Sliding up her trembling body, I suck my fingers clean, then touch my lips to hers. “Kiss me, Wren.”
With her arms around my neck, she pulls herself up so I can reach the clasp on her bra, and as she feathers kisses along my jaw, back to my ear, and down my neck, I toss the silk away, and palm her breasts. “You’re fucking perfect,” I whisper.
One nipple pebbles between my thumb and forefinger, the other between my teeth, and she gasps when I grind my hips against her mound.
“Inside me, Ry. Now.”
Fumbling for my go bag, I search for a condom, unable to stop cursing until my fingers close around the foil packet. My crown’s already dripping, and I won’t last. It’s been too long. My hands shake as I try to tear the wrapper, but Wren saves me, freeing the rubber and rolling it over my cock.
“You’re…even more impressive than I imagined,” she says.
“You…’imagined’? Are you trying to tell me you fantasized about me, little bird?”
Her cheeks redden as her hands stroke up my sides. “A little. Or maybe…a lot. Don’t make me wait any longer, soldier.”
“Hell no.”
Nudging her entrance, I groan, fighting the desperate urge to bury myself deep in a single thrust. But I’ll rip her in two, and I have to let her body adjust to me. “You’re so fucking tight, baby.”
I slide home by inches, and Wren’s little whimpers and moans as I move only make me harder. And then…we’re as close as two people can be. “What is this?” I ask, awe roughening my voice.
“Bliss.” Her hips start to move under me, and it’s all I can do not to slam into her over and over again. When she cups the back of my neck, I hold my breath, afraid somehow, I’ve hurt her, but the small smile that curves her lips banishes my fears. “I’m not going to break, Ry. And I need to feel you. All of you.”
I’ve never wanted a gilded invitation. Until now. But the golden flecks in her eyes give me the permission I crave, and I claim her mouth as I thrust hard enough to make her gasp into our kiss. Her short nails rake across my back, and the tiny pinpricks of pain heighten every sensation.
“Fuck, Wren…I can’t hold on…”
“Then don’t,” she manages, and when I swivel my hips enough to graze her clit, she calls my name, and I fly over the edge with her.
16
Ryker
Wren shifts against me, a soft sigh escaping her lips as she snuggles closer. She fell asleep as soon as I drew the sleeping bag over us and wrapped my arms around her.
But I lie awake trying to understand what the hell just happened. Besides the obvious—mind-blowing sex.
Since Colombia—since Coop’s supposed “death”—I’ve drifted in a fog of uncertainty. In Hell, I trained my mind. Honed my memory into the sharpest blade. I escaped by memorizing everything. The sounds of the guards’ footsteps. The scents that clung to them—different in the morning than at night.
Even when they kept me bound and blindfolded, I could tell you what time of day it was, where I was in the complex system of caves under the mountain. I counted steps. Turns. Learned the texture of the different walls. The way the sounds echoed.
So why didn’t I see Coop’s insanity? The signs were all there. Hell, looking back, I can see each one. The day he first lied to me. The look in his eyes when he met West. I’d seen that look so many times in my captors. Pure, unadulterated hatred. But I dismissed it. Shoved it aside. And only after trying to stop West bleeding out in my arms did I start to put the pieces together.
Nothing makes sense. Except Wren. She sees me. The real me. The man under the scars. Under the pain. And when I slept curled around her the other night? The nightmares didn’t find me. She soothes the constant whispers in my head. The ones telling me I’m not good enough. I didn’t try hard enough. I failed Dax. Failed my men. West. Inara. Royce.
Threading my fingers through her hair, my heart squeezes in a way I’ve never felt before. Protecting her…it’s all I have left. And if I fail, can I live with myself?
“I can hear you thinking,” she murmurs against my chest. “Talk to me.”
“You need sleep, sweetheart.”
“So do you.” Pushing up on an elbow, she peers at me through half-lidded eyes. The bruise on her cheek has faded to a sickly yellow, and I brush my knuckles along the edge of the discoloration. “We have a lot of work to do in the morning.”
“I’ll be fine. Going without sleep isn’t a new thing for me.”
“Ry.” Her kiss quiets my protests, and she feathers gentle touches over the worst of the scarring on my chest. “You’re like all of those notes Z left me in his book. A complete mystery—until you find the encryption key. I don’t know why or how, but I have your key.”
Shock steals any reply, and I can only blink down at her as she continues. “You didn’t fail me tonight. You protected me. You got me somewhere safe, somewhere private you could take out the guards if you had to. And when the lights went out, you knew exactly where to go without being able to see a blasted thing.”
