She looked up into his face, which blurred until she blinked hard. “Blake,” she whispered.
He sat on the edge of the bed, next to her hip, and reached out to brush the hair back from her face. As he tucked it behind her ear, his thumb drifted across her cheek. “What is it, sweetheart?”
“I would know you, too.”
A line of curiosity formed between his eyebrows.
“The way you said you’d know me…I’d know you, too, apart from anyone.”
A smile crinkled the corners of his eyes. “That’s a relief.”
“I mean it, Blake.”
The smile slowly melted from his face. He went still.
“If you were half a world away,” she continued, “I would still feel you.” She took his hand and placed it over her heart. “Right here inside me.”
A new emotion burned in his eyes when, after a few moments, he finally moved. He rolled on a condom.
Positioning himself, he settled his weight between her thighs. She welcomed him openly.
Arms straight and muscles rippling, hands flattened against the mattress, Blake suspended himself above her. She felt the smooth head of his shaft probe her entrance. He looked down at her. “When you’re near me,” he said, “even in my arms, I still can’t bring you close enough. I’ve wanted this for so long…to be with you, inside you…”
Gazing up at him, emotions pooled along her lashes. Her lips parted.
A wordless invitation.
Layla memorized the look on his face, in his eyes.
Awe and reverence, pure and vulnerable need.
A penetrating hush seemed to suspend time. Shadows gathered and tightened around them, urging them together at last.
Slowly, Blake sank inside her.
Capturing her with his gaze, he brought himself into her gradually, letting her adjust to his size. Then he thrust. Retreating, he thrust deeper. He repeated the motions, slow, slick and sensual, hinting at the bolder rhythm to come.
“You feel incredible,” she murmured.
“So do you, baby. So good. Better than I imagined.”
His blazing green eyes roamed over her naked body beneath him with the same possessive claim his hands had laid to her. He remained straight-armed and suspended above her, the leverage intensifying the friction of his movements.
She appreciated his control, the tense interplay of muscles rippling along his body, working into each commanding move. Once he became fully embedded within her, his hips met hers with steady thrusts. Her palms coasted up his arms, her fingertips tracing the planes of his powerful chest.
But she wanted him closer. “I want to hold you.”
The lines of concentration around his eyes softened. “Layla, if I wrap myself around you now, I don’t know if I can make this last.”
“I promise to let you make it up to me. As many times as you want.”
A smile curved his lips. “You drive a hard bargain, baby,” he said teasingly.
She licked her lips, felt his cock pulse and expand in response. “I believe you’re the perfect man for the job.”
“Anything for you, beautiful.” He blinked at her slowly, adoration glowing in his eyes. He lowered his body to hers. “But it might take practice. Lots of practice before I know how to give it to you just right.”
She gasped as their new angle brought his thrusts deeper inside her. “I think you’re right. Could take months. Even years,” she whispered, closing her eyes before she saw his reaction to her tentative admission.
Blake released his weight, enfolding her completely, hugging her against his chest. His whisper drifted through the strands of her hair until it reached her ears, sank into her skin, found her heart.
“Maybe a lifetime.”
“Yes,” was all she could reply.
In the silence that followed, she hugged him tight. He held onto her like he would never let go. They moved in a loving rhythm.
The scent of him surrounded her. Clean hair that caressed her shoulders as he rocked above her, the slick scent of attraction that made her even wetter for him. Both mingled with the familiar comfort of leather and something spicy that she inhaled when she buried her face against his neck. She felt his pulse beneath her lips.
He shifted, drawing back to stare down at her. Their noses touched, light brushes of affection. Their lips met, released, met again each time he rocked forward.
“Perfect, Blake. Just like that.” She arched as his thrusts hit the most sensitive place inside her. A luxurious tension began to build inside her. “Right there.”
She clung to him, rode his thrusts. His breathing turned choppy.
Every stroke brought him deeper, brought her closer to a powerful rush.
