Page 37 of Firefly Embers

I needed to deal with the condom, but I didn’t think I had an ounce of energy left in my body after that. I felt Ray reach between us and intertwine our hands, squeezing three times.

I smiled behind my arm and removed it to look down at her. She had the most beautiful smile on her face, and the sweetest blush from her orgasm painted across her cheeks.

I rolled over and kissed her softly on the mouth before getting up and padding my way to her en suite bathroom to throw away the condom. I grabbed a rag off the shelf next to the sink and wet it with warm water.

Heading back into her room, Ray was still sprawled out naked across the top of her covers, her eyes closed in contented bliss.

I ran my hand softly across one of her thighs before spreading her legs and using the warm rag to clean her up.

When I brushed across her clit, she hissed and let out a soft moan, making me chuckle. I could see that neither of us was going to be satisfied doing this just once tonight.

Tossing the rag onto her growing laundry pile, I rounded the side of her bed and pulled back the covers, throwing them back enough for her to get under them, too.

She shimmied under the blankets, curled into my side, and let out a loud sigh as she lay her head on my chest. I wrapped my arms around her, tugging her close and resting my chin on top of her head.

Nothing felt more right than being in her arms, knowing this is what our forever would look like.

“Next time, I’m on top,” she said, breaking the silence. I could feel her smile against my skin, and I pressed a gentle kiss to the top of her head.

“Is that so, Sunshine?”

She tilted her head up and grinned, her eyes twinkling with mischief. “Gotta show my cowboy how well I ride.”

I growled and rolled her over, pressing fervent kisses to her neck and chest. It looked like neither of us was going to be sleeping anytime soon.

WADE

After successfully fucking Ray on nearly every flat surface in her room, the bathroom counter, and against the tiled wall of her shower, we both crawled into bed, wrung out and exhausted.

With the lights out and the curtains drawn, I relished ‌the feel of her body pressed against mine. She wore my T-shirt and nothing else, leaving me in just my black boxer briefs.

Ray’s warm breath coasted across my chest, where she had her head resting in the divot of my shoulder, her leg slung over my thigh as she softly snored beside me.

She looked so serene, her eyelashes fluttering against her tan cheeks. She had pulled her hair up into a messy bun, and I brushed a tendril that had fallen out, tucking it behind her ear. Stirring softly, she hummed a contented sigh as she snuggled in closer to my side.

Knowing that Ray and I had watched each other grow up, side by side and hand in hand, made this moment even sweeter. Life had a way of bringing things around full circle, and I softly chuckled to myself, thinking about what eighteen-year-old me would have thought about this moment.

So many fond memories with the beautiful woman tucked in close to my side floated through the highlight reel of my mind.

Eighteen-year-old me, a senior in high school, on the precipice of real life beginning, kissing Ray in the front seat of my truck on prom night.

In my early twenties, during countless nights on the rodeo circuit, ending up balls deep in some no-name buckle bunny, always wishing it was Ray.

When she pretended to be my fiancée one time to kick a buckle bunny out of my hotel room when she overstayed her welcome.

So many stolen glances where I took in the sight of her, uninhibited and free, basking in the sunny days at the ranch.

Even in the hard moments, there was comfort between us, as we held each other from falling apart when life felt too heavy to carry alone.

Ray was my rock, my savior, my guiding light.

As my eyes drifted shut and sleep threatened to take me under, I vowed that I would do whatever it took to become the best man I could be for the woman beside me, who deserved the world.

She could do better than me by a long shot, but for some ungodly reason, she believed there was good inside me, and I was determined to find it for her.

“Bro, we need to get out of here,” I called toward my brother and his girlfriend, Stella, as I stood in the warehouse opening. I didn’t want to linger inside this hellhole any longer than need be, but for some fucking reason, Max chose now, in the middle of a crime scene, to hold and console his woman after she shot a man and he rescued her daughter.

I wanted to get out of here, get back to my bed, and pretend the last twenty-four hours never happened. Hearing that Charlie, my soon-to-be niece, had been kidnapped had gutted me. She and Stella hadn’t been in our lives long, but they had cemented a place in each ‌of our hearts. They were family, no matter if they didn’t carry the Daniels name yet.