CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR
REAVER
The world is quiet for what seems like the first time in centuries. Or maybe it’s just my mind that has finally quieted.
It’s not the kind of quiet that means there’s nothing left, but rather the good kind, the kind that wraps around you like a warm blanket on a winter morning.
The kind that hums with the vibrance of a new and exciting life underneath it.
A heartbeat, slow and steady, with a strength that gives you hope.
Coming back to Las Vegas, and to a normal life after Themis’ warning, seems almost anticlimactic.
I want to confront Pesta and watch her be imprisoned, but Michael insisted that that was a bad idea, and Kennedy gave me a look that begged me to stay with her.
That look was really what did it. I couldn’t give a flying fuck what Michael said, but Kennedy’s eyes begged me to stay.
So, I stayed, or rather, we stayed.
I’m still trying to wrap my head around everything that happened.
Looking down at the woman who went through hell for me, I’m taken aback by her beauty.
She’s curled up against me, head tucked under my chin, hair spilling over my chest in soft, tangled waves.
My arm is around her waist, fingers tracing lazy circles over her bare skin.
We barely made it two steps into my apartment, the one Asher insisted on keeping “just in case you came back”, before we were tearing each other’s clothes off.
We’ve made love so many times over the past two days that I lost count, but even still, looking at her, I can feel my cock growing hard.
When she stretches and presses her body against mine, I cannot help the low growl I let out before I press a kiss into her hair. “You awake, sunshine?”
“Mmm. Maybe.” Her voice is still husky from sleep, vibrating against my skin. When she stretches again, she slides her leg over mine and effectively destroys any lingering trace of self-control. “Were you watching me sleep?”
“Guilty,” I confess as I roll us until she’s beneath me, her hands braced against my shoulders, hair spread out like a halo across the pillow. For a moment, we just look at each other, two survivors who somehow made it through every kind of hell the universe could throw at us.
She tilts her head, eyes half-open, a sleepy smile on her lips. “I love this,” she says with a wicked smile as she rocks her hips, allowing my rock-hard cock to slide between her already wet folds.
I drop my head onto her shoulder and just revel in the feeling of her body against mine. “We may never leave this room again,” I moan out as I rock my hips and position myself at her entrance.
“I’d be perfectly okay with that,” she whispers as she wraps her legs around me, pushing me forward. We both let out a pleasure-filled moan as I sink into her.
Her pussy is tight and welcoming, and I nearly come as she tightens her muscles around me. “Fuck,” I breathe out. “Are you sore?” I ask because all I want to do is at this moment is thrust into her.
“A little,” she confesses. “But not enough to ever consider stopping.”
It starts softly, slowly, like we’re testing that this is real, that there’s no demon army waiting outside, no goddess ready to smite us.
Her hands slide into my hair, nails grazing my scalp, pulling me closer.
The world narrows to the taste of her, the heat of her, the breathless sound that escapes when I break away to trace kisses down her neck.
“Good,” I say, grabbing her hips and rolling us so she’s straddling me, my cock buried deep inside her. “I want to watch you ride me,” I add, gripping her hips and reveling in her beauty.
My gaze never leaves hers as she smiles and places her hands on my scarred chest for balance as she lifts her hips until I nearly slip out of her. When she slowly slides down my length, it takes everything in me not to thrust up into her and take her hard.
I grit my teeth as she repeats the move several more times, her head falling back as she takes pleasure from me.
When she starts to speed up, I grip her hips and meet her thrust for thrust. Sweat trickles down between her breasts, stilling her hips.
I sit up and trace my tongue along its path, stopping to suck a pert nipple into my mouth.
My cock is throbbing, begging for release, yet I want to savor every moment with her.
I have a primal need to memorize every curve, every detail, every taste, not because I’ll ever leave her again, but so I can dream of this moment for the rest of my life.
“Reaver.” She pants my name as she slides my cock in and out of her. I’m completely lost to this woman as she picks up speed, both of us racing for release. I feel her walls tighten and pulse around me just before I spill everything I have into her.
“Fuck, Kennedy,” I breathe out, pressing my lips to hers as her pussy milks out every drop I have.
Wrapping my arms around her, I hold her tightly to my chest. Both of us are covered in sweat, breathing rapidly as we slowly come down from our shared high.
“I will never tire of you. I hope you know that,” I whisper in her ear.
“God, I hope not, because I have no plans to waltz back into Hell anytime soon.”
