Page 30 of Reaper Flame

“I love you, C.”

At first, I thought I imagined it. The sound of the waves, an incredible orgasm and our heavy breathing could have made my mind go wild. But then he said it again, “I love you.”

I stared back blankly. My body may have separated from my brain for those wondrous minutes, but I was firmly back inside my head again. Sure, he’d said he loved me once before, back in the warehouse before Hiram took me. It was different now. Hearing those words rendered my usually snarky mouth speechless.

Why wasn’t there a rule book for this kinda thing?

What the fuck is wrong with you, Candy?I’d spent the last month wishing we could be together. Now that it had happened, I’d frozen like a mannequin who had cum dripping down her thighs!

Love. Is that what thisthingbetween us really was? We always managed to find our way back together — even his ‘death’ hadn’t kept us apart.

“It’s okay,” Rocky said, planting a tender kiss on my forehead. “You don’t have to say it back. Not yet.”

“Rocky, I—” My stammers turned to nothing.

He tenderly brushed a strand of hair out of my face. “I’ll wait forever for you, C.”

Saying those three words aloud wasn’t the problem. It was realizing that I might actually feel that way about another human and succumbing to the dread that came with it. When you cared about someone, it normally ended with getting hurt. Everyone knows that.

Rocky stood up, tucking his cock back into his pants and looking around sheepishly. “Cupid is going to kill us for screwing on the deck.”

I snapped my shaking legs closed as he held out his hand for me to take.

“Why don’t I show you below deck, huh?” he said. “It’s been a long day.”

* * *

I don’t know whether I was dizzy from sex or the day’s events finally taking its toll, but I struggled to pay attention as Rocky waltzed me through the yacht on a tour.

The ceilings were low, but the bright white walls and lights made it feel like less of a tin can. He pointed out the doors to different rooms as we walked. Kitchen. Bedrooms. Living room. I wouldn’t be able to remember any of them in the morning.

“This is your room,” he said, coming to the end of a corridor and standing awkwardly like he wasn’t sure what to do next.

In the movies, there’s always a weird moment at the end of a date when someone will ask the other in for a coffee. What did you do when you’d already fucked and didn’t need an extra caffeine hit?

“Myroom?” I ached an eyebrow. After doing my best goldfish impression after him telling me how he felt, I’d need to take charge of the situation. “Are you not staying with me?”

“I didn’t want to be presumptuous,” he said, then added with eagerness, “but I’ll stay if you want me to.”

I rolled my eyes. “Sure, but I’ll need something to sleep in and,” I looked down at my thighs, which looked like an art project gone wrong, “I need to clean up.”

He cleared his throat and pointed at the door opposite. “The bathroom’s in there, and while you’re, um… I’ll find you something to wear.”

I laughed at his bashfulness as I slipped into the bathroom and he hurried away down the corridor. It was modern with clean lines and looked like it’d been recently renovated. I took a second to look at my reflection in the mirror. My cheeks were flushed with a natural glow I hadn’t seen in weeks. Maybe sex was a miracle cure for everything?

A few seconds later, Rocky knocked on the door. “C?”

I poked my head out to see him holding a t-shirt like a Prince holding out Cinderella’s slipper.

“Since when were you a fan?” I asked, taking it from him and seeing the unmistakable Ash and the Basilisks logo on the front. Not that I was complaining! They were fucking kick ass, but I didn’t think heavy metal was his thing. When we were younger, Rocky only listened to R&B and hip-hop.

“They’re okay,” he said with a casual shrug, trying to play it cool. “Vixen made me listen to them and got me the shirt.”

“Whatever you say,” I replied with a chuckle, then shut the door on him before he ruined the image I had of him headbanging in a mosh pit.

After cleaning up and changing into Rocky’s shirt, I joined him in my new room. Compared to the Blackthorne Towers penthouse I left behind, it was the size of a shoe box, but it was cozy, and Rocky sprawled over the length of the bed, already tucked under the covers like a caterpillar.

He pulled back the quilt for me to slip inside his cocoon, swallowing me in his delicious scent. The smell of safety. The smell of home. His strong arms pulled me into a warm embrace.

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