by Erika Wilde
However, she wasn’t giving up this night with Collin, or anything else that happened between them over the next few days. So, she put her camisole and shorts on, sans any underwear, and released her hair from its braid, letting the wavy strands fall all the way down her back. If anything was going to be tangling her hair, she wanted it to be Collin’s fingers.
Exhaling a deep breath, she crossed the hallway and walked into the bedroom he’d stayed in last night and found him sitting on the mattress, wearing nothing but a towel tucked around his lean waist. The nightstand lamps were off, but the light from the bathroom was more than enough to illuminate the room in a soft glow, which she was grateful for.
He smiled at her, his head tipped slightly. “I was beginning to wonder if you’d changed your mind.”
“No,” she said, and for all her sudden personal insecurities, at least her voice didn’t waver.
“Then come here,” he said, and crooked his finger, beckoning her to him.
As she closed the distance, those pesky self-doubts she’d been feeling evaporated. This was Collin, not some random stranger. She trusted him, and the hot, hungry way he was looking at her as she approached him bolstered her self-esteem as a woman.
He stood, and when she was standing in front of him, he threaded his fingers through her hair, gripping the strands as he tipped her head back so that she was looking up into his gorgeous face. The intensity in his eyes made her shiver right before he brushed his lips over hers, then slid his tongue along her lower lip, a lick that she felt all the way down to her core.
He lowered his mouth to her neck and gently bit the side of her throat, making her moan and her hardening nipples rasp against her top. “By the time I’m done with you, there won’t be any part of this beautiful body that isn’t untouched,” he told her. “Or that isn’t mine.”
The possessive growl in his voice caused a rush of moisture to settle between her thighs, followed by a deep, pulsing need that made the last of her nerves go up in smoke. “Yes,” she acquiesced on a whisper.
Wanting his mouth on her breasts, she reached up and pushed the straps of her camisole off her shoulders, causing the top to slither down her arms and fall to the floor at her feet.
He didn’t hesitate to latch on to a nipple, sucking that tight bud of flesh hard and deep. Instinctively, she twisted her hands into his hair, her body arching wantonly against his hot, wet mouth. She was so lost in pleasure she barely registered when he shoved her silky shorts down her legs, stripping her completely naked. Next, he tugged off his towel, leaving nothing separating their bodies.
Switching to her other breast and using his tongue and teeth to torment her nipple until they ached from his ministrations, he gripped her bare ass in his hands, pulling her hips against his and grinding the stiff length of his erection against her stomach. Hot, mindless lust poured through her, and she moved just as restlessly against him, until he groaned and lifted his mouth from her breast.
“Lie down so I can see every inch of you,” he said while guiding her onto the mattress so that she was completely reclined and her head rested on the pillow, her hair fanned out around her. Her knees were raised but remained demurely pressed together as she waited for him to join her.
He stood next to the bed, his features taut with arousal, and while his searing gaze flicked down the length of her naked body in the subdued lighting, she couldn’t help but watch as he palmed his rigid cock in his hand and absently stroked his fingers along all that solid flesh. She remembered him being big and thick, and her sex clenched at the thought of him stretching her full once again.
He turned his attention to the nightstand for a moment, opening the drawer and retrieving a condom from a box and rolling one on. She didn’t know where they’d come from and didn’t care so long as nothing stopped her from having Collin inside her. An intrinsic part of her.
He moved up onto the bed by her feet and slid a hand between her closed, upraised knees as if to pry them apart, and she let them fall open a few inches. His gaze met hers, and the sudden demanding look in his eyes should have shocked her but thrilled her instead. It was a side to him she’d never seen before, but here, in the bedroom, it made her wetter than she already was.
“I want to see all of you, Rae,” he ordered, his deep voice resonating throughout her body like he owned it. “Spread your legs for me nice and wide so I can look at your pretty pussy before I devour it.”
His dirty words stole her breath and stripped her of all inhibitions, and wanting nothing more than to please this man in front of her, she opened herself completely to him. He stared at her slick, weeping flesh, the lust darkening his gaze causing her stomach to tighten and her pussy to clench.
He pressed his palms to the insides of her thighs, then lowered his head and placed hot, damp kisses all the way up her leg, making her entire body tremble with anticipation.
“Your scent is intoxicating,” he murmured, inhaling deeply as he neared her sex. “I can’t wait to taste you.”
She couldn’t wait, either. Her breathing quickened as he grazed her inner thigh with his teeth, then used his tongue to soothe the sting, giving her a glimpse of what was to come. Seconds later, he licked along her cleft, a long, slow stroke of his velvety tongue that ended with his mouth on her clit.
A loud, shameless groan escaped her throat, and she closed her eyes, luxuriating in the exquisite pleasure he delivered as he sucked on the sensitive bundle of nerves between her legs, then slid two fingers deep inside her, turning her entire body into liquid heat as he pumped them slowly in and out. He probed and sucked and laved her. She felt her sex swell as ripples of ecstasy coursed through her, taunting her with the orgasm that just kept building but he deliberately kept just out of reach.
