Chapter 18
18
Rachel
“ W hat does it mean to not pay attention to music?” The low vibration of Zane’s voice tickles my cheek.
I’ve been dozing a little since he made me a woman . A laugh snorts through my nose, both at that ridiculous thought and at his disgusted tone.
“Poor Sam.” I lift my head and rest my chin on my hand as I gaze up at this beautiful man.
“Poor Sam?” His brow lowers over his pretty blue eyes. “Sam Allen is an imbecile.”
“He is not! Sam is nice.”
Those blue eyes fix on mine fiercely. “Are you interested in him?”
“What?” My eyes widen, and I’m about to laugh louder.
Instead, I switch gears.
“Yes.” I nod, rolling onto my back and pulling the sheet under my arms. “I was thinking about giving him a call and seeing what he’s up to this weekend.”
“Just try it.” Zane rolls towards me, gripping my waist in both hands and making me scream a laugh.
“Okay! Okay! I was only playing.” I laugh some more as he pulls me into his arms.
My back is snug against his chest, and I trace my finger down the line of a tattoo on his forearm. I think about the last time I was in the cocoon of his arms.
“I really like dancing with you.”
He leans down, inhaling the top of my head and unfurling warmth through my shoulders. “I can’t remember the last time I danced. Prom, maybe?”
“I really like that you saved yourself for me.” Squirming around, I want to look at him.
“Me, too.” He’s over me, smiling down at me now, and my breath catches.
Oh my God, I love him.
Blinking away from his gaze, I lift my arms and pull him down into a hug, hiding my face in his neck while I regain my bearings. While I get my head on straight. Love? Seriously?
Even if he is really, really good in bed, how would I even know? He’s the first man I’ve ever been with… or kissed… or followed into his bedroom practically begging for him to take me.
Exhaling a groan, he gives me a little nudge. “What are you thinking?”
“I kind of threw myself at you.”
A noise rumbles in his throat, almost like a laugh. “You knew what you wanted.”
“Are you laughing?” Leaning back, I cut my eyes up at him. “I said please . I stripped naked for you. It was so embarrassing.”
“If it makes you feel any better, I was holding on by a thread every time. You have no idea how hard it was to walk away from you. If you hadn’t been a virgin?—”
“You didn’t want to sleep with me because I was a virgin?”
“Correction. I didn’t want to fuck you against a wall or on a massage table because you were a virgin. Now, however, all bets are off.”
I exhale a little squeal, which makes him really laugh, which makes me stretch higher in the bed to kiss him. His large hands slide warmly down my back, and I sigh.
“What makes you so good?”
“Hell, Rachel, I’m not good.”
“But you are.” I trace my nails up his broad shoulders. “Not good like boring. Good like you see someone needing help and you help them. Or you see a boy disturbed by noise or too much wind, and you put the doors back on your Jeep or you take him outside to play pool where it’s quieter.”
My eyes heat. Of course, I love him. He’s sexy and broody and so fucking good .
Exhaling heavily, he watches the ceiling fan moving slowly above us as he traces a finger over my arm. “My parents, maybe?”
“Oh, man,” I exhale a groan. “My parents did nothing but fight the entire time I lived at home. I don’t know when they put down their weapons long enough to create Edward, but from the way my mother acted, it was the worst thing that could’ve happened to her.”
His arms tighten around me. “I’m sorry for that.”
“When Edward was diagnosed, people tried to say it was my mother’s fault. They never even considered what a jerk my dad was.”
“People say a lot of stupid shit.”
“My dad was the reason I always dreamed of coming here.” My voice gets a little softer, a little more dreamy. “He used to talk about this place like it was heaven. He loved it here.”
I can’t finish that thought, remembering how much I hung on his words as a little girl. It wasn’t until I was older that I knew who he really was—a con man, a fake friend, a deceiver. If there was a way to make a fast dollar in any situation, he was on it.
If the dollar disappeared, so did he.
Zane’s hand slides down my back, and I cuddle closer to his side.
In one of her more lucid moments, my mom told me I had the power to make a new path, to break with tradition. She told me I could marry a man who was nothing like my father.
Hell, she said I could marry a woman or not get married at all.
I don’t say any of that out loud, but I do think about it. I think about this man, and how he’s nothing like my father. From the start, he’s only ever taken care of me.
Even after we finished having sex for the first time, he went to the bathroom and came back with a towel to clean me. I took one look at that pure white terry and shook my head no. I skipped to the bathroom and cleaned myself up in the tub.
Five minutes later, we were in bed again, snuggling.
In the beginning, he pushed me away. We fought, he dismissed me, but whenever I needed him, there he was.
“Are you sore?” He traces a finger along the line in the center of my back.
The way he says it tickles my stomach, and I lift my chin to meet his eyes. “I don’t think so. What did you have in mind?”
“How long does it take to heat the pool?”
Skinny-dipping in a heated pool with Zane Bradford on a crisp autumn day might be my definition of heaven. Second only to being wrapped in his arms. Our naked bodies slide together in the warm water, and the fire in my belly has me kissing him with more urgency.
