CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN THE CAPED CRUSADER IS A CERTIFIED EATER LUNA
CHAPTER THIRTY-SEVEN
THE CAPED CRUSADER IS A CERTIFIED EATER
LUNA
With a lot of effort to make sure my disappointment didn’t bleed into my voice, I tried to make it quick. “Last night was fun, but a one-time thing. I know that. I’m not going to make things weird between us now just because we hooked up.”
“We didn’t hook up,” Rhys said.
I knew I’d been delirious with lust the night before, but I distinctly remembered hooking up. More than that, my body remembered. Even after the hot shower, my inner muscles ached from stretching around him.
If he wants to pretend it never happened, whatever.
I mean, it’s also insulting when it was the absolute best sex of my life and would be the standard I measured every orgasm against, but sure.
More power to him. As long as things go back to the way they were before without it being strained, I’m happy.
He kicked off the wall and made his way over to me with that leisurely swagger that made sense.
He walked like it was heavy because it really was.
It was distracting, but I was smart enough to brace.
Gripping my chin, he tilted it up before rubbing his thumb against my lips.
And like the night before, I suddenly wished I was wearing the brightest red lipstick I could find so it was smeared across my face.
His thumb pushed in to roughly open my mouth, and I had to lock my legs to keep from dropping to my knees.
Heat filled his hooded gaze before he stepped closer, pressing his hardness against my stomach.
“We didn’t hook up,” he repeated quietly. “Hook up is casual. Meaningless. Not a damn thing about this is either one.”
It’s not?
I would’ve asked that question out loud, but his thumb was still in my mouth, holding it open.
He must’ve read it on my face anyway. “Did I not make that clear last night when I said this sweet pussy and your pleasure are mine?”
I’d assumed it was just insanely hot dirty talk that I refused to read too much into, so no. It hadn’t been clear.
He pieced that together, too. “I didn’t. Lemme rectify that right fuckin’ now then, hellcat. This wasn’t a hook-up. I told you how I like to be in control. I’ve shown you. And you gave me you anyway. If you think I’d walk away now, you’re outta your damn mind.”
I’d been prepared for him to bluntly remind me that he wasn’t interested in settling down. I hadn’t even considered that he would bluntly claim me, instead.
If I had considered it, though, that was pretty much how I would’ve seen it going. He wasn’t asking how I felt or what I wanted. He told me how it was, and that was it.
I knew that if I disagreed or felt otherwise, I could speak up and he would listen, of course.
But I didn’t, so I happily kept my mouth shut.
Or I would’ve if he wasn’t holding it open.
He slid his thumb out as he moved his hand down to cuff my throat and keep it tilted up. “None of this is fake anymore. For as long as it’s good between us, you’re in my life. You’re in my bed. Any questions?”
I shook my head, too stunned to think of any response.
“Good. That mean I can finally talk without you interrupting?”
“I thought we just did that.”
“No. This conversation was about laying it all out since you seemed to have it twisted in your head.”
My eyes narrowed, and I tried to step back. His hold tightened, and I let out a soft moan that counteracted what I was going for. I ignored my involuntary noise and focused on the rest. “I didn’t have it twisted. I was going by your own words.”
“That was before. You’re different.” He squeezed his fingers again. “This is different.” His smirk was wicked and evil and so damn sexy. I didn’t trust it. “Looking forward to showing you that, too.”
The last part sounded all nice and sweet, but I didn’t trust it, either.
That didn’t mean I also wasn’t looking forward to it.
“Got to talk about your job, hellcat.”
“You can’t fire me,” I joked. “My boyfriend owns the place.”
I didn’t even have the chance to regret my words or send the situation from bad to worse by overexplaining that I’d meant it in the fake-arrangement way—which was the truth.
Rhys grinned down at me. “Only the second time you’ve called me that. Like it a fuckuva lot more now that it’s real.”
Holy shit, when he changes course, he doesn’t veer a little. He takes Rainbow Road up to the stratosphere.
His smile softened. “That just saved you from a red ass. You’re still gonna pay for thinking this was only a hookup, leaving my bed during the night, and the rest of your tab. But it can wait because that deserves a reward.”
He stooped suddenly to grip my ass and lift me. My arms and legs automatically wrapped around him just as his mouth crashed down on mine.
He’d kissed me before. Standing on my porch at night. In his office. Randomly, even when the situation didn’t call for it. With the tension that simmered between us, I’d thought those brief glimpses of genuine desire were him losing control for a second before reining it back in.
I’d been wrong.
Those kisses, even the wildest ones, were him in control. Holding back. Showing restraint. I knew that without a doubt because it was gone.
His kiss was brutal as he plunged his tongue in, dominating the kiss. Dominating me. He tightened his hold on me seconds before my back hit the mattress as he followed me down.
He tried to push away from me, but my arms and legs squeezed reflexively.
“Christ, you kill me,” he groaned, tearing his mouth away. “Can’t taste your sweet pussy if you don’t let me go.”
My hold loosened, and my limbs flung out before he even finished his sentence.