A shiver ran through her. Climax felt imminent, but Layla wanted to share the moment with him. “Blake,” she whispered, and he brushed her lips with his. “I’m so close. But I want us to come at the same time.”
His shoulders tensed beneath her hands. He nodded tightly.
Then he began to take her with long, stroking drives.
“ Yes , Blake!”
His breath seethed in busts against her skin. “Oh, God,” he groaned. “Fuck.”
Then his lips sealed over hers.
Her cries of passion echoed in his throat. His moans vibrated all through her. Their mouths clung fiercely as their bodies strove together.
His shout matched her cry. A shared tension poured through them.
And a shared climax consumed them.
They shook in each other’s arms. It was terrifyingly beautiful.
After minutes of listening to their hearts thunder and their erratic breaths fill the quiet engulfing them, Blake lifted his head from the hollow between her neck and shoulder. He gathered her to him. Bracing her neck and shoulders with his forearms, he touched his lips to hers in the softest, most tender moment-after.
After the rush subsided, Blake disposed of the condom and rolled onto his back with her, pulling the sheets up around them. His hands traced lazy patterns over her skin.
Hearing her sighs, a smile slid onto his lips, filling him with contentment. He kissed her hair. It felt so right, being with her this way, holding her after making love, as if they’d done this a thousand times.
But this first time was more amazing than he’d even hoped.
Their bodies melded together perfectly. No adjusting, no elbow poking or hair pulling or knee hitting a wrong spot. They came together effortlessly.
This is the way it’s supposed to be. Effortless , he thought.
Although it had taken plenty of effort to get them both here, he admitted wryly, something more powerful than either of them had taken over.
Like the best of them came out when they came together.
He wondered if she felt the same way. He didn’t ask, didn’t want to push her into a confession she wasn’t ready to make. Maybe part of him worried about the answer.
Shadows thickened and silver edged the window. The moon had danced into the sky at last to the tune of midnight. Blake felt Layla fall asleep in his arms. After touching her, making love to her, and now holding her as she slept, the emotions that sprang up inside were inevitable.
Even though Layla was asleep, Blake didn’t dare say the words that were about to fall from his mouth.
He’d probably blurt them out anyway, at some point. He wouldn’t be able to help it. His heart was too full to hold them back much longer.
Blake had loved Layla from the moment he saw her.
A load of bull, he would’ve told anybody if they had described what he’d felt when he first looked at the woman sleeping in his arms. Love at first sight was antiquated and sappy—not to mention impossible. Couldn’t happen. Until it had happened to him.
But knowing Layla’s past, reinforced by what Blake had pieced together on the playground the night before, the last thing he should do is tell her how he felt.
At least not the whole truth all at once.
He lifte
d her hand where it lay on his chest and brought it to his lips. He kissed the spot at the base of her left right finger. His spot. Where she’d wear the proof of his place in her life. Soon, if he had his way.
Except her pattern was that when a man came too close, offered too much at once, she backed away.
Blake refused to lose her again.
His heart surged in his chest at the thought, anger and pain washing over him in waves. The feeling was too familiar, brought back too many memories.
Doubt crept into his heart. God help him. He wasn’t a man who held anything back. He came at life head-on. And if he told her he loved her before she was ready…
This situation was so different. Everything he wanted hung in the balance of his own discretion.
Only he feared he was asking himself to perform the impossible.
Distressed, Blake ran a hand down his face. He loved her and there was no denying it.
He looked at the ceiling. And admitted the inevitable.
I’m doomed.
Chapter 21
Layla walked outside the next morning to a vast blue sheet of sky and the sound of Harley pipes ripping through the heavy air; muggy air that belied the clear expanse, forewarning a storm.
