Those beautiful green eyes of hers search mine as a lone tear falls and runs down the side of her face. Not even two minutes ago, I promised her that I wouldn’t make a move until she was ready, yet here I am, just seconds from breaking that.
Only I don’t have to. She breaks it for me and raises her chin, closing the distance between us. She captures my lips in hers as her hands slide up my chest and around my neck where she holds on with everything that she’s got.
My body crashes down on hers as my arms curl under her body. I roll us back over so the weight of my body doesn’t crush her and she straddles my hips while threading her fingers through my hair, not once breaking the kiss.
Tully’s lips are gentle and soft against mine, nothing like the fast, needy kisses from our past that felt as though we were both trying to prove ourselves. Don’t get me wrong, it was always incredible with her, but this…this is something different. This is two souls crying out for the other, both desperate to find their way back to one another.
All too soon, Tully pulls back, breathing heavy as she looks down at me in confusion. “I can’t…I’m sorry.”
“It’s ok,” I soothe her. “Too much. I get it.”
A sadness creeps into her eyes and a moment later she drops back down into my chest, snuggling into me and closing herself off to conversation, but it’s fine. Enough has been said tonight and I don’t doubt there’s plenty of shit circling her mind to keep her busy for the next few years.
My arms curl securely around her as I hold her to my chest. We fall back into a comfortable silence as she listens to the sound of my heart beating. My hand runs up and down her back and all too soon, her breathing slows as she falls into a deep sleep.
I remain right where I am, not for one second wanting to leave. She told me that she wanted me to stay until she fell asleep and that’s exactly what I should do. Only, I can’t find it within myself to get up and leave.
Staying here is an invasion of her privacy and trust. We’ve each said what needs to be said and now I should be giving her space until she can work out what her next step is going to be.
But then…I’ve never really cared for what I should do. I’m more of a grab hold with two hands and hold on while things get fucking wild kind of guy.
I lay here until the moon has shifted out of sight through the window before deciding it’s time. She’s not one of those girls who would just giggle and tell me exactly what I want to hear when it comes to waking up and finding that I did exactly what I said that I wouldn’t do, she’s the kind who will fight me tooth and nail just to remind me that I fucked up and went back on my word…again.
After pressing a soft kiss to Tully’s head, I lift her off me and place her down on her pillow. I pull the blanket right up around her to make sure she keeps warm and has the best possible sleep.
I slip out of her bed with a weight settling into my gut. I don’t want to leave, but it’s what she needs. I get my shoes back on and take myself out of her room after double checking that she’s ok and closing her door.
I come into the living room and find the bag of take out staring back at me. I grab hold of it and detour through the kitchen to throw it out before heading for the door. Only when I grab hold of it, someone stands on the opposite side, knocking.
My brows furrow. Who the fuck would be coming to her place now?
Already with the door handle beneath my fingers, I twist it and pull the door wide to find Spencer standing before me with a box of crap in his hands.
“The fuck is this?” I demand as he gapes at me for a moment too long, clearly not having expected to see me standing before him. “What do you think you’re doing showing up at her apartment with a box of her old shit this late at night? Don’t you think you’ve already done enough damage?” I grab Tully’s leather jacket that sits at the top of the box. “In what world is this a good idea?”
“Excuse me?” Spencer grunts, putting the box down and tearing the leather jacket from between my fingers as he attempts to peer around me into Tully’s apartment. “I’m just returning her shit as any decent person would do. What the fuck are you doing here? Sneaking out after taking advantage of her? You know, it took me four fucking years to help her out of the grave you dug for her and now you’re hanging around again. What exactly are you trying to achieve?”
“Really?” I laugh. “You think you accomplished something wasting three years being with her? Tell me how did it feel knowing your girlfriend was in love with me? That every time you got down on one knee, that she was wishing it was me, that every time you touched her, she was imagining me, that every time she uttered the words ‘I love you’ that it was my face in her mind.”
“Fuck you. What the hell would you know? You haven’t been around.”
“One look at her face and I knew exactly what’s been going on over the last four years. You see, unlike you, I can read her like a fucking book. Every tiny little thing she does tells me a story. The way she does her hair. If it’s up; she can’t be fucked. If it’s down, she’s feeling good about herself. If she braids it; she means fucking business. The same goes for if she wears makeup. The way she holds her body. Which fucking smile she gives. Every move she makes, I read. I bet you couldn’t say the same thing, and you know why?”
He raises a pissed off brow and I step into him. “Because you’ve done nothing but think about yourself. You’re right. I dug a fucking grave and left her in it, but instead of helping her out, you threw her down a few things to keep her comfortable. You never once pulled her out of it, because you were fucking scared that if you did, she’d realize that you’re not the one that she ever wanted.”
“You don’t fucking know that. We were great together. She just needed a little more time, but then you had to come back and fuck it all up. We would have been married if it weren’t for you. You broke her.”
