Rex
I didn’t drive straight to the clubhouse.
I should have.
But there was plenty of shit I should’ve done, and plenty of shit I wanted to do instead.
Duty had been my guiding hand for too many years. Right now, I wanted to see my woman, so that was what I was gonna fucking do.
Only her SUV was in the driveway when I arrived, and a part of me hoped she was alone in there. It had been a helluva long time since Christmas, and the night of the gala felt like a lifetime away as well. I wanted to see more of her. Those new curves of hers—I wanted to sample them, taste them.
I wanted to look at her and know this was fucking happening. No more looking back, no more distance even though we were living next door to each other.
Just us.
Simple.
Our kid wasn’t here, and I’d had to leave her behind when that was the exact opposite of what we wanted; but, one day, when Wynter realized what her dad was, she’d come home.
It was only right that when that happened, her mom and I were a solid front—staunch.
Unwavering in the face of any shit that was hurled our way.
As I rode home, that was what had made me put mile after mile between Wynter and me.
The knowledge that things were on the right track with Rach and I, but we weren’t set in stone yet.
Not until my ring was on her fucking finger.
Like a pussywhipped fool, I’d had my hair cut.
After I filled up the gas that last time, I’d hunted down a barbershop and had gotten the whole nine yards.
My chin was smoother than a Georgia peach and my hair was back to being neat.
Well, before the journey had wrecked it, but I swiped my hands over it, wanting to make sure she saw me when she let me in.
Not that fucker Grizzly.
Me.
Maria’s reaction to me when she’d opened her front door would stick with me until the day I died.
Before I headed toward the house, and knowing that Lodestar or Maverick might have seen me ride in through her gates, I shot Mav a text.
Me: I’m back.
Maverick: Saw.
Me: All good? No fallout from the kidnapping?
Maverick: Not on us.
Me: Good. Don’t disturb us.
Maverick: Wasn’t gonna.
Maverick: You finally stopped pussyfooting around her, huh?
Me: Fuck off.
Maverick: :P
Maverick: See you on Monday.
I grinned.
Freedom came with tethers.
It was Thursday. Mav was silently telling me I had until Monday to enjoy myself but that was when I had to go back to the old grind.
Fucking brothers—gave me more shit than the IRS.
I was still smiling as I jumped onto the porch though, and when I tried the handle, found it was locked, I had my confirmation that Rachel was alone.
Grateful, I knocked on the door and heard her yell, “On my way!”
She dragged it open a second later, a polite smile fixed on her face. She’d give that to a judge or the mailman. It was innocuous.
Throwaway.
But when she saw me, that smile wobbled, her eyes turned glassy, and before I had time to reach out and grab her, she was there. In my goddamn arms. Where she was supposed to fucking be.
She started sobbing. I wasn’t used to that from her, but pregnancy worked on a woman’s hormones so I didn’t expect any less. If Giulia could cry when she was carrying her kid, then my woman sure as hell would too.
I held her through the storm, kept her steady, and enjoyed the freedom that came with having her in my arms.
A couple minutes later, she sniffled, “I’m sorry for getting snot all over your cut.” Her fingers brushed the leather. “She gave it back to you?”
“She did.” I’d wanted her to keep it. A token, as it were, for her to have a reason to come here, to save face if need be. “And you don’t have to apologize for snot. I’m sure it’ll wash off.”
Her lips curved. “It’s seventy-five percent tears.”
“Good to know,” I said lightly, reaching up to cup her chin. “You look tired.”
“I am.” She sighed, tipped her face into my hold, and whispered, “I missed you. Don’t care that you weren’t gone for long this time. I missed you. I don’t want to have to miss you again.”
It was phrased as a command, and I smirked at her. “Next time I go anywhere, you gonna come with me?”
Her nose crinkled. “You just want me on the back of your bike.”
“Ideally,” I teased.
Her fingers drifted to my lips, and I felt her shape the curve of my smile. “Before you left, you promised me a kiss…”
“Come and get it,” I rumbled.
Slowly, delicately, she leaned up and pressed her mouth to mine. The acceptance inherent in that one move made me shudder. I groaned, unable to stop myself, and immediately opened up to her.
Her tongue slipped against mine, gently, at first, and because I was so used to drifting from zero to a hundred in less than three seconds with her, this felt good.
Different. Right.
She drank from my lips, and I let her. A part of me wanted to make a claim that hadn’t been staked in too fucking long, but another part of me just wanted to let her have me.
Any way she wanted me, she could have me.
Her hands slipped into my hair, the tips of her fingers streaking down over the silken smooth lines that had just been cut into it, and as she did, I felt the pressure of her stomach against me. Her belly, in the time I’d been gone, was a lot more solid than it had been before.
I felt it.
Our kid.
I reached for her waist, hauling her into me, holding her tight.
My fingers shaped her lean curves, one hand dropping to her ass where I palmed the sweet flesh.
She was still slender, but there was more meat there, and I fucking loved that.