She walked along the flagstone path toward the driveway as if floating on a cloud. Physically, she felt incredible, her blood singing through her veins. Between her legs sat a comfortable soreness she wouldn’t trade for anything. Inside her, deep down, peace settled like a long lost friend. One that had deserted her so long ago. It was liberating but frightening. She faintly dreaded to invite it in, as though it would sprout wings and take off if she opened her heart too wide.
True to his word, Blake had woken her in the middle of the night with fervent kisses. Amidst shadows silvered with moonbeams they’d made love again. And again that morning, as the pale sunlight of early dawn had drifted into their room in peaches and pinks, glistening over the sheen of their bodies.
Abruptly she stopped short on the path. The air in her lungs paused when she saw Blake in a halo of sunshine. Maybe it was the way his body turned toward her before he met her eyes as if he sensed her approach, as though they were connected by an instinctive force neither could explain. Or the way he looked at her when their gazes locked across thick heat waves strengthened by their sizzling awareness of each other.
He waved her over. Then he shut off the motor, slid the kickstand back down as she approached, and stood straddling the leather seat. “I was just checking to see that we’ve got enough gas to last us awhile. Also making sure the bike’s still running okay. Put it through a hell of a run yesterday.”
“Yes, I guess we did. You and I have been through a lot in the past few days.”
Reaching out an index finger, he stroked her cheek and smiled. “Wouldn’t trade it for anything.”
Her responding smile was quiet, secret. But under the burning weight of his stare—deep green and filled with an emotion that for some reason her eyes couldn’t meet for very long—she blinked and changed the subject to one that had plagued her thoughts since she’d left his embrace and stepped into the shower that morning. “Do you think we’ll be able to make up the time we’ve lost?”
Blake sobered. “I think we’ve still got a good chance of getting to Rob before trouble beats us to him, but we’ve got to ride hard. We’re almost a day behind.”
“I know.” Layla stared at the motorcycle. She suspected they’d be forced to spend more hours on the bike today than the past two days combined. Surprisingly, her stomach didn’t tighten with horror at the idea. It seemed she’d finally dealt with that part of her past. She shrugged lightly and attempted a bright smile. “It won’t be so bad.”
Blake cupped her cheek. “Pretty brave, all things considered.”
“Blake, being with you last night, for the first time, I…” Her features pulled with effort when she struggled to finish the sentiment, uncertain how to put such profound emotions into words in the light of day with their bodies clothed and separated.
His thumb drifted across her cheek and brushed her lips to silence her. “Shh. I know, baby. I know.”
He leaned forward, slid his arm around her waist, and pulled her to him for a lingering kiss. Memories from the night before flashed through her mind, heating her blood. The kiss deepened, his tongue making slow, sultry laps inside her mouth.
Layla tried to pull away, to concentrate on devoting every spare second toward the effort of reaching her brother. Those best efforts were burned away by the electric passion gathering between them like a storm building, beyond their control.
It seemed last night had only been an introduction to the realms of passion they could achieve, not the culmination she’d expected. There had been no closure afterward, no lasting satiety.
She craved him. More than she ever had before.
Their bodies seemed eager to explore every level of fulfillment they could achieve. And all the layers in between. One night hadn’t been enough. Not nearly.
Then his phone rang.
Like an alarm tearing them away from a dream, it invaded their erotic reverie with discordant tones. He dropped kisses to her lips in between his words. “I should get that.”
“Yes,” she nodded breathlessly, even though their lips still clung together.
More kisses. “Yeah.”
When she felt his fingers slide up into her hair, she knew the interruption was reality knocking. She pushed against him. “Blake. Answer your phone.”
“Right.” One last kiss, then he complied. He checked the caller ID before he answered. A big grin lit up his face. “What’s up, ugly?”
Layla stared at him strangely. Some greeting .
Extracting himself from the motorcycle, he paced while he talked animatedly with whoever was on the phone. He seemed to be engineering an alternate plan.
