He pulled back, and it was almost a smirk that was riding his sexy mouth as he stared down at me, as if he were looking at the sunrise for the very first time. Shifting his attention to my face, he grazed just the tips of his fingers through my folds. “Stunning. Fucking stunning. Feel like I’m in a dream when I’m touching you this way. Like I’m lost in some kind of fantasy and I don’t ever want to wake up.”
Redness flushed across the surface of my skin
“And you . . . you make me feel like I’ve finally found my reality. Like I finally figured out exactly where I’m supposed to be.” A million emotions flashed across his mesmerizing face. Regret and lust and this consuming affection he couldn’t keep contained.
He crawled over me.
Slowly.
Carefully.
I sucked in a staggered breath when the man was suddenly caging me, hands planted on either side of my head, those powerful thighs wedged between mine.
His cock bobbed against my belly, and a shudder ripped through my body.
He sank down onto his elbows, hot hands framing my face. “I don’t understand this, Rynna. The hold you have on me. But when I look at you? Get this feeling that I’m looking at everything right.”
“Rex.” His name was a tremor.
A plea.
He leaned down and kissed me.
He kissed me carefully.
Gently.
Tenderly.
That energy lapped through the air. A slow, steady build. A current stoked by each pass of his tongue, by the heat that sizzled across our flesh, by our hands that explored. I ran my palms across his chest and over his wide shoulders, down the sinewy muscle of his back to his narrow hips.
I wrapped my hand around him, stroking him slow from the base of him to the tip.
He pulled his mouth away from mine. Head tilting back, he released a long groan. “Rynna . . . fuck . . . Rynna.”
He pressed back up onto one hand, touching my face, a hand on my cheek before he edged back even more. He grasped me by the back of my knee and spread me wide. Jagged pants ripped from his lungs as he took himself in his hand and rubbed just the head of his cock through my center.
Flames.
I swore that single touch set me on fire.
“Rynna . . . fuck . . . you are gonna destroy me.”
I whimpered, “Please.”
Jaw clenched, he began to work himself inside me, tiny thrusts as he spread me, as he stole my breaths and seared himself into my body.
He was so big, so big that my nails sank into his shoulders. I knew he was holding himself back, forcing himself to remain in control.
He slowly worked himself farther.
Deeper.
Until he was seated fully.
Owning me.
His cock throbbed in the tight clutch of my walls.
The hand that had been on my thigh skimmed over my hip and up my side, cupping my breast, gliding to my jaw. “Fuck, Rynna . . . you feel so right. So fucking right.”
“We are right,” I murmured toward his face.
He groaned again before he pulled almost all the way out and paused, that mesmerizing stare held fast on my face. As if he held the power to see straight inside me.
Or maybe he was just begging me to look to the depths of him.
In that moment, everything went electric, that current lashing and zapping in the air.
Then he consumed me with one dominating thrust.
A thrust that shocked the air from my lungs and sent it scattering somewhere in the vicinity of my heart. My heart I could feel shattering. Shattering with emotion.
With need and affection and this feeling that was rising to obliterate all else.
The same annihilated heart that struggled to keep up with the battering crash of his.
He went back to holding me behind the knee.
He watched down on me while he dominated my body.
Eyes raking my flesh. My face. My breasts. Where we were joined.
Again and again.
As if he couldn’t get enough. As if he never wanted it to end.
His body glistened with sweat as he worked over me. Muscles bowing.
His fucks deep.
Passionate.
Whole.
Pleasure glowed. Bright white flames.
He was looking at me as if I weren’t real.
As if I were a fantasy.
Something he could never deserve or hold or keep.
When he’d already won every part of me.
Body and mind and quivering soul.
He shuddered through a frantic swallow, barely hanging on. “Fuck . . . baby . . . Ryn. Baby. You are a fucking miracle. No woman should feel this good. Fuck . . . I don’t know if I can hold back.”
“Then don’t.”
“Shit. You are so fuckin’ sweet. So goddamned sweet.” And I loved the grin that quirked at the side of that mouth. That mouth that was descending on mine, his hand on my neck. He kissed me until my head spun then he edged all the way back onto his knees and grabbed me by the waist.
He lifted my hips in the air.
My body arched.
All spread out.
My hands fisted in the sheets. I held on while Rex Gunner let go.
His control gone. The man driving to the depths of me. Where bliss spun and tightened and burned.
Gasps shocked from my mouth.
His fucks so desperate they were almost sweet.
He hissed through the wild rocks of his hips. “You are a miracle. Look at you. So damned sexy. So gorgeous and you don’t even know.”
He drove harder.
Faster.
His frenzied pants lifted into the air.
He tightened his hold with one hand, the other grazing over my trembling belly, and his thumb found my clit.
“Oh God,” I cried out.
And I could feel my own reality slipping away. The burn of pleasure he incited with every thrust of his cock.
The man fucked like a barbarian that had perfected his art. Rough and grueling and driving me mad.
Higher and higher toward where day and night spun.
“Rex—”
Everything burst.
Strobes of light that flashed behind my eyes and the pleasure that exploded in my body.
