“It’s an erotic romance novel, Dane. It’s about love, acceptance, finding that perfect someone. Someone who makes your heart beat faster, who gives you butterflies, and makes you do crazy things like having sex against the wall of a garage.” I took the book from him and put it on my bedside table. “Really great sex. So, yes, most of my books have stuff like that. Sex is a big part of any good relationship…an important part, I think.”
“Yeah, it is,” he said, those beautiful eyes of his coming back to mine.
“Do you have a problem with me reading romance novels?” I felt my blood pressure rise, because if he did…
“Nope. No problem at all.”
The anger melted away. “Well, what is it, then?”
“The spine’s pretty creased on that page you showed me,” he said, expression still unreadable. “You read it a lot?”
I refused to look away, even as my heart started to race faster. “Yes.”
“You reread just that scene, not the whole book?”
“Yes,” I whispered.
A muscle in his jaw jumped. “You do that with your hand down your panties, Eves?”
I swallowed audibly. “Yes.” I moved closer, and he slid a hand around my neck and pulled me forward, his mouth capturing mine in a hard, deep kiss that left me breathless and panting. Wriggling closer, bending my knee, I pressed deeper.
Dane dragged his mouth along my jaw to my ear. “I want you so bad, baby, you have no idea. None. But as much as I want you, I’m not gonna fuck you while you’re kinda drunk.”
“I’m fine,” I said, trying to get closer. “I want you, too.”
He kissed my temple. “We’ve got time, Eves. I want you to remember every detail the first time I sink inside you. The way it feels when I slide deep. Every kiss, every touch.”
I lifted to my elbow and looked down at him. “Are you trying to torture me?”
“Christ, I’m torturing myself.” He pulled me back down, tucked me against his side, and flicked off the lamp.
I sighed and worked at ignoring the aching need between my thighs.
Several long minutes ticked by. I nuzzled into his side. “Do you remember taking me to the library when I moved to Wayne and Sonya’s?”
“Yeah, of course,” he said, voice husky, and tightened his arm around me. “You told me you loved to read, so I took you to get a library card because I didn’t have money to buy you any books.”
“Thank you,” I said into the darkness. “You have no idea how much I’d needed those books, that escape back then…since.”
“Would’ve given you the moon if I could’ve found a way to do that, baby girl,” he said back.
“I know,” I whispered.
* * *
I woke to that effing rooster crowing his head off.
Which meant I’d somehow managed to fall asleep after all.
Then I became very aware of the real reason I’d woken up, and it wasn’t just the rooster exercising his vocal cords.
There was a hot bare chest pressed against my back, a heavy arm around my waist, a hard bulge pressing into my butt, and warm lips moving up the side of my neck.
“Morning,” Dane muttered.
“Morning,” I said back, already squirming against him, because his lips on me felt good, so insanely good.
“How you feeling? Hungover?” he said, voice full of grit.
“No. I feel fine. Good, actually.” Very good in fact.
“Excellent,” he said, and I was rolled to my back. Dane came down on top of me.
The move took me by surprise. I blinked up at him, and as I suspected, he looked gorgeous, all whiskered jaw and heavy-lidded sexiness. “Have you been awake a while?” My own voice was husky, and not because I just woke up.
“Yes,” he gritted out. “All fucking night. Only thing I could think about was you with your hand on your pussy, reading your book and making yourself come.”
Yep. I’d admitted that to him last night. My face heated and electricity zapped through my belly. “Oh…”
“Yeah, oh.” He shoved my legs wide with his.
That brought his denim-jean-covered erection against my denim-shorts-covered sex. I opened my mouth to say something—I wasn’t exactly sure what—but I didn’t get the chance, because his mouth came down on mine and he kissed me, rough and hungry.
Instant fire.
God, would it always be like this?
My lips parted, letting him take what he needed, and I did my best to give it back to him just as good.