“Glad you like that idea,” he said through a rough chuckle as he parted the towel. The humor left his voice, replaced by something even better. Something soft and almost reverent. “Like unwrapping every gift I’ve ever wanted.”
He licked, kissed, and nipped down my body until his shoulders were settled between my spread legs. His beard grazed my clit when he lowered his head to kiss my mound, and my hips shot off the bed.
Rhys must’ve taken that as an invitation or silent begging—it didn’t matter which, they were both true. He didn’t start slow or ease us in. Using his thumbs to spread my lips, he licked with feral abandon, his growling groan vibrating through me.
I came ridiculously quick the night before. Even faster than when I soloed with practiced efficiency. I’d chalked the easy orgasm up to the culmination of weeks of growing desire topped off by hours of intense edging. Plus, of course, Rhys’s impressive size that he very much knew how to work.
I was beginning to suspect that it was just Rhys. Period. I wasn’t shifting to get him in the right spot. He wasn’t going down to be gentlemanly with grazing laps that were nice but more of a tease than anything else.
He ate me with savage intensity, his skillful tongue and fingers working together to build bliss that thrummed in my veins.
Spreading it through my whole body until I would’ve sworn every molecule in my body was sparking.
An ache started, growing along with the pleasure until it became so much.
Too much. My legs fought to close. To get away even as my fingers clutched his hair to keep him close.
I let out a panicked squeak when he eased back suddenly. “Go ahead. Wrap those soft thighs around my head, hellcat.” He turned his head to bite down on said thigh. “Grind your greedy pussy against my face all you want.”
I didn’t need to be told twice. When he resumed his feast, I followed his lead. I let my control go.
There was no working for it.
No finding it.
I wasn’t in charge of my orgasms.
They weren’t mine.
They belonged to Rhys.
I belonged to Rhys.
On that thought, I came apart with a sharp cry.
He kept working me until the lightning storm in my nerves faded to aftershocks that left me wrung raw and oversensitive. Even then, he didn’t stop with a job well done. He licked like he needed to get each drop of my juices.
I tried to use my light grip on his hair to urge his body over mine. Or flip him. Anything to get his cock into some hole.
He shifted away and stood before I could succeed.
“But… But…” My eyes dropped to the hard-on that tented the front of his jeans. “You.”
“What about me, baby?” he asked, completely straight-faced—minus the evil glint in his eyes. The one that said he thought he was challenging me by forcing me to say what I wanted out loud.
There was no challenge. I had no problem saying it. “I want you to come.”
His brows rose as his eyes widened, but then he gave me another of the grins that melted my heart and my panties.
If I’d been wearing any.
“Wish we had time. Really wish we did. But we’re already running late.”
I’d known before I was even fully awake that I’d slept too late, but I had no clue it was that bad.
I guess amazing orgasms really take it out of me.
Speaking of…
A yawn and satisfied stretch came over me, and Rhys watched like he wanted to come over me, too. He took a step toward me, but I quickly got up.
At his obvious discontent, I laughed. “I’ve gotta take my car anyway, so you can go ahead.”
He scanned down my naked body. “I’ll wait.”
“You said we’re running late.”
“Then we’ll be late.”
“Everyone—”
“Will wait.”
“And if they don’t?”
“Then we close for the night.”
I shook my head. “I don’t think that’s a profitable business model.”
“I don’t think I give a shit about profit right now.”
I was tempted to roll my eyes, but the way he watched said he was waiting for that. That he wanted that.
And that we would definitely be late.
So I held the attitude in and returned to the closet to get dressed. I was almost finished and was just looking for the right top when he joined me.
Not to ogle.
Okay, not just that, though he did do it, too. In between, he also flipped through the hangers before grabbing a new shirt.
“Decide you were feeling darker gray instead of just dark gray, Batman?” My humor died in my throat when he turned.
I’d left a wet spot on his torso.
That is mortifying.
“Hey.” His volume was low, but the one word still held enough bark to make my eyes shoot up to meet his. “Whatever you’re thinking, knock it off. If we were home today, I wouldn’t change. But I’m not going to walk around all night, letting people smell what’s mine.”
I didn’t point out that it might’ve already happened the night before, mostly because I was also trying to avoid that thought. “Did you hear me say anything?”
“I saw your face. More than that, I know you.”
And he did.
Maybe not all the tiny details about my life. But he knew who I was as a detective and as Lo, beloved auntie and favorite, most superior child.
“Guess you don’t know me all that well,” I lied as I pulled a crop top on. It was loose and hung off my shoulder in a cute way. “I was only thinking about how many of your shirts I can steal before you notice them gone. I can’t wear the flannel every day.”
“Steal every last one.” He closed the distance between us. “My shirts are your pajamas.”
“I usually sleep naked,” I shared since the hodgepodge of pajamas I’d been donning were in case of an emergency that required me to rush over to his place during the night.
But I was already over there.
I was in his bed, as he so possessively put it.
He smiled, and I got an up-close view of the way it deepened his dimples and crinkled the skin next to his eyes. “Even better.”