Rescue After Dark: A Gansett Island Novel

by Marie Force

  He leaned over her and pressed a kiss to her belly, making her jolt.

  She opened her eyes to find him watching her, waiting for her to catch up to him, which was how he saw her eyes widen when she zeroed in on his erection. “That isn’t going to fit.”

  Chapter 15

  Mason laughed as he kissed his way up to her breasts, giving them each more attention. “Yes, it will. How about I show you?”

  “I, uh. I don’t know. I figured you’d be big all over, but that thing is rather intimidating.”

  Mason shook with silent laughter. “He’s offended to be called a ‘thing.’”

  “If you were me, what would you call it?”

  “I’ll let you come up with a better name after he’s shown you what he’s capable of.”

  “Okay, big man, do your worst.”

  “I’d much rather give you my very best.” Mason hovered over her, trying to ignore the fierce pain coming from his left elbow as he framed her face with his hands and kissed her sweet lips, drawing out the suspense with more kisses while she raised her hips, looking for something he wasn’t quite ready to give her. “You’re awfully eager for someone who’s so intimidated.”

  “That’s your fault.”

  “Sweetheart,” he said, laughing, “this is all your fault. Who’s the one who went and got naked while I was off minding my own business?”

  She raised a brow. “Are you complaining?”

  “Not even kinda.”

  “Didn’t think so. So are you going to talk all day, or are you going to show me what you’re made of?”

  The challenging tone made him even harder, not that she needed to know that.

  She closed her eyes and made a snoring sound. “I’m growing old over here.”

  Mason pushed into her, and her eyes flew open, her expression conveying a hint of panic that made him slow down to let her catch up. “You were saying?”

  “Uh.”

  “What was that?” He gave another gentle push and met with tight resistance that made him see stars from the effort to hold back, to make this amazing for her. “Relax, love. Just relax and let me in.”

  “Trying,” she said through gritted teeth.

  Mason used his left hand to roll her clit between his fingers as he dipped his head for another taste of sweet nipple as he slid in deeper.

  “That’s all, right?” she asked on a gasp.

  “That’s half.”

  “Fucking hell, you’ve got to be kidding me.”

  Mason again rocked with laughter at the deer-in-headlights look on her face. “You’re not going to wimp out on me, are you?”

  She made an inarticulate sound that had him smiling as he continued to caress her clit and tug on her nipple, rocking against her repeatedly until he felt the telltale signs of impending orgasm. As she cried out, he sank the rest of the way into her as her muscles clamped down on his cock. If he’d ever felt anything better in his life than being inside her when she came, Mason would be hard-pressed to recall it.

  Speaking of hard-pressed… As she came down from the high to find him still hard and still inside her, she looked up at him with a madly vulnerable look on her stunning face that touched him in places that had nothing to do with what was happening below. His heart ached and his muscles trembled from the effort it took to be gentle with her, to treat her with the reverence she deserved.

  “You didn’t…”

  Mason shook his head.

  “Fucking hell. You’re going to break me.”

  “No, I’m not. Hold on to me.”

  She placed her hands on his shoulders.

  “Put your knees up by my hips.”

  “Why?”

  “Just do it.”

  She gave him what he wanted, opening herself for part two.

  Mason’s cell phone rang. He ignored it. The fucking house could be on fire for all he cared. Nothing, not even the biggest emergency Gansett Island had ever seen, could make him stop what he was doing to take that call.

  “M-Mason, your phone.”

  “Ignore it. Look at me.” He waited until her gaze collided with his. “Keep looking at me.”

  “Wh… what’re you. Oh. Oh my God.”

  He’d pulled almost completely out of her before plunging back in. He did that several times as she blinked and tried to keep her gaze fixed on his while he gave her his very best—over and over and over again until she was screaming and clawing his back and coming even harder than she had the first time.

  He let himself go with her this time, the orgasm seeming to come from his very soul as he hammered into her, clutching her sweet ass with both hands as he came for what felt like an hour. Holy shit.

  She’d just ruined him for any woman who wasn’t her.

  Was that drool running down her chin? Jordan thought it might be, but she couldn’t seem to get her hand to move to find out or to work up the wherewithal to care if she was drooling. With him still lodged deep inside her as she continued to have one small orgasm after another, she had far bigger things to contend with than a little bit of drool.

  What the actual hell had just happened here?

  He’d completely owned her and made her come three times. Her mind was racing to catch up to recent events and to process the fact that she had never in her life had sex that could compare to sex with Mason Johns.

  Dear God. She’d be lucky to ever again walk normally after what’d taken place in his bed.

  “Am I crushing you?” he asked.

  Jordan tightened her arms around him. “No.” She was almost afraid to let him go and to find out if the exit would be every bit the struggle the entry had been.

  Mason’s phone rang again. “Fuck. I have to get that.”

  Jordan let him go and tried to prepare for his withdrawal, but she couldn’t help the sounds that came from her as her sensitive flesh reacted to him as if she hadn’t just had three earth-shattering orgasms.

  “Are you okay?” he asked, his brows knitted with concern.

  “I don’t know what I am.”

