Chapter Forty-Two
Stone held my shaking body tightly against his broad chest for what felt like an absolute eternity, his incredibly powerful arms locked securely around my frame as if he could physically shield my skin from the cruelties of the entire outside world. His steady heart was still pounding hard beneath my cheek, matching the frantic, terrified rhythm of my own racing pulse.
“I have got you, baby,” he kept repeating over and over again in a very low, rough rumble, his warm lips pressing tenderly against the very top of my head. “Nobody on this highway is ever going to put their dirty hands on you again. I swear it right now on my own life, Tessa.”
I clutched his torso with all my remaining strength, my fingers twisted incredibly tightly into the fabric of his clean shirt, tr
