8. It’s Always Both – Zoe
Chapter 8
It’s Always Both
PLAYLIST: ”TAKE ME TO CHURCH” BY HOZIER
ZOE
All it took was just one question to suck every molecule of oxygen out of the room. I bit my bottom lip, struggling to breathe, crushed underneath the anvil of guilt that had just dropped on my chest.
It’s not like I can be mad. It was a fair question, especially considering my track record for leaving when things get tough.
Finally, I swallowed hard around the lump in my throat, and looked up, holding Roman’s gaze so he could see I was being honest with him.
“I said what I said. I meant it. I’m here for good. I’m wearing your ring, and if you don’t fuck me right now, I’m going to scream.”
“All in good time, baby, I promise. Patience is a virtue.” Roman’s chuckle was dark and sensual, and it sent a shiver ripping through me from the top of my head to the tips of my toes. He leaned down and kissed the bite mark he’d left on my neck, and my toes curled inside my boots.
I angled my neck, offering him better access to the spot. “Is that a threat or a promise?”
“Both, baby. It’s always both,” Roman murmured, flashing me a wicked smile as he un-buttoned my shirt, feathering kisses against every inch of skin he exposed on his path downward.
I moaned, burrowing my fingers in his hair, loving the feel of the impossibly soft black curls sliding through my fingers like warm silk as he pushed my shirt off my shoulders and exposed the black lace bra I’d worn underneath.
“Like what you see?” I arched a brow at him, enjoying the way his hungry gaze devoured me.
“You know I do.” His voice was a deep, husky growl as he leaned down, taking one of my nipples in his mouth through the lacy fabric of my bra.
The combination of his hot, wet tongue and the roughness of the lacy fabric rubbing against the sensitive bud of my nipple pulled a breathy little moan out of me that morphed into a yelp of shock when he bit down harder than I was expecting.
“I thought you didn’t want people on the ranch to hear me screaming.” I hissed the words through gritted teeth, giving his arm a swat of warning as I narrowed my eyes at him.
Roman laughed, then, a warm, rich, real laugh that shook the whole bed and rumbled into my chest, filling me up with heat and effervescence as it echoed up to the log cabin’s vaulted ceilings, bouncing off the exposed rafters.
“That’s not entirely accurate, baby.” Roman hooked one of his thick, work-roughened fingers in the waistband of my jeans, running his finger back and forth in a light, teasing touch. “Just because I don’t want people to hear you screaming at me doesn’t mean I don’t want them to hear you screaming for me. There’s a big difference.”
“Holy fuck.”
A hot blush set my cheeks on fire as he winked at me, un-buttoned my jeans, and jerked them off me in one smooth, decisive motion. With fluid grace, he tossed my jeans over the bedroom loft’s rail, sending them flying out in the open air that overlooked the living room, leaving them to land haphazardly, somewhere out of sight downstairs. His eyes dilated almost completely black as he took in the black lace thong I was wearing underneath my jeans.
“The matching lingerie is real cute and all, but you don’t need it. Take it off.”
My heart skipped several beats, and my core throbbed with heat and need, but I narrowed my eyes at Roman. “I don’t remember you being this bossy. I don’t know if I like it.”
Roman reached down and hooked a finger in the crotch of my thong, feeling exactly how hot and wet it was as he tugged it off, and he arched one eyebrow at me, grinning like an arrogant fiend.
“Oh, you like it, baby. Don’t even try to lie.”
I opened my mouth to argue, but knew it was pointless, so I propped up on my elbows and glared at his flannel shirt and jeans, hating how I was stripped bare of everything except my bra, but his clothes were still very much in my way.
“Why the fuck do you still have clothes on?”
Roman chuckled, shaking his head. “You never were a patient woman, baby. I promise you, though, in this instance, patience will be more than worth it.”
I was on the brink of asking him what the hell he thought he was talking about when he dropped to his knees beside the bed, stroking his warm, rough hands over the soft flesh of my thighs for a moment before propping my legs up on his broad shoulders and burying his face between my thighs. Shuddering, I stifled a moan as his beard scraped against the sensitive flesh of my inner thighs while his tongue plunged between my folds. My eyes rolled back in my head and I bit my bottom lip to stifle the deep, guttural moan that threatened to spill out of me.