He holds me close, and I follow his lead, nipping, tasting, devouring his mouth. As much as I love his cock, I might love his tongue a little more. Not only can we make out like ravenous teenagers, he’s pretty excellent at going downtown.
I whimper as his fingers slide between my legs, testing my wetness. “If you’re not feeling up to it…”
“I feel up to it,” I answer quickly, moving my lips to his ear and kissing him.
Lifting his face, he meets my eyes. “You never have to say something because you think I want to hear it.”
“Okay.” Angry god, slash perfect man.
“I feel like you were holding something back when we were in bed just now.”
I swallow air not really believing he picked up on that. “Oh.” I exhale a little laugh, shaking my head. “I was only… It wasn’t anything.”
“What was it?”
We’re in the warm pool, naked, our bodies pressed together, the temperature rising. His cock against my stomach, and here comes the truth to deflate everything.
“It was just about what my mom said.” I glance down at the water. “She said I didn’t have to choose someone like my dad, and at the time I didn’t understand. Then you told me what he did, and it ruined everything.”
He exhales slowly, lowering his chin to meet my eyes. “Look at me.” I blink a few times before complying, meeting his serious blue gaze. “I’m sorry for making you feel responsible for Jayden. I’ve thought about it, I talked to Jack, and it’s not fair to make you pay for his betrayal.”
I nod, blinking down again, thinking of him talking to Jack. I remember talking to Dylan. If the two of them don’t care… Maybe Garrett and Hendrix won’t either? Maybe they’ll like me ?
“It could be like he brought us together.” It’s a timid suggestion, me trying to find the positive. Although, where I got my optimistic streak, I’ll never know.
“Hmm.” He exhales. “I’d like to think something better brought us together.”
“Your parents?”
“Miss Gina.”
“Of course. It was Miss Gina and this gorgeous old house.”
Turning into his chest, I look up at the Italian-style edifice looming over us in this blue-ceramic tile pool. Flowering vines climb the wrought-iron trellises. Twinkle lights adorn the eaves, and as the sun drifts lower, it only grows more magical.
“I wish we could spend the night here,” I sigh.
His lips slide along the line of my cheek, and my eyes drift closed.
“I’ll talk to Dylan. She and Logan have both offered to watch Edward for us on more than one occasion.”
“We could spend the night here?”
“We could sleep in the cottage.”
“Miss Gina practically told us to.”
Returning my gaze to his beautiful eyes, the blue is hotter, more possessive, and the heat in my stomach turns even hotter. Our mouths meet and part, and his fingers stroke, reawakening the orgasm lingering there.
Floating in this pool, humming with desire, nothing holds us back now, and I want all of him. I wrap my legs around his waist and lean forward to speak in his ear.
“It shouldn’t hurt now.”
“You want me to fuck you?” A gentle tease is in his tone, and it thrills me to my core.
His hands are on the sides of the pool, and I feel his eagerness. It ricochets heat from my stomach to my toes, and I whimper, leaning closer to his ear.
“What happens if I say please now?”
“Face the wall.” His voice is low, and I rotate in his arms .
Placing my hands on the tile, I feel his heat at my back. The soft hairs on his chest brush against my skin, amping the tension, the anticipation.
Strong hands cover my waist, and his voice is low behind my ear. “Hold on.”
“Oh, God…” I close my eyes as I feel his tip sliding against my body.
He invades on one hard drive, and my fingers tighten. A cry aches through my parted lips, and I’m so full. He’s so big and hot and demanding.
One hand is beside mine holding the wall, and as he thrusts into me from behind, he pins me against him with the other hand circling steadily over my clit.
My eyes roll as I drop my head back against his shoulder. I’m being used in the most thrilling way possible. He’s hitting that place inside me that makes me see stars, and I’m going to come so fast. I’ve lost all sense of place, time…
I shudder a moan. His lips trace my ear, and I can hear him breathing, hot and haggard. Every thrust lifts me higher, and the water in the pool rocks with us. My knuckles are white from gripping the edge. I’m sore, but in a way that somehow makes having sex even better.
We’re insatiable. We’re ravenous. We’re obsessed with each other’s bodies, and I’m coming like thunder.
“Don’t stop!” I cry, squeezing my eyes.
My ass lifts, trying to take him deeper. He hits me again and again, and all at once, I’m gone, shooting over the ledge, diving off the cliff, flying through space. My stomach flips, and my brain ignites. My legs go rigid then shake with orgasm.
With one more thrust, he holds steady, his own moans shaky in my ear. His stomach quivers at my back, and I feel his cock deep inside me pulsing, releasing, climaxing.
We’re breathing hard, and now the water is cool compared to our skin.
The hand on my clit drifts higher to my belly, and he wraps me up in his arms once more. Leaning my head back, we float away on the most divine bliss.
“You haven’t eaten enough.” Zane is between my legs.
We’re back in the cottage, and I’ve just ridden his lap to orgasm for the first time. We came in with the idea we’d shower, get cleaned up, but when I bent over to pick up my yoga pants, something about my naked ass in the air led to his mouth on my pussy.
I am not complaining.
