24. Chapter 24 – Zach
“ G ran. No Thumper.”
She grinned wickedly. “I thought this was why you invited me over?” She tapped her shotgun. “Protection.”
I huffed. I should have known nothing would be easy with Gran. She meant well. Most of the time.
“No, we need an adult presence in the house during the day. There’s no need to play Secret Service.”
“Regardless, Thumper and I have your back.” Her silver brows danced on her forehead. “Go enjoy your night.”
Fuck.
I’d miscalculated. On so many fronts. What seemed like a brilliant idea this afternoon now struck me as an awful one. I hadn’t just allowed evil, I’d welcomed it.
“Gran, please just go to bed.”
Her expression turned crafty. Clad in a violently colored caftan, her pink hair in a lop-sided mohawk and grasping a shotgun, she looked more intimidating than I would have guessed. Wiry and strong, she sent a clear message: I underestimated her at my peril .
“What’ll you give me?”
Like the Fae, I’d invited her in. I groaned under my breath. It was my own damn fault. I shook my head. Rae was fifteen feet away, probably getting naked. I needed to be there more than I wanted to haggle with my Gran.
“What do you want?” I asked shortly.
“To name your firstborn.”
“Done,” I retorted without thinking.
Nothing I agreed to was legally binding. And Gran tended to bestow nicknames whether we wanted them or not.
She yawned, stretching tall with Thumper in one hand until the muzzle struck the ceiling above. “Suddenly, I’m feeling very tired. I’m going to go rest these old bones. I’ll see you in the morning.”
Her intonation was fake as fake could be.
“Good night, Gran,” I said in my most deferential tone.
She could think she won. For now.
I slipped into the main bedroom, shutting the door behind me and leaning back against it. Rae looked up from her Kindle.
“Gran all settled for the night?”
I nodded, holding her gaze. Did I admit what I’d done?
She looked cozy and adorable, clad in her tiny tank top, the soft swells of her breasts emerging from the neckline to tempt me.
She’d taken out her contacts and put on her glasses.
The frames accentuated her big brown eyes, softening them somehow. Making them bigger. Harder to lie to.
I cleared my throat, delaying the inevitable. Part of me was still bitterly disappointed that she and Simon hadn’t confided in me. Showing her trust, that she could trust me, seemed important. Even if it painted me as an idiot. One in way over his head in more ways than one .
Because, in my flip response to Gran, I’d realized I was willing to promise her anything for Rae’s safety and comfort.
Not the naming rights for our firstborn, but just about anything else.
I’d bargain with the Fae or the Devil himself for Rae.
As long as we were together, everything else was just details.
I swallowed, easing the tightness in my throat. Rae frowned, and I realized she was still waiting for an answer. “You know I’m yours, right?”
Her expression softened before turning suspicious. “What did you do, Fenwick?”
I shifted. “I may have agreed that Gran could name our firstborn.”
Rae blinked. The shock on her face would have been comical another time. Like when my heart wasn’t on the line.
“ Excuse me? I swear you just told me you gave your grandmother permission to name a baby. One that doesn’t even exist yet.”
She looked more confused than pissed, which I took as a win.
“You said ‘yet.’” I gave her my most charming grin. “Does that mean you’d consider it?”
“Letting Gran name our baby? No.”
“You said ‘our baby.’” My grin broadened. “Raelle Dawkins, are you gonna have my baby?”
She rolled her eyes, shaking her head. But the way her lip twitched kept me hopeful. I loved it when she toyed with me. Even if these stakes were sky-high.
I held her gaze, picturing her round belly.
She’d look impossibly cute pregnant. Would I be able to wrap my arms around them both?
As if she could sense the direction of my thoughts, she flushed.
Suddenly, I wanted that future so bad, I could taste it.
A tiny infant with Rae’s sweetness. A family with her .
I stalked toward the bed, loving the way her eyes darkened. She dropped her Kindle on the bedside table. Climbing over her thighs to straddle her hips, I braced my hands on the wall above her head, leaning in until our mouths could almost touch. Until we were breathing each other in.
Rae’s pupils blew wide, an emotion I couldn’t quite name bending her features. Softening them.
“What’ll it be, Captain? I think we make a pretty great team.
Pretty sure I was born to be your first mate.
” I brushed a brief kiss across her mouth, pleased when she turned, trying to maintain contact as I drifted past to pull back.
“I can see us doing it all together. But we have time.” I relented, wary of scaring her.
She just got out of one long-term “relationship.” Maybe she wasn’t interested in jumping into another.
“That’s good,” she said faintly. “We’ve been together all of nine minutes, and word on the street is it takes at least nine months to hatch a baby.”
I chuckled, tilting her chin. “Word on the street, huh? Which street is that?”
She flicked a hand. “Oh, you know. It’s something the youths say.”
“ Youths . Because we’re so old?” I asked, fascinated with the way her gaze shifted away and back. We’d gotten wildly off topic. I was trying to convince her to take us seriously, not tease her. Or at least not about that.
My thighs bracketed hers, the warmth of her skin branding me. Arms still braced above her head, my upright position gave me an excellent view down her tank top. Really, A+ planning on my part.
