Beautiful Dark (Beautiful Rivers Book 3)

by J. L. White

  “Plus it was in a scandalous location,” I continue. “I mean, what woman doesn’t want to be fucked in a scandalous location? So two bucket list items.”

  “Well, I’m glad I could help you out,” he says, lying back and pulling me into his broad arms. I sink into his embrace, momentarily overcome by the sensation of it. I blink, stunned, my breathing halted. Then I give in and allow myself to fall into it.

  I’m so... protected. It’s like there’s not a single thing on this earth that could hurt me. I peek up at him, marveling. It’s been years and years since I’ve felt this safe.

  He looks down at me, smiles, puts a kiss on my forehead, and drops his head back onto the pillow. Eyes closed, he lets out a contented sigh, oblivious to the little miracle he gave me when he tucked me into his arms.

  I snuggle in deeper, closing my eyes and smiling, allowing myself to pretend this sense of safety is real, and not at all an illusion.

  Chapter 15

  Mason

  We wake with her little body tucked against mine, her back to me, my arm over her slender waist. It’s morning, or as late in the day as it can possibly be and still be considered morning. Is ten to noon still morning?

  We stayed up until almost five, talking and messing around and in general having the most perfect night any guy could hope for. In spite of snacking on hot dogs and pretzels at four in the morning, we’re both pretty hungry, but neither one of us are willing to get up. Or put clothes on.

  Her tummy grumbles quietly. Neither one of us move. “Too bad we didn’t go to my hotel,” I say, my nose still nuzzled into her amazing-smelling hair. “They have room service there.”

  “If I really wanted to be a brat, I could make someone at the resort drive room service over here.”

  I lift up a bit, looking down at her profile. “Really?”

  “Alice would do literally anything for any of us. She’s the Banquet Manager and thinks the Rivers family is fucking royalty. No matter how much they try to train her to believe otherwise. So yeah, I probably could. But... I’m not a brat, so I guess we’ll just have to make do with what I have here.”

  “What else do you have?”

  “Almost nothing. I go back to school in three days. At this point in the break, I’m either eating with family or picking up stuff.”

  “It’s late enough, we could order pizza. Then we won’t have to get out of bed except to answer the door.”

  “Oooh, Guido’s!” she says, reaching for her phone on the nightstand. We retrieved our stuff from downstairs somewhere between two and three in the morning. “Best pizza in Swan Pointe. You actually met the owner on Thanksgiving.”

  “I did?”

  She nods. “Him and his daughter. They’re family friends. Rayce keeps them in business all by himself, probably.”

  She’s pulled up an online menu and shows me her phone. “He doesn’t strike me as a pizza sort of guy,” I say, taking the phone.

  “Rayce is an interesting person. He’s this big, fancy executive guy and seriously knows his shit. He’s super responsible. But it’s also like there’s still this little kid in him somewhere that just won’t let go.”

  “Because he likes pizza?” I ask, scrolling through the menu and eyeing the hot buffalo wings. Bone-in, thank you.

  “Pizza and video games and—”

  “Video games?”

  “Almost no one knows that, though,” she says grinning, “so don’t say anything.”

  Somehow I don’t think knowing this little piece about her cousin is going to help me understand him any better.

  “Or there’s a Chinese place down the hill that’ll deliver. Or we could get subs.”

  “Let’s go with this. I don’t care what kind of pizza you want as long as we get the hot wings.”

  “They’re bone-in,” she says winking, and looking impossibly beautiful. Her hair’s all mussed from me having my way with her all night, and her cheeks have a gorgeous, natural blush.

  “I noticed,” I answer, grinning and giving her a kiss. “And I approve.”

  I figure out what she wants and place the order myself, not wanting her to pay.

  “It’s my house,” she says in protest when I put the phone down. “I should be feeding you.”

  “You’re feeding me plenty,” I say, tucking my arm around her waist, pulling her closer, and tickling her side a bit.

  She giggles, her naked body squirming in my arms as she tries in vain to push away. I’ve got her though, no problem. “No fair,” she protests, laughing. “You’re too strong.”

