Page 57 of Daybreak

He wanted—needed—to see Holly. If ever there was a time to take that chance, it was tonight. As soon as he cleaned up the kitchen, he sent her a text.

I miss you. If I happened to show up in the same Jeep I was driving around Crossroads, would you mind letting me in?

Holly wasn’t expecting that text, but her hands were shaking when she answered.

I miss you, too, Roadrunner. If you come a’running, I will absolutely let you in.

It was all he needed to know. He grabbed the keys to the Rubicon, left his hat and gun behind, and left the TV playing. Then he went through the house, turning on lights in various rooms, and set the security alarm before leaving via his back gate.

Getting on the Loop felt like running away from chaos. He was on the way to the answer to his prayers—chasing taillights of the cars ahead of him, aiming for the exit ramp that would take him to Holly.

* * *

Holly was standing in the dark in her bedroom, looking out the upper window of her townhouse, watching for his arrival. She knew what was going to happen between them. It was a heart-stopping moment, waiting to make love for the first time with someone you’d known all your life.

When she saw the headlights of a vehicle turn down the block and come toward her house at the speed of “trying to outrun the cops,” she started laughing.

He was the cop, and he drove like he ran. She bolted from the bedroom, heading for the stairs as Gunner pulled up in the drive, exiting the Rubicon in long, hurried strides.

The door opened as he was coming up the steps, and there she was, silhouetted in the doorway from the backlit room behind her. Then she was in his arms.

The door swung shut behind them.

The first kiss lit the fuse.

The second kiss sparked the fire.

Gunner took a breath. “Where are my boundaries?”

“You have none. Like the land from which we come, the wide-open spaces of my heart are yours. All we have to do is climb some stairs.”

He glanced at the staircase and then reached for her hand. “Stairway to heaven? I can do that,” he said, and up they went.

She led the way to her bedroom, then turned to face him, but he was already out of his boots and shirt and reaching for the hem of her T-shirt.

Over her head it went, and then she stepped out of her shorts as he was reaching for his jeans.

He popped the buttons in one smooth move, and then the rest of their clothes went flying and they were standing face to face in total silence, as naked as the day they’d been born.

He shook his head, his voice gruff with emotion. “Beautiful from head to toe.”

She held out her hand. “Come lie with me now.”

So, he did.

Foreplay was not on their agenda.

Not now.

Not their first time.

This was for soothing the ache of desperation and answering all of the questions they’d been asking themselves.

In a tangle of bedclothes, with his hands fisted in her hair, he moved between her legs, into her body, and lost his mind.

Holly wrapped her legs around his waist and pulled him deeper, meeting him thrust for thrust until every nerve ending in her body felt like it had coiled itself into a knot—growing bigger and tighter to the point of pain.

At the moment of climax, conscious thought disappeared.