I knew I’d gotten it right when he groaned and ground his hips down on mine. I spread my thighs wider and wrapped my arms around him tight, wanting more of him and not afraid to show it. After talking to my girls last night, I knew I couldn’t hold back from him anymore and that I didn’t want to. I was done being afraid.
We were doing this, and I was all in, all the way.
He lifted his head, eyes blazing. “Fuck, Eves, you make me crazy,” he bit out and thrust against me again.
I gasped when his erection behind his jeans rubbed my shorts against my clit and lifted my hips to meet his. He did it again on a growl, and the friction grew more intense.
“Don’t stop. Don’t you dare stop,” I said, or rather moaned.
“You gonna come for me like this, baby? From me dry humping you like some horny fucking teenager? Is that what you’re gonna do?” he said against my ear.
I was. I most definitely was. I answered him by sliding my hands under the waistband of his jeans to his very, very nice butt, trying to hold him to me.
Dane brought his mouth back down on mine as he rolled his hips, grinding, thrusting, moving faster against me in a simulation of sex—of fucking—that was dirty and exciting and perfect.
The only thing more perfect than this would be if we actually were having sex.
His hand slid up my side, taking my shirt with it, and he tore his mouth from mine. “Let me take this off?” he gritted out.
I was fully on board with that idea and lifted my arms over my head.
Dane dragged it up and off, flinging it aside. “Bra?”
I nodded, and he undid it, jerked it down my arms, and tossed it aside as well.
His gaze moved from mine down over my chest, and his entire body jolted. “Fuck me,” he growled and dropped his head, mouth closing over one of my nipples and sucking.
I curled my fingers around the back of his neck, crying out. “Oh God.”
He didn’t let up, hips still rolling, his wicked mouth on me, sucking, licking my tight, extremely sensitive nipples until I thought I couldn’t take much more. He moved to the other side, starting all over again, his other hand taking over the work of where his mouth had just been.
The pressure, that building of unbearable exquisite pressure became too much. It had nowhere else to go, but still it climbed and climbed, making me pant and gasp for breath until finally I tipped over the edge.
“Dane!” I shattered under him, wave after wave of pleasure rolling through me. I arched against Dane’s hard body, fingers digging in as I cried out.
He lifted his head, gaze boring into me, watching everything, all of it. He shoved his face against my neck, hips twisting and grinding before he suddenly stilled and his entire body started shaking. He groaned low against my skin.
Dane dropped down, his hot breath brushing my throat and jaw. His body was tense and trembling. “Fuck, baby.” He kissed me there, then he chuckled roughly. It sounded pained. “I almost came.” He lifted his head, and pink slashed his cheeks from exertion. “Haven’t come this close to blowing in my jeans, not ever, not once before now. Woman, what are you doing to me?”
I realized he wasn’t just turned on; he was also embarrassed. I knew what his embarrassed face looked like because I knew Dane. “I’ve never seen you blush before.”
“I’m fucking not,” he said, looking horrified.
I brushed my thumb over one of his cheeks and bit my lip to stop the giggle
about to escape. “Yes, you are.”
“You think this is funny?” he said, white teeth flashing with his gorgeous and slightly self-conscious smile.
“No,” I said and promptly burst into a fit of laughter.
Dane buried his face against my neck again and laughed with me, deep and rough and beautiful.
I turned my head and kissed his temple. “You have nothing to be embarrassed about. That was amazing.”
He lifted his head again and his smile was gone. Only intensity remained. “Yeah, it was.”
I dragged my hand down his bare chest, over a pierced nipple, and slid my thumb over it, making him suck in a breath. “I think next time we should do it without our pants on.”
His eyes stayed locked on mine, and they somehow got even more intense. “Yeah? You sure about that?”
“Yes.” I slid my hand down his smooth inked skin, over his hard stomach, and he shuddered. “We’ve waited long enough for each other.”
His eyes were locked on mine, and I could see the tension, the heat. There was no missing it. “You’re in pain. I can see it on your face.”
