselling Author, Rebecca Shea

A.L. Jackson is the
New York Times
and
USA Today
bestselling author of contemporary and new adult romance.

She first found a love for writing during her days as a young mother and college student. She filled the journals she carried with short stories and poems used as an emotional outlet for the difficulties and joys she found in day-to-day life.

Years later, she shared a short story she’d been working on with her two closest friends and, with their encouragement, this story became her first full length novel. A.L. now spends her days writing in Southern Arizona where she lives with her husband and three children.

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