Page 52 of Red

“Yes, yes. Yes.” She was animalistic in her moments, matching his energy. “Please.”

He rolled her clit beneath the pad of his middle finger, pressing down hard and rubbing fast then slow while he sank his cock into her over and over again.

“Oh fuck!” she screamed, and her pussy clenched around him. His eyes flew open as his own orgasm ripped through him. He fucked harder, another pump then one more, and he stilled, letting the electricity make its way through his body.

Her breathing was ragged and heavy when he slipped from her and rolled onto the bed. Dragging her to his side, he clamped his arm around her. She wasn’t going anywhere yet.

Her hand rested on his chest, playing with his medallion. He craned his neck and kissed her head. She was too perfect. He didn’t deserve a woman so right for him.

“You wear this all the time.” She picked up the silver wolf head. “Why a wolf?”

He covered her hand with his, pressing it flat against him.

“Rawling,” he answered.

“Yeah, that’s your last name, so?” She snuggled closer to his body.

“Our last name,” he corrected with a pinch to her hip. “It means wolf. My mother gave it to me when I graduated high school.”

“You’ve never mentioned your parents.”

“Not much to mention. My mother married into the Rawling family to get away from her older brother—my uncle. My father’s family controlled the underground gambling rings in the area, but once gambling became legal, he went legitimate.” He squeezed her to him, sensing she was going to start backing off any second. “He owned his own casino—until my uncle sabotaged everything”

She tensed. “He didn’t like your father?”

“He didn’t like things he didn’t control, and he couldn’t control my parents. The casino my father owned went under, he was forced to sell.”

“Did he…did he hurt them?”

“No, not physically. He choked off any hope my father had of rebuilding, but, by that time he’d done that, my father was already ill.”

“I’m so sorry,” she said, and she meant it. No social-pressured words for her, she truly understood what it had been like for him to watch his father slowly wither away to nothing.

“And your mom?”

He let out a hard breath. There had been no preparations for her death. “If you ask Ian, he’ll say she died of a broken heart, but her doctor said it was a heart attack. Six months after my father.”

“That’s horrible.” She tucked herself deeper into his embrace. It had been. And she knew the pain better than anyone else. She’d lost her mother and father to a tragedy. In one split second, her world had crashed down.

And years later, he walked into her life and did it again.

“What about your parents?” he asked, turning the subject. Guilt wouldn’t get them anywhere. What was done was done. They needed to find a way to move forward.

“My mother fell in love with my father when they were in high school. When she came home from college, he’d swept in and married her.” Melinda dropped her leg over his. “They seemed happy enough, I suppose. My father worked a lot, so sometimes they would argue. But nothing so dangerous as the life your uncle lived. What happened to him, anyway?”

“His son wanted what wasn’t his and my uncle wouldn’t let it go. They got greedy and broke oaths. They went after Ash and his wife.” Erik didn’t know exact details, but he’d pieced together enough of the puzzle on his own. Ash wasn’t to be touched, and the other families took the breaking of an oath seriously. His uncle and cousin had been found dead days later. No investigation needed or encouraged.

“These are men you want to work with?” she asked with hesitation.

“No. Some I’ll have to have to work with, but not like my uncle. We’re staying legit. The way my father wanted.” Erik trailed his fingers down Melinda’s arm.

“What about your grandparents?” he asked, taking the spot light off the rot of his family tree.

She laughed. “They were like two peas in a pod…well…except for Gramps gambling issues. But I never heard them fight, I could tell because Gramps would make breakfast the next morning. His way, I suppose, of apologizing.”

Erik rested his chin on her head, taking in the warmth of her body pressed against his. An easy morning. When was the last time he’d had that?

“Your uncle didn’t have a wife?” She surprised him with her question.

---