His stomach tightened under my palm. “Just watched you come, Eves, after rubbing up on your sweet pussy. Yeah, I’m in pain.”
My hand dropped to the button of his jeans, and I tugged on it. “The other night I didn’t get to see you. You felt amazing, but I want to see…I want to watch when you come.”
“Yeah?”
His voice was raw and tight and made me want to do this even more. I nodded, popped his button, and dragged down the zipper. I pushed on his shoulder and he rolled to his back.
I stayed on my side, looking down at him. “Pants down.”
His chest expanded sharply, and I watched in fascination as he shoved his thumbs down the sides of his jeans and boxers and did as I asked, pushing them below his butt.
It was my turn to suck in a breath. His cock was thick and long and hard, the head glistening as it lay against his muscled stomach. The piercing he had went through the head and came out on the underside. I moved closer to get a better look, plastering my front to his side.
“God, Dane, I’ve never…you’re so…” I dragged my hand down his chest, over the corrugations of his abs, loving the way they tightened as I slid over them and the hitch in his breath. “Beautiful.”
My eyes lifted back to his, and he was watching me. I thought I’d seen lust in his eyes before, but that was nothing on this. The intensity seared me to the soul.
“Touch me, please, Eves,” he said, voice tight with need and rough with hunger.
I curled my fingers around him, smooth soft skin over hot iron. “There’s no way I can hurt you?” I said, gently sliding my thumb over the ring through the end of his cock.
“No,” he choked. “I don’t mind it a little rough…”
“You like it like that?”
His jaw was impossibly tight as he dipped his chin.
I dragged my fingers down his length and back up, letting them catch on the sliver ring and tugging on it as I did. Dane groaned and bit out a curse. “Good?”
“Yeah…fucking good.”
I did it again and again, stroking him, giving him what he wanted. I made sure I caught his piercing when I came up, squeezing the head a bit on the upstroke. I watched in fascination as more precome leaked from him and he became impossibly harder, his cock darker, thicker.
I couldn’t take my eyes off him, not sure where to look first: his straining cock or his beautiful body, the way his chest heaved, the way his abs tightened and twitched.
“Fuck, Eves. Fuck.”
I glanced up at him and his face was flushed, his teeth clenched. One hand was behind his head, propping himself up so he could watch what I was doing. The other fisted the sheets so hard his knuckles were white.
“I can’t hold it back any longer, baby. Not the way you’re stroking me…so good. Not seeing your hands on me.”
I leaned in and sucked one of his nipples into my mouth, giving it a tug as well, and lifted my gaze to his. “Show me.”
The pleasure that moved through his face was the most beautiful thing I’d ever seen. I dropped my gaze to his cock and stroked him harder, faster.
Dane stiffened and barked out a curse. He started coming, cock pulsing in my hand, streams of come spurting from the head, splashing his stomach and coating my hand.
My gaze shifted between watching him come and the expression on his face. It was the sexiest thing I’d ever seen.
Finally, he collapsed back, muscles twitching, big body shaking, breathing hard. I released him and moved up to press a kiss to his lips. His hand instantly lifted and held me there, his tongue sliding between my lips, kissing me so deeply I felt light-headed from it.
When he eventually loosened his hold on me, I lifted my head and smiled down at him.
“I love you, Everly,” he said, eyes holding mine.
We’d said the words before, throwaway words at the end of a call or a text. Best friends letting each other know they cared. Talk tomorrow. Love you!
This wasn’t what this was.
This was something else, and Dane confirmed it by making sure our gazes held when he said, “I’m in love with you.”
My fingers flexed against his side, and I blinked rapidly down at him as happiness filled me.
No, there was no reason to conceal the way we felt. We didn’t need to play games or fear the other person didn’t feel the same way, because we knew it. Before he’d said those words to me we both felt it.
I ran my fingers over his chest, remembering when his skin was ink free without all the muscles, then up higher, along his bristled jaw, remembering when it was smooth, less angled.