Fracturing.
Scattering wide. Bliss.
It rode every nerve and obliterated every cell.
A sound tore from my throat, given voice where it came to life from somewhere in my spirit.
Because just like Rex had said, this shouldn’t have been real.
It was too good. Too much. Too overwhelming.
Pleasure rushed.
A landslide.
So intense I thought it might go on forever.
Rex drove deeper and harder and wilder. His fingers sank into my hips, and he jerked my body to meet each dominating thrust. The man coming unhinged. Every breath a grunt. He gripped me as if he were clinging to safety, afraid he would be swept away, too. His head kicked back, and he roared toward the ceiling.
And I floated on his ecstasy. My walls clutching him tight. My heart holding on tighter.
For a few moments, we remained there, his shoulders and chest heaving as he panted for air. He slowly lowered my hips to the bed, wincing as he pulled out before he slumped down on top of me.
Threading his fingers through my hair, he rolled us to our sides. He stared at me, blinking in wonder as he brushed his thumb over the curve of my cheek. “That was . . .”
“Incredible,” I whispered, almost shy.
“Incredible might be an insult. Feeling this way should be impossible, Rynna Dayne. Not sure how I’m going to walk out of this house and ever be the same.”
“What if I don’t want you to walk out of here ever feeling the same?”
“Don’t think there’s any worry about that.” He studied me, hesitating, before he spoke, his admission scratchy. “I haven’t been with anyone since Frankie’s mom.”
S
hock burned through my mind and jolted my spirit, questions tumbling through my head, this man who was such a mystery.
I shifted onto my elbow, causing Rex to roll onto his back. I searched him in the shadows. “What? Why now? Why me?”
“Because you change everything, Rynna. You walk in a room, it’s better. And when you walk away, everything grows dimmer. Colder. And I’m tired of living in the dark.” He brushed back the hair that fell against my cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not terrified. That I’m not scared I’m doing something wrong. Making bad choices, the way I have all along. Last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
I dipped down and placed a soft kiss to his chin, rising back up to meet the intensity of his stare. “The only thing that would hurt me is you walking away.”
“My daughter . . .” I watched the heavy bob of this thick throat, the fierce protectiveness seeping through his pores.
I pressed my palm over the erratic thunder of his heart. “I know. Your daughter . . . your beautiful Frankie. I promise you I would rather die than hurt her, just like I know you’d rather die than see her hurt.”
His heart pounded harder, and a dent pulled between his eyes. “How’s it you just get it?”
“There are some things that just aren’t that hard to understand. Like loving a child. It’s complete. Absolute. There’s no middle ground. So yeah, I get it.”
“She’s gonna fall for you, Rynna.”
A soft smile pulled at my mouth, and I scratched my fingertips through the scruff on his jaw. “That’s good, because I’m already falling for her.”
Falling for you.
I didn’t say it. Because I had my own fears. That he might not be ready. That the words might push him away. I figured when he looked at me, it was blatant, anyway.
Tentatively, I reached down to run my fingers through the soft locks of his hair. “What happened with Frankie’s mom?”
He flinched. “I don’t fucking know, Rynna. I came home one day, and she was . . . driving away. She didn’t even stop when she saw me pass her on the road.” His eyes squeezed shut. “Thought everything was fine. Left for work that morning, and then boom . . . gone. Some bullshit letter left behind about me working too much and she couldn’t take it anymore.”
Nikki was right. What a selfish bitch.
“What was she like?”
Emotion flashed through his eyes. Hurt and hatred.
“Last thing I want to be talking about is her when I’m lying here with you. Because right here? With you? That’s where I want to be, and the last thing I need is her here in the middle of it.”
“You don’t need to tell me anything, Rex,” I whispered, just as softly as my fingers that trailed across his jaw. “But when you want to? When you’re ready? I’ll be right here, ready to listen. I promise you there isn’t anything you could say that would turn me off or send me in the other direction. Because this is where I want to be, too.”
He nodded, his hand on my neck. “You know . . . your grandma . . . she was there with Frankie when I got home that night. Watching over her. Caring for her. She helped to get me through that time.”
At the thought of my grandmother with Frankie, warmth spread beneath my skin. She truly had been a part of their lives. I guessed I’d only related it to the pies. But she’d meant something to them.
Without a doubt, they’d meant something to her.
“I’m so glad she was there for you.”
“She was amazing.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
Contentment rolled through my being as a slow, slow caress, and I snuggled closer, laying my head on his chest, my ear against the steady thrum of his heart.
“Can’t believe what nearly went down this afternoon,” he muttered, lightly gliding his fingertips along my bare back.
Fear flickered in my spirit. “Me, either. But it’s over. I don’t want to dwell on what might have been or could have happened. I just want to be thankful for what did.”
“But the loan you were after that set that bastard off? What now?”
I kept drawing patterns on the rippling muscles of his pecs, words subdued. “I wait, I guess. Pray that they approve it and this whole mess doesn’t affect it in any way.”
“You mind me asking how much you were asking for?”