  Smiling, he wiped up the drool—yes, it was drool—from her mouth and chin and then kissed her gently. “Hold that thought for a second.” When he got up to find his phone, she got an up-close look at the back of him, which was every bit as muscular as the front, including the tight butt cheeks that flexed when he bent to retrieve his shorts from the floor. “Johns.”

  He stood to his full, formidable height and walked into the bathroom as he listened to whatever the caller was saying. “I can’t do that today,” he said. “I don’t care if Jesus himself is asking, that can’t happen today. I’m off duty and away from the office. Tell him I’ll get to it first thing in the morning, and don’t let him give you any crap.” He listened some more. “Thanks, Mona.” After ending the call with a softly spoken, “Fuck,” Mason closed the bathroom door and then flushed the toilet a minute later.

  The whole time, Jordan stayed perfectly still in his bed, afraid to so much as move out of fear that she might very well be broken after taking on the biggest cock she’d ever seen.

  He came out of the bathroom, giving her a bird’s-eye view of the front of him, and returned to the bed, snuggling up to her with his injured arm stretched out across her middle.

  For the first time, Jordan saw the dark purple bruises that surrounded his elbow. She ran her fingers lightly over the bruises. “Is everything all right?”

  “Yeah. The mayor wanted some numbers that he can’t have today.”

  “It’s almost five thirty.”

  Mason grunted out a laugh. “Blaine and I think he doesn’t own a watch or a clock or phone or anything that would tell him the actual time. He calls us at all hours and expects us to jump.”

  “Will you get in trouble for not getting him what he wants tonight?”

  “I couldn’t care less if I do. I’m off duty and have much better things to do tonight than think about him.”

  “Like what?”

  His smile
unfolded slowly across his handsome face. “Like proving that you’re a stud.”

  “I think it’s safe to say you’re the one who’s the stud.”

  “Nah, you’re the badass who took it all and then some.”

  “And I may never walk again as a result.”

  “Are you hurt?”

  She placed her hand on his face, smoothing her thumb over the frown line that replaced the smile she much preferred. “I’m fine. Just a little shell-shocked.”

  “How so?”

  “Three times? That’s never happened.”

  “No?”

  “Nope.”

  He flashed the smug smile of a man who’d pleased his woman—repeatedly. Not that she was his woman, per se, but he’d sure as hell pleased her. Three times!

  “Want to go for four?”

  “Not yet, but thanks for asking.”

  “No problem. I’m available for stud services on a moment’s notice.”

  Jordan laughed. “Good to know.”

  He flattened his big hand on her abdomen, reminding her once again—as if she needed the reminder—how big he was. “Just for the record, finding you naked on my sofa?”

  She glanced at him. “What about it?”

  “Sexiest fucking thing I’ve ever seen in my entire life.”

  “Was it?”

  “Hell yes, it was. I think I’ll probably recall every detail of how you looked on my sofa in the last seconds before I punch out of this life. And I’ll never, ever look at that sofa the same way again.”

  “Want to hear a secret?”

  “I want to hear all your secrets.”

  “I was freaking out waiting for you, hoping I hadn’t misjudged you or this.”

  “If you were freaking out, you did a hell of a job hiding it. To me, you looked as cool as a cucumber, all naked and hot. Like a freaking goddess who’d been put there just for me.”

  “You’re good for a girl’s fragile ego.”

  “There’s absolutely no reason whatsoever for your ego to be fragile. I know you went through hell with him, but he was the problem. Not you.”

  “How do you know that? For all you know, I was a screaming shrew of a wife.”

  He shook his head. “No, you weren’t. That’s not how you roll. When you get pissed, you probably go silent. You don’t start screaming.”

  Stunned, she said, “How do you know that?”

  “If I had to guess, you probably grew up with a lot of yelling, which means you’d gravitate to the opposite reaction when the shit hits the fan in your own life.”

  She stared at him, unnerved by his insight.

  “Am I right?”

  “Yeah, you are. I hate screaming and fighting, and believe it or not, I hate drama for the sake of drama. That might seem funny to you after watching me and Gigi manufacture drama for the show, but that was all fake nonsense. In my real life, drama makes me sick. My stomach actually hurts when it happens.”

  “Has it always been that way?”

  She nodded. “I had a teacher in first grade who was a screamer. I had stomachaches that whole year, and around the time my parents split, they got so bad, my mom took me to the hospital for it once. They couldn’t find anything wrong.”

  He gave a gentle tug to bring her into his embrace. “That’s because everything was wrong.”

  “It was, and it stayed that way for a very long time.”

  “How old were you when they split?”

  “Eight.”

  “And they fought over you until the day before you turned eighteen.” He shook his head in disbelief.

  “Yep. My mom had mental health and substance abuse issues that she tried so hard to overcome. He never gave her a single break. When we were here in the summer, our grandmother had custody of us, not our mom. He’s the one who had an affair, had children with someone else, and she’s the one who was made to suffer while he had custody of us.”

  “You suffered, too. You had to live with him when you couldn’t stand him.”

  “It was really nothing compared to what he put her through. He treated her like she was a junkie living on the street, when that was never the case. She went through hell due to her illnesses and battled her demons for years before she finally got clean and was put on the right meds.”

