By the time I reach Reyes’s property, my nerves are completely shot and I feel dangerously lightheaded. I was so desperate to get away from my father that it didn’t even occur to me that Reyes might not be home. It’s Saturday night. He might have gone out with his teammates, or another woman.
Please be there, I fervently pray.
The entrance gates are rolling open as I hurtle toward them. I’m driving so fast that the car nearly fishtails out of control.
Heart thudding furiously, I pump the brakes and jerk the steering wheel to the right.
When the car stops skidding, I race through the open gates and then slam on the brakes, blinded by the headlights of an oncoming vehicle.
When I recognize Reyes’s SUV, relief shoots through me, leaving me dizzy and breathless.
I cut the engine and just sit there, watching as Reyes hops out of the SUV and jogs around to the driver’s side of my car.
“Emerson?” He bangs on the window, his voice muffled by the rain. “Open up!”
When I unlock the doors, he yanks mine open and stares down at me with alarmed concern. “What the hell, Emerson?”
I open my mouth, but no sound comes out.
He reaches inside the car, pulls me out and hauls me into his arms. I sag against him, blindly burying my face in his chest.
“Jesus, Em,” he rasps, stroking my damp hair. “You’re shaking like a leaf. What the fuck happened?”
I can only shake my head, shivering as the rain beats down on us. I can feel my body weakening, overcome by the weight of the past eight days.
Just as my knees buckle, Reyes catches me and scoops me up in his arms.
I screw my eyes shut, clinging to his neck as he carries me over to his SUV, opens the door and deposits me in the passenger seat.
Running around to the driver’s side, he jumps in and guns the accelerator.
“My car,” I say weakly.
“Don’t worry about it,” he growls. “I’ll move it later.”
The tires squeal as he whips the big SUV around and roars back up the road toward the house. Seconds later he comes to a lurching stop, hops out and comes around to lift me out of the seat.
I keep my eyes closed as he carries me inside the house and up the winding staircase.
“I was just on my way to see you to make sure you’re okay.” His deep voice rumbles against my ear. “Clearly you’re not.”
When he reaches his bedroom and sets me down on my feet, I slowly open my eyes to look at him. We’re both soaked from the rain. I know I must look like a drowned rat.
“What happened, baby?” he asks with rough tenderness, smoothing my wet hair off my face and searching my eyes in the moonlight. “What spooked you out there?”
I don’t answer, staring up at him through a haze of tears. His black hair clings to his forehead and his shirt is plastered to his chest, molding every hard muscle.
“Let’s get you out of these wet clothes,” he murmurs.
I nod and start pulling at his shirt, my hands shaking so bad I can barely grasp the wet fabric.
“Em,” he whispers raggedly.
“Please,” I beg.
Nostrils flaring, he stares straight into my eyes. Just like that, he understands what I’m asking for. What I so desperately need.
With frantic hands, we strip each other’s clothes off, leaving them in a wet pile on the floor next to our shoes.
Reyes roughly palms my ass as I run my hands down his chest, stroking the ridged muscles of his stomach.
When he breathes my name, I throw my arms around his neck and kiss him with blind hunger, begging him to help me forget, to make me feel anything but this bottomless rage and despair that wants to swallow me whole.
When he bends and sweeps me up into his arms, my breath leaves my lungs in a heated rush, goose bumps breaking out over my skin.
He carries me across the moon-silvered room in a few strides and lowers me onto the bed, following me down and pinning me beneath his body. Grabbing the sides of my head, he kisses me hard and bruisingly, his tongue thrusting between my lips, his breathing raspy.
“Fuck me,” I moan in a desperate voice I hardly recognize. “Fuck me, Reyes.”
He tears his mouth away and rises over me like a massive tidal wave, pushing my thighs apart and surging powerfully inside me.
I throw back my head with a high-pitched cry. I feel him shudder against me, his erection hot and throbbing as he groans helplessly.
I wrap my legs around his back, locking my ankles behind his round ass. “Move now. Please. I can’t wait.”
