Karsen
When it returned. . . . it was always meant to be yours.
I felt the covers lift and the mattress sink under his weight. I hadn’t heard the door to the hotel room open, he hadn’t bothered to turn on the lights, regardless, I knew it was him. I had no idea what time it was. After watching Booker take Troy down and turn Ari over to her brother, I went back to the reception and did my best to pretend I wasn’t simply going through the motions of celebrating the happy couple. I’d had a moment of total freak out and loss of control when those lights went out and all I could see was the muzzle flash from the gun going off. Not knowing what was happening or who was getting shot made me lose my ever-loving mind. I would have snapped Noe’s laptop in half if she hadn’t wrestled it away from me. She also ordered me to breathe and reminded me my man was a badass, and there was no way he was not going to save my best friend from that psycho or let me watch him die. It took a minute for her words to sink in, but eventually I managed to get control of my spiraling emotions. I knew I was supposed to be there for my sister, but I wanted Booker back. I didn’t feel like myself with him gone and out of contact.
Warm hands slid across my skin and I was pulled back against a hard, bare chest as I felt a kiss land on the top of my head. I snuggled into the welcome embrace and obediently parted my legs as Booker moved to press one of his between them. I went to bed without putting anything on, hoping he would return sooner rather than later. My skin tingled when I realized his big body was entirely naked behind me. With his skin touching mine, I finally felt like I could draw in a full breath and my concentration was back to being laser sharp and totally focused . . . on him.
“Do you think Ari will ever forgive me? Aside from you, she’s the best friend I’ve ever had. I brought Troy into her life, even if it wasn’t directly. I’m the reason she ended up in the middle of all this.” I wouldn’t blame her if she never wanted to see me again, but it would hurt having her walk away. There weren’t a ton of people I relied on and trusted. Ari was at the top of the list.
Booker pulled me closer and I felt the rigid line of his erection nestled between my ass cheeks. I wiggled against the velvet and steel pole, sighing as his hands skimmed the fullness of my breasts and wandered over the flat plane of my stomach.
“She was a victim, the same way you were. I think when she has some time to heal and to come to grips with what happened, she’ll come around. That brother of hers seems like good people. He’ll take care of her and make sure she gets herself back on track. Be patient with her. That’s all you can do.” His lips danced up the side of my neck and his index fingers dipped teasingly into my belly button. I shifted in reaction, my body wilting in pliant submission under his tender ministrations.
“That was pretty slick, calling Dom in for back up. I wasn’t expecting it.” Not at all. It was my turn to almost fall off the bed while I was watching Booker’s endgame play out. Never in a million years did I picture him going to the police, even if the police had a personal investment this time around.
He bit the curve of my jaw and soothed the slight sting left behind with a flick of his tongue. “The more time I spend around you, the easier it is to recognize the right thing to do. It might take me a minute to get there, but I’m finding my way because of you.”
I sighed as his fingers trailed over my lower abdomen, disappearing into the hollow between my legs. He sighed in satisfaction when his fingers encountered warm, wet flesh. The silky arousal started gathering the second he laid down behind me.
“Whether you do the right thing or the wrong thing, you know I’ll stand beside you either way, right?” I arched into his touch as his fingers delved into the soft folds eagerly awaiting his attention.
“I know that. I also know you’re less likely to get hurt if I choose to do the right thing, instead of falling back on the wrong one like I always have. I can make better choices if it means keeping you safe and being the man you deserve.” He hummed in appreciation as my body fluttered and pulsed under his fingertips.
I let out a quiet moan and pressed harder into his embrace. “Just remember, I fell in love with the man known for doing the wrong thing. He might need to make an appearance every now and then. Our lives are never going to be easy, Booker. Right and wrong isn’t so cut and dry in our world.”
His whole body stiffened at my offhanded declaration of love. His hands tightened where they were holding me, and I literally felt his heart skip several beats.
“Don’t worry, puppy. That guy is never very far from the surface.” His lips touched the sensitive shell of my ear and his tongue traced the outer edge. “And, he fell in love with you a long time ago.”
My reaction was the opposite of his. I felt everything inside me go soft and pliable. His love made everything feel warm and liquid. It wrapped around me securely and offered an unbreakable wall of protection against everything that wanted to tear us apart.
His thick fingers pressed inside of me as his hips rocked his cock up and down in the snug valley behind me. He whispered how much he missed me, how good it felt to have me in his arms. He told me over and over again that he loved me, and how he would never let me go. His raspy words spun a delicate web of promises around us and pulled me deeper into the haze of arousal surrounding us. It was getting hard to think straight, but before I let him overwhelm me with passion and pleasure, I had one more thing I wanted to say to him.
“I wanted to claw out that knock-off Taylor’s eyes when she kissed you on the cheek. I think I’m going to be more of a rabid dog than a puppy when it comes to you. I don’t want anyone else to touch you. It turns me into a jealous bitch.” I cocked my head so I could touch my mouth to his. I met his gaze, letting him see the possessive truth in my eyes. “Mine.” I kissed him again to drive the point home.
His chuckle was sweet against my lips, and his stubble was rough where it brushed across my cheeks and chin. His fingers started to plunge in and out of my soaked opening, and his thumb found my clit as he started to rub slow circles over my distended collection of nerves.
