Chapter Twenty-Two
Carmen
Was there a slight ache in my ribs as Rune came over me, his weight pressing me into the mattress? Yeah. But it was so easily overpowered by the way he slotted himself between my thighs and rocked against me that I barely even registered it.
My legs raised, wrapping around him, my heels digging into his ass and grinding him against me.
His lips were against my neck, so I felt the vibration of his groan on my skin, ratcheting up the desire that was already reaching a fever pitch.
My arm slid slid around him as his lips and teeth and tongue made their way across my neck, then up until he nipped my earlobe.
“I’m gonna need to be gentle with you,” he murmured, making my belly go liquid.
“No, you don’t,” I objected. I would take him any way I could have him. To hell with the consequences.
“No?” he asked, face sliding downward, his cheek grazing my breast. “So you want me to rush this?” he asked, his breath warm on my hardened nipple through the material of my shirt.
The only sound I could manage was a choked whimper.
“I mean, I could,” he said, his lips closing around the point, sucking it into his mouth and tracing it with his tongue until the material was wet.
“You clearly don’t like me taking my time,” he teased as I arched into his mouth, as my hips rocked restlessly against him, as my fingers dug into his back.
He moved across my chest, dedicated to his sweet torture for what felt like an eternity.
But then he was pushing up my shirt until I yanked it off. Then he was licking, sucking, circling, grazing, nipping without the barrier.
Want stretched thin, leaving me shaking and mindless with sensation.
His head shifted between my breasts, his tongue tracing a line down the center of my belly until he reached the waistband of my shorts.
But he was quick to snag the material of them and my panties and draw them down, moving fully away from me in the process so he could slide them off my ankles.
He knelt at the edge of the bed, his chest heaving with his frantic breaths as he looked down at me, his gaze taking in every inch of me.
Rune reached back, dragging his shirt up and over his head, then tossing it to the floor before reaching down to push his shorts and underwear to the floor, leaving him standing in front of me—chiseled, gorgeous, hard.
A little whimper escaped me as I took in his straining length, as my sex clenched hard in anticipation, making me press my thighs together to try to ease the pang of need.
His hands moved out, almost as if sensing what I was doing, grabbing my knees and spreading me wide.
He sucked in a deep breath that shook through him.
Then he was down on the mattress, his breath a warm tickle against my inner thigh.
For one beat.
Then another.
Until, finally, I felt the tip of his tongue tracing up my cleft, then circling my clit.
I short-circuited.
My body jolted, tensed.
My breath seized.
A strange, strangled sound escaped me.
But Rune was focused on his task as his tongue circled me almost lazily. Like he knew exactly what he was doing. And wanted to drag it out with wicked patience.
“Rune,” I whimpered, my hips rocking restlessly against him as my fingers gripped the back of his head.
He drove me slowly toward unraveling.
My breath caught. My muscles trembled. My heartbeat fluttered.
“Rune, I … no!” I yelped when he pulled suddenly away just as my walls started to tighten.
“Shh,” he murmured, kissing up the triangle above my sex, over my pelvis, up my side. “You can come,” he told me as he kissed over my ribs. “But I want to be buried deep inside you when it happens.”
A deep pulsation moved through me at the idea of him, the feel of him, and a soft whimper escaped me.
“Unless you don’t want that,” he said, kissing under one breast, then the other.
I grabbed him with my good hand, trying to drag him up to me. But he wouldn’t be rushed.
He moved to the center of my chest, his hair tickling my sensitive skin as he kissed across my clavicle, up my neck, down my jaw, then, finally, sealing his lips to mine as his body pressed against mine again.
A shiver racked my system at the heat, the weight, the hard demand of him.
My hips shifted and lifted until I felt the glide of him against my cleft. My legs bracketed his hips, and I started to rock against him, the friction of him gliding against me driving me up once again.
“Do you want me inside you?” he asked, his breath on my ear.
More than I wanted my next breath.
“Y-yes.”
A rumble moved through him as he balanced his weight so he could reach into the nightstand.
He sat back on his heels, reaching down to stroke himself once, twice, three times before slipping on the protection as he watched me.
His hands slid up and down my thighs for a moment, before he finally lowered down, coming over me, and sealing his lips to mine again.
He kissed me long and deep, until I felt it prickling across every nerve ending. Need pulsed, heavy and undeniable.
I rocked against him, chasing the pressure, the slow grind of him turning my thoughts to static.
All I was was heat and pulse and need.
His hips shifted, and I felt the pressure of him against me.
Then, breaking the kiss to watch me, as he pressed forward. My body welcomed him with helpless urgency—my sex tightening around him, warm and greedy. Rune groaned and the thick drag of him inside me dragged a moan out of me.
My breath hitched as he settled deep inside me.
