noise of pleasure and arches against me a little.
For a long minute, all we do is stare at each other, and breathe.
She’s here. She heard my song.
She’s fucking here, in my arms.
“You think so loudly,” she murmurs, reaching up and running her thumb over my jaw. I turn my head just a little, nuzzling into her palm, and her eyes go soft and distant.
“What am I thinking?” She hesitates, and shakes her head. Retreating without ever moving. I run my fingers through her hair, and whisper, “I’m thinking that it’s amazing. That having you here is fucking amazing. Everything I’ve wanted and refused to allow myself to believe would happen.”
“I’ve offered,” she says, her tone dry.
I catch her face in my hand, studying it. The tiny nose, slightly upturned and dusted with freckles, the big eyes that are just now a little bit afraid.
“I’m not good for you, Fish,” I say.
She blinks, startled. “Did you just call me a fish?”
I nod and roll us. “It’s a quote I heard once. ‘People say there are other fish in the sea. I say, fuck you, she was my sea.’” I shrug. “It stuck with me.”
She propped herself up on my chest and gives me a frown. “Wouldn’t that make me the sea? Not a fish.”
I slap her ass lightly and she yelps, her eyes flying wide. “Shut up. Fish sounds better.”
She wiggles and, deep inside her, my cock twitches. I’m half-hard again, hungry for more of her, and as her gaze goes lazy, I know she’s with me.
She rocks slowly, and I grip her hips lightly, letting her set the pace as she works me. “What does all this mean?” she whispers.
“What do you want it to mean?”
Doubt flickers in her eyes for a heartbeat, and I pinch her nipple, jerking her gaze back to me and the moment. “What do you want?” I demand.
“I want you to fuck me. I want us to have fun and hang out and see what happens.” She hesitates. “I want to be that girl you sang about, Rike. But I don’t know if I can be.”
I shrug and pull her down to my lips, “You already are, Fish. But we can do easy right now. I’m not going anywhere.”
Gratitude flares in her eyes before I kiss her, a deep kiss that says everything she isn’t ready for—all the things I said in a song. That she’s everything. I would fucking hang the moon for this girl.
When I finally break the kiss, she’s panting, and her hips are moving in small, restless circles. I smirk at her. “Wanna give them another show?”
“You’re a kinky bastard, aren’t you?”
She grins and I nod. Groan when she rises on my dick, until only the head is inside her, and she’s panting, these broken little noises as she just lingers there. My hands are on her again, cupping her breasts, and I lick over a nipple.
She screams, her whole body shuddering as she slides down my cock, hard, and my teeth close on her nipple, and I laugh as she fucks me.
I might be a kinky bastard, but she fucking loves it.
Chapter 18: After
The problem is that I am
Never content.
I want more than your smiles
and sweet words, more than your mind
I want to be your first and last thought,
the laughter in your eyes, and safe
haven you long for.
the press of lips you remember upon waking.
(Rike’s poems to Peyton)
Brody has grown up.
That’s the thing that hits me the hardest. My brother has grown up.
When he steps into the hotel room, he ignores it completely, his gaze narrowed on me.
In theory, I know what Brody should look like: a gangly, teenager with a sly smirk and laughing eyes.
That’s the brother I remember, the one who kept me sane through the hell that was high school and growing up as the daughter to a political family.
The man who stands in front of me. He’s taller than me, long and lean, with a buzz cut hairstyle that screams military, and a sharp gaze that misses nothing as it takes me in.
A smirk turns his lips and I let out a tiny sob. Because just like that, there he is. My baby brother. He opens his arms, and I crutch across the room to hug him. “God, I missed you,” I mutter. “Where the hell have you been?”
“Working,” he says noncommittally, and pulls back. “Why the hell are you in this shithole? I tried the house first, but it looks deserted.”
“Scott hasn’t been there much.