I pull her back down onto the bed, my cock still inside her. We stay silent, wrapped in each other’s arms for a while, everything unhurried, no more battles to fight, no apocalypse looming. Just us, tangled sheets, and the soft, rhythmic snore of a dog who’s made herself at home.
Both of us turn to look at the little stray mutt I pulled from certain death. Ember is snoring, belly-up in her ridiculous new dog bed. That thing cost more than most hotel rooms, but Kennedy insisted, “If she survived Hell, she deserves memory foam.” Hard to argue with logic like that.
“How do you suppose she got herself into the underworld?” Kennedy asks, and truth be told, I’ve been wondering that myself since I found her.
“I have no idea, but she wouldn’t have lasted long.” I spare Kennedy the gory details that if I hadn’t found her when I did, something would have made her into a snack, and that just didn’t sit right with me.
When we returned to The Firehouse, I was happy that Gabriel found her and brought her to safety.
The moment I walked in, her little head popped up, and when she realized it was me, she ran over, wagging her tail and jumping up.
I had both Hades and Asher look her over.
I wouldn’t want to bring a hellhound to a vet, but both assured me she’s just a regular dog. Not a hellhound, just one lucky mutt.
Eventually, reality slides back in, as it always does. Kennedy stretches again and sits up, gathering the blanket around her shoulders, and I hear the soft groan of her stomach.
“You must be starving. Let me make you some breakfast.”
Kennedy gives me a questioning look. “You cook?”
“I dabble,” I confess with a wink. I’m not about to mention that the extent of my cooking skills begins and ends with scrambled eggs and toast.
At the mention of food, Ember’s head pops up. “Well, someone is hungry,” I say through a laugh as I swing my legs over the edge of the bed and sit up. Ember is up and out of her bed immediately and sitting by my feet. “You hungry?” I ask in a goofy voice as I scratch her ears.
Grabbing a pair of boxer-briefs from the bedside drawer, I make my way to the kitchen with Ember in tow. Thankfully, Sloan stocked the fridge and made me a batch of her famous chocolate chip cookies.
Ember looks up at me as I pull out ingredients for breakfast from the fridge. She makes a little whine and nudges my leg. Looking over, her bowl is empty.
“Can dogs have cookies?” I yell to Kennedy as I pop a chocolate chip cookie in my mouth.
“No, absolutely not!” she shouts back as she runs into the kitchen wearing one of my T-shirts, which automatically makes her look adorable. “You didn’t give her one of those, did you?”
I shake my head, doing my best not to toss her up onto the counter and eat her. “No, but she looks like she wants one.”
“You realize chocolate can kill a dog, and she survived Hell.” Kennedy opens the fridge and pulls out a log of something with a picture of a dog on it. “She has special dog food,”
“Sorry, girl, no cookies for you.”
Kennedy makes Ember’s food while I attempt to look like I know what I’m doing in the kitchen.
Ember lifts her head at the sound of food being retrieved and trots over to Kennedy, tail wagging like she’s never known fear a day in her life. Kennedy bends down, scratching behind her ears as she places the gourmet dog food down. “You think she knows she’s safe now?”
“Yeah,” I say quietly. “And for the first time, so do I.”
When Kennedy comes up behind me and wraps her arms around my waist, I can’t help but smile.
“Smells… interesting,” she says as she kisses my back.
“You know, you’ve done the most impossible things imaginable.
Escaped Hell, conned your way back into Heaven, only to convince a goddess to play nice.
And yet you still can’t make breakfast without burning it,” she teases.
“It’s a gift,” I mumble before turning to kiss the top of her head “I could get used to this,” she whispers.
“Yeah? Which part?”
“All of it, but mostly the part where you’re not dying.”
“Fair point.” I smile as I hand her a plate piled high with eggs and toast. “Now sit and eat your breakfast before I give it to Ember.” The pup’s ears perk up as she looks at me, waiting for her own plate.
Hearing my phone buzz, I cringe at the thought of interrupting our domestic tranquility, but it’s most likely Asher or Sloane wondering how we’re doing. Or simply making sure we haven’t been rescued only to die from dehydration after two days of lovemaking.
Grabbing my device, I slide my finger across the screen. “Asher wants me downstairs.” I mumble through a mouth full of food before tossing my dish in the sink, I return to our bedroom to pull on a pair of jeans and run a hand through my hair.