“You don’t have to worry. I don’t want anyone else touching me either. It was necessary yesterday; that’s the only reason I let it happen.” He kissed his way down my neck, stopping to sink a bite in the curve where my neck and shoulder met. “Turnabout is only fair, Karsen. I get to claim you as mine. If anyone puts their hands on you, I won’t be jealous, I’ll be lethal. Keep that in mind.”
His threat shouldn’t be a turn on, but it was. Everything about him was. Including those parts of him that would always be dangerous and hazardous to others . . . but never to me.
Apparently, the conversation was over because his mouth busied itself with kissing across my shoulders as his hands took full control of my body. The one between my legs started up a steady rhythm, sliding in and out of my wetness with a slick sound that rang in my ears. His other hand found the swell of my breast and palmed the fullness. My nipple poked the center of his hand, begging for some kind of friction and attention. He rolled the sensitive tip around and around with his palm, making me shiver in response and having my body silently begging for more.
He complied. Fingers scissoring and stroking with more pressure, as his thumb continued to torture my clit. I bucked back against him, grinding my hips into the hard shaft rocking against me.
Wordlessly, he understood his fingers were not enough. The empty ache only he could fill was starting to make my movements desperate and my body impatient. All it took was a shift of his hips and a hand under my knee to tug one of my legs up, so he could slide inside for that hollow void to drop away. The press of his body into mine immediately centered something inside of me that was always untethered and lost when we were apart. I was anchored by this man. Held steady and sure. When I was with him this way, I felt as invincible and unbreakable as I always believed him to be.
With him behind me, and both of us on our sides, he couldn't sink as deep or move as forcibly as he typically did. This resulted in lovemaking which was slow, deliberate, and endlessly tender. I felt every drag and pull of his cock inside of me. I could count his heart beats against my back. I could feel the slight tremor in his fingers as he continued to touch me, continued to amp up the anticipation, and my growing impatience.
Every time I tried to hurry him along, he slowed down. Every time I made a hungry noise, he murmured soothing words and tried to contain my frantic motions. It was delicious torture, and I wasn’t sure how much more I could take. I was on the verge of begging, pleading for him to do something, to do anything that would drag us both closer to the edge. I had one hand over his where it still played between my legs, holding on as he thrust steadily into me, refusing to be rushed.
When my orgasm finally hit, it was like a rainbow bursting through the sky on a cloudy day. Suddenly there were colors everywhere, stretching as far as the eye could see. It was bright and magical, spiraling long and slow, making me gasp, and bringing the sting of tears to my eyes. Back when I was younger and filled with foolish notions of what loving and being with this man would be like, this was the kind of experience I always imagined. This was what love felt like, and I knew Noah Booker was the only man who was ever going to bring these feelings inside of me to the surface.
I felt Booker’s release a moment later. It was more of a rolling stream than the usual rushing river, and I could tell he was feeling the same connection I was. I wasted my first sexual experience on petty revenge trying to prove something, but this moment, this was the first time I’d always wanted with the one I deserved.
Booker’s arms tightened around my waist and he nuzzled into me. A loud yawn sounded from above my head and when I wiggled around to look up at him, I noticed how tired he looked. I was going to have to make sure he started taking better care of himself. He couldn’t keep operating on no sleep.
“Hey, Noah.” I spoke quietly just in case he’d already drifted off. I kissed the underneath side of his jaw, wrinkling my nose when his whiskers tickled my lips. “I have something to ask you.”
He grunted but peeled open a slate-colored eye and watched me as I chewed on my lip and tried to figure out the best way to say everything that had been on my mind.
“How would you feel about going back to your hometown with me?”
His eyes flew open and his jaw dropped in an almost comical way. Before he could launch into the protest I could see building in his gaze, I put a finger over his lips and explained, “I want to go back so we can help all the other Noah Bookers out there. The Point doesn’t need us, Booker. The Point is going to be fine. There are so many other places out there that need us. So many people we can help. I figured why not start at the beginning.” I gave him a lopsided grin. “And I’ve always wanted to see an actual, working farm.” It was a new obsession, one I couldn’t shake the longer I thought about it.
He was quiet for a long time. I thought for sure he was going to tell me ‘no’. I was ready to be disappointed but understanding. If he didn’t want to go back to his hometown, sadly there were a million more to choose from.
“I promised myself I would never go back. Everything that went wrong in my life started in that place.” I could hear the pain in his voice, and I almost regretted asking him to revisit his awful past.
“I know. That’s why I think it would be a good place for us to start. We can burn it all down, Booker. Take every bad memory and turn it to ash and smoke. Then we’ll rebuild something unbreakable on top of the ruins. We can do this. I think you need to do this. You’ve walked through fire for a long time. What if all of it was just preparation so you could handle the heat of walking back into hell?” Maybe I was putting it on a little thick, but I was determined to make him see this was something that would be good for him . . . good for us.
After a while, he sighed and pulled me back into an embrace that had my head tucked under his chin and cheek resting on the steady thump of his heart.
“I told you I would follow you anywhere. I trust you to lead the way.” Because he loved me . . . and respected me . . . and trusted me to figure out where we were going, even if the path wasn’t clear.
“I promise I won’t ever lead you astray, Noah.” He wasn’t the only one in this relationship who could keep a promise.