Despite us both agreeing to go slow, to take our time, it wasn’t long before the gentle, easy thrusts became harder, faster, deeper.
Our breaths and heartbeats tangled.
My hips met his thrusts.
“There, baby,” he groaned as I tightened hard around him, as my moans became deep and relentless. “Let me feel you come apart.”
With a deep groan, I did just that.
I shattered with it, overwhelmed by the impossible relief of release.
Rune groaned, burying his face in my neck, slamming deep into me a few more times before his body tightened and his breath caught with his own orgasm.
He was careful to brace himself afterward, lifting some of his weight off of me so he didn’t crush my bruised ribs. But I had the almost overwhelming urge to grab him and pull him back down on me, everything about me wanting as little space between us as possible.
It took a long time for our breathing to slow down and our heartbeats to regulate.
“I’ll be right back,” he murmured, pressing a kiss to my neck before pulling away and walking into the bathroom.
Alone, I scooted up and under the covers before Rune walked back out—still gloriously naked and completely unconcerned about being seen. Of course, when you looked like that, there was nothing to be insecure about.
“You okay?” he asked as he slid in beside me, his hand moving out to caress my ribs.
“‘Okay’ isn’t the right word,” I said, still sounding a little breathless.
He earned the cocky little smile that pulled at his lips.
“I’m serious, though. I didn’t hurt you?”
Alright, at some point, I must have accidentally grabbed him with my bad hand, judging by the way it was throbbing again. But it was tolerable, and it would settle.
“No,” I said, yawning.
“Tired?” he asked. “Take a nap.”
“I don’t mind the lack of windows in here, except it’s kind of disorienting, and my body keeps wanting to sleep.”
“Then you probably need the sleep,” he said, brushing some of my hair off my cheek. “How many nights were you plotting my murder instead of getting a full eight hours?”
“More than I should admit to.”
“That sleep debt is a bitch. Why not give in and get the sleep now while you can?”
“Because I haven’t done anything today.”
“That’s not true. We went for coffee, pizza, saw Junior, and nearly got gunned down at the beach. It’s been an eventful day. On top of that, you’re recovering still. And on top of that, I just rocked your world.”
There was no stopping the laugh that burst out of me. But I suspected that was his intention.
“I would say something about how highly you think of yourself. But you earned the cockiness.”
“And that wasn’t even my A game.”
“I’m skeptical it gets better.”
“Then you’re in for a wild ride. When you’re well again.”
“How long do you think these ribs will be bothering me?”
“Considering how you’re handling them already, I think you might luck out and only have a week, maybe two, until you feel mostly normal again. You might still have to be easy about lifting and twisting, but you probably won’t get that lightning-sharp pain anymore.”
“That’ll be nice.”
“How’s the hand? Don’t think I didn’t feel you grab me with that.”
“I didn’t even realize I was doing it until afterward. It’ll be fine. Don’t worry about me.”
“I’m afraid that’s gonna be part of the package if you’re mine.”
My heart swooped at that word.
Mine.
His.
God, I wanted that more than seemed logical after so short a time.
Then again, we’d been pretty much living together. We squeezed a dozen or so dates into a few days together.
Was there maybe a bit of a trauma-bond as well?
I guess you could make an argument for that.
But I felt confident that it went beyond that.
We weren’t harping on the things we’d endured.
We were talking about our pasts, our passions, our hopes for the future.
We were more than the drive-by and the people who wanted us silenced and dead.
“It’s kind of nice to have someone to worry about me,” I admitted.
“To be fair, Sof worries about you too. But because you don’t let her in, she doesn’t even know what she’s supposed to worry about. So she just worries in a general way.”
He wasn’t wrong. “It seems like I’m not the only one who has been keeping things from the people around them,” I told him pointedly.
“Touché. Maybe we make a deal.”
“What kind of deal?”
“We are always honest about what we’re dealing with, so the other can worry appropriately.”
“That seems fair. Though, fair warning, I’m terrible at communicating.”
“No shit, really?” he asked, snorting.
“So you might need to drag stuff out of me.”
“I bet I know a way or two to persuade information out of you.” His fingers teased up my side.
“I think you’re probably right.”
My phone beeped, making Rune reach for it to hand to me.
“More pictures from Sof?” he asked as I unlocked it and downloaded the attachments before scooting up next to him to swipe through them.
Thanks to the stupid brace making my fingers clumsy, I accidentally toggled back to my whole library.
Before I could click one of the pictures again, though, Rune stiffened beside me, his whole body going ramrod straight.
But when I scanned my grid, I didn’t see anything scandalous. Certainly nothing worth getting all tense about.
“What’s the—” I started, only to be cut off when Rune snatched my phone from my hand.
He clicked the picture he was fixated on, making it fill up the screen, then turning it to me.
“Carmen, why the fuck are you in a picture with Vicky’s killer?”