Staring fiercely into my eyes, he braces his weight on his forearms and buries his cock deep inside me in a series of hard, brutal strokes.
I’m so keyed up that I come almost instantly, arching my back and screaming his name.
“Jesus,” he growls hoarsely.
Still quivering from my orgasm, I bite his bulging pec and gasp out, “Let me ride you.”
He shivers against me and then rolls onto his back, his eyes glittering with dark need and animal lust.
I straddle his hips and sink down on his hard cock with my head thrown back, hair hanging wetly down my back.
A raw sound rips from his throat when I begin moving. Rough hands grip my thighs, holding them apart as he watches my pussy slide up and down his thick shaft.
Adrenaline is crashing through my veins, shrinking the world down to nothing but him and me. I give myself over to it, this primal need that offers escape if not complete deliverance.
Reyes groans my name as I bounce on his lap, my ass slapping his thighs and my breasts swinging up and down.
He stares ferociously into my eyes as I ride him faster, my nails scoring his chest and my thighs burning as I rock my hips in a figure eight, grinding desperately on his cock.
“Fuck, Em.” His hands slide upward to cradle and separate my ass cheeks before he surges up into me, causing me to throw back my head with a hedonistic cry.
Two thrusts of his hips and I climax explosively, the wetness of my orgasm soaking him down to his balls.
With a loud guttural curse, he flips me over on my hands and knees and plunges back inside me.
I cry out and arch my back, my pussy clamping around his dick and making him groan harshly.
He grabs the headboard and goes buck wild, ruthlessly slamming into me just the way I need him to.
“Yes, Reyes, fuck yes!” I keen.
He wraps my hair around his other hand, yanking back my head as he thrusts harder and faster, every stroke connecting with my painfully swollen clit.
“God, yes,” I gasp, breasts bouncing and toes curling. “More. Give me more.”
He growls darkly and tugs tighter on my hair, the pain sending white-hot jolts of pleasure to my core.
He’s dying to come. I feel it in his straining muscles and every pulsing throb of his cock. I smell it in the musky pheromones pumping from his body. He needs the release just as much as I do. But he’s delaying his gratification for my sake, letting me take as much as I need from him until my pain is diminished and my demented hunger satiated.
I mewl as his mouth comes down on my shoulder, his teeth sinking into my skin as he fucks me even harder, his pelvis and thighs slapping my ass.
The pleasure is so intense that I want to squeeze my eyes shut. But I keep them open, staring back at Reyes like he’s a beacon leading me out of a dark tunnel.
His face is hard with lust, his feral eyes burning into mine.
I push back against him and he counter thrusts, our bodies smacking violently together, over and over.
When he slaps my ass, I sob in ecstasy.
Growling something dark and dirty, he slaps me twice more and then lifts my right leg, his cock hitting a spot that sends me spiraling into another screaming orgasm.
Only then does he come with a raw shout, shuddering so forcefully that the whole bed shakes.
He continues riding me, never breaking eye contact as he p
ushes me to the limit.
When I can’t take any more, I collapse facedown on the bed, swept along an endless wave of primal bliss.
After a few more balls-deep thrusts, he collapses beside me and curves his hand over my hip, tugging me against him.
I curl into his sweaty chest, my eyes closing. Both of our hearts are racing, completely and perfectly synchronized.
“Thank you,” I whisper to him.
His arms tighten around me. He doesn’t ask why I’m thanking him.
He’s Reyes . . .
. . . so he probably just knows.
Chapter Twenty-Four
EMERSON
Long afterward we lay in bed holding each other, listening to the falling rain.
“I’m glad you were home.” My quiet voice breaks the silence. “I didn’t know where else to go.”
“You’re always more than welcome here.” Reyes kisses the top of my head. “I’ll give you a key and the security code so you can come and go anytime you want.”
My heart expands at the offer. “Thank you,” I whisper gratefully.
He strokes my hair without speaking for a full minute. “What happened tonight?”
