Rami

Chapter 12

Jesus Christ.

Rami kept his hands clamped to Ivy’s hips as he slipped his tongue between her teeth, tasting her sweet mouth. He’d failed miserably at keeping his hands to himself. Goddammit, she needed his protection, not his tongue down her throat.

Maybe if he’d taken the job under contract, he wouldn’t be all over her right now. But shit, she’d made the move. He pulled away, pressing his forehead to hers. Desire arced between them. “Honey, I don’t think you know what you’re getting into.”

Her hands skimmed his waist to find his belt buckle. “I want you,” she breathed.

He caught her wrists before she undid his pants, his grip too rough. “You’ve been through a lot. I don’t want you to do something you’ll regret.”

Hell. If they slept together and she had banger’s remorse, he’d never forgive himself. He needed to back away. End this before he got in over his head.

She coiled away a fraction. “I’m sorry. I don’t blame you. You probably think I’m dirty.”

Fuck.He caught her face with his palm. “I told you not to do that.”

Disease hadn’t crossed his mind since she brought it up in the motel room. He hoped like hell she wouldn’t have to face that demon.

“I’m clean,” she blurted. She wet her lips, her eyes downcast. “I got my lab results back yesterday.” Her voice was hollow, as if the wind had left her sails.

Tension left his shoulders. God, she must have been struggling. Constantly carrying that fear. The worry in the back of his mind dissipated and Christ, was he ever grateful. He tipped her face up an inch so she couldn’t avoid his gaze. “I’m happy for you. Glad you don’t have to worry about that.”

Her eyes shimmered. With relief, maybe? “It doesn’t mean—” she wet her lips. “I just wanted you to know...” her voice trailed off with uncertainty and he hated that the conversation had stolen some of her confidence.

He moved her hand down to the front of his jeans, where his cock strained against the denim. Harder than he’d ever fucking been. “Does it feel like I’m not attracted to you? I swear to god, the only reason I’m holding back is because I don’t want you to hate me if I come unhinged.”

She snorted out a laugh. “Unhinged? Sounds a little dark.” Pink tinted her cheeks. She stroked the outline of his shaft.

“I’d never hurt you,” he clarified. “But you drive me wild, Ivy. I wouldn’t be able to hold back.”

“So don’t.” She nuzzled her cheek into his palm. “You make me forget, Rami. Every time I look at you, every time you touch me, I’m taken away from that camper.” Her gaze lowered to his chest. “No matter how much I fight the memories during the day, they come at night. Taking me back there.”

He pressed his lips to her forehead. He’d do anything to take that pain away from her. Anything to make her forget. And goddammit, he’d make love to her if it gave her a moment of peace.

Slowly, he moved his lips to her cheek, then her lips. Her fingers came to toy with the nape of his neck, pulling him closer. Her mouth moved against his, claiming his lips, begging him for more. He unlocked her hips from his grip and slipped his palm into the neckline of her dress.

Catching her breast in his hold, he pushed her bra aside and ran his fingertips over her nipple.

“Ah,” she cried against his mouth. Her back bent.

Lust coursed through his veins.

He hiked her up onto the window ledge and moved between her thighs. She pushed up the hem of his shirt and he tore off the material then brought his mouth back down to hers.

Need pulsed through him. Every male instinct made him want to pound into her delicious heat, but he fought the urge to move too fast. He pulled away, breathless as he stared down at her. “Hold on a sec,” he breathed.

Her dark hair was rumpled, her eyes sensual, her lips swollen from his attention.

She blinked, a little dazed. “You want to stop?”

“Hell no,” he ground out. He brought his palm to the side of her neck and held her chin with his thumb. “But there’s something I need to know before we—”

“What?”

He pressed his tongue to the backs of his teeth. Jesus, the last thing he wanted to do was upset her. To make her relive any trauma she might have endured, but he couldn’t go any further until he knew the full extent of her torture.

Her bottomless eyes searched his, wary and uneasy. Damn, he hated that he’d thrown a wrench into the moment. Hated that he’d taken the light from her eyes. If she gave him the go-ahead, he’d make it up to her tenfold. “I need to know if they”—he cleared his throat—“if they touched you. Sexually.”

