Chapter 20
Rafaele
Her mouth is on mine, a silencer to every word, every hesitation.
My hands find her waist, pulling her in, reckless and ready to burn.
I’m the wildfire now. I’m a blaze ripping through every room of this house, leaving ash and heat in my wake.
I lose track of where I end and she begins.
Her nails rake my shoulders, hard and hungry.
I fucking love it. We’re wrapped around each other, and I’m breathing her in like she’s the only air left in the world.
Everything is spinning, intense, desperate. She is mine. And goddamn, I am hers.
She presses me against the counter, mouth fierce and relentless.
Her fingers are in my hair, on my neck, slipping under my shirt like she’s trying to memorize the shape of me.
I try to stay in control, to hold on to some piece of my sanity, but she’s all I feel, all I want.
I’m drowning, but it’s the best fucking way to go.
“Rafe,” she breathes against my lips, a dare and a promise.
I’m not sure which one of us moans, but it sets us both on fire.
I pull her shirt up, skin hot and perfect. My pulse is a drum, my body an inferno. Her lips find my throat, my chest. Her mouth on me is everything. I thought I’d burn her out, but I’m the one who’s about to break.
“Rafe,” she says again, voice teasing and wild.
I groan, half warning, half surrender.
Her laugh is warm and breathless. I feel it everywhere, sinking under my skin.
She wants this as bad as I do, and it makes me feel raw, unstoppable.
I can’t hold back, don’t want to. I step her backward so she’s against the counter, lifting her onto it.
Her legs wrap around me, pulling me closer.
I’m not getting out of this alive. I don’t fucking care.
I yank her hair loose, and it spills down, tangling in my fingers. She bites her lip, that wicked smile lighting her up, and I lose any hope of sanity.
I’m lost in her, crazed with wanting. Nothing else matters.
I find the edge of her bra, strip it away. I’ve never felt anything like her, wild and open. I taste the skin above her breast, catch the edge of her nipple. She gasps, the sound twisting through me. Her thighs grip me tighter, and I grind against her, rough and desperate.
“Anyone ever tell you patience is a virtue?” she says, breath hitching.
“Don’t need virtue,” I growl, claiming her mouth. “Need you.”
She laughs again, reckless and light, the happiest fucking sound I’ve ever heard. She has me. Owns me.
Her hand slips to my waist, and she makes a noise of approval at the hard outline of my cock under my jeans. I’m hard as a rock, aching to be inside her. She’s making me crazy, making me hers. I want to rip every barrier between us, to feel her completely.
I push my knee between her legs, spreading them apart, feeling her heat.
“You keep this up,” I warn, “you’re going to find out just how bad an idea I am.”
“I like bad ideas, remember?”
Goddamn, she does.
I tug her forward and rip her jeans off. She doesn’t stop me, not for a second. I can see the outline of her pussy, slick and ready, and it drives me insane. She knows it too. Knows the power she has over me.
I give her a rough, desperate kiss, then drop to my knees.
“What are you going to do to me, Rafe? Tell me.”
Her voice is a challenge, breathless and daring, teasing the last of my control. I look up at her, and it almost breaks me. Her hair is a tangle of wild abandon, that wicked smile daring me to do my worst. I’m ready to. I need to.
“Going to lick out your sweet pussy, princess. Suck on your clit until you scream my name.”
Her panties are gone in a flash, and I’m on her, tasting her sweetness.
My tongue finds her clit and she cries out, back arched.
I’m driving her crazy, and I fucking love it.
She knows exactly what I'm gonna do to her, and she's helpless to resist. I take her apart with my mouth, feel her tremble under my grip. Her thighs are like silk on my skin, and I’m lost in the taste of her, the heat of her.
She pulls me closer, drowning me in her, making me hers.
Her fingers find my hair, pulling me closer.
Her cries echo off the kitchen walls, raw and breathless, a fucking symphony of need.
I eat her like I’ll die without it. Her hips buck against my mouth, and she’s a wild thing, feral and free.
I’m drowning in her, soaking in every sound, every shiver.
Her legs drape over my shoulders, and I press her down into the counter, keeping her there, making her take every flick of my tongue.
“Oh god, Rafe,” she moans.
Her hands clutch at me, losing control. She thinks I’m dangerous? She has no idea. I’m all in now, driven by nothing but the need to have her. All of her.
She tastes so damn good. I can’t get enough. She’s dripping, wet, and warm, and I’ve never felt anything like this. She is my everything.
“Don’t stop,” she says, voice breaking, urgent.
Fuck. I couldn’t stop if I tried.