  “But that was too late for you and Nikki.”

  “We were happy that it happened when it did. It was hard to watch her struggle.”

  “You’re due for a break, sweetheart.”

  “How’d you get me to talk about this shit, anyway? I never talk about this stuff.” And certainly not with a guy she’d just met. This was supposed to be about fun and transitions and moving on, but in the scope of the last hour, it’d become so much more than that. The realization left her feeling unnerved. “I should probably go.”

  “Why? You got somewhere to be?”

  “No, but…”

  “What?”

  “I… I don’t know.”

  “I want you to stay. Unless you don’t want to.”

  “I do want to.”

  “Why do I hear a very loud ‘but’ in there?”

  “I feel like I need to keep telling you that my life is a mess, Mason, and you’re a really, really nice guy. I’m afraid.”

  With his fingers on her face, he gently turned her to look at him. “Of what?”

  “I don’t want to hurt you.”

  “While I appreciate that more than you could ever know, I’ve got my eyes open here. I know things are in transition for you right now in more ways than one. All I can tell you is being with you is the most fun I’ve had in years.”

  “Same,” she said, thrilled to know he felt the same way she did.

  “And what just happened here?” He gestured to them and the bed. “Hands down, no contest, best I’ve ever had.”

  “Also same.” Not that she had much to compare him to, but he was better at everything than Brendan had been.

  “So it sounds like we’re on the same page here.” He tipped her chin up for another of the soft, sweet kisses that made her heart race and her blood boil. “Lots of fun, no worries.”

  After spending most of her life in some sort of an uproar, his plan sounded absolutely perfect to her.

  “Jordan isn’t coming home tonight,” Nikki said to Riley as he got into bed. “She’s staying at Mason’s.”

  “That’s an interesting development.”

  “I guess.”

  “You don’t like that she’s hanging with him?” Riley asked.

  “It’s not about him. By all accounts, he’s a great guy, and he’ll have my gratitude forever for saving her. It’s just that she’s in such a weird place right now, and I worry about her.”

  Riley took her phone from her, placed it on the bedside charger and then wrapped his arm around her.

  Nikki snuggled up to him, as she did every night. She couldn’t recall what it’d been like to sleep without him.

  “I know you’re preconditioned to worry about her, and I get that she’s given you ample reason to, but maybe this thing with Mason is just what she needs to reset, you know?”

  “Maybe. I just worry about her getting hurt again.”

  “He’s not going to hurt her, babe. He’s not that kind of dude.”

  “Every dude is that kind of dude,” Nikki said with a laugh. “He may not set out to hurt her, but don’t pretend it’s not possible that he could.”

  “Not every dude is that kind of dude.”

  Nikki heard the hurt in his softly spoken words. “Every dude but you, I should say.”

  “You’re preconditioned to expect the worst, and I get why, but I wish there was some way to convince you that not everything will end badly. Some things,” he said, kissing her, “are meant to last forever.”

  She felt terrible for speaking without thinking about how her words would be taken by him. “I’m sorry, Ri. You have to know I have no doubts whatsoever about you.”

  “I hope you don’t. I�
�m all in with you. Forever won’t be long enough.”

  Nikki blinked back the tears his sweet words brought to her eyes. “No, it won’t be long enough. I know you’re all in, and so am I. I wasn’t talking about you. I swear I don’t worry about any of that with you.”

  “I really hope not.”

  “I don’t. But I do worry about Jordan. She’s been through so much. I want to see her find what makes her happy the way I have. I want that more than anything.”

  “She will. She just needs to figure it out for herself the same way you did and I did and everyone else does. I know it’s hard for you to see her struggling the way she has lately.”

  “It’s not just lately. It’s always. Starting when we were kids with the asthma and everything with our parents and then him. It’s been a lot.”

  “Yes, it has, but maybe all that was meant to happen so that when the right thing came along, she’d know it.”

  “I suppose.” She looked over at him. “Do you think Mason could be the one for her?”

  “Stranger things have happened. Take you and me, for instance.”

  “Nothing strange about that.”

  “You don’t think so? Hmm, well, from my perspective, a goddess moved to Gansett from LA and found this schlep who was fixing her leaky roof.”

  Nikki laughed and then turned on her side so she could kiss the words right off his lips. “Don’t call my sexy, wonderful, amazing fiancé a schlep.”

  “Compared to you, babe, he’s a schlep.”

  “No, he isn’t.”

  “Yes, he is.”

  Nikki appreciated the way he’d managed to get her mind off her worries about Jordan, but they remained in the background as she began to doze off, steeped in the warmth and security of Riley’s embrace. What had she ever done without him? The difficult months they’d spent apart after they first met seemed like a distant memory now that they lived together and spent every night together. “Thanks, Ri.”

  “What for?”

  She grasped his hand, which was resting on her abdomen. “All of it. Everything. You make me so happy and have given me things I didn’t even know I needed.”

  “Same goes, babe. I used to think my cousins were crazy for settling down with one woman, but now I get it. When it’s the right one, the only thing you want is to be settled with her.”