Prevail (Triumph Book 3)

by S. J. McGran

  “Oh god,” I manage to let out on a gasp as I grab at him, pulling him even closer to me. Terrified of letting go.

  I thought I was going to die in that basement. I thought I was never going to see him again. That I’d never feel his warm, strong touch again. Or, smell his clean-dusty scent that is so unique to him.

  I thought I’d die and no one would ever tell him they loved him. More than anyone in this world Rico deserves to hear those words, to know what it feels like to be loved and cherished. I almost lost my chance to show him those things.

  “Rico, I was so scared. I thought I was never going to see you again.”

  He grabs my head—careful to avoid the wound on the side of it—and pulls me away from his neck so our eyes are aligned. His shirt is soaked with my tears, his cheeks damp from his own.

  I’ve never seen a man cry before, and after today I hope I never do again. When you think of a man you think of strength, protection, security. A man that cries is not a lesser, weaker man, but it puts into perspective how real and vulnerable they are. It’s heartbreaking.

  “I was scared, too, Kit baby. Fucking terrified.” Tucking my head back into his chest he holds me tight. My body aches from the abuse it endured and strength of Rico’s grip on me, but I don’t care. He needs to hold me and I’ve never needed anything more than to be held by him.

  Once our tears stop—his much, much sooner than mine—and we’ve gotten the tiniest bit of security back I ask Rico a question that has been lurking in the back of my mind.

  “What happened? Where’s William?”

  “He’s in the hospital somewhere. But, he’s under custody, so you have nothing to worry about. He’ll never hurt you again, baby. Never.”

  I just nod into his chest. I don’t know what that means. I don’t know what’s going to happen to William. All I care about right now is that I’m alive. Rico is alive. William has finally been caught. I’m safe.

  “Was it you?” My voice is a broken whisper. “Did you find me? Save me?”

  On some deep level, I think my soul wants to believe Rico could be the one to find me and save me. He’s been saving me from myself since the moment I met him, after all. It would only be fitting he’d come through and be my hero this time, too.

  “Yeah, Kit. I wouldn’t have stopped until you were right here, back in my arms.” He gives me that delicious smirk I’ve missed. “Just you and me, baby.”

  We’re quiet again as we hold each other. I have to tell him I love him. I have to tell him how sorry I am for leaving the way I did. I have to tell him why I left to begin with. But, at this moment I just need him. I need to believe that everything is okay to be okay. We’re going to be okay.

  “What are your biggest fears, Rico?” I ask. I’m not even really sure why I ask.

  “You mean besides losing you?” I just smile up at him relishing the playful look in his eyes. “Have I ever told you how terrified of heights I am?” I just shake my head no at him. “Like a little girl. I shake and get nauseous, sometimes I cry.”

  I can’t help it, I let out a laugh at his antics. Which I’m sure is the exact reaction he was hoping for.

  “God, I missed that sound.”

  Tilting his head forward, he places his lips firmly over mine. The kiss is tinged with sweetness and salt from our tears. It feels like promises and life, and love. Pulling back Rico places one more kiss on my forehead. Looking me straight in the eyes he says, “As a kid I hated roller coasters. I hated that part where you’d get to the top and just kind of hang there in that weird balance between falling over the edge and wondering if maybe you can stop it, or get off before it’s too late.”

  I smile at his analogy—wordy as it may be— because I’m pretty sure I know where he’s going with all of this. I’m pretty sure because I feel the exact same way. “What are trying to say?”

  With another quick kiss on my lips, he gives me the sweetest words I’ve ever heard. “When I’m with you I’ve never once thought about stopping the fall. Fall with me, Kit.”

  Just when I thought I was fresh out of tears, a new round starts. My words coming out whisper soft, but still full of so much meaning. So much truth. “I already have.”

  Rico’s cocky smile followed by his perfect lips on mine are the last things I remember before the pain medicine kicks in and I fall back asleep with a smile on my lips.

