We’d gone on a dinner date just a few months earlier and almost died.
Tomorrow we were setting up a trap that didn’t just involve us, but half the population of Babylon. We had a band playing in Rusty’s diner. We were hosting an open happy hour for people to walk in while Autumn, Janette, and Sam mixed up Tate Hanagan special cocktails for the locals. It was like the Emps funeral all over again. A farce. A stage for us all to play on. Only this time we knew who was watching in the shadows and we had a right to be twitchy.
After I’d run through some of the finer details with my brothers, I’d spotted Ayda looking quiet on the stool by the bar. As soon as I’d seen that vacant stare gazing into the bottom of an empty tumbler, I made my way over to her, dropped my hands to her shoulders and began to massage the tension out of her muscles.
“Come to bed with me tonight?” she whispered quietly, her eyes still trained on the glass in her hands.
I hated the way her voice sounded pained, but I loved the words she spoke, regardless. “Want me to take you there now?”
A ghost of a smile appeared on her face as she put the glass on the bar. When she twisted on the stool to face me, she glanced up with eyes that were unreadable. The small smile on her lips made her bottom lip tremble.
“I need you inside of me.”
I wasted no time in lifting her off the stool until she wrapped her arms around my neck and her legs around my waist. The men had seen it all before. They barely batted an eye our way. I wouldn’t have known if they had anyway. I was too lost, looking up at the fucking love of my life as her hair fell around my face, creating a curtain of privacy that left one ex-playboy wannabe staring at one hell of an angel he definitely didn’t deserve.
Being in our own private space made her soft stuttered breaths and nervous licking of her lips all the more obvious. It wasn’t as though we didn’t have one another every time the mood struck, but tonight was different. Tonight was a benediction. So many things were going unsaid and being replaced by a feral need for one another. Reaching behind her, Ayda pushed the door to our shared room out of her way, her legs tightening around me.
“I love you, Drew Tucker.”
Sometimes, when she told me she loved me, I didn’t answer. Not because I didn’t love her in return. It was because I loved her too much. It was like the feeling squeezed my heart, making the veins pop in my neck, cutting off the circulation my body craved. I couldn’t breathe, couldn’t do anything but acknowledge that twist beneath my ribcage. My heart held my life in its grip and wrung it out, making me feel like I didn’t know who the fuck I was anymore, and I didn’t even care. She was the only thing that mattered. I’d never loved anything or anyone the way I loved her.
I doubted I ever would.
My footsteps fell slowly yet with determination as I made my way to the bed before my knees hit the edge of the mattress where I took a moment’s pause to hold her.
My fingers dug into the curves of her ass cheeks, and every time I breathed, I pulled her in. I was breathing her in as much as the air around me, every muscle tensing and tightening.
Bringing one hand to my face, she cupped my cheek and looked deep into my eyes, holding me there, giving me no room to escape. No room to take control or move things along. She’d taken the moment to hold that small ounce of control I’d given her and use it. Inch by inch she closed the distance between us, her lips brushing against mine in an unspoken promise before she devoured me. Deeper and deeper she took until she rose above me, her body pressed against mine with no room for daylight between us.
I took everything she had to give and savored the taste of her on my tongue. I memorized the feel of her kiss. I took pleasure in making her lips swell, my need to mark myself on her mouth so powerful, I became hungry and dangerous, yet tender and connected. She was everywhere, even while we were both still. Her fingertips moved from my cheek to my neck, to the curve of my shoulder. The top of my back was brought to life beneath her touch. The muscles in my arms were traced before she brought her hand back to my cheek and held me as much as I held her.
A lot of things in life could be faked. Our love wasn’t one of them.
As I lowered her onto the bed, with her legs still wrapped around my waist, I fell into the space I was always made to fit.
I broke away from her kiss, watching as she parted her lips and inhaled slowly. Her eyes were closed and her chin was raised, exposing her neck to me. It was an invitation that I wasn’t going to decline. My lips dropped to the small curvethere, sucking tenderly at her flushed skin before I littered her shoulders with delicate kisses, eventually moving down the path that led to the curve of her breasts. I pulled down on the edge of her T-shirt as far as I could, desperate to kiss all the inches of her skin I could get my greedy lips to without rushing. There was no need to take anything fast. I had her for life.
The deal just hadn’t been sealed with a ceremony yet.
Groaning softly in the back of my throat, I pressed my hips into hers, making her feel the full extent of my arousal as I lifted my mouth to her ear and nipped her lobe with my teeth.
“I love that you’re mine,” I whispered roughly. “I love that I can do this to you every day, anytime, any place, no matter where or when. I love that you found me.”
Her response came as a mewl of breathlessness, “I’ll always be yours.”
I tugged at the edge of her shirt, hearing the tear immediately. It was rougher than I wanted to be, but need was taking over, and I tugged a second time. It ripped again, splitting to her stomach until all I had to do was push the edge of my palm through it for it to slice open and reveal her naked skin. I pulled back and looked down on her before I dropped my kisses to her belly and held her waist tightly. It didn’t take long for me to move down, my hands finding the edges of her jeans and tugging them down with one hard motion, too. Her breaths stuttered, her body jerked, but I had the material slipping down her legs in no time. I slid off the edge of the bed and removed her shoes, throwing them over my shoulder before I pulled her jeans off completely and tossed them to the floor. Her white, lace underwear was nothing more than a thin strip that disappeared up the creases of her ass cheeks, and Itook a moment to rest on the heels of my feet and run a finger over the material as slowly as I could.
A shudder worked over Ayda almost violently; her skin breaking out in goosebumps as her stomach muscles twitched with need. There were no inhibitions between us now—none of the shyness that had been there at the beginning. There was a boldness when you knew someone as deeply as we knew one another, and that was made all the more evident as her legs fell farther apart in invitation and her fingers dug into the comforter beneath her.
I watched her body’s reactions with fascination as I moved the lace aside and carefully pushed a single finger inside her. It was slow—like I was touching her for the first time. Like I didn’t have a right to touch her, but her body tightened instantly, everything contracting and inviting me in farther.
“Fuck,” I whispered, my lips staying parted as I focused on my finger gliding in and out of her carefully.
Barely lifting her head, she gazed down at me with nothing but love and trust in her glassy eyes. Her response was reverent, like my name was the only word she knew. “Drew.”
The smirk barely had time to play on my lips before I pushed up and grabbed the back of her neck with my free hand, pulling her toward me and slamming my needy lips to her swollen ones. It was breathless and nasty as I held her to me and fucked her with my finger. I wanted to feel every ripple of her warmth. Every shudder she released belonged to me. And as I slipped a second finger inside of her and hooked them to the exact sweet spot I knew drove her crazy, I bit her bottom lip and mumbled against it, “You’re never gonna be safer than you are with me. I promise, baby.”
The last word was barely out of my mouth when she tightened around my fingers and came undone with a cry that said she didn’t care who heard.