Palming the other cheek too, I kneaded the sleek muscles as I drove my tongue into her mouth, needing more, needing everything.
The slower, gentler pace shifted up a gear, and we groaned into each other’s mouths as I pushed us forward a couple steps, just so that I could slam the door behind us.
When she permitted that of me, I twisted us around the second I kicked the door closed and I pinned her to it, reaching up to grab her forearms and to hold them above her head.
My dick grinding into her belly, I nipped at her bottom lip before I whispered, “You’re mine, Rachel.”
The sweetest, softest smile graced me.
A smile that was the girl I’d always known.
My girl.
“You’re mine, King.”
Sighing, I let our lips lock once more. I tasted her. Savored her. Explored her. I had the freedom of time, something I never had where she was concerned. I had the liberty of touching her and caressing her at my own leisurely pace.
She wanted this.
She wanted me, and fuck, I craved her. This was so much more than want or need for me. I was addicted. She was my drug of choice and I’d gone far too long without a hit.
I pulled back again and traced my tongue along the hard line of her jaw.
Moving lower, I nipped my way down her throat, finding the spot that I knew always got her hot.
It was a few inches higher than the join between neck and shoulder, and the second I suckled there, tongue palpating against the flesh, she moaned, rasping, “King, God, King.”
I shuddered at the words; she’d uttered my version of ‘Open, Sesame.’
Reaching down, I started to drag her skirt up her legs, higher and higher, letting my fingers curve toward the backs of her thighs so that I could draw every nerve ending she possessed to life.
A shaky moan whispered from her lips, and when her skirt was tucked between us, I made her jump by snatching her legs out from under her and locking them around my hips.
“Jerk!” she squeaked, her fingers digging into my shoulders for balance.
I let loose a laugh, feeling the joy of teasing her exploding through me, and I used the new, better angle to get even closer to her.
This time, when I pressed kisses to her jaw, I moved higher, sucking down on her earlobe, blowing on it gently as I whispered in her ear, “There was too much distance between us, Rachel.” I tutted. “That was a situation that needed rectifying immediately.”
Her laughter was part-snort part-groan when I started to nibble along the curve of her ear. Her nails dragged through my hair, and I felt the scrape of them, the prickle against the tender flesh of my scalp as they made a mark.
I rocked my hips, dragging my still-clothed dick along the crotch of her panties.
At this angle, her belly was even more prominent, and our kid was a more solid presence.
Knowing how she felt about pregnancy, I didn’t say anything, because I wasn’t a fucking moron, but God, it lit me up to know her body was protecting the life we’d made together.
Unable to stop myself, I brushed my lips against hers. Slowly, appreciatively. Fuck, the knowledge wrecked me in the best possible way.
Cock as hard as nails, I rasped, “Rach?”
“King?” she whispered.
“I want to come home.”
Her swallow was audible.
She gave me a nod.
It was awkward because of the positions we were in, but I made it work.
It kinda reminded me of the early days when we were both nervous—her because it was new to her, me because I didn’t want to hurt her and fuck things up with the only woman who was ever going to be mine.
That was a hell of a lot of pressure on a kid.
Smiling to myself at the thought, I made sure I dragged my knuckles down her covered pussy as I lowered my zipper. My dick made shit easy on me by popping out of the fly because I was going commando, and I dragged the crotch of her panties away.
When bare flesh met bare flesh, we both sighed.
Then, I rocked my hips again, letting the glans nudge her clit, letting it get drenched in her juices which were reassuringly plentiful, letting it tease her until she was whimpering.
But the best part?
That her eyes were on mine.
She saw me.
I saw her.
There was nothing between us.
Nothing.
“King,” she whispered.
“Rachel,” I replied.
“I love you.”
“I love you too.”
She pressed our mouths together and united us that way as I let the tip of my dick find the notch of her slit.
And I came home.
The only home I’d ever wanted.
She let loose a soft moan and I swallowed it as I slowly began to thrust into her.
As hungry as I was for her, I didn’t need this to go fast.
I needed this to be slow.
I needed her to know I wanted everything with her.
Slow, fast, hungry, sated.
Forever.
I drowned in her kiss, lost myself to it, to her, and gradually, I felt the inner quiver of her muscles give that dance that was so familiar.
Nothing about my woman was easy to read apart from her pussy.
I knew when it wanted slow, knew when she craved fast.
So I gave it to her.
At her pace, at her speed.
When her moans turned to whimpers, her quivery breaths became heady gasps, I increased my pace.
Her nails dug into my scalp again and, smiling against her lips, I gave her what she silently begged for.
Filling her full, she clamped down around me, and gravity was my friend as I drank from her mouth. Tasting and teasing, nipping and playing, making love to her there like I was making love to her body.
Giving her romance, showing my love.
Gifting her with the pleasure she would have forever because she was mine forever.
No more suffering, no more pain.
No more hurt.
Only love.
Only pleasure.
Only us.