She pressed her mouth to mine.
Hard.
“Rynna,” I moaned.
Fucking Rynna.
Little Thief.
29
Rynna
Strong arms wrapped around my waist, and the rocker groaned when Rex pushed to standing, taking me with him. He hiked me up into the strength of his arms, my legs immediately cinching around his narrow waist.
With one arm locked around my waist, he gripped me by the jaw with the other hand, controlling our kiss, ruling my mind where I disappeared into the abyss of this complicated man.
My spirit roared.
A thunder of grief and torrent of love.
I wanted to sing it. Sing it for him. For this man who’d lost so much and deserved every good thing the world had to give. Instead, I poured it into him. Into our kiss and into every desperate touch.
He gripped me tighter, wedging open the door, carrying me inside. With his foot, he held the door open, breaking away for the briefest flash when he called, “Milo, come,” his voice gruff.
My tiny puppy scampered past his feet, trotting right over to the bed Rex had set up for him in the corner of the living room, already knowing his place.
Then Rex got right back to kissing me. A hand wound up in my hair and the other locked around my waist.
I ached for him in a way that was only possible when someone’s joy mattered more to you than anything else. When you’d give up yours to see them smile. When you’d sacrifice to make them happy.
When you were so far gone the only thing that mattered was them.
My gramma had told me I’d just know.
That it’d be magic.
And that was what this felt like.
Magic. Magic composed of so many threads. Layers of wounds and grief and tragedy. All of it bound by a seed of hope that had been planted somewhere along the way.
It bloomed.
Bloomed so big and bright that this man was the only thing I could see.
It felt too powerful to be one-sided. Too vast to be warped.
Lives pieced together precariously. Fragilely. A tender, loving, imperfect balance.
He carried me down the hall, only pausing for a moment to look in at Frankie, who was fast asleep. The man smiled up at me when he partially drew her door back shut, his expression so profound as he swept his hand back into my hair, his words a grumbled rasp. A root that had blossomed from that hopeful seed. “Want to do this every night, Rynna. Want to tuck my baby girl in bed then take my other girl to mine.”
He walked us the rest of the way into his room. He kicked the door shut and tossed me onto his bed. I bounced on the mattress, a wave of need capturing me. Chasing away the fears and the questions that had plagued us since we’d met.
Nothing left to stand in our way.
He reached back and clicked the lock before reaching down and peeling his shirt over his head, revealing the overwhelming strength of his chest and the ripple of his abs glowing in the wispy tendrils of moonlight that flooded his room.
I heaved out a breath.
“Every night, Rynna. I want to take you. Fuck you. Love you. Keep you.”
My entire body shook, the impact of his words tearing through me like an earthquake.
I pushed up onto my palms, squirming on his bed. “I’m not going anywhere.”
He flicked the button of his jeans and shoved out of them.
Baring all.
Oh God.
He was magnificent, his cock jutting free, pointing to the sky. Needy for me.
Me.
“Gonna make you a moaning, sweaty mess, Rynna Dayne, then I’m going to do it all over again.”
“I’m yours.”
The air crackled.
Alive.
Fire and heat and flames.
I writhed as I stared up at him.
Muscle and strength and that amazing heart underneath.
He inched forward, making me insane when he reached over from the side of the bed and dragged my shorts and the bathing suit bottom off. He dropped them to the floor, ran his fingers between my thighs. “So fucking sweet.”
“Rex, I need you.”
“You have me, baby. Anytime. Anywhere. Always.”
He climbed onto his knees on the bed, slowly dragging up my tank and setting it free, quick to do the same with my bikini top.
He tossed it over his shoulder, a wicked gleam lighting in his eye. He leaned closer, framing me in with his big body, mouth blowing across my breasts.
Instantly, my nipples budded into tight, pebbled peaks.
My hips jerked. “Rex. Please.”
I needed him more than I’d ever needed him before. I felt closer to him than I ever had. All his exteriors ripped away, shields down. It was just him and me.
I set my palms flat against the hard, defined ridges of his abdomen, and he rubbed his cock against my center.
A slow, sensual tease.
A shiver slipped down my spine. It dove straight into the pool of desire that grew to a boil in my belly.
My hands slid up his smooth skin.
Greedy as they explored. Savoring every inch. “You’re so beautiful, Rex Gunner. Inside and out. Thank you for letting me see it. For trusting me with it. With who you are.”
I let my fingers trace across the tattoo on his arm that so clearly wept.
Finally understanding what it meant. The kind of loss that would go on forever.
He cupped my face in the palm of his hand, something so serious blanketing his expression. “Who I am is yours, Rynna. I’m going to fix the bullshit in my life I should have fixed a long time ago.”
My mouth dropped open to ask him what that meant, but he took it as an opportunity to delve his tongue between my lips in a kiss that seared my soul.
All thoughts evaporated.
“Rynna.” My name was a plea. A prayer. I don’t think either of us could tell the difference anymore.
He wedged deeper between my thighs. His cock so big, trapped between us, begging for release.
Need throbbed, and he suddenly grasped me by the knees, spreading me wide as he edged back onto his. He dove in, licking through my folds.
