TOO BEAUTIFUL TO BREAK
Author:
Tessa Bailey
Series:
Romancing The Clarksons, #4
On
Sale: September 26, 2017
Publisher:
Forever
Mass
Market: $7.99 USD
eBook:
$5.99 USD
Leaving Belmont Clarkson is the hardest thing Sage Alexander has ever done. From the moment they met, she knew Belmont was the one, and getting up close and personal with him on his family's epic road trip has taken her desire to a new, even hotter level. But there's no way she can go there---not without revealing secrets that could devastate them both.
Losing Sage is not an option. Belmont's heart is hers, has always been hers. He knows she's hiding something from him, but nothing will stand in his way of telling her just how much she means to him. Finding her is easy---saving her from her past could cost him everything.
Maybe that hadn’t been the right thing to
say. His big back heaved and the touch of his tongue in her mouth came crashing
in like a behemoth wave. They had crossed an unspoken boundary on the train
platform. There was no going back to before, to when they stopped at rough,
crushing embraces. As if that hadn’t been…more than
sexual somehow.
“Yes, I’ll wait,” he said, his voice
sounding like serrated metal. “I can light the fire for you.”
I’ll say. God, why did everything sound like an innuendo now? If
her body weren’t flush and sweating beneath the jumpsuit, she would have
laughed about it. But there was nothing funny about having Belmont looming mere
yards away, looking like one word of encouragement would snap his chain and
send him barreling toward her. “That would be perfect. I’ll just be…a few
minutes.”
Sage all but dove into the itty-bitty
bathroom, pressing her back up against the door and willing her racing heart to
calm down. Why had she asked him to stay? Her resolve would weaken with every
passing second. Biting down on her lower lip, she began the excruciating task
of lowering the zipper of her jumpsuit, which kicked up a protest in her
triceps and shoulder muscles. When she finally got it down, she gripped the hem
of her T-shirt and attempted to lift it over her head.
Her arms wouldn’t cooperate. They flat out
wouldn’t rise any higher than her ribs, leaving the T-shirt suspended in
midair. Her muscles burned like someone had doused them in lighter fluid and
held them above a flame. Sage’s agony must have escaped in the form of a
whimper, because Belmont’s boots scraped just outside the door. And her stomach
hollowed with awareness, lightning racing all over her skin.
“Sage.” His voice was deep, urgent. “Do you
need help?”
No. Say no. She’d only gotten finished reminding him she didn’t
need him. But in this case, it would be a lie and she’d done so much of that
lately. With Belmont. The most truthful person she knew. “I can’t get my shirt
off.” Her nose started to ache, the tip probably turning red. “My arms hurt.”
His growl was short and broken. A beat
passed before the door opened and she felt Belmont filling the doorway behind
her. She flicked a glance up to the ancient mirror and confirmed what she’d
seen in her mind’s eyes. Belmont towering over her like an avenging angel,
outlined by candlelight. He’d taken off his coat, leaving him in a black
long-sleeved shirt, which he’d rolled up to the elbows. Every inch of visible
skin was shot through with strained cords of muscle, as if his frustration were
written on him like a road map.
Sage still had the shirt halfway lifted, so
her lower back was visible. Not a big deal to most people. But Belmont had
never seen anything below her neck. Or above her knees. With the jumpsuit
peeled halfway down, the band of her underwear might even be peeking out.
Breathing grew difficult as Belmont took
one step closer and took hold of the T-shirt, his knuckles grazing the small of
her back. “You’re wearing”—his breath ghosted down her neck—“my shirt.”
Sage only realized she’d closed her eyes
when they popped open. Oh God. In the shock of Belmont
arriving, she’d forgotten. “I am?” Her mouth was parched. “L-look at that.”
“I am looking.” She jumped when Belmont
reached over her shoulder with his left hand and turned on the shower, the
sound of spray filling the room. Then the roughness of his knuckles returned,
sliding up her spine along with the shirt. “I like knowing there was a layer of
me standing between you and the earth.”
Her legs took on the consistency of Jell-O.
His touch was a drug, making her languid, although it was different than the
way he usually touched her. There was sex this time. So much of it. And it was
that major difference that allowed Sage to accept the skimming of his fingers.
Accept the part of herself that lusted. They were in a dark room and time had
surely suspended anywhere outside this little plot of square footage. Words
ached to leave her mouth, words that wouldn’t be suitable in the sunlight. This
man, so warm and brave and large at her back, knew things about her no one else
did. What was one more secret? “I stole it out of your suitcase. I broke a
commandment and everything.”
“Why?” He breathed into her hair, sinking
heat like an anchor in her belly. The shirt came off, her arms dropped to her
sides, and she was left in nothing but a bra from the waist up. Inches from
Belmont. “Why, sweetest girl?”
A light steam had begun curling in the air
like beckoning fingers. Maybe this is a dream. It felt like
one of the fevered fantasies she woke from on occasion, sweat slicking her
breasts and neck. “Because I like the way you smell and it hadn’t been washed.”
His exhale was gravelly. “Sage.”
“Yes.”
She thought he might not respond, but
finally he asked a question that made her nipples turn to hard points. “Can you
manage”—a long, windy inhale—“the bra?”
Sage tried. She really, truly did. Her arms
felt as though they might break off and hit the floor, but she reached back
until her muscles locked up, refusing to move farther. But Belmont was already
there, pushing them back down, holding them at her hips.
“Jesus.
Please, stop. I can’t watch it.” His touch disappeared only for a second and
then the cotton material of the bra tightened over her breasts. She could feel
him working the back clasp with fingers she knew so well. They’d tunneled
through her hair so many times, twisted in her clothing, but had never, ever,
touched her with any kind of…intent. Intent to seduce. And that’s what he was
doing, intentional or not. The inhibitions she’d held close forever, circled
the drain, along with the shower water. “Your back is so beautiful.” A ghost of
a fingertip traced down her spine. “But I need to leave before I—”
“What?”
“Before I turn you around.” They weren’t
touching, but she could sense the shudder that ran through him. “Or look in
that mirror.”
Right or wrong, the mine, their
codependency aside, Sage knew if she let him leave just then, she would regret
it for all time. Her body had been woken up. By one man. He’d kept her on the
razor’s edge for thousands of miles, surrounding her with his power and taking
it away. Over and over. And this fever wrapping around them in the tiny
bathroom was completely different from easing his anxiety. Finally, she felt
like a woman standing in front of him, instead of a calming device. This was
mutual and alive and she couldn’t stand
it to end. Tomorrow might be a different story, but this moment was the
culmination of a thousand dreams and she could no more deny herself than she
could forget his face.
“Belmont, do you think of the kiss?”
“I never stop,” he groaned into her
hair. “Never.”
She took a deep breath for courage. “Will
you shower with me?”
Amazon
THE
ROMANCING THE CLARKSONS SERIES
TOO HOT TO HANDLE,
#1
TOO WILD TO TAME,
#2
TOO HARD TO FORGET,
#3
TOO CLOSE TO CALL,
#3.5
TOO BEAUTIFUL TO
BREAK, #4
She
now lives in Long Island, New York with her husband and daughter. Although she
is severely sleep-deprived, she is incredibly happy to be living her dream of
writing about people falling in love.
FOLLOW FOREVER ONLINE