  ***

  After I wake up from yet another darkened slumber, I find my bed empty. Missing a certain pair of arms I’ve been craving.

  “That boy loves you,” a deep voice echoes through the room.

  My first reaction is to flinch, afraid one of these times I’m going to wake up and William is going to be sitting in my room staring at me with that sick, twisted smile. But, then the voice registers and I roll over to find my father sitting in the ugly blue chair tucked in the corner of the small room.

  I love my mom, but I’m a daddy’s girl through and through. I get my looks from my mother—in fact I’m nearly a carbon copy of her—but my personality is all from the burly man sitting across from me. We’re both blunt, a little closed-off, and sensitive.

  “I know he does, daddy,” I whisper through the tears.

  His own green eyes sparkle with unshed tears as he pushes up from his chair to stand over my bed. With my hand held tightly in his he looks like a man on the brink of breaking. “I thought I lost you, Riles.” The nickname stings for just a second as William’s voice echoes in my head, but then my daddy leans down to place a lingering, fatherly kiss on my forehead and the fear and pain disappear. “And, then that jackass of yours had the nerve to tell me he loves you and wants to live with you.”

  I jerk my head back in surprise. “Wait, what?”

  “Yep. It wasn’t pretty. I wanted you to move back home with us—at least until that scumbag is locked up for good—but Rico put up a pretty good fight.”

  I quirk my lips up in a smile at the thought of Rico standing up to my dad. For me. “And, who won?”

  I bust out laughing as a scowl replaces the soft look of adoration on my father’s face. The look and growl he lets out as he sits back down is the only answer I need. “He did, didn’t he?” I ask, still laughing.

  Finally, my dad cracks a smile and I know everything is going to be okay.

  “He had a very persuasive argument.” When I just quirk an eyebrow up at him he continues, “He promised me he’d love you and protect you until the day he died.”

  Any words I’d planned on speaking are suddenly caught around the giant lump in my throat. I knew Rico loved me—he told me in many, many words last night—but I didn’t quite understand the depth of that love.

  “I told you he loves you.” I just smile at him and nod, too overwhelmed with emotion to respond. Most of the humor falls from his eyes, and suddenly the terrified father I woke up to is back. “The cops are going to be back in a little bit and you’ll have to tell them what happened. But, first why don’t you tell me, baby.”

  I swallow down the lump in my throat. I’m actually surprised no one has questioned me yet—the cops or Rico. The thing is I don’t really remember everything. “I was taking a nap on the couch, and the next thing I know I was in the basement. I have no idea how he got in, or how he even knew I was home. He must have followed me. But,” I choke back tears as fear moves through me. How long has he been watching me? How long has he known about Rico, where he lives, who he is?

  I watch as his eyes move past me toward the door. I don’t have to roll over to know who’s standing there. Just his presence alone makes me feel more secure, more protected, more cherished than anything ever has.

  Footsteps sound behind me before he’s standing in front of me. He slides up onto the bed, sitting on the edge of it. Gripping my hand in his tightly he gives me the strength to go on.

  Closing my eyes, unable to meet their eyes, I tell them the rest of what I remember. Being tied up. Being blindfolded. The gun in his hand. The open gun case in the corn
er. The way he touched me. Threatened me.

  “I remember hearing pounding from upstairs like someone was knocking on the door, so I screamed and the next thing I knew I was waking up here.”

  Opening my eyes I look from my dad to Rico and I swear my heart breaks when I take in their faces. They both look like they’re in pain.

  “I’m sorry I wasn’t there to keep you safe, Kit,” Rico whispers to me as he leans down to brush my hair with kisses.

  “It’s not your fault, Rico. And, it’s not your job to keep safe.”

  Pulling back he pins me with his stare. His tone serious, leaving no room to argue. “It absolutely is, and I won’t let you down again. Do you hear me?”

  I just nod at him. I disagree that it’s his responsibility, but if it makes him feel better he can keep me wrapped in his arms for the rest of my life and I’d be content.

  Turning back to my dad I ask about William, “What’s going to happen to him?”