I moaned, writhed, fisted my hands in his hair. “Rex.”
His only answer was to devour me. Fucking me with his tongue. Long laps and sweet, dizzying sucks.
Pleasure wound. So fast that I restrained a scream. That I writhed and moaned and whimpered his name.
It built to a pinpoint. Ready to burst.
The second before I did, he was over me. One hand planted next to my head as he hooked his other arm under my right knee.
He pinned my leg up high on his arm, pressing our chests together.
I could feel the beat of his heart where it raged against mine.
Wild. Wild and free.
He slowly pressed himself into my body. Never looking away.
Taking.
Owning.
Obliterating.
My mouth dropped open while his jaw clenched.
He began to move. His thrusts slow. Each rock of his hips deliberate. A slow, steady conquering. Winding me right back up.
He teased me with the most exquisite kind of torture. Passion stretched taut. Palpable and alive.
It was too much and too little and I begged him for more.
The physical and emotional that had waited anxiously on opposite sides suddenly charged toward the other.
The two crashed in the middle.
Sublime devastation.
Body and soul.
Tears pricked at my eyes and streaked down my face.
Because I was again overcome.
Overwhelmed by this man. I inhaled and filled my lungs with the magnitude of him.
Lake and earth and the clearest sky.
He moved in me in barely contained thrusts, slow and hard in his claiming command while I spun through the brightest kind of bliss.
Blinding.
Where I basked i
n this unfathomable beauty.
In that place that had become us.
Real and whole.
His mouth brushed against mine. “You changed everything, Rynna. Where I found an end, you saw a beginning. You saved me. Called me from the shadows. You changed everything the day you walked into my life. You are my heart’s second chance.”
I floated on the ecstasy of that chance.
Elevated.
Tossed into our perfect harmony.
Where I’d fall forever.
Weightless.
Rex clutched me by the shoulders, his rocks turning frenzied as he clutched me against him, as he burrowed his face into my hair, as he whispered my name.
“Rynna.”
And Rex.
He fell with me.
Exactly where he’d always belonged.
30
Rynna
Peace swam through his room, a dusky quiet broken by the milky moonlight streaming in from the window. I didn’t think there could be anything more perfect than being nestled in the crook of his arm with my head resting on his chest.
Tangled together.
Basking in the afterglow.
He gently brushed his fingers through my hair, and I sighed, so content, and I could only pray this incredible man felt the same. I rolled a fraction so I could place a kiss over the thrum of his heart. “You’re my heart’s second chance, too,” I told him through a murmur.
He shifted me to lay on top of him. Nudging me back, he peered up at me. “How’s that?”
I played with one of the longer locks of his hair. “The entire time I was in San Francisco, I felt as if I was missing something. When I left . . .” I blinked through the memories, searching for what to say, wondering if I should even bring it up.
The past was the past.
But he’d shared his, and I needed him to know mine.
“I won’t pretend what happened to me comes anywhere close to what you went through. To what you and Ollie and Kale lost that day. But I lost a piece of myself when I left. More than one piece,” I admitted in a hurried whisper. “I left behind my dreams and my innocence and my hopes. I left behind my grandmother. My only family.”
The loss of her drummed through me. A woeful ache.
He threaded his fingers through my hair and cupped the side of my head. “You don’t have to minimize what you went through, Rynna. Yeah, what happened with Sydney was brutal. So goddamned brutal. But I know I’m not the only person in this world who’s suffered.”
Rex wavered for a moment, before his words dropped low. “What happened, Rynna? What sent you running?”
Blinking into the distance, I let my thoughts slip back to that time. “There was this girl . . . we were friends.” I shook my head, my voice going even quieter. “But really, we weren’t. I told you before how I never quite fit in. I was always on the outside. Lonely. Looking back now, I see how she took advantage of that. That I was willing to take any abuse if it meant I had friends.”
I could feel the flinch of his fingers he held against the side of my head. “It got worse as I got older. Much worse. I found out she’d been stealing, and maybe it was stupid, but I was actually worried about her.” Regretfully, I looked at him. “So I told her mom.”
My head shook. “She was so angry. So angry. I should have known when she warned me I was going to pay for it that she meant it. But I was naïve that way. I never suspected cruelty because it was so far out of the realm of anything I’d ever wish against someone.”
“What happened?” His voice was a low rumble, and I could feel his unease. I could feel anger sifting through him, shaking out and taking hold.
I eased down onto his chest and laid my ear against the soothing thrum of his heart. I wasn’t sure I could look him in the eyes when I made this confession. Distractedly, I traced over the tattoo on his arm and shoulder, whispering the words into the dense air.
“I’d had a crush on this boy for as long as I could remember . . . middle school at least.” It was almost sorrow that formed on my mouth, though it was brittle with hurt. “I never thought he’d look my way, then one day . . . one day he asked me out.”
“You want to grab a bite Friday night?”
I stood behind the long counter at my gramma’s diner, looking behind me, around me. Was Aaron really talking to me? Every one of the butterflies in my stomach held their breath. My heart shook so hard I was sure everyone in the diner could hear it.