“Mmm. You taste even sweeter than I remembered, baby.” Roman’s husky voice raised goose bumps on my skin and his words made the liquid heat pooling deep inside me burn even hotter.
He licked a path from my dripping wet slit all the way up to my throbbing, hypersensitive clit. He sucked that aching little bud of nerves into his mouth, torturing me with lips and teeth and tongue until I cried out, squirming and panting and begging for mercy.
“Fuck, Roman, that feels so good I think I might die, but I need more. Please—” My voice broke as he nipped at my clit with his teeth, then continued licking and sucking, eating my pussy like a starving man whose only hope of survival was buried between my legs.
I bucked and writhed beneath him, grinding against his face, desperate for release. A soul-deep, greedy groan ripped out of me when he slipped two thick, work roughened fingers inside me, stretching me and pumping his fingers in perfect tandem with his tongue.
“Oh my god, Roman, I’m going to come.” I rasped out the words on a desperate moan, my fingers fisted in his hair, holding him in place for dear life as I rocked my hips to meet the pumping motions of his fingers.
“Damn right you are, and you’re going to do it screaming my name.” Roman growled the words directly into my core, his dark eyes staring up at me, capturing my gaze and holding it as he curled his fingers and massaged my g-spot.
“Yes, Roman, fuck yes!” I arched so hard I bowed up off the bed and screamed his name so loud the whole ranch very well could have heard, and I didn’t give a damn because the relentless orgasm he was wringing out of my body with his mouth and his fingers shattered me to pieces, and it was the only thing in the world that mattered.
“Roman, please...” I whimpered and half-choked on a needy sob. “I need you. I need all of you inside of me more than I need air. I’m going to come apart at the fucking seams if you don’t take me now.”
Roman looked up at me and slowly, deliberately kissed the inside of each of my thighs before he nodded, jerking his chin at my bra. “I thought I told you to get rid of the lingerie, baby girl.”
“Yes, sir.” Without a word, I reached around behind me and un-clasped my bra, tossing it aside and baring myself completely.
Roman stood, groaning and palming the considerable bulge in the front of his jeans, giving it a hard squeeze as his gaze raked over me from head to toe.
“How the fuck have you managed to get more perfect with age?”
* * *
ROMAN
Zoe lowered her lashes, not meeting my gaze. “You always did know the exact right way to flatter a girl, Rome.”
“It’s not flattery if it’s true, baby.” I kicked off my boots while I unbuttoned my shirt and peeled it off, tossing it on the floor. With a sight like her in front of me, the room was suddenly much too hot for clothes, and my jeans were painfully tight in the crotch until I unbuttoned them, unzipped, and shoved them down to my ankles right along with my boxer briefs. Nobody had time to be taking things off one at a time.
“Sure.” Zoe rolled her eyes like she didn’t quite believe me.
“What’s that look about?” I frowned, not used to seeing my little five-foot-nothing spitfire be shy or self-conscious, especially not with me.
Zoe crossed her arms over her soft belly like she was trying to hide it from me and looked away. “It’s just... you haven’t seen me naked since I was eighteen, and I’m not exactly the same size as I was back then. I was maybe a hundred and fifteen pounds the last time you saw me like this.”
I climbed into bed with her, lying down beside her on top of the quilt and taking one of her hands in mine, guiding it to my hard, throbbing cock. Gently, I wrapped her dainty fingers around my shaft and squeezed, my hips bucking into her silky touch of their own accord. “Tell me something, baby girl.”
“What?” Zoe’s breathless whisper raised goose bumps on my skin, and I shivered with pleasure, guiding her hand up and down my shaft, helping her stroke my cock in slow, delicious strokes.
“Does it feel to you like I’m just handing you some bullshit flattery right now? Just the sight of your beautiful body has my cock so hard it fucking hurts, baby. I’ve been dying to see you like this ever since I spotted you waiting on your luggage at the airport, all dressed up in your ass-kicking executive clothes. You’ve always been gorgeous, but I don’t wish you still had the same body you had when you left here at eighteen.”
Zoe bit her lip and I had to stifle a groan at the sinful thoughts that stampeded through my mind at the sight. “Can you honestly tell me you don’t miss the fit body and flat stomach?”