I shake my head. “I’m so fucking sick of everyone saying that I broke her. If you really think that, then you don’t know Tully at all. She’s a fucking warrior. No one can break her, not even me. Sure, she was hurting, but every fucking day she got up and she built herself an empire and showed the world that she can’t be fucked with yet you keep treating her with kiddie gloves. She’s a fucking force to be reckoned with and maybe if you’d treated her like a fucking queen rather than a defenseless princess, you could have had her.”
“I did have her.”
“She might have shared your bed. But you never had her.”
Spencer’s jaw clenches and I watch as his hands ball into fists at his side. Tully tells me over and over again that he’s a good guy, but from what I’ve seen, he’s still the same dickhead from high school and the way he rears back and throws a punch that hurtles towards my face proves it.
I narrowly avoid having my jaw broken and slice my hand out towards him. I catch his wrist as it passes my face and step out of the way as the momentum forces him forward. He slams into the wall and I step in behind him, keeping him pinned. “You don’t want to fucking try me, Spencer. I’m giving you the benefit of the doubt because it’s still fresh and because I know Tully would want me to take it easy on you. I’m warning you, back off and bow out.”
I lean in closer. “You asked me what I was trying to achieve. I want my fucking girl back and no one is going to get in my way. You ended things with her and are already hurting her by spending time with my cousin, so get the fuck out of here before I decide it’s time to teach you a fucking lesson. You’re through with her.”
Spencer’s jaw remains clenched, but I feel the fight leave his body and I let up on him. He spins around and gets in my face. “You fucking hurt her again and I’m coming for you.”
“Same goes with Lacey. She’s my blood. One fucking foot wrong and I’ll take you out.” Spencer’s eyes flick down to the box and I step in front of it. “Just go.”
With one final look towards her door, Spencer slinks away and I’m left standing in the hallway wondering what the fuck just hap
pened. All I know is that I don’t want to leave her alone.
I grab the box and make my way back inside her apartment while making sure to lock the door behind me. I dump it on her dining table, making a point of not looking deeper than the leather jacket and giving myself a glimpse of her life with him. I’m not interested. All that matters now is moving forward.
Needing to feel her back in my arms, I make my way down to her room, step out of my shoes, and peel my shirt over my head.
I slip back under the covers and as if sensing me, she instantly rolls back into my arms which is exactly where she stays.
Chapter 12
Tully
Sun streams through my bedroom window and I wake squinting into the early morning light What the hell? Usually, I close the blinds before going to bed.
It takes all of two seconds for it to hit me. Rivers.
Not only was he here last night, but there’s a strong arm curled around my waist and my back is pressed against what feels like the comfiest brick wall I’ve ever had the pleasure of being up against.
He’s all man. He always was, but after four years in the military, his body has been sculptured to absolute perfection. He’s simply delicious. One day…not today, probably not tomorrow and most likely not this week, but one day I’m going to explore every inch of him and rediscover this new Rivers. How could I not? It’d be a crime against womankind if I didn’t eventually take him for a test drive.
Shit…
Just last night I vowed that I’d never go back to him and here I am considering all the different ways I’d let him take me. I wouldn’t mind letting him bend me like a pretzel and fucking me to within an inch of my life, but then, I also want to see his face. I want to watch him, watch the way he works my body, watch how he touches me.
A shiver runs down my spine as the softest groan pulls from within me. I can count the times I’ve been with Rivers on one hand. We had a brief moment back in high school, back when I thought the best of him. I thought we’d finally broken that barrier and everything was going to be perfect between us. That night with him was incredible.
People always say that when you’re in love with someone, sex means so much more and being eighteen and naïve about the world, I thought it was all bullshit…that was until I was with Rivers.
It was more than I could have expected. I still think about that night. In fact, it surfaces into my brain more often than it should. The very next day, he broke my heart and that’s the day that I realized that I could never fully trust him again despite how terribly in love with him I was.
Following that, I wasn’t with him again until he had returned from his first part of training with the military. Just like the first time, it was amazing. He has this way of making me feel things that I’ve never felt with other men. Either it’s because of our history and the way we love each other, or he has some wicked tricks in the bedroom that other men need to be reading up on.
I realize way too late that my ass has been pushing back into his incredibly hard junk and my hips fly forward before he wakes up and assumes I was trying to get lucky. After all, that train of thought in his mind can only mean failure for me. If he comes at me like that, I won’t be able to resist him. Tasting his lips on mine last night was almost enough to kill me. I don’t know what I’d do if it was anything else I was tasting.
Get a grip, Tully!
Looking back over my shoulder, I take in his sharp jaw and trail my eyes up to his. He’s still fast asleep, but after his time in the Military, I don’t doubt that even the softest whisper from me would have him on his feet, standing at attention…you know, the other kind of standing at attention. He’s already got the first kind mastered and damn, it certainly felt bigger than what I remember.
I slip out from under his arm and creep out of bed, trying not to wake him. I’m sure the past four years have been hard for him and after what he’s been through, he deserves all the sleep he can get.
