Page 107 of The Last Promise You Made

My body needed what he offered. Needed the release waiting for me. And maybe I needed to let go of the control as much as he needed me to hand it over. We stared at each other for several more heartbeats until I swallowed and nodded. His soft grin turned into that enormous smile he gave so infrequently. He dropped his head, tongue and hands turning back to the job of undoing me. The pleasure grew so fast, so furious, that when my release came, I was shaking from head to toe, quivering as the waves flew through me.

My body sank into the mattress, limbs loose but still trembling.

He eased back up me, tongue and hands working still, showering each piece of me with more attention until he reached my mouth and kissed it with a gentleness that was the opposite of the savageness he’d used before. “You taste like my home and destruction all at the same time. How is that possible?” His eyes glittered, staring into me, searching for more answers I couldn’t give, but I didn’t hold back. I didn’t build a wall and look away. I trailed my hand down his jaw, finger caressing those firm lips. He nipped at it, licking my finger before sucking it into his mouth, and my core quivered again.

“We’re not done, Ryder. You want to drive, I can let you, but we’re not done. I need you inside me. I need to witness you letting go, just like you saw me.”

“Tit for tat?” His brow arched.

I swallowed hard. “I’m not keeping score. This isn’t a game or a competition. This is two people, giving to each other, but it only works if we both give, if we both receive.”

He stared at me, eyes flickering with so much love and desire it drenched me. Drenched me and demanded I believe. That I give in. That I let not only our bodies but our souls touch.

“What’ll it be, darlin’?” I tossed back at him, and he laughed softly before his mouth descended on mine once more, the feel of him seeping into every fiber of my being. It would hurt if I decided to walk away from it. Cause permanent damage to us both. But for tonight, I wouldn’t let myself think about it.

Chapter Thirty-four

Ryder

DIDN’T KNOW WHAT LOVE WAS

Performed by Kane Brown

With craving beating through every molecule of my being, I pulled myself away from Gia’s sweet lips and slid off the bed.

She was always goddamn beautiful, but she was especially stunning like this, with her dark locks curling around her breasts, lips swollen from my kisses, skin flushed from coming apart on my fingers and mouth. Her eyes were flashing with fire and brimstone. Daring me to try to walk away. Daring me to stay. My heart skipped a beat. Several beats. The painful knowledge settled home that I’d tasted something I’d never want to give back.

She’d told me to make her believe in us before she could talk about our tomorrows.

I’d give her that. I had to, because the alternative would bring me to my knees.

If she left, it would break me. Except, I wouldn’t be able to collapse like I had when Ravyn left, because now I had a daughter to look after. I wouldn’t be able to lock my heart away, because Addy deserved to have a piece of it. So, if Gia disappeared, I’d have to experience every damn slice she left in her wake in order to give my daughter what remained. But that singular thought—of Gia leaving—made something feral beat inside me. Something wild and ancient that needed to mark her and claim her so she’d never want to walk away.

I undid the button on my pants, and she bit her lower lip. As my pants dropped, and my underwear with them, her gaze slid down me, eyes heating. Lust. Desire. The same wild I was feeling.

I pulled a condom from my wallet, tearing open the wrapper with my teeth. Her eyes widened as I kneeled between her legs.

And finally, the simple truth tore out of me. “I’m not ever going to be done with you.”

She smiled at my words, sitting up and pulling the condom from my hands. Her sure touch as she slid it on me was liquid fire, searing into me. I loved the confidence with which she did this—did everything. I wanted that to be mine and mine alone.

I pushed her back down on the bed, settling between her hips. As the heat of her soaked into me again, her eyes sparked with a light I wanted to catch like I’d caught fireflies as a kid. She kissed me fiercely, hand guiding me to the one place I yearned to be.

“You wanted to drive,” she said, whispering the words in my ear. “So drive.”

I responded by sliding in with a barely controlled thrust. As I bottomed out, pleasure rippled through my body, and the world grew hazy until there was nothing but the blaze burning between us and the honeyed taste and smell that was Gia. Our pace was steady and measured at first as we learned each other’s shapes and angles—the places that made us both groan in pleasure. The delicious slide of skin against skin. The feel of our connection seeding itself, growing, and blooming until a frantic instinct took over, as if we were no longer ourselves but wild animals linked in a dance as old as time itself.

Those sweet gasps and whimpers of hers, that had almost made me lose it while I’d had my mouth at her core, returned, skimming across my skin as if they were their own touch. And as our thrusts grew harder, fiercer, I desperately held on, determined to watch her face soften and her entire being go lax again before I let go.

My hand drifted down between us, slipping through her curls, and she went off like a rocket, shaking and shivering. A beautiful cry escaped her lips that sounded like angels singing, and in that moment, I went over the edge, my body and heart and soul all landing deep inside her.

We rocked together, bodies slowing until the trembling of our limbs came to a stop. I rolled slightly, bringing her with me so we were on our sides, facing each other.

Her hand pushed at a lock of my hair that had fallen over my eyes. Her lips tilted upward. A softness surrounded her I’d never seen before. This was the real Gia. The one I was certain very few people had ever had the pleasure to see. There may have been other men in her bed, but I doubted they’d seen this. At least, my ego wanted to believe that—wanted to believe I’d shattered her world as much as she’d shattered mine.

“I hate to admit it, but you drive pretty well,” she teased.

I huffed out a half laugh. “Only pretty well? Give me a second, we’ll get back on the highway, and I’ll show you how I can take an exit ramp going eighty.”

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