Chapter 18 #2
I sat up, pulling her to her knees between my spread thighs, and ripped her clothes from her body. She helped me, stripping her delicious body until she was finally as bare as I was, and then I was clawing at her flesh and soul.
Rhea showed up on my doorstep, raw and needing me to soothe her soul, yet somehow she’d flipped the script and left me as desperate as she was.
She knew it too; she watched me lose my hold on my restraint, and the cocky little grin I loved made one dimple stand out on her cheek as she pushed me back down onto the bed.
“I need you.” She leaned over me, pushing my hips until I leaned to one side as she straddled my thigh. “I don’t think you’ll ever understand just how badly I need you, Goldie.”
“Show me.” I bit my bottom lip as she rocked, and intense pleasure wracked my body as her wet pussy rubbed against mine. “Yes.” The word fell from my lips like a vow and a last request, all in one.
She bent my top leg toward my chest and leaned over my torso, rubbing our bodies together with such skill I should have been green with envy thinking of all the women who had felt her like this before me. But I couldn’t be bothered to feel anything but need when she touched me.
“All damn day long,” She panted, closing her eyes as her lush lips parted in ecstasy. “I worked alongside Tanner, digging through corporate bullshit to get to the bottom of their scheme to ruin Cedar Bluff, to ruin you. And I’ve thought of this. Of you. Of needing you like this.”
“Rhea,” I gasped, pulling her lips to mine and rolling my hips under her as she found a new angle and new tempo that made us both cry out in pleasure. “Oh, my God.”
I was so close to falling over the edge and wanted her there with me when I did. I needed her pleasure in sync with mine.
“Do you have any idea how tempting it was for me to tell our golden boy officer all the things I was going to do to you tonight?” She crooned. “How tempting it was to tease him?”
Our.
She said our golden boy, Jesus fuck.
“I’m going to come,” I dug my nails into her hips, pulling her tighter against me. “Rhea! Make me come for you.”
“That’s it, sugar. Come while I talk about him. Come for me while you think about Tanner.” She mewled a needy noise and then tipped her head back, shattering for me as she tried to use her words to tease me. But I saw it for what it was, she was feeding off it too. She was thinking about him too.
“God,” I came with a silent scream on my lips as she watched me, crashing into bliss and following me there. I stared at her as she tipped her head back again, rising up and rocking faster as she orgasmed and then slowed until she hovered over me, panting.
Using her distraction, I flipped us over until her back was on the bed and I pinned both of her legs against her chest. Thankfully, she was sated and relaxed, or I would have had a fight on my hands against her strength, I was sure of it.
But she let me take control, and her eyes burned back at me with desire as I straddled her bent legs and used her calves for support as I started rubbing against her again.
“Tell me the truth,” I demanded as her eyes rolled and her lips parted from how good it felt. “Were you thinking about Tanner when you came?”
“Goldie.” She whispered, eyes wide as I pressed her knees into her chest further, putting more pressure against her clit with mine as I rocked. “Fuck.”
“Tell me.” I repeated, swallowing down my own desire and need to moan as pleasure shot through my body from how fucking good this position felt. “Please, tell me the truth.”
“Why?” She licked her lips and wrapped her arms around her thighs, holding her legs against her chest so I had better access, and a throaty groan slipped through her lips.
We were both soaked, our bodies gliding against each other with silky perfection, and I knew I was going to come again any moment. But I wanted the truth first.
“Because I think you were. I think you want him, but you won’t admit it.
” I replied. “Or maybe it’s just the fun of the chase and the game against him,” I gasped, digging my nails into her ankles as I fought not to come.
“I don’t know, but I want the truth. I want to come, like this, with you, knowing if your body is reacting to mine alone, or if he’s on your mind too. ”
“I’m with you,” She stated, like that was any answer at all. “I’m here. With you, Goldie.”
I knew she was going to fight me with the answer, because deep down, I knew it in my gut already. I knew the truth. I just desperately wanted her to admit it to herself.
Not a lie, but not the truth either. Unfortunately, I couldn’t hold it against her at the moment, my form of torture was taking a toll on me.
“God, Rhea.” I panted, giving in to the pleasure and coming in sync with her as her desperate cry echoed through the room. “That’s it, that’s so damn good, baby.”
I collapsed onto the bed next to her, gasping for breath and peeking at her from the corner of my eye.
Would she be mad at me for trying to get it out of her? Was I completely wrong in the end either way?
“Come here,” she said, pulling me into her until we lay face to face, limbs wrapped around each other as we came down off the high.
A long, silent pause stretched between us as we both relaxed into the comforts of my fluffy bedding and our safe arms, when finally she spoke again.
“It’s not just the fun of the chase and the game against him.
” She said her voice was low and gentle.
But I could almost hear everything she was holding back as she fought to find her words.
“I would never get off on treating you like a game. I just don’t know how to describe what it actually is to you without sounding like a catty, jealous bitch. ”
“Can you try?” I whispered, kissing her jaw as she sighed, “Because even if you think you’ll sound like a jealous bitch, I think it will help me understand the dynamic between you two a little more.
And I don’t think I would ever use those words to describe you anyway, not if they’re your honest feelings. ”
She scoffed lightly, closing her eyes and snuggling into me more. With her eyes still shut, she whispered. “I don’t hate him. I never have. But there’s always been this feeling of—” She trailed off again. “Almost as if he’s better than me. Too good for me.”
“He acts that way?” I asked, confused, because that didn’t sound like Tanner at all.
“No,” she grumbled, almost as if she were embarrassed by it. “To be honest, Tanner Brooks is one of the nicest men I’ve ever met.”
