“Oh God,” I cried out.
And I could feel my own reality slipping away. The burn of pleasure he incited with every thrust of his cock.
The man fucked like a barbarian that had perfected his art. Rough and grueling and driving me mad.
Higher and higher toward where day and night spun.
“Rex—”
Everything burst.
Strobes of light that flashed behind my eyes and the pleasure that exploded in my body.
Fracturing.
Scattering wide. Bliss.
It rode every nerve and obliterated every cell.
A sound tore from my throat, given voice where it came to life from somewhere in my spirit.
Because just like Rex had said, this shouldn’t have been real.
It was too good. Too much. Too overwhelming.
Pleasure rushed.
A landslide.
So intense I thought it might go on forever.
Rex drove deeper and harder and wilder. His fingers sank into my hips, and he jerked my body to meet each dominating thrust. The man coming unhinged. Every breath a grunt. He gripped me as if he were clinging to safety, afraid he would be swept away, too. His head kicked back, and he roared toward the ceiling.
And I floated on his ecstasy. My walls clutching him tight. My heart holding on tighter.
For a few moments, we remained there, his shoulders and chest heaving as he panted for air. He slowly lowered my hips to the bed, wincing as he pulled out before he slumped down on top of me.
Threading his fingers through my hair, he rolled us to our sides. He stared at me, blinking in wonder as he brushed his thumb over the curve of my cheek. “That was . . .”
“Incredible,” I whispered, almost shy.
“Incredible might be an insult. Feeling this way should be impossible, Rynna Dayne. Not sure how I’m going to walk out of this house and ever be the same.”
“What if I don’t want you to walk out of here ever feeling the same?”
“Don’t think there’s any worry about that.” He studied me, hesitating, before he spoke, his admission scratchy. “I haven’t been with anyone since Frankie’s mom.”
Shock burned through my mind and jolted my spirit, questions tumbling through my head, this man who was such a mystery.
I shifted onto my elbow, causing Rex to roll onto his back. I searched him in the shadows. “What? Why now? Why me?”
“Because you change everything, Rynna. You walk in a room, it’s better. And when you walk away, everything grows dimmer. Colder. And I’m tired of living in the dark.” He brushed back the hair that fell against my cheek. “But that doesn’t mean I’m not terrified. That I’m not scared I’m doing something wrong. Making bad choices, the way I have all along. Last thing I want to do is hurt you.”
I dipped down and placed a soft kiss to his chin, rising back up to meet the intensity of his stare. “The only thing that would hurt me is you walking away.”
“My daughter . . .” I watched the heavy bob of this thick throat, the fierce protectiveness seeping through his pores.
I pressed my palm over the erratic thunder of his heart. “I know. Your daughter . . . your beautiful Frankie. I promise you I would rather die than hurt her, just like I know you’d rather die than see her hurt.”
His heart pounded harder, and a dent pulled between his eyes. “How’s it you just get it?”
“There are some things that just aren’t that hard to understand. Like loving a child. It’s complete. Absolute. There’s no middle ground. So yeah, I get it.”
“She’s gonna fall for you, Rynna.”
A soft smile pulled at my mouth, and I scratched my fingertips through the scruff on his jaw. “That’s good, because I’m already falling for her.”
Falling for you.
I didn’t say it. Because I had my own fears. That he might not be ready. That the words might push him away. I figured when he looked at me, it was blatant, anyway.
Tentatively, I reached down to run my fingers through the soft locks of his hair. “What happened with Frankie’s mom?”
He flinched. “I don’t fucking know, Rynna. I came home one day, and she was . . . driving away. She didn’t even stop when she saw me pass her on the road.” His eyes squeezed shut. “Thought everything was fine. Left for work that morning, and then boom . . . gone. Some bullshit letter left behind about me working too much and she couldn’t take it anymore.”
Nikki was right. What a selfish bitch.
“What was she like?”
Emotion flashed through his eyes. Hurt and hatred.
“Last thing I want to be talking about is her when I’m lying here with you. Because right here? With you? That’s where I want to be, and the last thing I need is her here in the middle of it.”
“You don’t need to tell me anything, Rex,” I whispered, just as softly as my fingers that trailed across his jaw. “But when you want to? When you’re ready? I’ll be right here, ready to listen. I promise you there isn’t anything you could say that would turn me off or send me in the other direction. Because this is where I want to be, too.”
He nodded, his hand on my neck. “You know . . . your grandma . . . she was there with Frankie when I got home that night. Watching over her. Caring for her. She helped to get me through that time.”
At the thought of my grandmother with Frankie, warmth spread beneath my skin. She truly had been a part of their lives. I guessed I’d only related it to the pies. But she’d meant something to them.
Without a doubt, they’d meant something to her.
“I’m so glad she was there for you.”
“She was amazing.”
“Yeah,” I whispered.
Contentment rolled through my being as a slow, slow caress, and I snuggled closer, laying my head on his chest, my ear against the steady thrum of his heart.
“Can’t believe what nearly went down this afternoon,” he muttered, lightly gliding his fingertips along my bare back.
Fear flickered in my spirit. “Me, either. But it’s over. I don’t want to dwell on what might have been or could have happened. I just want to be thankful for what did.”
“But the loan you were after that set that bastard off? What now?”
I kept drawing patterns on the rippling muscles of his pecs, words subdued. “I wait, I guess. Pray that they approve it and this whole mess doesn’t affect it in any way.”
“You mind me asking how much you were asking for?”
“No, I don’t mind. Two hundred thousand. When I found out my grandmother left everything to me, the attorney had an estimator go in to give me an idea of what repairs would be needed to reopen. He wanted to give me the option to cut my losses and sell it off for what it was worth.”
“And that’s what you wanted? To come back here and take all that on?”
Soft affection slipped from my mouth. “When I was growing up, running that restaurant was the only thing I wanted. I couldn’t imagine anything but being there at my grandmother’s side.”
“Why’d you leave, Rynna?”
Sadness wove into the fibers of my being and I tilted my face so I could see him. “Because I thought I was in love and it turned out it was nothing but a joke. I couldn’t be the joke anymore, Rex. It hurt too bad.”
“Fuck . . . I hate him.”
“It wasn’t just him. It was everything. Everyone. The school. This town. I knew if I stayed, everyone would be laughing at me.”
I could still see Janel, that evil, depraved laugh, no care as she crushed my soul and destroyed my world.
“I was humiliated. Betrayed. At the time, I saw no other option than running, thinking I couldn’t stay here and face the people I thought cared about me. I was so young. Looking back now? It seems ridiculous that I let them affect me so much.”
He tightened his hold. “It’s amazing how much power the ones we care about most hold. Especially when they’re hurting us.”
“Yeah,” I whispered. “I just wish I hadn’t stayed away so long. I wish I had come back when she was still alive. She wanted so badly for me to come home, even though she paid for my college, encouraged me to find what I loved. What made me happy. And I was fine in San Francisco, satisfied on some level, but it never brought me the true kind of joy I knew she wanted for me. And then . . . she was gone . . . and I was too late.”