Chapter 12
Rafe
I woke with Lexi curled against my back; her knees drawn up. I looked at the clock, remembered that Leo had an early shift that day which meant that I had her all to myself. I kissed her awake. She touched my cheek and smiled.
“Good morning, handsome,” she said. Then she giggled. “That sounded so cheesy. I meant for it to be romantic.”
“Yeah, you’re right. Pathetic. I’m no longer attracted to you at all,” I said, sliding my hand down the slope of her breast and capturing her nipple in my fingertips.
I felt the goose bumps rise on her skin as a chill of arousal raced along her flesh.
I dipped my head and mouthed her breast, tasting the salt of her skin, the pebbled texture of her taut nipple as I scraped my tongue against it.
I loved the loud breath she dragged in, almost a comical sound, like a vacuum switching on. I laughed softly.
“What? Are my breasts funny?” she said, gasping a little, trying and failing to sound insulted.
“Not at all. They’re heaven. The sound you made when you took that big breath, it was like the noise of someone hoovering the carpet. That’s all.”
“Nice. You’re the best at pillow talk, Rafe,” she said sarcastically.
“What if I try less talk and more action?” I said.
“What if I make fun of the noises you make when my mouth is on you?” she countered. I felt myself harden at the thought of her sweet, soft lips surrounding the head of my cock.
I moved up her body, my lips against hers, licking into her mouth. I took her hands, laced our fingers together. “I need you again,” I said, my voice rough against her mouth as I caught her lower lip with the edge of my teeth. “Please.”
“I’m a little—,” she murmured.
“Sore?”
“Yeah,” she said, turning her face a little shyly.
“I love what we have together, all of us. The complete union of it, the fact that it’s this unbreakable—God, I don’t know, that sounds stupid when I say it out loud. I love you. If you’ll have me, I’ll—,”
“I’ll always have you, Rafe. Here, in the kitchen, in the laundry room, across the hood of your car.
You can’t doubt that now. You brought me back to life, both of you, and I’d walk through hell for you.
So asking me to take you into my body again, that’s what I want.
I want to give you everything. Maybe then you’ll understand how deep this goes,” she said.
I took a long breath, swallowed hard because my throat felt tight all at once. I pulled her up into my arms and held her for a moment.
“I need you, too,” she said, “in case you wondered.”
I could taste the yearning in her kiss, could feel that she needed a tender joining.
It had been easy for me to take her with passionate frenzy.
To go slower, to be tender and vulnerable would be a challenge.
I shied away from it at first. I was a man who had sex, a man who fucked. Not a man who made love.
But I remembered vowing I’d do anything if only Lexi came back, if only she survived the attempt on her life.
If she could come back from an overdose, from being poisoned, then I could find the courage to be softer, more open with her.
I brushed her hair back from her face, caressed her cheek.
I banked my own desire, held it back, certain that I could control myself for her sake.
For the sake of the closeness I wanted with her.
Lexi dipped her head, kissed my neck. I liked it, liked it well enough that my first instinct was to growl, to roll her onto her back and spread her legs.
I had to take it slow, to make this different but no less pleasurable.
So I let her kiss my neck as I rubbed slow circles on her bare back, the ends of her hair tickling the back of my hand.
Gradually, I moved her across me so she was lying on top of me.
When she looked up from kissing my shoulder I could see understanding flicker across her face.
She blushed a pretty pink that made me want to tease her about all the naughty things we’d already done.
Instead, I trailed my fingers lightly down her stomach and smiled up at her.
I wasn’t used to building anticipation, putting off my own satisfaction. I traced my hand down her side, into the curve of her waist and watched her wriggle a little and smile.
“You were the opposite of what I expected, you know? When I met you, you were this sensitive, protective guy and then in bed you’re so alpha, so fierce and in control.
I like you both ways. You don’t have to be anything else for me,” she said.
She was sitting on top of me, totally naked, and I felt like I was the one exposed the way she saw my thoughts and knew what I needed to hear.
“I’m not being someone else. I’m being what you need, which is all I want.”
“I just want you. However you’ll have me,” she said, like it was the most obvious thing in the world.
Lexi rose up on her knees, smiling at me like the cat that got the cream. I fisted my cock and fed it into her as she lowered her lush hips over me. Her lower lip drooped as she gasped. I filled her, felt her spread her legs more to try to adjust to my thickness.
“Yeah, take it, take it all,” I hissed, trying to hold myself under control when I wanted to rut in her hard and fast.
“Aahhh,” she said, eyes big and dark. She rolled her lips under, bit them. Her hands rested on my chest and she started to rock on me, moving my shaft inside her, hitting all those places that made her squirm.
I could tell she liked the control, got off a little on setting the pace even though it was killing me.