When she didn’t say anything else after that, I chuckled softly, and then another giggle bubbled up, and she peeked one eye open to glare at me.
“That’s the problem, isn’t it?” I surmised.
“Yes.” She groaned and closed her eyes again.
“He doesn’t treat me like one of the guys, which I guess I’m not.
Hell, he doesn’t even treat me like a woman either, he always just treats me indifferently.
Now that I’m getting to know him, I see it for what it is.
He’s just nice and didn’t want to offend me one way or another. But before—I thought he was a dick.”
I wiggled in her arms until I could lean back to look at her. “Because he didn’t flirt with you or ball-bust like he does with the guys.”
She groaned again and rolled over onto her back, flinging an arm over her eyes in a huff. “This all sounds more absurd the more I talk.”
I smiled, following her until I leaned over her body, resting on my elbow. Gently, I ran my fingertips over her toned stomach and chose my next words very, very carefully.
“What would you have done if he had joked around with you like one of the guys?” I asked, gently prodding her to deepen the connection between us. To let me in.
“Made jokes about his dick size.” She said bluntly, and I cackled, getting a glare from one peeking eye of hers before she covered it again. “It’s just what we do.”
“Okay,” I trailed my fingers over each rib bone below her breasts, distracting her as I asked an even harder question. “And what would you have done if he’d flirted with you instead?”
One breath.
Then another.
Time stretched across space as she decided how truthful she wanted to be, and while I waited to see if I was right all along or not.
“I would have fucked his brains out.” She whispered, still hiding behind her arm.
Those words rolled around in my head, then down to my gut. At first, a flash of jealousy burned like acid as I imagined the two of them in bed like this without me. Before me.
There probably would never have been a ‘me’ in their story if they had gone that route, because deep down in my own heart, I knew they were kind of perfect for each other in a way.
As the initial jealousy stopped burning in my gut, Rhea slowly lowered her arm and looked at me. “Say something.” She begged.
I could tell she was being her most vulnerable self with me, and I desperately wanted to comfort her, showing her that I was a safe space for her thoughts and feelings, even if they were shocking at first.
Slowly, I laid a soft, gentle kiss on her sternum and rested my chin on my hand there, feeling the steady beat of her chest beneath my palm. “I’m glad he never flirted with you, Rhea.” I whispered. “Because if he had, then neither of you would ever have given me a second look.”
She scoffed and wove her fingers in my hair, ready to brush me off to save my own feelings, but I was quicker than her and interrupted.
“But maybe that’s the point of all this.” I replied, holding her cautious stare. “Maybe you both needed me in a way neither of you could see. And that’s why it never happened. Not yet, anyway.”
“What are you saying?” she asked.
“I’m saying,” I dropped my lips to her chest again, turning my head and kissing the inside sensitive flesh of her breast as she stared at me.
“That the idea of you and Tanner Brooks flirting, and developing feelings for each other, and dating, and then eventually ending up in bed together,” I shimmied to the side, kissing her breast as I went and flicking my tongue across her nipple.
“Makes me green with envy.” I admitted. “But the idea of you and Tanner Brooks, flirting, and developing feelings for each other, and dating, and eventually ending up in bed together, with me included in each of those steps,” I groaned, sucking her nipple into my mouth and making her gasp. “Makes me fucking feral with desire.”
“Marigold.” She growled, swallowing deep when I sucked hard on her nipple. “Fuck.”
“I want you to fully embrace your needs and desires, Rhea.” I stated plainly. “And if that includes the three of us, together, in bed or out of it, then I support that for you. And for me.”
“And if he doesn’t want that?” She whispered, fear lacing each word. Fear of rejection. Fear of her heart not being enough. Fear from her past.
“Then,” I shrugged, kissing my way down her stomach, making the muscles tremble beneath my lips as I pushed her thighs wide and my tongue directly against her wet clit before going back in, slowly, teasing her.
“I guess you’re stuck with just little old me.
Because I want you.” I sucked her clit into my mouth, making her back arch off the bed and her thighs part further. “God, do I want you, Rhea Dalton.”
“Yes.” She moaned, fisting the blankets as she arched her hips and stared at me.
“Promise me.” She whispered again, holding onto her control by a thread as I pushed two fingers into her pussy and sucked her clit again.
“Promise me that it will be enough for you to have us separately. Because I don’t know if I can risk it.
I don’t know if I can put myself out there to him like that.
I’m a hurricane on a good day, and he’s calm and steady and nothing like me. ”
Pausing to look at her, I made sure she felt my words as strongly as I did as I said them.
“You’re not a hurricane, Rhea. You’re lightning, baby.
Sudden. Beautiful. And so fucking unforgettable.
And you’re enough.” I said firmly, scissoring my fingers as I held her gaze.
Her lips parted as I rolled my tongue over her clit in sync with my thrusts.
“You’re perfect just like this. You’re perfect for me. ”
“Yes,” She nodded, chest heaving as she gave in, weaving her fingers into my hair and controlling my head as I licked her deeper. “You’re exactly what I need, Goldie. So, fucking right for me.”
“Show me.” I demanded, quickening the thrust of my fingers as I curled them forward and held her pretty dark stare. “Show me just how right I am for you and come on my face. Come for me and prove it.”
“God!” She cried, rolling her hips and riding my face as she neared her orgasm. “That’s it, baby. Don’t stop. Please don’t ever stop.”
I didn’t.
I didn’t stop until her body was finally at rest, matching her mind as she crashed into the center of my bed. And then I did what I’d wanted to do since she showed up on my doorstep hours ago, worried and anxious, splitting herself in two with doubt and fear.
I called Tanner to thank him for sending her to me.