I feel her pulse against my lips, hear her breath catch, then she shatters. It’s all I want, all I fucking need. I drag her through it, refusing to let go until I’ve wrung every last tremor from her. She collapses, breathless and flushed. The most beautiful thing I’ve ever seen.
I stand and yank my shirt over my head, tossing it aside. My pants are next. I can’t wait anymore. Her eyes widen, locked on my cock, and she bites her lip again, the teasing little vixen. It makes me even harder.
“Now who’s got no patience?” she says, that fire sparking in her again.
She’s not wrong, and she’s definitely not safe from me. Not anymore.
“Up,” I order, pulling her upright so she’s almost nose to nose with me.
Her skin is slick with sweat, hair a tangled mess. The sight of her like this is a goddamn masterpiece. I want to put my name on it. Make it mine forever. She’s got her hands on me now, rough and impatient, sliding down to where I’m aching for her.
“Fuck, Sloane,” I groan, burying my face in her neck.
I lift her, and she wraps around me like she’s meant to be there, like it’s the only place she belongs. The friction is almost enough to make me lose it right then. I don’t think I’ve ever wanted anything this much.
Her eyes are sharp, seeing right through me.
“You going to make me wait, Rafe?”
I growl and lay her back on the counter, making sure she knows exactly what she’s getting. I hop up onto the counter on my knees and cover her body with mine. We’re skin to skin, and I’m wild for her, wild for this.
I line myself up, feel the heat of her, the wet promise of everything I’ve been aching for.
“Say it,” she demands, breathless and wicked. Her eyes are bright, daring me like a wild thing. “Say what you’re going to do.”
I’m shaking with wanting her, desperate and out of my fucking mind. I’m everywhere, aching, frantic. I’m not sure I can handle the wait anymore. I’m not sure I can handle her.
“Going to fuck you, Sloane,” I say, voice low and ragged.
“Say it,” she taunts again, pulling me into her.
“Going to fuck you so hard,” I groan.
She laughs, and the sound shoots through me like fire and whiskey.
“What else?” she demands.
“Going to claim you," I growl, letting the truth spill out. "Make you mine.”
Her eyes blaze with anticipation and challenge.
"Prove it."
Need and heat tear through me, and she’s everything I want. I push into her, one thrust that takes us both by surprise. She cries out, clutching me closer, and I’m all the way in, buried deep in the tight, hot grip of her.
“Oh god,” she breathes, wrapping around me, moving with me. “Rafaele!”
My name on her lips is pure heaven.
I hold still, trying to catch my breath, trying to keep some small part of control. It doesn’t last. She rocks against me, and I’m gone. There’s no going slow. Not now. We collide again and again, reckless and hard, bodies and hearts and every goddamn thing we are.
The kitchen disappears. The world disappears. She is everything, everything, everything.
I thought I’d scare her, thought I’d break her. But she keeps pace with me, fearless and wild, like I’m the one who needs saving. Like I’m the one coming undone.
“Rafe,” she says, voice half plea, half command. “Don’t you dare hold back.”
She makes me feel limitless, like I could crush this whole house, this whole city, if I needed to. The only thing I need, though, is her.
“Wasn’t planning on it,” I say, and I take her like I mean it.
I find a rhythm, a brutal, beautiful rhythm, and it drives us both to the edge.
The only thing keeping me sane is knowing she’s right there with me.
Knowing I’m the one pushing her to this point, the one making her wild and raw and so fucking beautiful I can’t stand it.
Her body starts to tighten around me, and it sets me off.
I lose it, thrusting like a madman, and she screams, my name, her own release, everything.
We shatter together, an explosion that rocks the world.
My heart is a drum, my body a live wire. I sink against her, pulling her up into my arms. It’s not just sweat binding us together. It’s the raw need we’ve tried to pretend wasn’t there. The same raw need that will kill me if she ever leaves.
“Jesus, Sloane,” I manage, voice hoarse and wrecked. “The best worst idea I’ve ever had.”
She smiles, the happiest smile I’ve ever seen, and I kiss it. Hard and fierce and forever.
“You don’t say,” she whispers against my lips.
I’ve never been like this with anyone. I never knew I could be.
We untangle slowly, hearts still pounding.
I carry her to the lounge room, where a fire is blazing in the hearth, drag a blanket from the couch, and pull her to the floor with me.
She nestles in, and it feels like home. It feels like everything I’ve never had, never known I could have.
She tilts her face up to mine, cheeky and full of fire.
“This your way of telling me I’m stuck with you?”
I brush the hair back from her face, let her see the truth, the madness, the pure fucking awe.
“Yeah, it is,” I say. “You’re mine, Carter.”