Give & Take (Redbeard Cove #2)

39. Lana

Chapter 39

Lana

I know I’ve lost the war.

Raphael picks me up and carries me over to that single chair in the empty room. He sits me on top of him and holds me there, arms wrapped around my waist while I tip my head back onto his shoulder.

We turn lazily around the room in that broken, wobbly chair.

“Which books will we order first?” I ask.

“Every single Duke book, obviously.”

“Obviously.”

“You’ll need a whole motorcycle wall for Chris.”

I told him Chris has lately only read romances that involve bikes. If it has two wheels and smut, Chris’ll read it.

“Fred likes those too,” I say.

“The police chief?”

“She’s got a thing for criminals, I guess.”

Raph howls at this. We talk about what days to hold book club. How old the girls will have to be to go into the shop.

All things we shouldn’t be talking about in such confirmed terms. Yet I know the empty store we’re in is going to be the start of my new future. I know it as completely as I know the man holding me is the only person I’ll ever feel like this for.

So why can’t I tell him? Why can I feel the brush of his stubble against my cheek, the plane of his chest supporting my back, the brush of his fingers over my beating heart, and open my mouth only for the words I so desperately want to say to get stuck?

It’s there, this restraint, like a stubborn piece of armor I can’t figure out how to slough off. But I stop trying to figure it out. I focus on the sensation of him under me. I let our breaths sync and his hands lace through mine on my hips. I focus on every place our bodies touch; every cell charged and ready.

Because this—this we know how to do with no reservations.

I drag our joined hands up my side, pressing our hands to my breast.

Raph grits out a sound behind me.

“Lana,” he whispers.

I bring his fingers up, curling them under the strap of my dress.

“Yes?” I ask, arching, skin tingling like its doused in fireflies where he skates his fingers over me.

“I missed you so fucking much.” He kisses the back of my shoulder.

“How much?” I ask, needing the words like sustenance.

“I checked the flight schedules every day. Timed when I’d have to leave for the last one so I’d have the option to come home to you for as long as I could.”

I melt into his love like water in sand.

Then I grind my ass into him, eliciting a warning growl as I hit where I’m aiming. My pussy surges at the sound.

“I… got tested while I was in California,” he says into my shoulder. “I’m always safe, but I wanted to make sure.”

He kisses my back; a little series of them, in a chain from one side to the other. “I told the guy in the lab coat this would be the last time I’d be stepping into his clinic.”

“You what?”

He pulls down the other strap, kissing the opposite shoulder. “He thought I was unhappy with their services. But I told him it was because I’d found the only woman I wanted to fuck for the rest of my life.”

“You didn’t say that!”

“I didn’t say fuck.” He unhooks my bra. “I don’t think.”

“You’re ridiculous,” I whisper. God how I missed saying that in just four days.

He kisses my spine, right between my shoulder blades. “I got my results back on the way up here.”

“Clear?” I ask.

“Every disease in the book. I think my penis might fall off. They said they’d name that one after me.”

I close my eyes, shaking my head and trying not to laugh. “That’s not funny.”

“It’s a little funny.” He pulls my dress down to my waist, freeing my breasts.

Neither of us is laughing as he cups me in his hands, tugging at my nipples between his fingers.

“Fuck,” he says, drawing it out.

I can feel his cock under me, twitching and thickening. Already hard.

He brushes my hair over my shoulder and kisses the back of my neck, sending shivers over the whole expanse of my exposed skin.

“Clear, Sunshine,” he confirms.

I stand up, turning around and straddling him. “Good. I’m clear too.” Not like I’ve been with anyone but him in years.

He arches me backward, taking a nipple into his mouth. The shock of pleasure makes me gasp, grinding myself into his lap.

“I missed these,” Raph says, taking the other nipple into his mouth. The wet heat of his tongue toys with my hardening peak, making my center pulse.

I reach between us, making quick work of his button and zipper.

He groans as I pull him out, already incredibly hard, as he always seems to be for me. “Jesus, Lana,” he says as I take him in two hands, stroking his velvety flesh.

“I got my tubes tied,” I say, marveling at the feel of him.

He grunts, distracted, as I run a palm over the bead of wetness at the tip of his cock. Then he snaps his head up, his breathing shallow. “Wait, what are you saying?”

I smile. It’s a devilish smile. “That I want to feel you now. Just as you are.”

His hands grasp my hips, his eyes on mine. “Yes. Yes, that’s a good idea.”

“Now, Raph.”

He looks torn, like he wants to do more. Like this is too tempting but everything else is too. So I help him. I take one of his hands and place it between my legs, under the gusset of my panties.

His pupils blow wide. “Fuck, Lana. You’re so wet for me.”

“You do this to me.”

The sound he makes as he slips his fingers inside me is more animal than man. More guttural than speech. He works me with the fingers of both hands, expertly applying pressure in that specific way he knows makes me crazy. I cry out as I come fast—so fast. He could have blown on me and I’d come. “Raph!” I cry as I buck against him, riding his fingers, pulling his head back with my own fingers tugging at his hair. “Fuck, Raph, yes.”

A moment later I’m back earthside, but desperate for what I asked for.

He is too. He’s got his cock in his hand, his tip at my entrance. “You look so fucking pretty when you come.”

I don’t know if it’s his words or the feeling of his warmth teasing at my entrance, but I grit my teeth, need pressing down on me like an anvil in my lower half.

“You want this?” he asks, not quite entering me .

“Don’t fuck with me, Raph,” I say, a wild woman now. “Let me ride your cock.”

He could make me wait. He could lovingly punish and withhold. He’s done it before.

But not this time. This time, he leans me back and sinks himself into me, tilting his hips to fill me all the way.

The sound he makes—the way he feels—it’s indescribable. “Jesus, Sunshine,” he breathes. “ Nothing has ever felt so good.”

He’s moving slowly, languidly, like he wants to make this last. I whimper with each thrust, wanting to rut myself against him.

He’s holding me at bay.

He’s driving me crazy.

“Nothing?” I gasp. “Not even that time you did the thing with Silicon Simon?” I want to get back at him for making me wait.

“I can’t believe you’d mention his name right now.”

I laugh softly, then let out a guttural sound as he thrusts to his hilt. This is what we do, we tease while we fuck. And it’s everything to me. Without it I’m not sure I’d be able to manage the intensity of what it feels like to be with him.

We lock eyes once more, and suddenly the world tilts on its axis as he stands up, taking me with him.

“What are you doing?’

He gets up and whirls me around, pressing me up against a nearby pillar. “I need to see you, Sunshine. I need to look in your eyes when I come inside of you. I need you to know you’re mine.”

I nod. I want to be his. I so very badly do .

It doesn’t take long. With my legs wrapped around him, he’s able to bring a thumb to my clit, pressing soft, slick circles in just the right rhythm. He knows what I like.

He knows what makes me scream. And scream I do, a minute later, as great waves of pleasure rock through me.

He comes a moment later, filling me with his hot release.

But more than that, he says my name.

“Lana. Lana. Lana.” Like he’ll never get enough.