Chapter 4 #2
His rugged tone knocked the wind from me.
Shit, I was in trouble. Swallowing hard, I reclined on the bed and gave him what he wanted, but without the begging part.
A cool draft of air danced across my breasts, and I parted my trembling legs.
My nipples puckered from the chill of winter that penetrated the walls.
My body did the begging for me. For his touch, for his hot mouth sucking my nipples, one then the other, against his tongue.
Heat throbbed between my thighs at just the thought, and most of my anger vanished.
I’d merely existed without him. To have him back was overwhelming, exhilarating, and I was aroused as all hell, ready to fly apart at the slightest touch, despite the confusion of emotions all vying for prominence in my heart.
His attention stalled between my spread thighs. “Wider.”
Biting my lip, I did as told, bending my knees to fully expose the most private part of myself. “Wide enough?” The words came out breathless, coy even. But I felt far from coy. My heart was pounding so hard and fast I had trouble catching my breath.
He came toward me, one step at a time. “You’re fucking perfect.
” Dark ink rippled over the muscles in his chest, sending me into a trance-like state, and I wasn’t prepared for his fingers curling around my ankles.
He yanked me to the end of the bed, pushed my legs even wider apart, and plunged a finger inside me.
“So fucking wet already,” he said.
“Rafe!” I bowed above the mattress, my hands fisting the blankets.
“I think we need to set some more ground rules,” he said, and through the haze of desire clouding my vision, I saw him lick his lips. “Rule number two…you aren’t allowed to leave.” He slid another finger in and circled my opening.
“Rafe,” I moaned, arching into his touch, panting with trying to hold back. “I’ve never left you. It’s been the other way around.” He thumbed my clit, and I couldn’t bite back another moan. I rode his hand, my body hungering for release, aching for it.
“I’m not talking about that. You’re stuck with me, for better or worse.
I’m talking about the fact that we’re on a boat.
” He paused and let those words sink in.
I’d already guessed as much. “I don’t want you setting foot off this thing without me.
If you do, I’ll chain you to the fucking floor, got it? ”
Nodding, I chewed on my lip. He drove me to madness with his fingers, and I moved with him, pushing upward with each plunder. But I couldn’t get there. It was like he knew and was doing it on purpose.
“What’s the third rule?” I ground out between clenched teeth. There had to be a third rule. There was always a third rule.
“When it comes to me, the word ‘no’ isn’t part of your vocabulary. So when I tell you to get naked, you’re gonna fucking strip.” He withdrew his fingers, his thumb. God, my clit throbbed for his thumb.
“You ripped my heart out, Rafe.”
“I know I did. And you can yell at me all you want. But you’re gonna do it naked because that’s how I want you.”
“So you say jump, and I ask how high? Is that how this is going to work?”
“Yep.”
Cocky sonofa—
He thrust his cock into me, and I gasped. The ability to think or speak evaporated. He shoved deep, his girth stretching me wide, impaling me with nothing but him.
God. Rafe Mason was inside me again. I could hardly grasp it, this moment that was too surreal to be real. I pinched the back of my hand just to make sure this wasn’t another dream, that I wouldn’t jerk awake to find an empty bed and an even emptier heart.
But this was real.
Real.
Propping on his elbows, he leaned over me and stared into my eyes. Barely breathing. Not speaking. Not moving. Just there inside me, rock hard and pulsating.
Driving me fucking insane.
The need for more tore through my chest, closed my throat, and burned behind my eyes. I squeezed them shut and fought impending tears. He filled me up so much, too much, until there wasn’t any room left for myself.
“Rule number four,” he whispered, his lips brushing my cheekbone. “Don’t ever hold back your tears.”
My lids fluttered open, allowing hot, salty drops to trickle from my eyes…allowing him to lap up my pain with a greedy tongue.
“I was dying without you,” I managed to say beyond the ache in my throat and the furious despair that dripped down my cheeks. I’d endured six months of facing the stillness of night in the midst of nightmares. He’d promised me the world, but in the end he’d turned it upside down without a thought.
“Me too, baby.” His hoarse voice traveled through my body, leaving gooseflesh in its wake.
He thrust inside me with two languid slides of his cock, and that’s all he gave me before pulling out.
He jerked me up by the arms, spun me around, and bent me over the mattress.
I gripped the bedding in both hands, my chest heaving with each inhale and exhale, colliding with the sound of his shallow breaths at my ear.
“Do you trust me?”
I wouldn’t have hesitated before he’d left, but now all I offered was a nod. A lie.
I wanted to trust him.
“Don’t move,” he said, his tone commanding obedience.
“Wh-what are you doing?”
“Need lube for this. I don’t wanna hurt you.”
“You don’t have condoms, but you’ve got lube?”
He brushed my hair to the side, and his lips trailed down my spine.
“Sweetheart, I didn’t need condoms because you’re it for me.
I’ve had six months of nothing but lube, my fucking hand, and a shitload of vulgar fantasies all starring you.
” He pushed away from the bed, and his confession of celibacy heated me from the inside out.
I was relieved yet terrified because I could already tell how worked up he was.
My ass was on the line. Literally. And he’d already said I wasn’t allowed to tell him no.
There was no no.
Rafe had finally claimed me. My body, my will, my life.
My everything.