Chapter 17
Aknock on the door had Raven shooting up in bed. She hadn’t been asleep, because every little creak and crack had her eyes flashing open.
Her heart raced, and for a second she didn’t move.
Was it one of the guys two doors down? They’d knocked an hour ago before shouting through the door asking for a cigarette.
She’d ignored them and eventually they’d gone away.
But maybe they were back. Maybe they were high or drunk or would actually try to get in this time.
Or was it someone else? Was it Xander?
A second knock cut through the room, and this one had Raven scrambling out of bed.
Quickly, she raced to her bag and rummaged through it for her pistol.
Her fingers brushed over cold metal. She grabbed it and ran to the bathroom.
The door had just shut behind her when the click of the front door opening sounded.
Shit.
She raised her gun, pulse thundering in her throat. It was fine. She was armed. She’d go out there, tell whoever it was to get the hell out, and she’d keep her gun trained until they left.
One. Two.
The light flicked on.
Three.
She stepped out.
Air rushed from her lungs. “Connor? What the hell are you doing in here?”
“You know what I’m doing here, Raven. You shouldn’t be out here alone.” His gaze flicked to the barrel of the gun.
Crap.
She lowered the pistol before setting it on the table. Questions filled her head, but so did an exhausted fog.
“I told you I was staying somewhere else.” She glanced down, not caring that she only wore a top and panties, no bra. “I would have called if I needed you.”
“I don’t believe that.”
Okay, maybe not. It would have to get really freaking bad for her to call, and even then, she would have hesitated.
She wrapped her arms around her waist. “You need to leave.”
“No.”
“No?” Her brows shot up. God, why did he have to be so tall and brooding and dominant? It made standing her ground really hard. “I’m asking you to leave. That should be enough.”
“I’m not leaving you in a motel that has drug dealers right outside, and a door that doesn’t have so much as a safety chain.”
“You don’t—”
“I do.”
“Did you ever think that maybe it’s not just me I’m protecting?”
“You think you’re protecting me?”
“I know I am.”
He was across the space between them in two long strides. Before he could touch her, she held up a hand. He walked right into it, his heated chest pressing into her palm. “Raven…you don’t need to do that.”
“You’re not listening to me.”
“I am. I’ve heard every word you’ve said. I don’t agree.” He curled his fingers around her hand, lifted it, and kissed the inside of her wrist. “I don’t need your protection. I need you. All of you. Not just some fragmented pieces.” Another kiss, this time closer to her elbow.
A shudder rolled down her spine.
“I want to know the best things.” He kissed her again. “And the worst.”
“You don’t know what you’re asking,” she whispered, a little of the fight draining out of her.
“I’m asking for this.” He set a palm on her chest, right over her heart.
A heart that pounded big, fear-driven thumps.
She was close to giving in. So close that an entire waterfall of truths threatened to spill from her mouth.
A loud banging sounded on the door.
She jumped back.
Connor’s hand fell, his narrowed gaze shifting to the door. Without hesitation, he pulled the gun from his holster with one hand and took her hand in the other, pulling her behind him as he moved to the door.
His brows drew together when he looked through the peephole. “Who’s there?”
“I’m the motel manager. I’m checking on the lady. Some guests said you broke into her room.”
Connor cursed. “She’s fine.”
“I’m gonna need to hear that from the lady.”
Raven cleared her throat. “I’m fine.”
“You sure? I got a good shoulder and a gun. Give the word and—”
“No,” Raven interrupted. “I’m really fine. Thank you.”
“You got it.”
Connor looked through the peephole one more time before muttering something under his breath.
“It’s time for you to go, Connor.”
He shook his head. “I told you, I’m not leaving.”
“Goddammit, why are you so stubborn?”
“Why are you?”
“Because I have a lot to lose.”
“A lot being what? Your life? Mine? Is he going to kill someone?”
“Maybe! Or maybe he’ll just put me in prison.” Stop talking, Raven!
Connor frowned. “How would he be able to do that?”
Nope. No, no, no. She spun away. “I’m not doing this. Not while I’m wearing barely any clothes. Not after you’ve broken into my motel room. And certainly not—”
“Raven.” The heat of his chest on her back, the strength in his fingers circling her hips, all of it made her freeze. “Don’t send me away. Please. If you do, I’ll sit in my truck all night and not sleep a second, just so I can watch this room.”
Something melted in her chest. Maybe a little bit of armor. Maybe the block of ice that had formed around her heart.
His mouth lowered to the crook of her neck, and she instinctively tilted her head to give him more room. His breath whispered over her sensitive skin as his lips grazed her.
“I don’t know where we go from here,” she whispered, hating the uncertainty in her voice.
“Me neither.”
She turned her head toward him, and his lips were right there. “What if you get hurt because of me?”
“Not gonna happen.”
The need to kiss him, taste him, took such a firm hold she couldn’t think of anything else. And for once, she didn’t try to fight it. She closed the small space between them.
The second they touched, the second she felt his mouth on hers, all the tightness in her body, all the worry and frustration and fear that had been sitting on her shoulders like an impossible weight, shimmered into nothing.
She turned to face him and cupped the back of his neck. He tugged her a bit closer, so her entire front pressed to his. At her gasp, he slipped his tongue inside her mouth.
He tasted like air she’d been deprived of. Water she’d been starved of.