I dipped my head, tracing my nose gently from the back of her ear, down her neck to her collarbone.
Rae somehow always smelled of the sea to me.
Maybe it was the boat work. Or living on Sailor Swift .
I would have thought the scent would fade as we spent more time inland, but her skin was deliciously salty.
My tongue swiped out to taste. Rae whimpered softly.
My lips drew into a smile against her shoulder.
“I think we’ve got a lot of life left in us,” I scolded gently, dropping a kiss on the swell of her left breast. Rae’s breath caught on a gasp as I dipped lower, pulling her pert nipple into my mouth. The soft cotton dampened beneath my tongue.
I lifted one thigh, scooting her legs apart until I could kneel between them. Tracing my palms over the curve of her quads, I relished the mix of strength and softness there. Rae reached for me, palms sliding across my shoulders.
Suddenly, I couldn’t wait to taste her salty-sweet on my tongue.
I slid my fingers beneath the legs of her shorts, watching her face.
Slithering a fingertip beneath the lace edge of her panties made her lashes flicker.
But I wanted more. Toying with the elastic, exploring and retreating, seemed to make Rae flush harder, her face turning an adorable shade of pink.
“How about I take these off?”
“ Yes , please.”
She arched off the bed, helping me ease her underwear and shorts away, leaving her in the tiny tank top and nothing else.
Her nipples stood out in stark relief against the soft cotton.
Rae splayed her thighs, seeming unbothered that her slit lay obscenely open to my gaze.
Wanton and unreserved. Maybe she sensed the absolute admiration that kept me in thrall to her slick heat.
Raw need bloomed, the knife edge of urgency slicing beneath my skin. Our interlude in the shower would live on as one of the best memories in my life, at least until we supplanted it with new ones .
Dropping back until I could kiss her patella, trace the delicate bones of her knee, I smiled when she speared her fingers through my hair, gripping my head tightly.
“Not exactly what you had in mind?” I hummed, dragging my lips up her right thigh.
She quivered beneath my touch. Mewling softly. So fucking sexy.
Tracing a path to her clit with my tongue sent her into overdrive, her thighs taut beneath me as I worshipped at her altar, remembering how she’d looked with my cock in her mouth.
Wanting to give her a memory just as shattering.
When she finally went limp beneath me, I skated my mouth over the curves and valleys of her body, capturing her lips in a sweet kiss.
“So sexy. And mine.” Claiming her felt right. She arched for another kiss, wrapping her arms around my neck.
She toyed with the short hair at my nape, tugging gently. That tension drew straight to my cock, tightening me further.
Lip caught between her teeth, she smiled coyly at me. Something about the sweep of her lashes was more erotic than a full-on striptease.
“Fenwick.” She tugged again at the hair between her fingers.
“My attention’s all yours, love.”
Her lips twitched. She rolled her hips beneath me suggestively, arching a brow.
“Do you want something, Dawkins?” I asked with a fake casualness.
My erection strained against her thighs. It took an act of will to pretend it meant nothing. That I wasn’t gasping for her.
She rolled again, rubbing sinuously against me in slow motion, vertebrae by vertebrae. “You know… as much as I enjoyed that, I can’t get pregnant that way.” Her nose wrinkled. “Not that I’m ready to be a mom, but I needed to point out the obvious. ”
“Yeah? What’s that?”
“That we need lots more practice before I’m prepared to consider naming rights.”
I reached for a condom. “Lucky for you, I love practice. I’m super good at it.”
Dropping to my elbows, I levered myself over her body, probing her entrance.
Dipping for a taste. Slowly, I slid forward, until I was buried deep, her arms wrapped around my neck.
Needing more than our physical connection, I drifted toward her mouth, smiling when she met me in the middle for a kiss that was at once sweet and needy.
She arched, tightening her inner muscles, and I hissed, struggling for control.
“Yep,” I bit out on a croak. “Super good.”
Her gentle laughter cut off as I retaliated with a rough thrust that sent us scooting across the mattress.
Her hands dug into my hips deep enough to leave fingernail dents, but I loved the urgency as she met me in a thrusting, arching mess of a race to orgasm.
Hearts pounding, gasping, the energy built between us, cresting in wave after wave as we tipped over the edge together, hands clasped over our heads, fingers entwined.
Rae’s gaze held mine, the weight of something between awe and humor there. “ Super good ,” she whispered.
Exhausted, we collapsed in a mess of limbs.
When I’d caught my breath and taken care of our condom, I slid back into bed, gathering Rae in my arms. Wrapping and unwrapping her curls from around my finger, tugging at each one gently before I released it kept me from blurting out my feelings.
If there’d been any doubt before, it was all gone now.
Lost in the wake of how good we were together.
She may not be ready to admit it yet, but we were meant to be together. Partners in all the ways. But I held my tongue. Rae was comfortable with how things were. We didn’t need to put a label on it. Just talking vaguely about the future was enough. For now.
My arms clenched around her possessively, drawing her closer. Like my muscles knew instinctively that it was all a lie. I needed her. But I couldn’t rush her.