Page 80 of When I Had You

After that, we don’t stay long. What’s the point? To play their media game? No, thank you. I’d rather spend the rest of the night making love to this woman.

My girl.

My woman.

Along with my son, she’s my everything.

We make a quick getaway, but she turns to look at me in the back of the car. Releasing the lip she’s been worrying, she asks, “What about my brothers?”

I wish I had that answer, but I kind of said “fuck it” the moment I stepped onto that red carpet. “I’ll deal with them tomorrow. It’s only about us tonight.”

23

Marina

“I need sleep, woman,” Cash says, eyes closed and grinning against the pillow under his head.

Straddling his firm bounce-a-quarter-off ass, I bend forward, this time to lick his shoulder blade and then kiss the divot he’s created by having his arms bent to support his head. “Come on. One more time.”

When that doesn’t rouse him, I rub my bare body shamelessly against him. I mean, it wouldn’t be hard to orgasm with him between my legs.

A growl vibrates through his torso.

That’s not helping me want him less.

He captures me by hooking his arm around my middle and dragging me off to the side of him. Rolling to face him, I laugh, too wired to lay around any longer.

His green eyes darken but the smile remains. “You’re insatiable.”

“No lies detected, but I also only have two hours before I head back to Vancouver.” My phone buzzes, but I don’t even check it anymore. It’s been going off all night.

The messages are all variations of the same thing: what were you thinking, what have you done, you’re dating Cash Ryatt, or some other shock-factor headline of a text question from friends, family, but mostly Lauren. I even got two texts from Corbin calling me a whore. Him, of all people.

Being called a whore doesn’t actually bother me since I’m not one, but also, so what if I was. Women have to love when they’re demonized for liking and enjoying sex. Clutches my faux pearls. Heaven forbid she gets off from it.

I slide closer, draping my thigh over his leg. Even this turns me on. “Are you really going to send me sexually needy to a city across another country?

His amusement is lost in the embers sparked in his eyes. His hand covers my hip, and then he says, “When you put it like that . . .”

I’m dragged under him and spread apart with his knee. As his mouth covers the distance of my neck, he sinks into me. Releasing a breath, I whisper, “I will never get over how incredible you feel.”

“We feel. This is how we fit together, babe.” Kissing and then punctuating with suction, he says, “So perfect for each other.”

I dig the back of my head into the pillow as my back arches of its own accord, and I moan in pleasure, “So perfect.”

* * *

The driver loads my suitcase in the back and then opens the door for me to climb into the SUV. One foot up, but I stop with the other on the ground. “Mom?”

“Hi, honey. I hope you don’t mind me tagging along to the airport.”

“Of course not.” I lift myself into the back and shut the door. The privacy glass is already in place. A red flag. “But why do I feel like this isn’t just because you miss me?”

“I do miss you, Marina. I’m looking forward to when the movie wraps and hoping you’ll spend some time at the house in Beacon. Or we can take a trip together and go shopping like old times.”

“I’d love both of those,” I reply, snapping my seat belt into place. “But why the sneak attack, Mom? I have a phone.”

“No attacking. I’ve seen the articles about you and Cash from last night. Your dad and I would have preferred finding out from you directly.”

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