Page 128 of Down & Dirty

“You’re the air I breathe, baby.” He did it again, easing into me gently, careful to keep from hurting me, going just a little farther each time. He rubbed the slick tip over my clit again as I craned up off the bed. “You’re all I have,” he ground out, slipping halfway in and pausing. “All I’ll ever need.”

I dug my nails into his ass, trying to pull him forward, but he wouldn’t move.

“Please,” I moaned.

“Forgive me, Sky,” he begged, his beautiful eyes locked on mine,fear and desperation in them ripping me open. “Please forgive me, baby.”

Cupping his face in my hands, I brushed my lips over his. “Forgiven.”

A single tear slipped from his eye before he closed them tight and sank into me. He held himself there, seated deep inside, his cock twitching as he fought for breath.

We were joined together again, the feeling of fullness, of connection, quieting something deep in my heart. But as Cory moved, driving me with his cock and his fingers toward the edge, toward the place only he’d ever brought me, I felt a new crack forming. A void opening in the middle of me, and sucking the light from the room.

Because I did forgive Cory. He hadn’t meant to hurt me. He’d lied to protect himself, and me, from a reality neither of us wanted to accept. But if he was going to keep racing, I needed to protect myself, too. Loving him wasn’t going to be enough anymore.

My orgasm rolled through me, shock waves curling me up around him as he pushed me to feel every devastating aftershock. He held me tightly, kissing me and whispering his love for me until I was boneless and spent. And then he hammered his hips, driving me into the sheets, until he caught his release and buried his face in my neck.

“Fuck...Skylar.” He let go, his slick body collapsing on top of me, quivering in my arms. “I can’t ever lose you,” he murmured, over and over into my skin.

We held each other, chasing away the hurt and the fear with sweet loving touches. And before Cory got up to shower, I kissed him long and hard.

But when he slipped into the shower, I didn’t follow. Instead I got dressed, running a brush quickly through my hair. I called in to him that I was going for coffee, but as soon as I got to the elevator, I pulled out my phone.

I punched the name in my contacts, and held my breath while it rang.

“Hello?”

“Hi Cass, it’s Skylar Stone.” It was early, and I hadn’t necessarily expected her to pick up.

“Oh hi. I was hoping you’d call.”

I sighed, stepping off the elevator and heading for the coffee station. “Yeah, I wanted to talk to you about some of the options you mentioned the other day.”

She laughed, and I could picture her pleased smile through the phone.

“If you’re ready, I’m ready. Let’s do this.”

With my coffee in hand, I took a seat by the breakfast buffet and let her tell me what roles she was looking to fill, who she knew, and how she could help me. I listened with my hand at my throat, breathing through my fear.

This might not have been what I truly wanted. It might have been as far from it as I could get. But I needed to feel secure again. I’d had that with Cory in the beginning, but the risk he was taking now had destroyed it. I knew he needed to stop racing on his own terms. I got that. But his choice affected me just as much. So, I was going to do whatever I had to do, so that no matter what, Micah and I would be okay. Without relying on anyone but myself, I was going to take care of us.

CHAPTER 41

CORY

Bruce: Heard the shoot went well.

Cory: Yeah. I’m still not sure how motocross sells furniture. But you keep lining up these contracts, I’ll keep posing.

Bruce: As if you made sense for diamond-encrusted watches way back when? Don’t overthink it.

Ilaughed; Bruce knew me better than to worry about me overthinking any of the jobs he’d sent me on over the years. Being a model was one of the most bizarre twists of my career, but so long as people kept calling, I’d keep cashing the checks.

Still, the timing of this shoot couldn’t have been worse. I shuffled past a couple of slow walkers, cruising toward the taxi stand on the other end of the terminal. Being away from Sky after last weekend had been brutal.

Even if she said she’d forgiven me, there was a lingering distance between us. Some gap I couldn’t find a way to close. And losing four days in Indiana on this shoot when I would have rather spent them buried deep inside my wife, proving to her repeatedly just how much I loved her had left me punchy and raw.

With my nerves frayed, I dropped my stuff at the hotel and booked it to Angel Stadium. The second race in Anaheim had always been a strong one for me, but I was still sore from the fall in San Francisco, so I was only cautiously optimistic I’d be able to hold onto the rank I had going in.

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