His hands slid down her body and lifted her like she weighed nothing. She felt weightless and protected and held all at once.
He stepped forward until her back hit a wall. Then he was everywhere. Caging her so closely to the wall that he surrounded her.
This right here was exactly where she wanted to be. Where she wanted to stay. Where she was safe.
He lifted her shirt over her breasts and lowered his head, taking a nipple between his lips.
A moan hummed from her chest and she fisted his hair, desperate to hold him in place. She arched and ground her core against his hard stomach.
“Yes.” She flung back her head and just breathed, the first full breath she’d taken in hours.
Fuck, Raven tasted good. Like the sweetest candy that had ever touched his tongue. So sweet he wanted to bathe in her. Taste her inch by inch until he knew her as intimately as he knew himself.
He switched to her other breast and swirled her hard nipple in a circle with his tongue. She writhed, her fingers tugging at his hair.
But it was her moans that really toyed with him. The sounds flowed from her throat in soft, uneven gasps, fraying the last threads of control he possessed.
“Now,” she whispered. “I need you now.”
He released her nipple and kissed up her throat while reaching between them. One quick flick of her panties to the side, and he slid a finger over her clit.
She shuddered and whimpered. He did it again. Her cry was louder.
So fucking responsive. And tonight…all his.
He moved a finger to her entrance and slowly slipped inside.
Shit, she was soaked and so ready for him. He pulled out and thrust back in, deeper, right to the last knuckle.
Her breathing grew louder, courser, her muscles fluttering around his finger.
“Connor…please.”
He continued to taste the delicate skin on her neck as he pulled out his cock. He was rock hard and ready. He slid the tip over her clit. She groaned into his mouth. Then, in one fluid motion, he pushed inside.
Her head flew back again, her walls clenching him hard. “Oh God.”
He didn’t lose contact. He kissed down her throat, sucking that candy skin as he started to move in slow, even thrusts. Her tight walls fit his cock like a glove, making a throb beat through his veins.
Jesus, she had a hold on him no one else had ever been able to achieve. And he wasn’t fighting it. He was leaning all the way in.
He cupped her cheek and nibbled a spot behind her ear. Her nails scraped down his shoulders, and shit, he even liked the sting of pain.
When he reached between them, he circled her clit with his thumb.
A strangled cry cut from her throat. “Connor, I…I’m already—”
He stroked her again.
She came, clenching around him so hard, he almost lost it himself. Then she was shaking and whimpering and calling his name.
He continued to move. To pull out right to the tip before driving back inside.
But it was her trembling and those damn whimpers that pushed him to the edge. He fell, touching his forehead to hers as he shattered, continuing to thrust and growl and just hold her.
When there was finally stillness, all he could do was breathe.
“Connor…I can’t…I don’t…”
“I know.” One long kiss to her lips, one last taste, before he carried her to the bathroom.
The water was lukewarm. Shitty motel. But they weren’t in there for long. He washed every inch of both of them before they dried off and slipped beneath the covers.
And then he realized…
“Raven. I didn’t wear anything.” He wanted to curse himself. He always wore something. But he hadn’t been thinking. He’d been in this fog of Raven.
She nestled into his chest. “It’s okay. It’s the wrong time for that.”
Good. Although, if something did happen, an accident they couldn’t take back, he wasn’t sure he’d regret it.
He was falling in love with this woman in a way that felt final. Like there was no coming back from it.
This was different from Margaret. The only thing that had been the same was the secrets.
He shook his head. No. This was still different. Raven was different.
She glanced up at him, a new softness in her eyes. “Are you okay?”
“Yeah. You should sleep.”
She yawned, then closed her eyes.
He waited until her breaths were deep and even. He knew the exact moment she was asleep enough that she wouldn’t wake. Only then did he slip out from beneath her and pull his clothes on. He wasn’t leaving. Hell no. If she was here, so was he.
But he did need to do a perimeter check.
If it was up to him, he’d have taken her home that night. But she’d barely been able to keep her eyes open in the shower. She needed sleep.
Once he found her room key, he holstered his Glock and slipped outside.
The guys who’d seen him break in were now gone.
Slowly, he walked down the block of rooms on the ground floor, inspecting the building. There was a second story, the door to every room facing the walkway that ran directly above him. When he reached the office at the end of the building, the manager was watching football and eating a burger.
Connor was scanning the parking lot when he saw it.
A black Jeep Compass.
A man’s outline inside the car was barely visible in the dark. The car was parked on the farther outside edge of the small lot, directly in line with Raven’s room, giving him the perfect view.
Son of a bitch.
Instead of walking directly toward it, he moved around the outside of the lot. Inching around other cars.
But the second he reached the rear of the car, the engine started and the guy took off, leaving the parking lot.
Son of a bitch.
How long had Xander been there? How had he even known Raven was at the motel?
His muscles were tight when he returned to the room.
Silently, he stepped inside and locked the door. Once he’d stripped, he set the Glock on the bedside table and slipped back beneath the sheets.
Even though Raven was asleep, it was like she sensed his closeness. She inched into his side and lay her cheek on his chest, a sigh humming from her throat.
He curved an arm around her and kept her close. He’d allow himself to get a couple hours of sleep, but only because he knew that if someone tried to get in, at the first fucking sound of an intruder, he’d wake. And the fucker would regret setting foot in this room.