The question had been burning a hole through his mind ever since he pulled her from the camper.

Her eyes rounded a fraction. “No,” she said softly. “They didn’t.” Besides the fact that the doctor had informed her there’d been no sign of forced intercourse, she knew her body. Every time she’d woken up from the damn drug-induced comas, she’d done a self-evaluation. Each time she’d expected to feel soreness between her legs, or some other telltale sign, and by some gift from god, there hadn’t been.

Her gaze flicked to the wall behind him. “But they would have. Wayne would have. Marty was too jealous, thankfully.”

Relief spread through his chest. Thank god. He’d have driven back to Mexico and slaughtered every member of the cartel—or died trying.

“You don’t have to think about them again.” Cold determination hardened his words. “If I could reach into your head and pull those sonsofbitches from your memory, I’d gladly do it.”

She sucked a breath through her nose, clearly startled by his admission. Then she reached for his waist, pulling him closer to the warmth between her legs. “I don’t want you in my head, Rami. But I want you inside me.”

Ah, hell.

Seeing her want was one thing. Hearing it was a new level of torture. He brought his hand to the satiny skin of her exposed thigh and slid it ever so gently beneath her dress.

His knuckles brushed the lace of her panties and his cock throbbed.

She wet her lips and her eyes flickered as he moved aside the material that tempted him to rip it off her.

He touched her slippery lips with his middle finger and heat blazed through him. Ivy spread her legs wider and pulled his head down to meet her mouth. She darted her tongue between his lips and desire fissured him.

She’d taste so damn sweet. He sunk two fingers into her and she gasped. Curling them, he applied pressure to her G-spot and her gasp turned ragged. Her hands grappled at his pants, freeing his buckle as he gently stroked inside her.

“More,” she moaned.

Rami couldn’t hold back another second. He kicked off his pants. The things he wanted to do to Ivy, the play in which he wanted to spend hours engaging, would have to wait.

Right now, she needed to fuck.

He swept his hand under her ass and carried her to the bed. He dropped her on the mattress and came down on top of her before she could bounce. A little laugh caught her throat, but he swallowed it as he molded his lips to hers.

She shifted beneath him, moving her dress out of the way. He lowered his face to her neck and kissed and sucked until he had the neckline of her dress pulled down and one of her nipples in his mouth. Her pretty pink flesh hardened as he swirled his tongue around the tip.

Her fingers went to the back of his head, and she gripped his hair as she ground her pelvis against him. “Oh my god,” she cried.

His cock pressed against the apex between her thighs. Her panties and his briefs were the only things separating them. He needed both gone.

Reaching down, he freed his cock and his shaft brushed against her thighs, driving him wild. Ivy reached between her legs and moved her panties to the side. The image of her so hot and ready—too ready to even remove her underwear—undid him.

“Now, Rami,” she whispered. Her breath came out fast and erratic with desperation.

A growl tore from his throat as he sunk into her heat. “Holy, shit,” he rasped.

Her satiny-smooth pussy wrapped around his dick. Drenching him.

“Ahh,” she whimpered.

“Ivy.” He sunk deeper, filling her.

She clamped her legs to his hips and her arms around his neck, burrowing her face into his shoulder as he pumped wildly into her.

Her sharp cries filled the room. She bucked beneath him, demanding he go harder. Faster.

Sweat coated the back of his neck as his chest rubbed against the fabric of her dress. He hated the barrier between them, but fucking her while she was dressed was insanely erotic.

Her walls pulsed against his cock as her screams got louder and hoarser. He found her mouth with his, and the second his tongue touched hers, she came.

Deep, desperate moans rattled from her throat. He rocked against her clit and she vibrated beneath him, her pussy soaking wet.

Pleasure erupted inside him, and he pumped feverishly, riding her while she clung to him. Every muscle in his body went rigid as he exploded, squirting inside her.

He moved slowly, leisurely as he came down from his high, until his chest became too heavy to even breathe.

Her soft, damp body lay lazily beneath him. The heady scent of sex filled his nostrils, threatening to power him up for round two.

He pressed his lips to her cheek then found her mouth again. He stayed on top of her and framed her face with his hands. All he wanted to do was fall asleep still inside her.

Ivy’s sated, sexy smile filled his gaze.