I swallow hard as lightning flashes outside, illuminating the room.
“Does it have something to do with your father?” he presses, a hard edge to his voice.
I nod slowly against his chest. “I saw him.”
Reyes tenses against me. “Where?”
“He showed up at my apartment.”
“What the fuck did he want?” When I don’t answer right away, Reyes lifts my chin with his hand so he can see my face. “Did he hurt you?”
“Not physically,” I say with a bitter twist to my lips. “He wanted to tell me that he’s innocent. He said he’s being framed.”
Reyes’s eyes narrow. “Framed by who?”
“He didn’t say. Does it even matter? He was clearly lying through his damn teeth.” I tremble with renewed fury. “I can’t believe he had the nerve to show his face after all these years.”
Reyes clenches his jaw. “I’m sorry he upset you. He had no fucking business coming anywhere near you. We can file a restraining order—”
“No.” I shake my head. “That won’t be necessary.”
“Why the hell not?”
“I don’t think he’ll be coming back. I made it pretty clear I never want to see him again.”
Reyes frowns, holding me protectively closer. “If he shows up again or tries to contact you, let me know. Okay?”
I nod, my eyes burning with angry tears as I watch silver streaks of lightning fork across the sky.
“I hate him so much,” I whisper fiercely. “He did everything he could to destroy my fucking life.”
“He tried,” Reyes growls. “And he failed.”
“Did he?” I burst out furiously. “He took you away from me!”
Reyes goes very still, his gaze sharpening on my face. “What are you talking about?”
I didn’t mean to blurt out the words. But now that they’re out there, I can’t take them back.
“Emerson.” Reyes’s voice is low and controlled, his eyes watching me with focused intensity. “What did you mean by that?”
I pull out of his arms and sit up, leaning back against the headboard with my knees drawn up to my chest beneath the bedsheet. “I shouldn’t have said anything.”
“Too fucking late.” Reyes clicks on the bedside lamp and then props himself up on one elbow, staring hard at me. “How did your father take me away from you?”
I swallow tightly and lick my dry lips. “He didn’t want us to get married. He . . . he said I would ruin your life the way my mother almost ruined his.”
Reyes’s eyebrows slam together in angry confusion. “When did he say that?”
“The day before we were supposed to get married.” I push my hair off my face with a shaking hand. “He was there . . . at our hotel.”
Reyes stares at me in shock. “Your father was in Vegas?”
“Yes.” I struggle to force more words out of my dry mouth. “My mother had called to remind him that I was graduating that month. A few days later, he showed up unexpectedly at the house. She told him I had just left that morning for our senior class trip. For whatever reason, he was suspicious. When Mom stepped out to run errands, he went in my room and started snooping around. He found my journal, where I’d excitedly written down our plans to elope. He was furious, but he didn’t tell Mom. Instead he booked a flight to Vegas so he could stop us.”
“Son of a bitch,” Reyes whispers in disbelief.
“The next day when we came back from getting our marriage license, you said you had a few more errands to run. When you insisted that I wait at the hotel, I figured you were going to buy our rings and you didn’t want me to see them beforehand because you wanted to surprise me. In hindsight,” I whisper sadly, “I wish to God you’d taken me with you.”
Reyes stares at me, his jaw locked tight. “What happened?”
I suck in a slow breath and blow it out, trying to control my emotions as I excavate the painful memories. “As soon as you left, my father knocked on our door. When I opened it and saw him standing there, I was stunned. I hadn’t seen or heard a peep from him since he moved out of the house and filed for divorce. I had no idea what he could possibly be doing there.”
“What the hell happened?” Reyes’s voice throbs with fury. “What did that bastard say to you?”
I swallow painfully and shake my head.
“Tell me.”
