Chapter 33
Chapter Thirty-Three
RHETT
Carys sits on the island’s counter, her feet dangling several feet off the ground, her arms wrapped around her stomach, when I drop my bag just inside the garage door and cross the room to her.
“What’s wrong?” I ask, pulling her into my arms. She breathes in a shuddering breath without reaching for me or wrapping her arms around my waist like she always does. I slowly ease away from her, tucking her hair behind her ear. “Carys?”
She smiles. “Your morning skate was okay?”
It’s a deflection, but I don’t push her on it.
She’ll tell me when she’s ready, especially if it’s something to do with how Paxton has been jumpy the last twelve hours or so, flinching and scenting from something clearly happening in one of his bonds.
I kiss her temple and ease around the island, grabbing the protein shake I’d made this morning and drinking it down.
She eases to her feet, her hand gripping the counter as she leans a hip against it, while I slowly wash out the the cup and place it in the dishwasher.
“Billie’s back,” she says.
She might as well have pulled the pin on a grenade and set it on the island. I whirl around, my eyes wide, my scent exploding around me with my shock.
“What?”
She flinches, her teeth digging into her bottom lip. “She came to the shop right before I closed and asked if we could talk. So I took her back to the apartment.”
She carefully edges the neckline of her henley down and twists away from me enough I can see her back.
There’s long scratches covering her shoulders and upper back, deep welts that were definitely made my nails.
I’d know those types of welts anywhere, even if she tends to scratch up my scalp rather than my shoulders.
Not all women do, though, some grab shoulders and sides and sometimes even hands.
It’s easy enough to picture it, Carys’s face between Billie’s legs, her eyes wide with nerves but hot with interest.
A low growl rises in my throat, rumbling through my chest at the thought. She fixes the shirt and turns back to me, tears lining her lashes as she swallows heavily.
“She said she doesn’t want to tell anybody, that she doesn’t want anyone to know that she’s come back,” she says, the words rushing out of her like wind out of a sail.
Her scent snaps out from her, edged in her fear and worry.
“I didn’t get a chance to talk to her about anything, really.
She’s still wearing her ring, though. Does that mean she’s planning on staying?
I should have asked her that before she…
we…” She makes a noise in her throat. Well, that would explain Paxton’s twitchiness.
Fuck, that must have been a trip, feeling both of their pleasure while trying to focus on the game.
“And now I’ve made out with both of them, have slept with both of them, and I don’t know what to do, and they’re probably both going to be fucking pissed and—”
“Carys, enough.” My voice is nothing but a low bark full of command. She sucks in a startled breath, her mouth snapping shut. “You need to breathe, baby girl. Breathe for me.”
Carys’s entire body shakes, her eyes wild like a caged and cornered animal.
I don’t try and close the distance between us, not entirely sure she won’t run out of here the minute I attempt to touch her.
Even at her most vulnerable, when she was straddling Paxton, her heat so painful she was still crying despite being knotted and bonded, she hadn’t seemed this…
delicate. One sharp word, and she’ll probably crumble.
“I just keep messing everything up. First I make out with him, ready and willing to knot him in his car, so much so that he’s the one who has to stop it to keep the lines we agreed on,” she whispers.
The tears spill over, falling in long lines down her cheeks and over her chin.
Some fall onto her blouse while others make it all the way to the floor.
“And now he doesn’t even know she’s back.
He doesn’t know, and I have bruises on my legs from… ”
She sucks in a gasp and the tears fall even faster.
My restraint collapses. I palm her cheeks as I step into her, moving her until she’s pressed against the kitchen’s island and my hips are wedged against her belly.
My erection sits hot and heavy against her belly button.
Her breathing stutters as she feels it, her scent flashing around us raw and unfiltered before the tang of her fear warps it again.
“You’re not messing anything up.”
She shakes her head. “I am, Rhett. I—”
I kiss her, holding her chin in place when she tries to duck away.
It takes nearly a full minute for the distressed edge of her scent to fade away.
When it does, I end the kiss. I don’t pull away from her, though, instead keeping my body pressed flush with hers, my arms caging her in against the counter.
Her cheeks are a deep red, and her pupils are blown wide.
Orchid weaves around us, mingling with my own lemongrass in a blend that’s literal perfection.
“Carys,” I whisper, “do you feel this?”
Her pulse flutters in her throat, so fast it’s practically a hummingbird. “Your dick?”
Said dick twitches at the way her lips wrap around the word. Her flush darkens even more, trailing down her neck. I want to follow it, trace it with my lips and then my tongue, but I force myself still.
Stay focused, James.
“Not just that,” I say with a smirk.
She starts to say something, but I cut her off before I can actually get derailed.
“Do you feel the way I can’t keep my hands off of you? The way I need you pressed up against me to be able to think halfway straight?” I lace my fingers with hers and then kiss the back of her hand. “Do you feel the way I’ll need you until I’m dead and in the ground?”