He brushed her jaw with his thumb. “Did I hurt you?”

Her eyebrows slanted. “No. I’m not fragile, you know.” She ran her fingers up and down his spine.

“Maybe not fragile, but you’re a hell of a lot smaller than me.”

She wiggled beneath him, and he had to close his eyes for a beat to stop himself from taking her all over again. “Babe, don’t move like that unless you’re ready for more.”

A smile spread across her lips. “Well, I’m moving because you’re heavy.”

He chuckled and withdrew himself then froze. “Holy shit.”

“No condom,” she said, speaking his thought.

Goddammit.

He’d never been so careless. With Ivy, he hadn’t even fucking thought. There’d been no chance to consider protection because his brain hadn’t stepped outside the moment.

Pure instinct. He’d acted with his cock. Anger heated his face. “I’m sorry,” he breathed. “I always use protection. I don’t know what happened.”

She covered his wrist with her hand. “It was my responsibility, too.”

He chortled. “I’m the man. It was my job. You don’t need to worry about anything. Like I said, I always use a condom. I’m clean.”

“I know.” She sucked on her bottom lip.

“You’re not on the pill, are you?”

She shook her head.

Ah, Jesus. He rubbed her arm. “It’s fine. I’ll be more careful going forward.”

“My period is due soon. Odds are I’m not ovulating.”

He heaved a sigh of relief. A kid wasn’t something he could picture in his life at the moment, and Ivy sure as hell didn’t need to worry about a baby while she was still recovering.

He’d never particularly liked the slang term daddy, and he liked the real term even less right now. But fuck.

If it happened, he’d step up.

***

Ohmigod.

Okay, so either she’d been celibate way too long or that was the most earth-shattering sex she’d ever had.

Ivy quickly finished cleaning herself up in the bathroom then rearranged her dress. Had she really pushed her panties aside and begged him to fuck her?

Yes, yes she had. And she held no shame because it was what she’d needed.

Rami leaned against the bathroom doorframe, his arms crossed. “Everything okay?”

Her face heated as her lace panties touched the ultrasensitive region he’d brought back from the dead. She stepped forward, bringing her toe to toe with him.

He was right. She was significantly smaller than he was—shorter by more than a foot, and his shoulders were almost as wide as the doorframe. He brought his hand to settle on her waist.

“That was the medicine I needed,” she confessed.

She wouldn’t think about the lack of protection. They’d gotten carried away, but the odds of her getting pregnant were slim.

Funny thing was, she wasn’t as terrified of getting pregnant by Rami as she should have been. Nor was she afraid of getting an STD. Maybe it was because all he’d done from the moment she’d first laid eyes on him was protect her. Or because the guy didn’t seem to have a careless bone in his body and she believed he was normally vigilant when it came to safe sex.

However, the last thing she wanted was to chain someone to her with a baby. She’d ensure protection was used next time.

And god, there’d better be a next time.

“I’ve got another prescription where that came from.”

Her nerve endings twanged. “If we don’t get moving, I don’t think we’ll leave the bedroom.”

“Mmm.” His eyes thinned to slits. “Just so you know, what happened in there,” he said, jerking his head to the bed behind him. “That wasn’t even half of it.”

She tilted her head to the side. “What do you mean?”

“For one, the next time we have sex, you’ll be naked. And two, I’m going to take my time and not act like a man crazed.”

A thrill raced through her, and her nipples tightened against the material of her dress. He lowered his gaze to the telltale hint of arousal betraying her. His hand flexed on her side as if it took effort for him to not react.

“I guess it is kind of strange we’ve showered together and had sex and you haven’t seen me naked.”

His jaw clenched. “It’s a crime I plan to rectify.” His hand slid from her waist and glided beneath her dress. He slipped his fingers between her cheeks to touch her tingling folds through her panties. “Really soon,” he growled.

A buzzing sensation started deep in her core—god, how could she want him again, already? Warmth crept up her neck and she ached to stay in his arms and let the rest of the world fall away.

But no matter how much he dissolved the dark cloud over her head, she had to stand alone. Rami wasn’t a permanent fixture. She was too damaged to enter a relationship. In a different life, maybe he would be waiting.

For now, she’d enjoy every minute of his affection.