“No, I don’t mind. Two hundred thousand. When I found out my grandmother left everything to me, the attorney had an estimator go in to give me an idea of what repairs would be needed to reopen. He wanted to give me the option to cut my losses and sell it off for what it was worth.”
“And that’s what you wanted? To come back here and take all that on?”
Soft affection slipped from my mouth. “When I was growing up, running that restaurant was the only thing I wanted. I couldn’t imagine anything but being there at my grandmother’s side.”
“Why’d you leave, Rynna?”
Sadness wove into the fibers of my being and I tilted my face so I could see him. “Because I thought I was in love and it turned out it was nothing but a joke. I couldn’t be the joke anymore, Rex. It hurt too bad.”
“Fuck . . . I hate him.”
“It wasn’t just him. It was everything. Everyone. The school. This town. I knew if I stayed, everyone would be laughing at me.”
I could still see Janel, that evil, depraved laugh, no care as she crushed my soul and destroyed my world.
“I was humiliated. Betrayed. At the time, I saw no other option than running, thinking I couldn’t stay here and face the people I thought cared about me. I was so young. Looking back now? It seems ridiculous that I let them affect me so much.”
He tightened his hold. “It’s amazing how much power the ones we care about most hold. Especially when they’re hurting us.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I just wish I hadn’t stayed away so long. I wish I had come back when she was still alive. She wanted so badly for me to come home, even though she paid for my college, encouraged me to find what I loved. What made me happy. And I was fine in San Francisco, satisfied on some level, but it never brought me the true kind of joy I knew she wanted for me. And then . . . she was gone . . . and I was too late.”
He shifted a fraction, staring at me intently, almost cautiously. “Did you come back for her, or for you?”
“At first? I—” I blinked, wandering through the emotions I’d felt at the news.
Agony.
Grief.
Guilt.
The fear that had stumbled my feet and the hope that had pushed me forward.
“I was terrified to come back, but I did it because there was a part of me that had never let this place go. It didn’t take more than my walking through the doors of that restaurant for me to realize this was where I belonged. All the years I spent working in a corporate office and, it turns out, I just want my fingers buried in dough.”
Warm laughter floated out. “And here you are . . . home . . . right where you’re supposed to be.”
“Yeah.”
“Making pies.” A tease slipped into his tone.
A grin pulled at the corner of my mouth, and I edged back onto both hands, grinning down at him. “Oh, you like those pies, huh?”
He leaned up, kissing the tip of my nose, the caress of his lips chained to my heart. “Mm-hmm . . . I definitely like those pies.”
I could feel the heat flush my body, my voice growing quiet when I asked, “Did you eat the one I made you?”
He rumbled a greedy sound. “Every single bit. All except for the piece Frankie had to have. And fuck me, if I didn’t want that piece, too.”
“Stingy.”
“You can’t blame a man who knows what is his.” He was all smirks, this easy cockiness where he lay in the middle of my bed.
God. He was beautiful and I still couldn’t believe he was there. That this was real.
A rush of joy took me over. This happiness that spread far and fast. I fell into his playfulness, the ease I had no idea this man could sh
ow. “Is that what won you over? My pies?”
“Maybe . . . a little.”
I swatted his chest. “No more pies for you.”
A shock of surprise jutted from my lungs when he suddenly flipped me, straddling me from above. His fingers dove into my sides, this hard, callused man, laughing as he tickled me. “Those are just wicked words, woman. Don’t you dare tease me like that.”
“Oh my God . . . Rex, stop! Stop! I’m so ticklish,” I squealed, struggling to break free and never wanting to go anywhere.
“Not until you make me all the pies.”
I tried to catch my breath and fight him off and hold him all at the same time. “No. No more pies for you.”
“Tell me, Little Thief. Tell me you’re going to make me all the pies.” He kept on with his sweet, sublime attack until we were a laughing mess of prodding, tingling fingers, hysterical, shrieking laughter, and wild, pounding hearts.
It tapered off when he pinned my hands to the bed above me, those piercing sage eyes holding me firmer than the hold he had on my wrists.
That awareness spun. Fierce and intense.
“You belong here, Rynna. You’ll make it work. I have faith in you.”
And then he was kissing me as if he didn’t ever want to stop.
22
Rex
Fear tumbled through his veins and clanged in the hollow of his chest. Frantic, he stumbled through the brushy undergrowth, the world buried by soaring trees. Branches lashed at the exposed skin of his arms and thorns latched onto the fabric of his shirt in an attempt to hold him back.
It propelled him harder.
Faster.
He screamed her name. “Sydney.”
Sydney. Sydney. Sydney.
The howl of wind answered back.
Sydney.
I panted and thrashed. My head spun, fumbling through my thoughts to make sense of where I was. Warmth surged through my body when hands smoothed across my face, the softest voice cutting through the darkness. “Shh . . . I’m right here, Rex. I’m right here.”
Relief gushed out on a shattered breath, and I grabbed her and pulled her against my body.
I buried my face in her hair.
“Are you okay?” she whispered.
“I am now,” I told her. Because it was the truth.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 17