She rolled her hips, her beautiful breasts rising and falling with every stroke.
She panted as it got harder to breathe. I stroked her breasts, her thighs and hips, tried to keep it as leisurely as I could, but I was on the edge.
I flexed my hips up to meet her down stroke and filled her all the way.
That earned me a moan from her kiss-swollen lips.
Softly, I reminded myself, because she was sore, and because she needed intimacy from me sometimes, not just wild passion.
I pushed myself up until I was sitting with her in my lap.
I wrapped my arms around her, pulling her close and rocking with her, kissing behind her ear, down her neck.
“I love you, Lexi,” I whispered.
“I love you, and I love it when you whisper, when you touch me like this. It’s—it’s too much,” she said, turning her face. I saw a tear track down her cheek, and I kissed it.
“Don’t cry, baby. This is what you have now, and what you deserve. I’m not letting you go. Neither of us ever would. I want you to stay forever,” I said, my voice ragged as I moved inside the hot satin of her passage.
“Oh!” she said, burying her face in my neck and rocking harder against me, my cock trapped inside her.
I flattened my palm on her back, cupped her head with the other hand and kissed her hair as she came in long clenching rolls around me.
I gritted my teeth against it. As the last flutters of her orgasm subsided, Lexi started kissing my neck, grazing my throat with her teeth lightly, giving me an edge to the pleasure that wound me up like she knew it would.
Until I rolled her onto her back and stroked into her, getting the friction I needed from her tightness, the pleasure of her nipples rubbing my chest as I lay above her.
I climaxed, shoulders shaking as I held myself up.
I kissed her forehead after I came, then leaned my forehead against hers.
When I rolled onto my side, I held her in my arms. We napped together, wrapped up in each other.
When I woke, she was shaking me, “Are you okay?” she said.
“Yeah, yeah. Why?”
“You were making some noise in your sleep, acting like something was wrong.”
“It was just a dream,” I said dismissively, rubbing my hands over my face.
It had been another dream about Watts, a dream where we didn’t get to her in time. It was good to have her arms around me, reminding me she was fine, that she was healthy and whole, and we hadn’t lost her.
“I wish I’d been there,” I said finally. “When Leo confronted Watts at the store. I would’ve beaten the hell out of him. I wouldn’t have let up either, not until he was dead. He never could’ve hurt you again.”
“Don’t. Don’t say that. You’d be in jail, and I would’ve lost my job.”
“Let’s have a shower and go spar for a little bit, since it got cut short last time.”
“I don’t know if I have the strength. I’ve got two sex gods putting me through my paces in the bedroom, Rafe. I may not be up to sparring.”
“You’ve got to build up your endurance. You’ve got two men to satisfy now. We’ll let you rest—a little—but we both crave you too much. Go take a bath, get dressed,” I said.
“Okay, but you’re a total slave driver. I don’t want abs, I told you that. I just want to be able to defend myself if I have to.”
“So we’ll practice that. Although I want some stakes to fight for. If I get you in a hold you can’t escape using techniques I’ve taught you, then you’ll have to give me something.”
“Are we talking breakfast in bed or like fifty push-ups?” she said dubiously.
“I’d consider a kiss as payment.”
“So what about you? When I get away and prove that I’m a badass, what do I get?”
“Bragging rights. And maybe I’ll do push-ups with my shirt off. I know you like that.”
“That’s a deal,” she said, shaking my hand.
At the gym, I couldn’t believe how much she’d improved.
Since the first time I’d worked with her when she was shy and anxious, she’d changed so much, gained such confidence, both in and out of the sparring ring.
In and out of bed, as well. She escaped hold after hold, ducking under my elbow, striking at my nose and my ears.
I was proud, but I mainly loved the flush of pride on her face, knowing she got away from me whenever I tried to attack.
“Push-ups!” she commanded, pointing at the mat.
I yanked my shirt over my head as Leo came in. “Ooh, are we doing it here now? Should I go tell the people in the locker rooms to leave?”
“Nah,” she said. “I bested him at sparring finally. So he owes me shirtless push-ups. We have a deal.”
“Want me to give you a shoulder rub or anything while you enjoy the show?” Leo said, “Or I can rub anything else you’d like.”
“Maybe not right now,” Lexi said. “I have push-ups to count. I have a feeling he’d try to cheat me out of some reps.”
“Hey, I’m a personal trainer. You’re insulting my professional integrity,” I said as I positioned my palms on the mat.
“Whatever get to work,” Leo chuckled, his arm slung around Lexi’s shoulders.
They kept roasting my form and miscounting on purpose until I finally doubled over laughing and gave up. The three of us went out for dinner, burgers and shakes, to offset all that healthy exercise according to Lexi.