I shook my head. “You’ve always been shit with making plans.”
“I thought that if you didn’t want to be with me any longer, the Devil’s Rage would see that and leave you alone. I figured if you actually hated me, and proclaimed it to the world, that maybe they wouldn’t use you as leverage against me if things ever came down to that. I’m so sorry, Rose. I should’ve seen how wrong that was from the very beginning.”
“It’s okay,” I whispered as I kissed his lips softly, “I know you are. It’s okay.”
He shook his head. “It’s not okay. The things I said, they were—”
“I hit you, Caleb.”
He paused. “You’re not like your father.”
I raised up a bit. “I hit you, and as far as I’m concerned, that makes me the monster in this situation. Not you.”
He threaded our fingers together. “I deserved that slap. The things I said warranted—”
I shook my head. “Nothing ever warrants physical violence. Especially against ones that others love.”
He paused. “You love you?”
I scoffed. “Isn’t it obvious at this point? I don’t think there’s ever been a time in my life where I’ve never not loved you. It’s just that the kind of love I have for you has changed.”
He released my hands and quickly wrapped his arms around me. He pulled me in close, flushing my body with heat as he whipped me around and placed my back against the couch. His lips hovered over mine, feathering closely as our hearts beat in time with one another.
And as his nose caressed my cheek, his whispered voice found my ear.
“I loved you since the first time I laid eyes on you, all the way back in fourth grade. And ever since then, I knew I wanted you in my life.”
“Oh, Caleb,” I murmured.
He nibbled on my earlobe. “Watching you with all of those boys that didn’t appreciate you for who you really were killed a part of me inside.”
Tears rushed my eyes. “Every guy I was ever with was set in comparison to you, and they never measured up. They were never you. They never could be.”
He kissed down the length of my neck. “I love you so much, Rose.”
I parted my legs for him. “Dear God, I love you, too. So fucking much.”
And as he pulled my shirt down, exposing the meat of my breasts, he sank his teeth into them.
As my heart gave way to the whole of the man seated between my thighs.
23
REAPER
The smell of her skin pulled me under. The taste of her nipple between my teeth pushed me onward. Our clothes came off, one another the other, until we were clad in nothing but our skin. She sizzled against me, lifting those luscious hips of hers and marking me with her wetness as I slid down her body, leaving open-mouthed kisses wherever I could reach.
I wanted to devour her. I wanted to hear her cry out my name before her voice went hoarse with her moans and squeals of pleasure.
However, I didn’t even get seated between her legs before she lifted her head.
“Uh, uh, uuuuuh. Sit up. Now.”
I crooked an eyebrow as I peeked up at her from between her legs. “Someone’s getting a bit demanding, huh?”
Her face grew serious. “Now.”
I held my hands up in mock surrender before I pushed myself upright, leaning heavily into the comfort of the couch cushions. With my legs spread and my cock standing at attention, I watched her as she climbed off the couch. As she stood between my legs. As she grasped her tits and tugged at them, giving me a show while swiveling her hips.