  “Why?” I ease off the tickling, and let her catch her breath. “Do you want to get away?”

  “Maybe,” she says, but snuggles into my arms instead. Do I have to turn in my man card if I admit that I love snuggling with her almost as much as I enjoy fucking her? It’s a different kind of enjoyment, but still. I don’t think I could get tired of either one.

  “Oh!” she says, suddenly, sitting up. She scrambles out of bed and hustles her pretty, little naked ass over to the dresser. “Oh, oh, oh!”

  “What?” I ask, amused. And fully taking in the view.

  She starts shimmying on a pair of lacy, purple panties.

  “Hey, hey. No one said you could put panties on.”

  She grabs a tank and throws that on too.

  “Whoa, and a shirt. Not cool.”

  But she hurries out of the room, on some sort of mission. I grin, wondering what finally motivated her to get out of bed when her grumbling tummy hadn’t been enough before.

  When she comes back into the room wearing a determined expression and carrying a deck of cards, I bust out laughing.

  “Get ready, buddy,” she says, crawling onto the edge of the bed and sitting cross-legged on top of the covers.

  I sit up, the sheets falling to my waist, but enjoying the peep show across from me. She’s already shuffling. “You can’t expect me to concentrate when I’m looking at that pretty, little pussy of yours.”

  Her hands freeze on the cards, then she looks down at herself. She eyes me, still not moving her hands. “I could put some pants on.”

  “Never mind,” I say. “I can play.”

  “That’s what I thought.”

  It takes a while, and I have to stop myself from making bad plays just to throw the game her way, but she finally tosses her cards down. “Gin!”

  “Nice,” I say, putting my cards on the bed face down.

  There’s a hitch in her smile. She quickly reaches for my cards. I watch her examining my hand, fanning out the discard pile slightly, running plays through her head. Smart, determined, sweet, and sexy. God, she’s damned near perfect. The competitive thing doesn’t even bother me.

  “I didn’t let you win,” I reassure her.

  She gives me a sharp look, then apparently decides she won fair and square, because she tosses up the cards and flops back on her back, exhaling loudly. “Fiiinally!”

  I laugh. “Good thing you’re not competitive or anything.”

  “I am never playing that game with you again.”

  “Oh, now, don’t be like that.” I crawl over the cards and tickle her side again. She starts squirming and giggling. “Besides, I’m still two up on you.”

  “I don’t care!” She’s batting at my hand and trying to get away.

  “You have to even the score. You—hey!” She’s stopped trying to get away and started going after me herself. She found my tickle spot pretty damned fast, too. I flinch away and she gets an evil glint in her eye.

  “Ticklish, are we?”

  “No,” I say, hopping off the bed and heading for the bathroom. But her delighted laughter follows me. I’m grinning the whole way.

  Corrine

  After pizza and wings, we cleaned up for the day and I got to cross “shower sex” off my bucket list. Okay, it was never on the list, but it should’ve been. Because damn.

  What has been on my bucket list is cauliflower crack at that little seafood place
across town. I’m thinking of suggesting it for dinner because it’s not far from the beach at Crab Cove, which Mason wants to see, and we’re unlikely to run into my cousins there.

  First though, I’ve come with him to check on his childhood home. He took me through the property and told me about the upgrades his realtor suggested. We’ve gone through all the bedrooms and are back in the kitchen.

  “I wasn’t going to mess with renovations,” he says, leaning back against the counter near me and crossing those thick arms in front of his chest, “but I still don’t have any offers, so maybe I should. What do you think?”

  I rest one hand on the counter and glance around, running through what Mason’s told me. I try to imagine what Rayce would say about “return on investment” and crap like that.

  “I don’t know. I’m not as good with stuff like this as my cousins. I don’t know much about what to do with properties. Although, actually. I inherited a property, too.”

  “Really?”

  “Yeah. One of his investment properties. All the other ones went to his kids, but the one he gave me is this building that’s part of an apartment complex. Six units. Most of his properties were things like that, or offices. But I haven’t had to do much with it yet. It’s all still in the trust because I’m under twenty-five, and there’s a property management company that runs things anyway.”