“Collin, please,” she begged as she rocked her hips brazenly against his mouth, her hands fisting into the bedcovers to give her something, anything, to hold on to. “I need more.”
He obliged, doing something incredibly erotic with his tongue against her clit that sent her soaring higher than she’d ever been before. Her inner muscles pulsated around his thrusting fingers as her orgasm crashed over her. She cried out his name as she came long and hard, her thighs quivering against his shoulders while her entire body surrendered to him.
Before she completely recovered from her climax, he quickly reared up, pinning her to the mattress with the hard, muscled length of his body and the hips he’d wedged between her spread thighs. His own breathing was ragged as he delved his hands into her hair and looked deeply into her eyes, the thick head of his cock pressing insistently against her entrance.
She gasped at the burning sensation, and seeing the raw need etching his features, she stiffened, bracing herself as he started pushing his way past the initial resistance of her body. “Oh, God, Collin . . .”
His thumbs gently brushed along her cheek, but he didn’t stop moving forward, filling her one torturous inch at a time. “Take me, sweet girl,” he rasped, keeping his gaze on her face, his jaw clenched with restraint. “All of me.”
She moaned at his slow, relentless entry, until he was buried completely inside her. To her surprise, he stopped moving and dropped his forehead against hers, his mouth lightly feathering across her lips.
“God, Rae, you feel so fucking good. So tight and hot around my cock, just like our first time,” he said, his voice a low, seductive caress. “Except now, I’m going to enjoy fucking you longer than two minutes. I’m going to own you and this bod until you’re coming all over my dick.”
He made good on his promise as he started moving in and out of her, claiming her with long, slow, deep thrusts that caused the stretch and burn of his initial possession to give way to something more pleasurable, allowing her to relax and enjoy the new sensations humming through her body, heightening desires she thought had already been sated.
“Wrap your legs around my waist,” he ordered gruffly, his rhythmic thrusts quickening. “I want deeper inside you.”
With every downward stroke, he controlled the friction, the depth, the angle at which he fucked her. He deliberately rubbed himself against her clit each time, stroking all those nerves back to life. The ache, the need swelled hotter and higher inside her until another orgasm spiraled its way to the surface, then finally burst free.
She arched beneath Collin and screamed into his mouth, her entire being shuddering from the overwhelming force of her orgasm. Every part of them felt connected in that moment—their bodies, their hearts, their souls—and with another powerful thrust, Collin was right there with her. His cock throbbed deep inside her, his body jerking hard against hers as he grunted through his own intense release.
Chapter 10
After a quick trip to the bathroom, Collin returned to the bed, where Raevynn was lying beneath the covers, still naked, and he intended to keep her that way. A soft smile curved her lips. Her expression was a little shy, maybe even uncertain, and he found all her contradictory traits he’d been privy to the past twenty-four hours both endearing and surprising.
After seven years apart, she was a paradox to him, but in a short time, he’d already discovered that her bold, fearless pop star persona that was portrayed on stage and in the media was in opposition to the real woman beneath the glitz and glamour, who wasn’t as confident about certain things as he would have expected considering the world she now lived in. Despite all of Raevynn’s success, there was a vulnerability to her that pulled at something deep inside him. He’d rescued her from her bejeweled tower, and now he wanted to protect her and keep her safe and sheltered.
But that wasn’t how Rae’s life or career worked. She might have run away temporarily, but she had a ton of responsibilities and obligations awaiting her. And even though Collin knew exactly how he felt about her, that his feelings for her were just as strong as they’d been all those years ago, he refused to be one of those people who made demands on her—one of whom was her mother, Joyce, who would undoubtedly not appreciate Collin being in her daughter’s life again as a distraction.
As he reached the mattress, Raevynn bit her bottom lip and met his gaze. “Umm, do you want me to go back to my own room for the night?”
He let out an incredulous laugh, unable to believe she’d even ponder such a scenario after every intimate thing they’d just done together. “Are you fucking kidding me right now?”
She shrugged, causing her breasts to shift and jiggle a bit beneath the sheet she’d pulled up to her chest. “I’m just not sure you wanted the company all night long.”
He slid onto the bed and beneath the covers, pulling her close to his side. “You’re sleeping in here with me,” he said, his adamant tone leaving no room for an argument. “I’m not even close to being done with you.”
“I’m okay with that,” she said, and he saw the relief in her eyes as she cuddled up next to him into the crook of his arm. She gave him a wry smile as her fingers skimmed along his bare stomach. “At least we don’t have to worry about getting caught in bed together this time.”
He knew her reference to the past was meant to be playful and prompt him to laugh, but instead it made him remember everything that had happened that day, including him walking away from Rae and breaking her heart. He didn’t want them to go their separate ways this time without her knowing the truth. And also, he owed her a huge apology for the way he’d hurt her, even if he’d truly believed it was for the best when it happened.
He glanced toward Raevynn, and with her looking up at him from where she was resting her head on his shoulder, he met her gaze. “Rae . . . I’m really sorry how everything played out that day,” he said, his voice a bit rough around the edges as he remembered the awful situation. “There’s things that you don’t know, that I should have told you but didn’t because I wanted to make things easy on you.”