To be honest, I’m not entirely surprised to find him in my bed. When I asked him to stay until I fell asleep, I knew there was a good chance that he wouldn’t leave and I think last night, a piece of me wanted him to stay. All I could think about was the story he told me of growing up with his father and I needed nothing more than to be held in his strong arms.
I didn’t consider what this morning would be like waking up with him, I didn’t consider anything. All I wanted was to be close with him and I knew he’d give me that, no questions asked.
A piece of my soul died when he told me of the horrors he’d been through growing up and something tells me that’s only the beginning. I haven’t worked out if I’m better not knowing or if I need to get it all out of him. Telling me seemed like the hardest thing he’s ever done, that he’d have preferred to be out fighting a war than sitting in my car spilling all the details from his past, but afterward, it was as though he was a new person. The weight of those horrors lifted off his shoulders and it felt incredible to be the one to help him do that. But the question is if I can handle hearing more. It nearly killed me last night, but I liked what it did for him.
I stand at the end of my bed, slipping my feet into my slippers as I watch him sleep. He agreed to stay until I fell asleep and I have a feeling that he truly meant it, so why is he still here?
Samuel Rivers is not a patient man and I’d bet my last cent that he tried to leave. Just as he tried to give me my space, but ended up bombarding me at work. I don’t think it’s physically possible for him to stay away, but the fact that he’s trying until his patience runs out speaks volumes.
Next time he tells me ‘The ball is in your court, I’ll leave it to you to make the next move’ I’ll know better and realize that what he’s actually telling me is, ‘I’ll hover close by until I think you’ve had enough time to think it over and when I deem myself just about to go insane, then I’ll come and make the decision for you.’
Some things never change but for some reason, I’ve always found his over the top, domineering, alpha douchebaggery the biggest fucking turn on and to be honest, I absolutely love it.
When he stormed into my store with that look of defiance in his eye, tight jaw, and stalkerish tendencies, I nearly jumped him. He’s so fucking sexy, he’s the whole fucking world to me and it tears me apart that I have to break his heart time and time again to keep him at arm’s length.
With my stomach grumbling, I remember that we never got around to eating last night and I leave him sleeping in my bed.
First things first, If I’m going to be spending my day thinking about a little eight-year-old boy wielding a knife and being forced to end someone’s life, then I’m going to need coffee…and lots of it.
I get busy with my brand new coffee machine. I’ve been saving for this bad boy for weeks now. I could have gotten one a while ago, but when it comes to coffee, I wanted the best and unfortunately for me and the rest of the world, having the best usually comes with an expensive price tag.
I fire her up and as I watch her make magic as my mind wanders back to that little boy. Rivers said he didn’t know what happened to the children of that family, but I have a bad feeling in my gut. Anton is all about making money and he’s not above selling orphaned children.
I wonder what kind of information I could find on the internet. I just need to do a little math and work out which year it would have happened and search through all the unsolved murders in the area. There will be names in there and then I’ll add a little Facebook stalking. Everyone is on Facebook now, but it’s a long shot. Those kids would have changed their names or moved away. They’d be lucky if they even remembered who their mother and father were. Hell, their names were probably never disclosed for privacy and child protection laws.
My coffee machines beeps, signaling that the yummy goodness is ready and just as I reach for it, two strong arms come down on either side of me, caging me against the kitchen counter.
I instinctively relax into him and curse my traitorous body for i
ts ho-ish behavior. His arm moves and I expect it to curl around my body, but when he reaches for my coffee and takes a sip, I don’t even find myself getting mad. I’m currently living in bliss, but if anyone else was to touch my coffee, they’d lose their fucking head. There’s just something about Samuel Rivers that makes everything right in the world even when he’s in the middle of performing the most criminal acts against me.
My head falls into his chest and I force my eyes open, trying not to allow myself to get distracted by his manly goodness which is when I realize there’s a huge cardboard box sitting on my dining table. My brows pull down as I take it in. “What’s that?” I question. “Did you put it there?”
“Mmm,” he grumbles. “It’s nothing. I had an interesting night is all.”
I’m two seconds from digging for more information when he nuzzles his face into my neck and I lose all train of thought. Hell, I lose all sanity and find myself tilting my head to give him more access.
What the hell am I doing? I’m supposed to be kicking him out and taking a stand. I’m supposed to be letting him know that I no longer trust him and reminding him where my door is, but let’s face it; I’m a horny bitch who hasn’t got off properly in four years.
Rivers' lips roam over my neck and a groan slips out of me as he nibbles gently on my ear lobe. I feel his smile against my neck and once again, I find my ass pressing back into him.
A warm hand travels from my waist down my body until it cups firmly between my legs only briefly dealing with the ache that pulses there. “Correct me if I’m wrong,” he murmurs in the deepest voice I’ve ever heard, “but you were having a dirty dream this morning.”
I suck in a breath as my eyes close, trying to figure out what he’s talking about when he presses that hard column against my ass, instantly reminding me of my morning. I was thinking about the few times we’d been together and in doing so, I’d pressed myself against him, just like I’m doing now.
Unstoppable: Haven Falls (Book 7) Page 13