“I think I like riding your cock.” I’ve propped my elbows on his shoulders, and he’s lifting my breasts, kissing the tops and sliding his tongue around my nipples. It makes me moan. “You’re not going to convince me to eat doing that.”
“You have perfect breasts. Has anyone ever told you that?”
“No one has ever seen my breasts but you.”
A naughty grin slowly curls his lips before he lifts his eyes from my decolletage to my face. “It’s a shame no one else ever will. They really are art.”
Snorting a laugh, I lean forward to kiss him. “You’re crazy.”
“And you need to eat. We’ve been exercising vigorously all day, and you haven’t eaten since breakfast.” His dark brow arches. “What did you have for breakfast?”
“Yogurt and a half a banana.”
“Rachel.”
“I didn’t know I was going to have a day-long sexcapade! I thought I’d be finishing up decorating, maybe doing light water aerobics.”
He lifts me off his lap and slides his legs off the bed. “Don’t move. You’re not passing out in the shower again.”
“Yes, sir.” I do a little salute, giggling as he marches out of the cottage completely naked, his toned, muscular ass flexing with every step.
As soon as he’s gone, I sink into the fluffy pillows, pulling the blankets to my nose and grinning. I think about my mantras and how I’m supposed to focus on the journey. This is the best journey I’ve ever taken, and all I want to focus on is him.
My eyes slide closed and I think about his straight, white smile. I think about that dimple that only appears in his cheek when he’s really happy. I think about the lines in his strong back and sliding my fingers down them. I think about his powerful thighs, and how he carries me around as if I weigh nothing at all.
I don’t even realize I’ve fallen asleep until he lightly touches my cheek. “Is this a nap or something else?”
“Oh!” I sit up quickly, exhaling a little laugh. “I fell asleep thinking about you.”
“Good things, I hope.” He kisses my lips lightly before putting a tray on the bed and climbing in beside me.
“So many good things.” I kiss the side of his rounded shoulder.
The tray holds what looks like two pastrami sandwiches, two bottles of what I think is lemonade, a plastic container of quartered oranges, a jar of black olives, a sleeve of round wheat crackers, and a hunk of hard, yellow cheese.
“This is a very interesting lunch.” I shift in the bed, sitting on my feet. “It’s like something out of a Jane Austen novel. I feel like I should be in a field of wildflowers sipping champagne and wearing a hat with one of those chiffon veils.”
Zane’s brow furrows, and he studies the tray. “I wasn’t sure what you liked to eat. I guess I should’ve paid better attention. I know the fruit and the lemonade are sugary.”
“It’s the best kind of sugar, too.” I lean forward, picking up the plastic bowl. The fresh scent of oranges surrounds us when I open it. “Want some?”
I pop a wedge into my mouth and exhale a hum when the sweet juice splashes over my tongue. “Not bitter at all. ”
I hold a wedge to his full lips, and after a brief hesitation, he lets me slip it into his mouth. He grins, chewing, and that sexy muscle moves in his square jaw.
My shoulders drop, and I lean back against the pillows. “You are so handsome, Zane Bradford.” He exhales a grumpy sound, and I laugh. “I wish we could stay here all week. Wouldn’t that be amazing?”
“You’d need a lot more vitamin C if we did that.” He gives me a wink, and a thrill flutters in my stomach. “We both would.”
He hands me a bottle of lemonade, and I’m not sure how it’s possible I want to have sex with him again after four times in one day. I drink the sweet beverage wondering if sex is like this with every man or if you only get one man who makes you feel this horny all the time.
Or maybe I’m a nympho, and I never knew it until now?
“You’re doing it again.” His voice is low, ominous. “What are you thinking about?”
My eyes widen, and I blink fast as my brain scrambles for something other than I’m a nympho—or I never want to have sex with any man but him ever again.
“We should try Nuru massage.” His brow arches, and I chew my lip feeling shy. “Miss Gina kept talking about it, so I watched a video. It’s pretty hot.”
His eyes darken, and he holds another orange wedge to my lips. “I’m game if you are, but we’ll have to wait until tomorrow. It’s almost four.”
“Oh!” I jump off the bed. “We’ve got to get back for Edward.”
“He knows to walk down to the restaurant if nobody’s home.”
“I know, but I don’t want anyone to think I’m trying to make them babysit.”
“Nobody thinks that.” He carries the tray to the dresser as I jump in the shower. “I told you, we’re a community here. ”
I’m already in the shower, cleaning up. “I didn’t feed the kittens! He’s always asking about them, and I forgot!”
“The kittens are fine.” Zane peeks into the bathroom, fully dressed in his jeans and T-shirt. “I’ll feed Sky, and she’ll take care of her babies.”
“They’re eating solid food now, too!” I step out, grabbing a towel and quickly drying off.
“They’re also hunting mice.” He changes directions, walking to where I’m pulling on my underwear. “Eddie’s almost thirteen. I’m sure he’ll be okay a little longer.”
Standing up fast, I already recognize that look in his eyes. “As good as that sounds, I’d be worried about him the whole time.”
Leaning down, he kisses my lips. “We’ll be home in fifteen minutes.”