Her brows furrowed into a frown. “What things?” she asked with quiet curiosity.
He exhaled a deep breath and threaded his fingers through her loose hair, his mind going back to that fateful day and how he and Raevynn believed they’d had an entire Saturday afternoon alone and had spent it in her bed—at first making out, then going all the way. Afterward, the two of them had fallen asleep, until her mother came into Rae’s room and found them naked and cuddled beneath the blankets together. With their clothes strewn on the floor, it wasn’t difficult to guess what had happened, and Joyce had lost her shit, yelling hysterically at Collin to get dressed and get out of the house.
Out of pure panic and shock, and not thinking straight, he’d thrown on his jeans and shirt and left, instantly regretting leaving Raevynn behind to deal with her furious mother. But Collin had been barely eighteen, and his parents had raised him to always respect adults and he’d acted on that inclination. Even though he’d hated the thought of Raevynn taking the brunt of Joyce’s anger alone, he knew it would only make the situation worse if he stayed.
As soon as he’d gotten home, the first thing he did was send Raevynn a text. I’m so sorry. Things will calm down and we’ll figure this out. I love you.
When he didn’t hear back from Raevynn that evening, he knew her mother had confiscated her phone. The following morning, when a call came through with Raevynn’s name on the display, he’d quickly answered, only to have Joyce demand that he come over so that the two of them could talk. And so, he had, with the intention of fighting for a relationship with Raevynn.
“Collin . . . what things?” she asked again, pulling him from the past and back into the present.
He cleared his throat and spoke. “So . . . yeah . . . the morning after your mother caught us together, she called and asked me to come over. When I arrived, you were up in your room and Joyce sat me down at the dining table and proceeded to tell me what, exactly, was going to happen between the two of us. With you leaving for Los Angeles to compete on Encore in a few weeks, she strongly advised me to break up with you immediately and cut all contact. I refused and tried to argue that I didn’t want to stop seeing you or talking to you, and that’s when she blackmailed me.”
“What?” Raevynn’s eyes rounded with shock, making it clear she had no clue the lengths her mother had gone to to keep them separated. “How?”
His lips flattened into a grim line. “Considering I was eighteen, and you were seventeen, she threatened to have me arrested for statutory rape if I didn’t completely end things with you, and that was a situation I knew I couldn’t win.”
She gasped, and then a painful sound escaped her lips. “Collin . . . I had no idea. Why didn’t you tell me?”
He turned toward her so that they were face-to-face and he could look directly into her eyes. “Because I knew telling you about your mother’s threat to call the cops on me wouldn’t have changed anything or what I had to do, except to possibly cause a huge rift between you and your mom.”
After that conversation with Joyce, and knowing he’d been backed into a corner, he’d walked up the stairs to Raevynn’s room, his heart heavy with dread, and proceeded to end things with her, despite her begging and pleading with him not to.
Raevynn’s eyes filled with tears. “You should have told me,” she whispered, her voice agonized.
He hated that he’d caused her so much pain, and his own chest ached with misery. “Trust me when I say that it wasn’t an easy decision, but I didn’t have much choice.” Gently, he wiped away the trail of moisture that escaped the corner of one eye. “Back then, all I could think was that I’d end up in jail and have a criminal record as a sex offender, my parents would be so disappointed in me, and I’d lose the full-ride scholar
ship to college I’d worked so hard for. My life would be shit, and you’d be dragged through all that, too. In comparison, breaking your heart, and my own, seemed less devastating for everyone involved. And honestly, I wanted you to go on Encore and compete and do great things with your talent without anyone or anything tying you down. And look at you now.”
He’d meant to make her smile, but instead she shook her head, still clearly upset at everything he’d just revealed. “My mother had no right to threaten you,” she said bitterly, placing her hands on his bare chest. “What we did was completely consensual.”
That was true, but Collin knew the law, and a judge, wouldn’t have seen it that way because of their ages. Bottom line, he’d been an adult, and she’d been a minor. It didn’t matter that she’d only been a few months away from turning eighteen herself.
“Your mother was trying to protect you,” he said, even if Collin didn’t agree with Joyce’s tactics or the harsh ultimatum she’d issued. But as Raevynn’s mother, he’d like to believe she’d had her daughter’s best interests at heart, even if the way she’d handled the situation had been misplaced.
“No, she was trying to control me,” Raevynn refuted, her hands curling into fists between them, her resentment palpable. “And she did.”
He gently smoothed her hair away from her face, trying to soothe her emotions just as much. “Don’t be angry.”
“I’m not angry with you,” she said, her eyes great big pools of misery. “I’m sad for us because I loved you so much and would have found a way to make it work between us.”
He tried not to think of her past tense use of the word love, but he did believe that Raevynn would have done everything she could to keep them together. But he also knew if she’d defied her mother back then, the fallout wouldn’t have been pretty and Collin would have most likely ended up serving time. Nobody would have won that war.