Dane was my everything, had been my everything since I was twelve years old. And I loved him, was in love with him so deep there would be no coming back.
“I know,” I whispered and smiled even as a hot tear streaked down my cheek.
Dane brushed it away. “I’m never leaving you again,” he said, voice agonized.
I nodded. “I know that, too.”
Another tear escaped.
“Please don’t cry, baby,” he choked out. “You know how it kills me when you cry.”
“I’m not sad,” I whispered. “I’m so full, so happy, I can’t hold it in.”
His throat worked. “Yeah?”
I traced his nose, which was no longer straight but had a bump from being broken, and the perfect arch of his firm, full lips that had always been this gorgeous, and gave him a shaky smile. “I love you, too, Dane. I’m in love with you, and for the first time in my whole life, everything makes sense.”
Dane curled his fingers around the side of my throat, thumb brushing my jaw. “I’m going to give you everything, Eves. Everything you missed out on, everything you ever wanted,” he said roughly.
“You already do, just by being here.”
Chapter Fourteen
Dane
The morning had been hectic. Getting the ranch ready, setting everything up for Bull and Quinn’s wedding. And of course, my own surprise I’d been working on for Everly.
I glanced at Bull standing beside me, and his eyes were trained on the house like he was willing Quinn to hurry up and come to him.
I got it. Fuck, so much.
I glanced out at the small, select group of friends and family gathered in front of us, everyone invited to the ranch for the big day. The only person missing was Trix, who had some family emergency.
It was impossible to miss Everly. Her gorgeous red hair kept catching the light under the afternoon sun. My fingers curled at my side, remembering how it felt against my skin, how soft it was, how it smelled when I buried my face against the side of her throat.
My gaze lingered on her, unable to look away. She was standing beside Lila, a glass of champagne in her hand. The floaty dress she’d worn brushed the tops of her thighs, and her sexy shoes had a spiked heel. All that wavy red hair was down, except for some b
its she’d taken from the sides and braided or twisted and clipped back.
She looked stunning. My girl took my damned breath away. But then she did the same in an old tee and sweatpants.
Music started, and I felt Bull shift beside me. I glanced back at him. He looked nervous, and his eyes were still locked on the start of the makeshift aisle we’d created with wildflowers that led from the house.
The door finally opened, and Quinn stepped out, her dad at her side.
Bull’s indrawn breath was audible. My big cousin looked like he was fighting his emotions already, that square bearded jaw working as she started toward him.
I didn’t blame him. Quinn looked beautiful in her white sleeveless dress. It clung to her curves and flowed down to her spike-heeled feet. Her black hair was down in soft waves, and she wore a wildflower wreath.
I glanced at Cal on my other side, and his eyes were locked on Cassy, who was walking ahead of the bride, holding a bunch of wildflowers in her hand like Quinn.
Bull’s hand was shaking—fuck, all of him was—when she finally reached him and Quinn’s father took hers, kissed it, and placed it in Bull’s. Quinn smiled up at him, her eyes glistening, and a wide beautiful smile lit up her whole face.
Bull tugged her closer, wrapping one muscular arm around his much smaller bride and held her there like he was afraid she’d disappear.
Chuckles from the guests drifted over us on the warm summer breeze, then the ceremony got started.
It was quick and to the point—not a surprise, especially from Bull. I hadn’t expected them to write their own vows, though, and when Quinn ended hers looking deep into Bull’s eyes and said, “Logan Calero, you’ll always be my Superman,” Bull looked like he was torn between crying and carrying her off to the closest bedroom. It also explained the underwear.
Then he gave in and tears started rolling down his face as he vowed in his deep rumbling voice to “always protect and worship” her. Quinn was crying, too, along with Cassy, and when my gaze sought out Everly again, like it had since I got there that morning, my gut tightened at the beautiful smile on her face, her cheeks glistening as well.
Meant For You: Rocktown Ink, Book 3 Page 14