“Rynna?” he prodded.
Mouth dropping open, I stared blankly at him, my tongue not cooperating. “You . . . you want to go out with . . . me?” I finally managed to stutter around the shock.
“Yeah. Why wouldn’t I?” He shrugged a muscular shoulder, and my wide-eyed gaze got transfixed on the motion. This had to be a dream, right?
“So what do you think?” He angled his face down to capture my attention. “Don’t break my heart, Rynna.”
Don’t break his heart? Oh God. Oh God. This was really happening. “Um . . . yeah . . . yes. Definitely. I definitely want to go out with you.” I nodded frantically.
He grinned and those butterflies scattered, a frenzy in my belly. He smacked the counter before pointing at me. “Pick you up at seven.”
I tried to keep the tears out of my voice while I let the story bleed free. “God, I was so excited, Rex, that this boy actually liked me.”
A growl stalked his throat. I could feel it, hear it all the way to my soul. He tightened his hold on me. As if he didn’t want to hear it but needed to, the same way I needed to tell him.
“I was on cloud nine. He picked me up and took me out. He kissed me right across the street in front of my gramma’s door. It went on like that for three weeks. The two of us together. Kissing and touching and me feeling like I finally was important.” A sob threatened at the base of my throat, words hitching as I forced the last out. “That I wasn’t invisible.”
“Rynna.” It was a shaky breath that blew between Rex’s lips.
I angled up so I could look down at his face. “I was so tired of being invisible, Rex. Of feeling stupid and unattractive and unlovable. So tired of being alone. But I should have known. God, I should have seen it coming a mile away.”
I stood at my full-length mirror, twisting this way and that, looking at myself from every angle, trying to convince myself that the dress I wore looked good. That my rolls didn’t show. That Aaron liked what I looked like, and it didn’t matter if they showed, anyway.
It was my birthday.
My eighteenth birthday, and I was so finished being scared. Finished with all the doubts and insecurities that threatened to explode and send me cowering under the covers of my bed. I was going to live this life, and live it to its fullest.
That was what Gramma had always taught me to do.
It was time to start embracing it.
Hurrying out of my room and downstairs, I bounced into the kitchen.
Gramma turned away from the new recipe she was testing by the stove. “My, my, look at you, child. All grown up.”
In the center of the old kitchen, I spun around in my dress. “Thank you for buying it for me, Gramma.”
“Of course. Every girl needs a dress to celebrate their eighteenth birthday. You’re a woman now, and as gorgeous as ever, if I say so myself.”
I felt the blush climb to my cheeks. Because after tonight, I really would be a woman. In every sense of the word. “Thank you, Gramma, so much.”
She looked at me softly, and I gazed back. Love spun through me with the intensity of the sun. “I hope you know everything you mean to me, Gramma. I hope you know I appreciate every single thing you’ve done for me. Everything you sacrificed. That you raised me. That you’ve loved me the way you have. I know you always worried it wasn’t enough, but I could never ask for anything more than you.”
Moisture shined in her grayed eyes, and she smiled. Smiled a smile that encompassed the meaning of both of our worlds. She reached out a weathered hand and
twisted one of the curls I’d ironed into my hair. “We’ve made quite the team, haven’t we?”
“The best team,” I said, reaching out to wrap my arms around her. “Thank you, Gramma. Thank you so much,” I murmured at her ear, inhaling the sweet scent of vanilla and sugar that somewhere along the way had become a permanent part of her.
She hugged me tight, so thin and frail yet so incredibly strong. “I love you more than you’ll ever know, Corinne Paisley. You have been the greatest light of my life. It has been the greatest honor raising you into the woman you are.”
Tears slipped free, and I sniffled.
She pulled back and wiped them away. “Stop that, now, or you’re gonna mess up that makeup you spent the last two hours perfecting.” She nudged me toward the door. “Go on, have fun.”
I stepped back and squeezed both her hands in mine. “Thank you. I love you so much.”
Sight bleary with tears, I swallowed around the knot of hurt wedged at the base of my throat. “I left the house so happy that night.”
“Fuck, Rynna. I can’t . . .” Rex itched beneath me, muscles straining, as if he had to stop himself from jumping up and going back to that day to stop it from happening. But that was the thing about the past. It was over. All except for the scars it left behind.
“He picked me up at the end of the street. I hopped in his truck. I can still remember how he squeezed my hand, told me that tonight was just him and me.” Agony wheezed from my throat. “And for a moment, I felt beautiful.”
“Fuck, Rynna.” It was grit from Rex’s mouth. Hate bound with the protectiveness he so clearly felt for me.
“He took me to the lake. I was nervous and excited. There was this . . .” My brow pinched at the memory of it. “Old shack. Barely standing. So secluded I don’t know how he ever found it. There was a fire already burning in a pit near the shore. He said he’d come out and set it up for me. It was the first time I felt uneasy about everything. Something about it felt off. I should have listened to that flicker of intuition.”
I turned my stare down to Rex, who was grinding his teeth, hands tightening, holding on to me.
Fight for Me: The Complete Collection Page 24