Her eyes grow glassy with tears again.
“You’re not messing any of this up, baby girl,” I say, filling the words with every ounce of devotion in my body. “Not between us.”
Her lips tremble. “It feels like I am. It…” She sucks in a breath and then closes her eyes, a single tear dropping down her cheek. “I’m scared I’m going to end up alone because I keep making the wrong choices.”
I wipe the tear away. “Baby girl, I’m not going anywhere, all right?” I wait until her eyes are open again. “Whether you fuck Billie every night for the rest of our lives, or we have to move to Sweden to get away from them both, I’m here with you.”
She flinches just a fraction, and I squeeze her fingers tighter.
I let my teeth scrape across her delicate skin.
Her breath catches a moment before her scent washes over me, drowning me more effectively than any ocean.
I wrap my arm around her, soaking in her feel and scent and warmth.
My purr kicks up. She slowly relaxes, her racing heart slowing. She presses her lips to my chest.
Eventually, I break the silence. “What do you want to do?”
She wraps her hands around me, pressing her palms flat to my back. Her scent pushes out from her in a new wave, and I swallow a moan.
“Bond you,” she says.
Heat races down my spine and straight to my dick, and I groan.
“Baby girl.”
“I mean it.” She tips her head up. Her eyes are bright, the desperate, panicked edge to her expression gone. “I want you.”
Without another word, I wrap my arm around her waist and lift her onto the counter.
“Here?” I ask, palming her knees and spreading them so they bracket my thighs.
Two sets of denim means I can’t feel her heat, but I still grind into her, relishing the way her breath catches.
Her pupils dilate, and her breathing speeds.
I kiss her, soaking in her taste and feel.
“You want my bite while laid out on my counter like the best goddamn breakfast I could ever have?”
She shivers.
“Every time I walk into this room, it’s all I’ll ever be able to think about.
” I run my lips up her throat before lighting nipping just under her left ear.
“No matter what I’m supposed to be doing, all I’ll be able to envision is you splayed out on this island, your back arching as I kn0t you and claim you at the same time. You want that?”
“Yes,” she breathes.
It only takes me a minute to strip her out of her clothes, all of them landing in a heap behind me.
There’s more scratches up her back, some of them deep enough to have drawn small drops of blood that have scabbed over.
I run my lips over one that runs across her shoulder. Jesus, Billie’s aggressive in bed.
Carys whines as she claws at my shirt, desperate enough she’s seconds from tearing it, and I take it off.
It falls with the rest of clothing. Her hands are soft but confident as she wraps them around my dick, pushing down my jeans until they’re around my knees.
She licks her lips, and I groan, keeping her from replacing her hands with her mouth.
“Not if you want my knot, baby girl,” I admit sheepishly. “I haven’t had you in over a day. This’ll be over too soon if you get your mouth on me.”
She pouts but doesn’t argue, pulling her hands away to trace up my stomach, drawing over each indentation and scar on my skin.
I palm her knee as I run the head of my dick along her slick opening, relishing the way she sucks in a breath and then more slick drenches her thighs and me.
I sink into her in one quick, hard slide, my eyes locked on where I disappear inside her.
She moans, her head falls back, and she clenches around me tighter than a damn fist.
I ease her knee onto my shoulder, forcing the angle deeper, my pace rougher.
She shivers, her scent pulsing out from her with each thrust, the walls of her cunt quivering around me like she doesn’t want to let me leave.
God, I love how responsive she is, how much confidence she’s gained since I had her that first time.
She kisses me before falling back on her elbow as the angle becomes too intense.
“You good?” I ask.
She nods, her pupils entirely blown out.
She takes my hand and guides it to her clit, rolling her hips into me.
I slowly flick it, drawing circles around it, relishing how her chest flushes and her nipples draw up tight.
I let her knee drop as the heat centers in the base of my spine and twist my hand into her hair, guiding her head to the side so I can kiss just under her left ear.
“You’re sure?” I ask, fighting back my release.
“Yes.” It’s a ragged whisper against my shoulder.
I press down on her clit, pinching it slightly, and she moans, her back arching with the orgasm.
I bite her in the next second, a heartbeat before I shove my knot into her and fall over the ledge myself, the release blasting through my legs and making it almost impossible to keep standing.
I grab the counter in a desperate grasp to keep from collapsing altogether.
Her breath catches, and then her teeth are cutting into my chest, just above my flat nipple.
All at once, my sensations double, pleasure intensifying under my skin until I’m pretty sure it’s all I’ll ever be able to feel.
It takes several minutes before I’m able to form any words at all. Before I do, I carefully wrap my arms around her waist, taking all of her weight as she comes down from the double orgasm. She shivers as I run my lips up and down her throat, delicately avoiding the bleeding marks.
“I love you,” I whisper against her skin.
She shivers. I feel it before she says it, a warm thread weaving between my ribs, like it’s stitching me together.
“I love you, too.”