  “Did you get cash assets too, like I did?”

  Normally I’d be put off by that kind of question, but I guess we’re comfortable enough with each other that usual social barriers don’t apply. It doesn’t feel intrusive or awkward at all. I nod. “Yeah.”

  “So will you be able to get yourself set up somewhere after graduation? Somewhere besides Lizzy’s, I mean.”

  I shrug. I’ve got the cash, yes. But I’m saving it. Treatment is fucking expensive, and Uncle Grant and Aunt Sharon already kicked in a lot when they were alive. Twice. If I spent too much now and needed it for treatment later, I know my cousins would insist on helping. How unfair would that be, if I could’ve taken care of it myself? No, I’m going to hang on to it.

  The post-graduation living situation isn’t really on my radar yet anyway. Post-graduation anything isn’t on my radar. One MRI at a time. The next one’s in May sometime, and I graduate in May. No matter what that stupid MRI says, I’m not going anywhere for treatment until I walk that fucking stage. I can tell you that, right now.

  But it’s too early for the countdown, so I get myself back into the moment.

  “I would think some of the smaller renovations wouldn’t hurt. But Rayce has said this is a buyer’s market, so maybe you just need to give it more time. But, you know, we could ask Lizzy to come over and give her take on it.”

  Normally, I’d suggest Rayce, but he’s out. Lizzy knows this stuff too, though. Not that I necessarily want to see her either. Mason and I have so little time together. Selfishly, I’d rather keep it just us. Plus, once we start involving family, who knows what will happen next.

  But this is important for Mason, so I set my own desires aside. “I’m sure she wouldn’t mind,” I say, because he looks hesitant about contacting Lizzy.

  “Maybe not,” he says, taking my hand and pulling me close to him. I bring my arms around his waist and look up at him. He rests his hands on my lower back. “But I don’t want to share you right now.”

  I smile, sinking deeper against his strong chest.

  He smiles too, and gives me a kiss. Then his expression grows more serious. “And...” he gently tucks a strand of hair behind my ear. “I don’t know that I’m ready to bring everyone into this yet.”

  I nod. He was right that this is going to be complicated. Ultimately, some people will just have to deal with it. But I realize the situation is worse for him than it is for me.

  Still, I don’t want to think about anyone else yet either. Not my cousins. Not his mother. I just want to enjoy this time we have together now. We can worry later about how we want to handle everyone else.

  I don’t even want to think about the fact that this is inevitably temporary. All I care about is how right it feels to be in his arms, and hope the fact that he couldn’t stay away from me means this is right for him too.

  He sighs, brings his fingertips softly to my jaw, then rests his forehead on mine. “I don’t know what we’re doing,” he says. He cups my face, his fingers curling around the back of my neck, his thumbs caressing my jaw.

  My heart swirls around in my chest in the most delicious way. “We’re having moments.” God, the moments we’re having.

  “Moments?” He lifts his head slightly, and brings his arms around me again.

  I nod. “Yeah. Life is all just moments, right? But some are sooo much better than others.” I curl against him again, squeezing his waist, and he gives me a soft laugh. “We’re making moments, and I want more with you, Mason. I want the texting moments and the phone call moments and... maybe weekend visit moments?”

  He grins and squeezes me tighter. “I think we can do that.”

  “And, you know, the fucking sexy as hell moments.” I tilt my head and give him a suggestive, teasing grin.

  He laughs, and the warm vibration of it rolls through me, making my insides giddy.

  “Whatever we can get,” I say seriously, my hands flattening against his hard back. “That’s what I want.”

  His eyes darken with desire and he tightens his grip on me, his hands slowly drifting downward. “What a coincidence. That’s what I want, too.”

  He lowers his lips to mine, pressing warmly as his hands slide over my ass, then down between my legs. A swell of pleasure blooms under his touch. I inhale as my entire body lights up.