  “He’s looking at many, many years in jail, and then if he’s lucky enough to get out he’s looking several more on probation. He’s being charged with breaking and entering, menacing, breaking a restraining order, unlawful restraint, violation of probation, possessing a firearm.” Each charge my dad rattles off sends another bout of fear through me.

  Who the hell has William become? What happened to him?

  “Will I have to testify?”

  “I’m not sure yet, Riles,” he says as he leans forward. “We’ll do whatever we can though to make sure you never have to see him again, okay?”

  “Okay, daddy.”

  “But, I can tell you that you’ll never have to worry about him again. He’ll be locked up until you’re old and gray, okay?” I try to force back the fear and focus on his words. On the hope they give me. William will be locked up. For a long time. For a long, long time. Thank God.

  He pushes up from the chair and I close my eyes as he gives me another kiss to my cheek “Get some rest, I’ll see you a little later,” he says before leaving the room.

  I hear him whisper to Rico on his way out, “Take care of my baby girl.”

  “I will, sir,” Rico’s velvety voice responds.

  My handsome guy takes the chair my father just vacated and gives me that cocky smirk that sends butterflies soaring in my belly. “So, what do you say, Kit? Ready to come home with me?” He asks and I’m thankful for the change of subject. I am beyond ready to put William behind me once and for all. I’m ready to move on with Rico.

  I breathe out my answer without thought, “Yes.” And with that one word I take my first real breath in a very long time.

  Leaning forward Rico grabs my left hand placing kisses all over my palm. With his lips lingering on my ring finger, he whispers so quietly I’m sure the words are only meant for him, “I can’t wait to hear that answer to another question.”

  I want to scream out the word yes all over again. I want to demand he ask me to marry him right now. I want to drag him downstairs to the chapel and marry him right here, right now.

  I want to tear a page out of a romance novel and run off into the sunset with Rico’s hand in mine.

  But, I force myself to reel it in. Just barely.

  Several days ago I thought I had lost Rico forever, the fact that we’re both thinking about a future together is enough for me. Right now.

  But, he better not make me wait too long.

  Chapter Forty-Nine

  Rico

  “So, what happens next?” I close my eyes and let her sweet voice wash over me. Hours turned into days of wondering if I’d ever hear her voice again. Hours passed before they let me see her once we got to the hospital and another day passed before she opened those beautiful hazel eyes of hers and I knew everything would be okay.

  God, those twenty-four hours passed so fucking slow, I heard every single tick of the clock. I counted every second of those hours. All 86,400 of them.

  “Hello?”

  Opening my eyes I smile when those eyes of hers I love so much are right in front of me. Staring up at me like I’m her everything which is ridiculous because that’s what she is to me.

  “First thing we do is kiss.” Grabbing her hips, I pull her into me, covering her lips with mine. I breathe her in like she’s the very air filling my lungs, the oxygen keeping my heart beating. Because that’s exactly what she is.

  My air. My life. My everything.

  “And then I tell you how much I love you.”

  “Mmm,” she purrs against my lips. “I love you, too.”

  Unwilling to let her go I keep one hand placed firmly on her hip, I gently fist her hair in my other hand. Teasing her lips with mine I skate gentle kisses along her lips, cheeks, and forehead.

  Before I’m ready to stop tasting her, she pulls back, a playful smile on her lips. “What about the love and kissing? What comes after that?”

  It dawns on me then that I don’t have to keep stealing kisses. My girl is going to be living with me, I can kiss her whenever the hell I want. With a giant grin on my face, I let her go and pull back. Grabbing her bag in one hand and her hand in the other I pull her out of her hospital room. “Now, Kit, we go home.”

  I swear my whole world stops when she smiles up at me with the biggest, brightest smile I’ve ever seen. “Home, huh? I like the sound of that.”

  ***

  I took a chance and had Roxy and the rest of the crew move Riley’s things out of her place and into mine without letting her know about it. As we stand on the threshold of the apartment, I realize just how big of a risk that was. I have no idea how she’s going to react. She said she’d move in with me, she told me she loves me, but that doesn’t mean she’s ready to make it real.