“Fate must have owed us a favor.” He ended the call and grinned. “Seems my brother is driving to Sturgis this year, stuck with carting the band equipment and his bike. It’s all in a trailer rigged up to one of our Desanto Landscaping trucks. He’s an hour away. He’ll be going slower than we were with that load, so we probably won’t get there until tomorrow morning. And with three in the cab it might be a little cramped, but other than that, we’ve just hitched ourselves a ride to Sturgis.”
Layla flew into his arms and gripped him with a huge hug. “Thank you. Thank you! I could kiss your brother.”
“Yeah, well, I’m sure he’d appreciate that—but I wouldn’t.”
“Can I kiss you instead?”
He sighed. “It’s tough, taking one for the team. But I think I can suffer through a kiss from the most beautiful woman I’ve ever met.”
She warned, “Careful, flattery will get you everywhere.”
“Mmm…one place comes to mind,” he said against her lips, as his hands cupped her bottom and pulled her tight against him.
“You were just there last night—twice—and again this morning!”
“I’ve wanted you for a whole year. Longer if you count how many years I waited for you to come into my life. We’ve got a lot of catching up to do.”
“I like how you see the bright side in every situation,” she said with a smile, before his lips seized hers.
*
“You two had a quickie before you met up with me, didn’t you?” Tanner asked Blake from the driver’s side of the cab in the truck belonging to Desanto, Inc.
They’d been on the road for four hours.
“Can you blame me?” Blake asked with a smug smile. Both their gazes fell to the woman asleep between them, her head on Blake’s lap, her rear end against Tanner’s side.
“You suck.”
Blake’s grin broadened. “Thank you.”
Tanner dropped his mock scowl and grinned back before returning his attention to the road. “Good to see you happy again, man. I thought you’d never leave that funk you’ve been in for the past year.” He nudged Layla with his hip.
“Don’t suppose it has anything to do with this one?”
“Lucky guess.”
“I like what I’m seeing. Is it the real deal this time?”
Blake focused an unseeing stare on the road ahead. He offered a nod.
“I figured. So why don’t you come out and say it? You’re going to marry this girl.”
Blake looked out the passenger window.
“Don’t want to jinx it, do you?”
“I lost her once,” Blake said low. Unconsciously, he wrapped his hand around her arm, his thumb stroking her soft skin. “It won’t happen again.”
Tanner noticed the protective gesture. For a few minutes they listened to the silence inside the cab, punctuated by the rhythmic slap of windshield wipers.
Thank the motorcycle gods for Tanner, Blake thought. Would’ve been a long, miserable ride to Sturgis in this rain. They couldn’t have afforded more lag time.
Finally Tanner broke the silence. “I remember the rainy afternoon I got in from Phoenix. You and I were on the porch talking, not two minutes, when that jackass cop came tearing down the street. Thirty seconds later, Layla whipped by going the opposite direction.”
Blake went still, looked at his brother. Then nodded.
Tanner went on. “I handed you the keys to my bike, no questions asked.”
“I followed her.” Blake picked up the story, his voice distant as he recalled the day in vivid, painful detail. “To the nearby park beside the Shaker Lakes. She pulled her car under a row of pines. It started raining. The downpour made it hard to see inside the car, but she was hunched over, face in her hands. I wanted to kill Johnson.”
“You have more self-control than me, bro.”
“No, I just didn’t want to leave her. Whatever Johnson did really tore her up. I parked the bike a little bit away. I had hoped she’d see me. So she’d finally believe that I’d be there for her when everything fell apart. She didn’t have to be alone…”
“She didn’t see you, though.”
Blake shook his head and sighed heavily. “No. So I rode up beside her car, went up to the window. I felt bad I startled her. I just…” He ran a hand down his face. “I just wanted her to know I was there for her. If she wanted to talk. Or not say anything at all and just let me hold her in the rain while she fell apart. But I think she was too proud to let me see her like that. She took off before I could do anything else except shout to her that she could come by. Anytime.”
All the Way Page 25
