Chapter 47
FORTY-SEVEN
Rhett
Present Day
L ainey turned toward me while we sat beside each other on the beach, a blanket beneath us that I’d spread over the sand, a cooler behind us that we’d just finished picking through. Plastic flutes, full of champagne, in our hands.
“Why does this spot look so familiar?” she asked.
It was sunset, and the warmth of the sky was reflecting over her glowing skin.
She was even more gorgeous now than the day we’d sat here all those years ago.
I loosened my grip from her shoulders and moved my fingers to her face. “Because we’ve been in this exact spot before.”
Her eyes narrowed. “Wait …”
“You remember. I know you do.”
She glanced toward the water and pointed. “Pen was right over there with Timothy.” She paused. “And I told you I didn’t want to spend the day at the beach.” She gazed back at me. “So, we left and went to your house … and that was when I lost my virginity to you.”
“Yes.”
She snuggled back in, pressing her cheek into my neck. “That feels like a million lifetimes ago.” She took a sip.
“Because it was.”
She rubbed her hand over my thigh, the sound of the waves a language we enjoyed listening to until she said, “I talked to my parents. They told me all about your visit.”
I put my lips on her forehead and breathed her in. But when I exhaled, it was relief that I felt on a level I hadn’t experienced in a long time. If ever. “I’ve waited a decade and a half to talk to them.”
“For God’s sake, the man had told you he would kill you if you ever came near me again. And you walked into that home, not only to tell him the truth about what had happened on the boat, but to tell him you’re still in love with his daughter. Rhett”—she pulled away to look at me—“that’s courageous, and that’s …”
“That’s love.”
Her nod was exaggerated. “Yes.”
“What helped was that your father was willing to listen. Our conversation went much differently this time than the last time we spoke.”
“Dad has been grieving for the last fifteen years. It was time for him to know the truth.”
I fanned my fingers across her cheek. “He told me he was proud of the man I’d become and that, in his heart, he knew I’d take care of his baby.” I pressed my forehead to hers. “To hear him say that … after what happened with his other baby. Lainey …”
“I know.” Her hand flattened against mine. “I know.”
“We have his blessing.”
She leaned back a few inches and stroked my beard. “He told me.”
I kissed her slowly, and when I felt a vibration in my pocket, which had to be the text I’d been expecting, I pulled back. I waited for her to look at the water before I peeked at the screen.
Trista
All set. You’re a good guy, Rhett. She’s going to love it.
And thank you for the gift—that was unexpected and so nice of you.
I put the phone back, set the champagne on the sand, and wrapped my arms around her waist. As I was nuzzling her neck, I lifted her onto my lap, her legs straddling mine. My hands went to her face, and I kissed her.
But this kiss was different from any of the others.
Because there wasn’t a question; there was zero doubt.
Lainey Taylor was mine.
Again.
And nothing would ever come between us.
Not our past. Not her parents. Not the memories that threatened to pull us into the darkness.
Somehow, someway, we’d survived, and we’d come out on the other side.
When I separated our mouths, I kept us close, locking our gazes. “Do you see that house behind me with all the lights on? The two-story one with the balcony off the second floor?”
“Yes.”
“That’s ours for the weekend.”
Her brows rose. “What? We’re staying there?”
I chuckled at how surprised she sounded. “We are.”
“But I didn’t know. I didn’t bring anything. All I have is what I’m wearing.”
“I brought everything you’ll need. Even a bikini.”
Since she’d also set down her drink at some point, both of her hands now rested on my shoulders. “Hold on a second. You brought me a bikini?”
“I did.”
She was smiling so hard, and I fucking loved to see it. “Are you saying you went shopping? For me?”
“Baby, the Coles have a private shopper. I wouldn’t call what I did shopping. I’d say I looked at a rack of clothing that had been picked out for you, and I pointed at the items I wanted. The thing is, I liked everything that the shopper had pulled, so I bought it all.” I nodded toward the house. “It’s inside, along with some toiletries—for the record, I didn’t pick any of that out, but our shopper said it’s the best shit. What the hell do I know about face cream? Nothing.”
“I don’t even know what to say right now.” She traced my lip with the back of her thumb. “You brought me to a spot that’s such a memorable place for us. You booked us a house for the weekend. You bought me everything I could possibly need for the stay. Do you ever forget anything?”
Even though the sky was darkening, filling with magenta and burnt orange, the diamonds in her R necklace still glimmered.
I held on to her ass, making sure her legs were positioned around me, and I stood. “You tell me,” I said as I walked us to the beach house.
She laughed in my arms. “You left the blanket and the cooler and our shoes and champagne?—”
“Don’t worry, I’ll get it all later.”