  I reach my arms around his neck, holding him tighter as we open to one another, our tongues searching. His hands trace up my back, bringing me into an urgent embrace. One arm squeezes me tight against his chest, and the other hand comes to the back of my head to hold me more firmly to him. I run my fingers into his hair, lifting up on tiptoe and lengthening my body, pressing myself against him.

  Our kiss becomes deeper, more insistent, more impatient. His cock is already hard, and I instinctively angle into it. He grabs my rear and brings me harder against him, his length digging into me. I whimper with approval.

  My skin is heating up, trembling under his hands as he rubs them along my sides, down my ass, over my breasts. My hands are all over him too. I can’t get enough of his chest, and eagerly switch between groping his hard pecs and wrapping my arms around his strong back.

  He brings my bottom lip into his mouth and sucks slightly. He tastes it with the tip of his tongue, then dives into me again. My core is molten. I’m rotating my hips, grinding against him and curling my leg around his. My channel clenches with wanting.

  He breaks our kiss, grips my hair close to my scalp, and pulls my head back. I gasp, then shudder as his hot mouth goes to the tender skin between my ear and my jaw. He sucks on my neck eagerly, working down to the crook, coming back up the other side. I start to go limp in his arms. Mouth slack, my pants are little gasps. He tastes me everywhere, even bringing my earlobe between his teeth and sucking.

  Oh my god, bucket list. Bucket list!

  His massive hands are just as insistent as his mouth. He’s slipping inside my shirt to massage my breasts, tucking under my jeans to squeeze my ass, and claiming every inch in between.

  Suddenly he stops, pulling back to look at me. I whimper, confused. I’m still tucked inside a strong embrace, his hand on the back of my head. He’s panting hard, and so am I.

  But he looks torn. Again. His eyes flit over the room, off into the living area, then back to me.

  Oh. Right.

  “We don’t have to do this here,” I say.

  He doesn’t move. His eyes are locked on mine. Our punctuated breaths echo through the empty kitchen.

  “There’s no bed anyway.” Though I’ve actually given zero thought to a bed. I’m just trying to give him an out.

  But
he eyes my mouth hungrily. “Since when does that stop us?”

  Mason

  I claim her mouth again, my doubts vanishing almost as quickly as they appeared.

  This isn’t wrong. It’s not. She’s not. Not when every minute with her has been so right. Not when she fits inside my arms so perfectly. Not when the taste of her skin is so intoxicating. Not when she awakens every cell in my body, driving me with need.

  The way she reacts to me is just as energizing. Her little gasps and moans. How she presses her soft curves against me. The way she tilts her head back, exposing the creamy skin of her neck. The silk of her hair. Her sweet smell.

  I pull away from the counter and back her up against the refrigerator, lifting her thighs. She wraps her legs around my waist, and my cock automatically goes for her sweet spot. “Yes,” she breathes, pushing back hard against me. “Yes. Fuck, yes.”

  A thrill runs through me at her words. I love it when she starts to lose control. She’s gripping my ass eagerly, pulling me harder against her.

  “Tell me what you want, baby.” Talk to me.

  “You.”

  I squeeze her full breasts, pinching the nipple gently. “Not good enough.”

  “I want...”

  She hesitates, and I dig my fingers into her soft hair, gripping firmly. She drops her head back and I dive into her neck, sucking her skin, tasting her hungrily.

  She softens in my arms. “Uuuh...”

  “Tell me.”

  “I want your cock inside me. So bad. Please. I want you to fuck me hard with it.”

  I exhale hotly, then eagerly taste that dirty, little mouth of hers, thrusting against her. She’s kissing me back, pivoting her hips so she’s rubbing her firm mound up and down my shaft.

  “I’m so wet,” she gasps, frantically kissing and nibbling my shoulder. “I’m dripping.”

  That’s it. This woman is mine.

  I set her down, lifting the hem of her shirt. She quickly raises her arms and I take it all the way off. Her round breasts are cupped in the black, lacey material of her bra. As I tear off my own shirt, tossing it aside, she reaches behind for the clasp.