Chapter 13 #2
What were they doing? Why did it feel as if everything was already out of control? Because it was? Her body was too tense. Her nerves on edge. She should not say… “Yes. Touch me.” But she did. All husky and breathy and such a mistake.
But she said the words.
Because it was Nash. In bed with her. Not a dream. A reality. And with the madness around her, she wanted to grab tight to him. Correction, she had grabbed tightly to him. She still held his hand.
“Show me where you want my touch.” That deep, dark, tempting rumble again.
She bit her lower lip. And she eased his hand down.
“Delaney.” A savage snarl that held hunger and desire.
She pushed his fingers under the elastic edge of the cotton shorts that she wore.
“Fuck, baby, fuck.”
His big fingers eased under her panties. He pushed down, moving his hand between her thighs. His right hand was between her thighs, and his left shoved the covers out of his way as he edged ever closer to her.
She eased back onto her pillow. Stared up at the dark ceiling above her. His big hand was between her legs. His thumb stroked her clit. Slid over it again and again. Dragged over it.
“You’re getting wet for me.”
She bit her lower lip harder. She was wet for him. It was so easy to get turned on for him, when it had been hard with others. Almost as if he’d marked her body. Trained her to respond quickly to him.
“I’m fucking rock hard for you. You breathe, and I get this way.”
She was breathing quickly. Her body had tensed. He was strumming her clit, over and over. Possessive, commanding strokes even as one finger pushed inside of her.
Her head tipped back against the pillow. She stopped biting her lower lip as a moan slipped from her.
“You are so fucking tight.”
He eased his finger out. Pushed it back in. Dragged his thumb over her clit.
Her legs had stiffened. Her sex seemed to hunger. To need. Empty and it wanted to be filled. She wanted him inside of her.
His finger sank into her again. “So tight.” That wicked thumb didn’t stop strumming her clit. “Let’s get you to take two.” Another finger worked inside of her. Stretching her. Sending surges of pleasure pulsing through her.
Her eyes squeezed shut. Her body was on a razor’s edge.
The covers rustled. His left hand yanked down her shorts. Her panties. And then he was between her legs. She didn’t see him, Delaney kept her eyes closed, but she could feel him.
“You’re wet and you’re hot, and you’re going to come for me, aren’t you?”
Yes, she was. She could feel her orgasm bearing down on her. Closer and closer. All from a touch. Those wicked fingers, working her. Owning her.
“I like touching you with my hands, Delaney. I like feeling your heat. Your softness. Your desire.” In and out, his fingers went. And that thumb never stopped as he caressed her clit. “But I like touching you with my mouth, too.”
Her eyes flew open at his words. Too late. His mouth was already on her. She looked down, seeing the shadowy darkness of his head and hair. Seeing him between her spread thighs even as she felt the warm, wet lick of his tongue against her clit.
There was no stopping. There was no holding back. She was too desperate. Too at the end of her rope and too hungry for Nash. She didn’t push him away. Her hands grabbed onto him. They sank into the thickness of his hair even as her hips slammed up against him.
He licked and sucked, and he had her twisting and heaving beneath him.
He worked her with his tongue. His fingers.
Those fingers were sliding into her even as he tasted her and kissed her, and the feel of his wicked, skillful tongue on her clit was too much for her.
She climaxed. Hard. A sharp cry burst from her lips as the orgasm ripped through her. A heaving, surging release that pounded and pounded through her body. Pulsing and quaking. Firing her veins with pleasure as she struggled to catch her breath.
A release so powerful that she screamed for him. So good that tears leaked from her eyes. So intense that her whole body quivered.
Pleasure. Pleasure with Nash.
Her breath heaved in and out.
Footsteps thundered. Outside the bedroom. Footsteps that were coming up the stairs. Footsteps that were flying toward them. Toward their room.
Nash’s head whipped up. “Fuck!”
She blinked at him.
He lunged from the bed. Nash paused only long enough to throw the covers over her, and then he rushed for the door. He ripped it open.
She yanked those covers to her chin. Through the open doorway, she had a sudden, fast image of Ryan’s frowning face.
Oh. My. God.
“I heard screaming,” Ryan began.
She had screamed. Oh, no. Delaney yanked the covers over her head as embarrassment swallowed her whole.
“Go away, Ryan.”
“But I heard screaming—oh.” Ryan winced.
Nash glared at him. Nash jerked the bedroom door completely closed behind him. No need for Ryan to even peek inside that room.