Through the tears and the raw ache in my throat, I compose my voice enough to keep talking, to keep unearthing the wreckage of the past. “I tried to slam the door on him, but he forced his way into the room. He said he knew we were planning to elope, and he came to save you from making the biggest mistake of your life. When I told him to leave, he called me a conniving bitch and a gold-digging whore. He accused me of trying to trap you into marriage the way my mother had trapped him with a baby. He took great pleasure in reminding me that he never wanted me. He’d had big dreams of leaving Santa Fe and moving to New York to work on Wall Street. But my mom was a good Irish Catholic girl who refused to get an abortion. She and her parents guilted him into settling down with a wife and kid, and he never stopped hating us for it. He told me the day I was born was the worst day of his life, and the day he left us was the happiest.”
“Jesus Christ.” Reyes’s expression is thunderous, his eyes flashing hotter than the lightning outside. “What a heartless fucking monster.”
I wrap my arms around my knees. “I started crying and yelling at him to get out. But he was just getting warmed up. He told me to do the right thing and break up with you. When I said no, he threatened not to pay my tuition. I laughed in his face and told him I didn’t need or want his damn money. I explained that I’d received a partial scholarship, and I planned to get a job to cover the rest of my expenses. That infuriated him. So he upped the stakes by threatening to pay some girl to accuse you of rape—”
“Motherfucker!” Reyes explodes.
“If one girl wasn’t convincing enough, he would find two more. He said you’d lose your football scholarship and get kicked off the team. If you weren’t convicted of rape, the scandal would derail your career. No other college would want you, and no professional team would touch you.” I shake my head, tears leaking from my eyes. “I couldn’t bear the thought of you going to prison or never playing football again. I couldn’t let him do that to you, Reyes. I couldn’t.”
Reyes rolls away from me and swings his legs over the edge of the bed, his bare feet hitting the floor with an angry thud.
“THAT SON OF A BITCH!” he roars, his voice booming around the room like thunder. “That motherfucking son of a bitch!”
The force of his wrath makes me shrink back against the headboard.
He jams both hands through his hair and then lunges to his feet, grabbing a pair of shorts from an accent chair and yanking them
on.
“That’s why I broke up with you,” I choke out tearfully. “I knew how cruel and malicious my father could be. He despises me and would rather die than see me happy. So I knew he wasn’t making empty threats. I knew he would go through with his plan if I defied him. I didn’t want to be responsible for ruining your future, Reyes. I couldn’t have lived with myself.”
Reyes paces furiously back and forth, cursing in English and Catalan. The graphic litany of words scorches my ears. I haven’t seen him this enraged since the day after his mother died. That day in the barn is seared into my memory.
He’d been like a tornado, a destructive whirlwind that couldn’t be contained. Huddled behind a mountain of stacked hay bales, I’d watched as he kicked over buckets, ripped apart feed bags and punched through stall doors, his beautiful face ravaged by pain and anguish. I’d never seen such naked grief. Such raw heartbreak and despair.
When he was done tearing through the barn, he’d doubled over and let out an almost inhuman wail. A long, agonized wail that tore my heart in half. With tears streaking down my face, I’d stepped out from my hiding spot and softly called his name. He’d looked right through me, his eyes wild and unfocused, blood dripping from his fists.
I’d started walking toward him, approaching him cautiously as if he were a wounded animal. Before I could reach him, he’d thrown himself onto his horse and galloped off, thundering past me as if I weren’t even there.
My heart wrenches at the memory.
Nervously licking my lips, I watch as Reyes rakes his hand through his hair and grips the back of his neck before turning to stare at me with tormented eyes.
“I wish to God you’d told me—”
“I couldn’t!” I say vehemently. “My father warned me not to tell you about our conversation. Even if it was years down the line, long after you’d made it to the pros. He said if I ever breathed a word to you or anyone else, he would destroy you. I believed him. I was too scared not to.” My stomach twists sickeningly as I add the final kicker. “Just to make damn sure I didn’t forget, he called me the day after you were drafted by Baltimore. When I answered the phone, he said coldly, ‘Don’t do anything stupid.’ That was it. Just those four words, but I got the message loud and clear. Then he hung up. And that was the last I heard from him until tonight.”
Get Over You (Dare Me Book 1) Page 23
