Chapter 24
“I didn’t know what I was missing before. But now I do. Holy mer-cow.” ~ Dakota
Dakota
R hett’s arm around my waist tightens as he snuggles into my back.
“Did you just smell my hair?”
“It smells of strawberries.”
“I’ll take your answer as ‘yes, I’m a weirdo who smells girls’ hair’.”
“Not any girl. Only you.”
Warmth spreads throughout my body at his words. Only me. Little old me. Poor with a broken down car and more debt than any one person can pay off in a lifetime.
“I’m not with you for your money.” The words burst from me before my brain can go online and tell me to shut up.
“What?”
I slap a hand over my mouth. No more talking from me.
He rolls me over until we’re facing each other and brushes the hair off of my face. “Dakota, I know you’re not with me for my money.”
“I know. I know. I don’t know where those words came from.”
He frowns. “I do. You find it difficult to trust men after what happened with your former husband.”
“Dead husband,” I correct. Former husband sounds too nice considering what he did. How he screwed me from the afterlife. I hope he’s enjoying hell.
“Considering what your dead husband did, it’s normal for you to have trust issues.”
I sigh. “I hate it. I hate how stupid I was. How na?ve I was. He catfished me, and I told him I loved him.”
Rhett growls. “That’s the last time you say you loved your dead husband when you’re in bed with me.”
My eyes widen in confusion. “Are you mad?”
He blows out a breath. “I’m not mad.”
If he’s not mad, then why did he growl? There’s only one other reason I can think of. But it can’t be true. I ask anyway. “Are you jealous?”
He scowls.
I point to his face. “That’s not no. Holy bananas, you’re jealous.”
“I don’t enjoy the idea of anyone else touching what’s mine.”
“What’s yours? I don’t belong to you.”
He captures my hand and places it against his heart. “I belong to you, so it’s only fair if you belong to me.”
“Y-y-you belong to me?”
“I don’t want anyone else. Just you.”
“You want to be exclusive?”
“Hell, yeah, I do. I don’t want any other men touching you.”
I giggle. “No other men want to touch me.”
He frowns. “Every other man on the beach yesterday wanted you.”
I roll my eyes. “Exaggerate much?”
His gaze dips to my chest. “You were running around in a wet swimsuit that clung to all of your delicious curves. I’m not exaggerating.”
“Delicious curves? No one’s claimed my curves are delicious before.”
“You weren’t speaking to the right people.”
I can’t argue with him there. Adam was not the right man. I blame myself for the entire fiasco. I was terrified when I left care. I had two hundred dollars and a bus pass to my name and nowhere to live. I jumped at the chance to move in with him.
I caress Rhett’s chest and his heartbeat speeds up in response. A sense of power fills me. It gives me the strength I need to continue the conversation.
“You said exclusive.”
He nods. “I did.”
“Does this mean we’re in a relationship?”
He squeezes my hand. “Havoc, I’ve wanted to be in a relationship with you since the night in our hotel room in Atlanta.”
“You have?”
“But I knew you were scared. It was pretty obvious when you fled the hotel room and jumped on the first flight out of Atlanta.”
“It wasn’t the first flight.”
He grins. “And then you refused to date me.”
“You stalked me and wouldn’t let me say no.”
He shrugs. “I know what I want. I’m not letting you slip through my fingers.”
My heart pounds in my chest. He’s saying all the right things, but I can’t believe him. I can’t trust him. I can’t trust myself to make the right choice when it comes to men. See aforementioned dead husband who enjoyed hookers a little too much.
Rhett palms my face. “It’s okay. I’ll wait until you’re ready.”
He’s always waiting for me. At some point, he’s going to get tired of waiting. And then I’ll lose out on the best thing to ever happen to me. I open my mouth and leap.
“I’m ready.”
“You are?”
I nod. “Yes. I’m ready to be in an exclusive relationship with you.”
I lock my muscles to stop myself from jumping off of the bed and running away, never to return to this room or hotel or island ever again. I can do this. I’ve done more difficult things.
Rhett’s smile stretches from ear to ear. “There’s my brave girl. I think I should reward you.”
Tingles explode at his deep voice. “Reward me how?”
“I want to taste you.”
I bite my bottom lip. I haven’t let him go down on me as I find the act too intimate. It sounds weird since he’s been inside me and we’re lying here naked together, but oral sex is different. It requires a different level of trust to open yourself wide to a man and let him lick you.
“Okay.”
He chuckles. “You’re supposed to feel excitement, not trepidation. I can wait to taste you.”
“I want to try.”
He studies my face for a moment before nodding. “Okay, but if at any time you feel uncomfortable, tell me to stop and I will.”
“Do we need a safe word?”
“A safe word?”
“What about chicken?”
He narrows his eyes. “Are you seriously making fun of my relationship with Captain Cluck now?”
I cough to hide my smile. “You have a relationship with a chicken?”
He tickles my ribs. “Make fun of me, will you?”
“Stop! Stop!” I manage to say between my bursts of laughter.
He rolls on top of me. “You’re beautiful, Havoc.”
I feel beautiful when he looks at me as if he can’t believe he’s in this bed with me. It’s the most empowering feeling I’ve ever experienced.
“You ready to come for me?”
I bite my lip. I’ve never orgasmed during oral sex before. “Maybe.”
“Challenge accepted,” Rhett murmurs, his voice thick with promise. He slides down my body, his breath warm against my skin, until his face hovers between my thighs. He inhales deeply. “Strawberries.”
A shiver runs through me as his hands glide up and down my inner thighs, slow and deliberate. “Widen for me, Havoc.”
I exhale and remind myself this is Rhett – the man who sees me, who thinks I’m beautiful. The man who’s given me more pleasure in two encounters than Adam did in an entire year. I part my thighs.
“Good girl.” His voice is a low rumble as he settles between my thighs, his broad shoulders pressing them wider.
Then, his tongue flicks over my clit and a bolt of pleasure shoots through me. Oh. My. God. Maybe I was wrong about oral sex.
He wraps his lips around my clit and sucks, and my back arches off the bed as if pulled by an unseen force. Rhett chuckles before pressing an arm over my waist to hold me in place.
A teasing finger traces my entrance as his tongue works me over, sending waves of heat rolling through my belly. I need more. I need him inside me.
“Rhett,” I moan. I sound desperate. I feel desperate.
His lips curl into a smirk against my skin. “Something you want?”
A shiver racks my body. Holy sex gods. Rhett knows exactly what he’s doing.
“You. I want you.”
“I’m right here, Havoc,” he murmurs, but his fingers remain maddeningly still.
“Stop teasing me.”
“Tell me what you want.”
My breath hitches. “Your fingers.”
The words barely leave my lips before he thrusts two fingers deep inside me. A strangled gasp escapes me as he works them in and out, matching the rhythm of his tongue on my clit.
“I can’t… I’m…” My words slip away as my thoughts unravel. All that matters is this moment.
“Come for me.” Rhett’s voice is a rough command against my skin, and I shatter, pleasure crashing over me in relentless waves.
He doesn’t stop. Not until I’m nothing but a boneless heap against the sheets, the last tingles of my orgasm ebbing into blissful exhaustion. I was definitely wrong about oral sex.
I manage a breathless, “We’re doing that again.”
Rhett chuckles. “I’ve created a monster.”