Ryan tugged at his collar. “I would like to point out that there was an attack here not too long ago.”
Nash crossed his arms over his chest.
“So when I heard a scream, I naturally bounded into action. Like the heroic individual that I am.”
“Go away, Ryan.”
“How the hell was I supposed to know you were—uh. Shit.” Ryan spun on his heel. His steps hurried toward the stairs, but then he paused. Glancing back, Ryan asked, “Does this mean you’re getting a second chance with her?”
He had no idea what it meant.
I can still taste her. She came apart for me.
“If it’s a second chance, don’t screw it up.”
“Working on that,” Nash muttered as he watched his brother vanish down the stairs. He didn’t go back in the bedroom, not until he couldn’t hear Ryan’s footsteps any longer. Then he turned back, opened the door, and slipped inside.
Darkness still reigned in the bedroom. But his eyes had always adjusted easily to the darkness. He made his way to the bed, pausing to ditch his shoes and socks. To toss away his shirt and jeans. Wearing only his boxers, he slid into the bed.
A mound of covers waited to the right. Delaney, bundled up. He stared at the mound. Wondered what to say.
The covers mumbled, “Is he gone?”
“Yeah, sweetheart, he is.”
The covers slowly lowered. Delaney turned to peer at him. “I’m not afraid of your touch.”
She’d gone molten beneath his hands. Certainly hadn’t felt like fear.
“I don’t respond the same way to other people that I do to you.” A stark confession from her.
Good. I don’t want you ever responding like that to anyone but me. “Same,” he said. It was true. He’d never wanted anyone the way he wanted her.
Nash could feel her eyes on him. “You should get some sleep,” he said. “0600 isn’t far away. You need to rest up before we put on the big show.”
The covers rustled. He grabbed a sheet. Part of the comforter. Hauled them over his body.
“Nash…you didn’t…”
“No, I didn’t.” His dick was heavy and aching, and he would love nothing more than to drive into her and erupt. To feel her tight heat clenching around him as he pounded his way to paradise.
But this time was going to be different. He was going to be different. This time with Delaney wasn’t about a quick fuck. It was about forever.
“Do you want to?” Soft. Husky.
The hell, yes. He pulled in a breath. “I will want you until I die.”
“Then…why…?”
Why was he holding back? Clinging to his self-control with bare-knuckled desperation? Excellent question.
“Why did you leave me?” Delaney asked. “If you still want me, if you wanted me then, why did you throw us away?”
Fuck. The million-dollar question. A secret he’d buried. And if he opened his mouth, if he revealed all to her now, it would hurt her more. He didn’t want to hurt Delaney any more than she’d already been hurt.
Bullshit. You’re just afraid if she hears the full truth, she’ll run from you. Open your damn mouth and tell her. Tell her.
The silence had stretched too long. He knew it. Could feel it ticking past as he tried to find the right words. But there were no right words in this situation.
“I will never, ever throw you away,” he swore softly.
“I plan to stay by your side. I will help apprehend Wellington. I am not going to leave him out there. I will not let him hurt you.” A promise that he meant to the depths of his soul.
“I…” Fuck. “I missed you.” Even softer. “I thought about you every single day.” The nights had been the worst. How many times had he reached for her, but Delaney had not been there?
“I want another chance.” There. Done. Said.
“I can prove that I won’t ever let you down again.
I can prove that I am the man you need now.
” No threats would take him away. He wouldn’t be forced from her side again.
But she said nothing.
His heart seemed to squeeze in his chest. “Delaney?” Her breathing had changed. Softer. Steadier. He didn’t move at all as he strained to listen to her, and Nash realized that she’d fallen asleep in their bed. He’d waited too long to speak.
He angled his body closer to hers. “I didn’t want to leave you.
” Whispered. “It was like cutting out my own heart. But lives were on the line. People would have gotten hurt. Killed.” Back then, he hadn’t possessed enough power to fight back.
Now, he did. Now, he’d fight like hell and never, ever stop.
“I watched you over the years. I had to find you. Just see you every now and then. And when I’d see you with another man, it took all of me not to annihilate the bastard. ” What did that say about him?
That I could never fully let go. That I always thought of Delaney as mine.
He still thought of her that way.
He wanted to reach out and touch her, but Delaney needed her rest. The coming days would not be easy, but he would get her through them. They would stop Wellington.
And Nash would finally marry the woman of his dreams.
Even if the wedding was just pretend.