I carried her up the flight of stairs and entered the code on the door before walking us inside. Since it was far too bright in here, I flipped the switch, turning the lights off, and the room became aglow with candles.
“Rhett, oh my God.”
On the floor were rose petals, thousands of them scattered between the candles, the perfect contrast to the all-white room.
“Aside from your apartment, I’ve never been in a space that smells so much like you.” I kissed her before I set her down, and I watched her face while she took in the sight.
“This is … stunning. You did this all?”
I smiled. “I might have gotten a little help, but I put the plans in motion and picked it out.”
“That’s the most important part.” She wrapped her arms around my neck.
“I want you to know—and this might not make any sense to you—part of the reason I haven’t devoured you yet is because I needed to know where things stood with your dad. In my mind, there were two steps to this.” I palmed her cheeks. “The first was getting you back, and the second was making sure your parents supported that decision. If we didn’t have that, I didn’t know if you would still be with me.” I moved my lips close to hers. “And I didn’t want to make things physical, knowing there was a chance I could lose you. That doesn’t mean I didn’t want to. That doesn’t mean I didn’t obsess about your body every minute of the fucking day. And that doesn’t mean I didn’t think about your pussy and how wet it was going to feel, how tight”—I kissed her—“and how badly I want to come inside you. Waiting has been straight-up fucking torture, but now, I have my answer.”
“I had a feeling, and that’s why I didn’t push you.” Her fingers dived into the back of my hair. “But you have their support now …”
My hands returned to her ass, and I lifted her feet off the floor and moved her legs around me before I walked her to the bedroom. “And I’m going to do everything I’ve been dreaming about for the last fifteen years.”
She looked around the room, at the rose petals on the bed and the floor, the candles on every surface that was large enough to hold a votive. “Rhett, I’m blown away. This is exquisite.”
“They’re in the bath, too, where I’m going to take you once I’m done with you.”
Her head shook in awe. “I’m so in love with you.”
I felt the smile move across my lips.
And, damn it, it felt good.
“Show me,” I ordered.
She laughed. “Gladly.”
While she kissed me, I set her on the end of the bed, pulling the loose-fitting dress up her body and over her head. I knew she didn’t have a bra on underneath—there was no room for one with the way it cut across her tits—and I’d been admiring the hardness of her nipples all night. Beneath, I found a thong, and I yanked it past her hips and down her legs, flinging it behind me.
Now that she was naked, I didn’t rise off the floor. I stayed kneeling in front of her, looking at her body as the light from the candles lit up her skin. “My God, Lainey. Do you have any idea how beautiful you are?”
“I feel it by the way you’re looking at me.”
“And that fucking smile.” I moved in between her legs until I was only inches from the bottom of the mattress. “It makes me so happy when I know you’re grinning for me.”
Her fingers raked through the top of my hair. “For the rest of my life, this smile will only be for you.”
I knew that. I felt it.
But there was nothing like hearing it.
She rubbed her lips together, eyeing me. “What are you about to do to me?”
“I’m going to taste you.”
“What if I tell you that you can do that later? That I need you inside me right now. That I can’t wait another second?—”
I dived my face into her pussy, my nose pressing against her clit. “This is for me. But don’t you worry, I’m going to take care of you. I promise, you’re going to get everything you want. I just fucking need this.”
I could spend all night right here, inhaling her scent. But I wasn’t going to drag this out—not the first time we were together after so long apart. So, I only allowed myself to breathe her in once, savoring that rose scent. Memorizing it again. Realizing just how much I’d missed it. And then I lifted my nose and licked her from top to bottom, tasting her wetness, the sweetness of her pussy exploding in my mouth.
“Rhett!”
Fuck, she tasted amazing.
Better than I remembered.
“That feels good, doesn’t it, baby?”
“Yes!”
I moved my tongue in between her lips, flicking the flatness down the length of her, the tip of it against the bridge of her clit. And while I increased my speed, I rubbed her pussy with my thumb, spreading the wetness that was already there, my mouth only adding more. My thumb moved lower and lower until it was dipping inside. I gave her a few pumps up to my knuckle before replacing it with my pointer finger, gradually moving all the way in.
“Ah!” She rocked her hips forward. “Rhett!”
My lips were covered in her, my hard-on fucking pounding to be released from these tight boxer briefs, wanting to put my dick where my face was.
But I couldn’t get enough.
And I wanted more.
I wrapped her thigh over my shoulder, the creaminess of her skin rubbing against my beard, giving me another wave of that gorgeous rose scent.
“Please,” she gasped.
I didn’t know if she was begging to come or if she wanted my cock.
Or both.
But I wasn’t leaving this spot until she got off on my tongue.