“I can, and I will. I don’t give a fuck that you’re not a hundred and fifteen pounds anymore. I love your curves, Zoe.” I rolled on top of her, nudging her thighs apart and settling myself between her legs. Gripping my cock, I rubbed the head of it up and down her dripping wet slit, coating it with her pussy juices until she writhed and squirmed beneath me.
“Roman, please,” Zoe whimpered, bucking her hips, grinding against my cock.
“I meant it when I said you’ve gotten even more perfect with age. I loved every second of having my face buried between those beautiful, thick thighs.” I buried myself balls-deep inside her, then, groaning at how hot and wet and fucking perfect she was. Her sweet little pussy gripped my cock like we were made for each other, and my eyes rolled back in my head at how right it felt.
“You think I give a fuck that your belly isn’t flat when you’ve got tits for days and the most perfect, pillowy heart-shaped ass I’ve ever seen in my life?” I pulled almost all the way out, only leaving the head of my cock inside her.
Zoe reached up and raked her fingernails down my back, her green eyes cloudy and unfocused with need. “I don’t know what to think. I can’t fucking string a coherent thought together with you torturing and teasing me like this.”
“You wanna talk about torture, baby? Spending every day of the last ten years without you, aching for you… that was actual torture.” I plunged deep inside her, driving my point home with a vengeance.
Moaning, Zoe wrapped her legs around my waist, arching into my thrust, taking me deeper. She looked up at me through heavy-lidded eyes and reached up, lightly scraping her fingernails through my beard before cupping my face in her hands. “I hope you know me leaving didn’t have anything to do with you, Roman. It just hurt too much to say here after my mom died and Missy, too... I wasn’t trying to abandon you. I just... needed to be anywhere but here for a while, and then it was easier to be there than here... easier to just bury all my feelings and work all day every day, but me leaving Montana was never about me leaving you... not really, no matter what I said to you before I left.”
Suddenly, my chest was tight, and it was harder to breathe, and the whole world was tilting on its axis... spiraling into unknown territory. Her admission was so unexpected, so stunning that I didn’t know what to do or how to respond, so I just leaned down and kissed her, long and hard.
My heart thundered in my chest as I buried myself inside her, over and over again, reassuring myself that she was really here, really with me, really going to stay this time. I reveled in the feel of her, drinking it in, my hands stroking over every inch of exposed skin I could reach. I rolled us, so Zoe was on top, and gripped her hips as I thrust up into her, trying to tell her with my body all the things I was too damn scared to say out loud because, despite her declaration that she hadn’t been running away from me, I’d heard what she said to Missy in that second fight, and I hadn’t forgotten what Zoe had said to me after, when I chased her down and tried to comfort her.
“Oh, god, Roman, you feel so fucking good… even better than I remembered,” Zoe panted.
I reached up and cupped her perfect breasts in my hands, lightly teasing her nipples, pinching and pulling just hard enough to make her cry out and grind harder against me. “Did you think about me like this when you were in Miami, baby?”
“Yes,” Zoe hissed the word through clenched teeth, lowering her lashes to hide those pretty green eyes from me. “More often than I’d like to admit.”
“How often?” The question was out of my mouth, hot and demanding, before I could stop myself. I reached down between us, using the pad of my thumb to massage her clit as I waited for her answer.
Zoe’s face flushed a beautiful, deep pink as she bit her lip, shaking her head like she didn’t want to say out loud.
“How often did you think of me like this when you were in Miami? Did you touch yourself when you thought of me? Did you make yourself come with those pretty little fingers and my name on your lips?”
“Yes,” Zoe whimpered, her hips jerking with need as she planted her hands on my shoulders, took control, and proceeded to ride me like a freight train until her perfect little pussy spasmed around me with the force of her orgasm. Then, she gazed down at me with those breathtaking hooded green eyes of hers and looked me right in the eye. “Almost every single night while I was in Miami, I got myself off to thoughts of you just like this.”
And that little admission was all it took for me to come so hard I saw stars and my ears started ringing. Or, at least, I thought my ears were ringing until Zoe rolled off me and scrambled over to the night stand, snatching up her cell phone and frowning at the screen. Every muscle in her body tensed, and a little of the color drained out of her face.
I instantly sat up and reached for her hand, giving it a reassuring squeeze. “Who is it?”
“It’s the hospital.” Shivering and crossing her arms, she tapped the answer button. “Hello?”