Chapter 27 Marla
MARLA
I felt… alive.
I felt the blood rushing through my veins.
I felt my heart pounding in my throat. I felt full between my legs and full in my chest in a way I hadn’t felt in a very long time.
It felt like all of the holes that were stamped out of me just to survive the last few months were suddenly plugged, and the bleeding stopped.
It felt magical.
The caress of his fingers through my hair. The caress of his hand up and down my back. It was all so surreal. Sweat dribbled down my face. My lungs still panted for air. My body shivered, but it wasn’t in a bad way.
I knew what bad shivering was like.
This wasn’t it.
My goddess.
His voice echoed through my mind as I laid there on top of him, draped over him like a wet rag. His fingers fiddled with the snagging knots in my hair and I felt our mess dripping down against him. I shifted a bit and felt him kick inside of me. A soft grunt fell from his lips.
I tilted my head up and placed my face into the crook of his neck.
“You smell good,” I whispered.
His chuckle tickled my nose. “So do you.”
I wanted to do it again. I wanted to rise back up and have enough energy to make my body feel that way again. I wanted to do it so many times that it chased away and replaced all of the horrible, terrible memories that cemented themselves into my brain.
I laid there so long that I felt him naturally dwindling.
Until he plopped right from between my legs.
“What a mess,” I muttered.
Another chuckle that warmed my heart. “Some messes are good.”
I nuzzled down against his shoulder. “Something like that.”
His head picked up for a moment before a warmth followed a soft kiss. I closed my eyes, allowing his lips to leave their mark against my forehead. But all too soon, our reality came crashing back down around us.
“Whenever you’re ready, I have something I really need to tell you, if someone else hasn’t yet,” he said as his hand continued languidly stroking through my hair. “But, I don’t want to ruin the moment. So you let me know when you’re ready to talk.”
He was so kind and considerate, always. He never once balked at the boundaries I set. He never once considered me an inconvenience. He was always so gentle with the way he had to do things. Always so apologetic if he ever had to cross my boundaries for my own good.
Always tiptoeing around me, even in his own space.
Always making sure I was okay, even if he had a fuckton of work to do.
I’m not sure when I began to care about the man so much, but I didn’t want it to stop. Everything I felt as I laid there on top of him was so much better than any of the other emotions and feelings I’d had since my kidnapping.
I wanted to feel like this forever.
“Okay, I’m ready,” I whispered softly.
He squeezed me close and kissed the top of my head. “Lizzie’s with Doc right now, and we can go see her whenever you’re ready.”
Lizzie.
Oh my fucking God.
“Lizzie,” I said breathlessly as I scrambled off his body.
“Whoa-ho-hoa!” Ranger chuckled out.
I rushed off his body, not caring about what dripped from between my legs.
I thrashed around in the blanket, coating it in our mark as my legs flailed and my arms windmilled.
My hair gathered in my face as I finally found the edge of the bed that now seemed like the most neverending bed I’d ever been on.
I expected to crash to the floor.
But instead, an arm wrapped around me.
“Hey now,” Ranger said as he helped me onto my feet. “No use going around getting yourself hurt just because we’re going to see Doc. He does take regular visitors, you know.”
“Lizzie,” I whispered as he helped me stand up. “We have to go see Lizzie. I’m ready. Let’s go.”
“Uh, well,” he said as he wrapped his arm around my waist, “first thing’s first.”
I whipped my head up. “What?”
He grinned down at me. “You need pants.”
I slowly looked between us, down at my bare legs.
Whoops.
“Right,” I said as I picked my head up and quickly looked around, trying to cover myself.
“Hey,” he said as he crooked his finger beneath my chin and pulled my gaze back up to his face, “no covering yourself. Not with me. You’re beautiful, Marla.
And I could stare at you for hours.” He held up the basketball shorts I was wearing earlier, dangling from his finger.
“I just don’t want anyone else staring at you.
So put these on, my goddess, and let’s get you to your best friend. ”
He sure as hell didn’t have to tell me twice.