  Plus, she ran away from me, from us. Which is something we still need to talk about.

  Grabbing her hand, I pull her in front of me, pushing her back against the outside of our apartment door. Leaning down I take her lips in a kiss that leaves us both completely breathless. Moving back just enough to speak I mumble against her lips, “I may or may not have done something that you may or may not be happy about.”

  She lets out a light laugh. “Well, that gives me a lot to work with. What did you or did you not do?”

  Without answering her, I reach around and unlock the door. Without letting go of my hold around her waist I back her into the entryway. Dropping our things to the floor I scoop her up, smiling at the girly squeal she lets out and carry her to the bedroom.

  I set her down on her feet and let her take in her surroundings. We didn’t need her furniture, but I had Roxy grab all of her decorations—her pillows, bedspread, pictures, everything that makes her feel at home.

  She lets out a subtle gasp, her hands coming up to cover her mouth and her eyes fill with tears. “Rico,” she says breathlessly.

  Suddenly I don’t care about the giant step we’re taking, or the talk we need to have. All I can focus on is the desire, the need to slide into her, to feel her, to hear her call out my name.

  Stalking toward her I wrap her up again, loving the way she wraps her own arms around my neck, her fingers tangling in my hair.

  “You moved me in?” Her lips move against mine. I just nod my answer, too preoccupied to speak.

  Without breaking our kiss, I manage to kick off my jeans and boxers, and lower the button and zipper on hers. Reluctantly I pull away to pull her jeans and panties off her body. My lips find their way to her ankles and I start kissing my way up her body.

  I love the feel of her soft, creamy skin under my lips. I love the soft little mewls she makes when I nip at her gently. I love the way her hands pull and tug at my hair.

  When I reach her bare belly, I pull back realizing she’s no longer wearing the shirt I hadn’t yet been able to remove. Looking up her body I manage to pull my focus away from her perky breasts long enough to find her eyes. She has one eyebrow cocked and a sultry grin on her face. But her eyes, those damn eyes of hers are full of so much love. So much hope. I c
an barely breathe through it.

  Standing quickly I remove the rest of my clothes before carefully picking her and laying her back on the bed. I do my best to be gentle with her. To avoid touching the bandage still wrapped around her head. Even with the stark white material, and the yellowing bruises on her body she’s beautiful.

  My stomach roils in anger at the marks he left on her, but I force myself to ignore them the best I can. She’s here. She’s still with me. She loves me.

  That’s all that matters right now.

  Reaching down I rub her folds, finding her already wet for me. Reaching over to the nightstand I grab a condom and quickly slide it on. I need this girl. I need to show her how much I love her. How much I need her.

  Leaning down I place soft kisses on her face, her neck, her chest. Forcing myself to slow down. As desperate as I am to prove everything to her, to mark my territory, to make her mine I need to remember she’s hurt.

  She purrs when I slide into her and my dick gets impossibly harder. “Kit. You feel so good.”

  I need to be closer to her. I need more of her. Moving my hands around her back I carefully lift her up as I sit back on my heels so her chest is pressed against mine. Taking her lips, I kiss her deeply, relishing the way her mouth takes just as much as it gives. Her fingernails dig into my shoulders.

  I move inside of her slowly, minutely. It’s barely a thrust. The only noises in the room are our breaths growing heavier with each passing second. Our eyes stay locked on each other, unwilling to let the other go. Unwilling to break the connection we have.

  The connection we were both so desperate to get back.

  When her breathing picks up, and her eyes close, and her head tips back in pleasure I swear I’ve never seen a more beautiful sight. “You’re so goddamn beautiful, Riley.”

  Her eyes open focusing on mine. She doesn’t say anything but she doesn’t have to, as usual her eyes do all of the talking for her.

  With a few more tender twists of our hips, we both fall apart with our eyes locked and our limbs completely wrapped around the other.