I also knew that wasn’t going to take very much. A few hard thrusts of my finger and licking her with an intensity she hadn’t felt yet, and she’d be quivering.
Shit, I was right.
Within a few more swipes, she was screaming, “Rhett,” so loud that my ears were ringing.
“That’s it,” I moaned. “Come on my tongue.”
With my finger inside her, I could feel the tremors going off in her body, her orgasm blasting straight through her stomach. And then there was the wetness, a rush of it that went past my knuckle and onto my tongue.
“Oh my God! Fuck!”
I licked through each shudder, waiting for a stillness that told me it was over, and once she reached that place, I slowed my movements, licking the thickness and swallowing it.
“That taste, Lainey. Fuck me, it’s everything I’ve wanted.” I kissed her pussy while I gently pulled out my finger, and when I saw my skin glistening, I surrounded my finger with my lips and sucked that off too.
“That mouth.” She stared at me in such a naughty way. “I don’t know how, but you’ve only gotten better at that.”
I chuckled as I stood from the floor, getting to work on my jeans, letting them fall with my boxer briefs, my dick springing free.
“ Mmm . Yes. That’s what I want.” She put her lips over my tip, sucking my crown and pumping all the way to my base.
“Fuck,” I groaned. I stepped out of my shoes, lifting my right foot to take off my sock and then my left foot and finished by tossing my shirt. I held the sides of her face, our eyes locked. “You’d better slow down there. You’re blowing me like you want me to come.”
I let her have a few more bobs before I popped my dick out of her mouth and moved her up the bed until her head was on the pillow. I held the outside of her thighs and positioned her legs around me. Our bodies pressed together, my lips over hers, our eyes focused on one another. The revelation that so much time had passed since we’d been here was evident in our stares.
Within one sweep, I was inside her.
“Lainey … fuck!”
“I know.” She was panting. “Trust me, I know.”
The heat of her was what overcame me at first, completely taking over me. The wetness followed, her pussy hugging me like two arms squeezing my neck. My forehead rested against hers while I stayed there, frozen, her cunt pulsing around me. I felt every clench. Every fucking drip. Every degree of heat.
“You are so tight.”
My teeth ground as I waited.
My body tensed.
I could come right now. That was how amazing she felt.
But I let the seconds pass, for her pussy to remember me, before I reared my hips back and sank in. And once those pumps started, they got deeper. They got harder. Every one of her moans driving me closer to that edge.
“Baby!” She was breathless, her nails in my shoulders, both legs now around me, her feet locked, keeping our bodies in position.
“Fuck yes,” I hissed.
I circled within her, rotating to hit each of her walls, to add pressure to the parts of her that needed attention, leaning up just enough on my knees that I could use my hands.
To pinch her nipples.
To hold her cheek.
To rub my thumb over her clit.
“Oh! My! God!” she yelled.
She was getting close again—I could feel that by her wetness.
But the next time she came, we were going to do it in sync. And she was going to scream my fucking name while I filled her with my cum.
So, I lifted her off the bed and walked to the wall next to it, where there was a mirror directly across from us. With her back on the paint, her face was pointed at our reflection.
“I want you to watch me fuck you,” I demanded. “I want you to see how beautiful your face looks when you’re screaming from another orgasm.”
“I’m almost there.”
I angled her in a way that I could pull her hips forward, leaving just enough space that my finger could rub her clit. When she realized what I was doing, she moaned.
But that was only the beginning.
A sound that was far too light for my ears. I wanted that piercing scream to return.
I thrust into her, using a strength she hadn’t yet felt tonight, and I maintained that stamina, but every time I bucked into her, I gave her a twist, adding friction to her G-spot.
She felt it.
Because every time I did it, her nails stabbed me even harder.
“Rhett!” She gasped in some air. “The muscles in your back. Your ass. You have no idea how hot this looks.”
Within a few more pounces, I growled, “You’re going to come … I can fucking feel it.”
And so was I.
The tingling was moving through my balls and into my shaft. It was bringing this wild wave of pleasure that was making everything turn numb.
“I love you,” she cried.
I was slamming her so hard that her lips vibrated over mine.
“I love you more.” Once the last word left me, the first stream of cum shot from my tip. “Fuck!”
She was there too.
Shuddering.
Screaming, “Rhett,” just the way I’d wanted.
Our movements matched.
Our breaths intertwined.
Our voices turned hoarse from all the shouting.
It took several dips of her milking me before I was empty. Her body was already still at that point, and I joined her in that quietness, breathing over her lips, hers in a smile.
Her nails pulled back from my skin, and her arms tightened around me. “I missed you. I missed this.”
“You’re never going to have to miss it again.” I gently kissed her. “You’re mine now. And mine forever.”