CHAPTER THIRTY-THREE
It was after midnight, and Eva was wide awake staring into the pitch black of her bedroom. She couldn’t figure out what would scare off her mother, and she felt the hours ticking down. There must be something?
She was rejecting her fifty-seventh terrible idea when she heard a commotion downstairs. Her front door opened and closed, and heavy footsteps crossed the kitchen and then stumbled over the laundry basket she’d left at the foot of the stairs so she’d remember to finally wash her damn clothes.
“Son of bitch!” she heard a low male voice growl.
She snapped on the bedside lamp and padded the three steps down the hall. Donovan, in sweatpants and a long sleeve tee, was making his way up her stairs.
“Well hello there, Officer Breaking and Entering.”
“Technically, I used one of the six hide-a-keys,” he said, slipping his hands around her waist. “Also, there’s this random 1985 town ordinance that states as a sheriff I can give anyone permission to enter a home if I suspect suspicious activity.”
“What suspicious activity did you suspect?” Eva asked, leaning into him and sliding her hands under his sweatshirt.
“I suspected a beautiful woman was sleeping alone.”
“Such a crime.” She brought her palms around to skim over the ripple of his abs. “I thought you were spending time with your parents?” Eva said, stepping into his grasp.
“Those lightweights passed out as predicted. I snuck out,” he said, pressing a kiss to the tip of her nose.
“Sneaking out to your girlfriend’s house?” Eva tut-tutted. “You’re going to be in so much trouble.”
“I’m hoping you’ll make it worth my while,” he whispered, trailing his lips down her neck. “What are you wearing?” He stroked over the lace at her side.
“It’s just a slip thing.”
“I like it. I’ll try not to rip it when I take it off you.” He picked her up and followed the light to her bedroom. Eva unwound her legs from his hips and gasped as they fell on the bed together. He was already hard for her, and the sweatpants were easy for her to shove down his legs using her heels.
Donovan groaned when he discovered there was nothing underneath the slip. “Jesus. You were made to drive me crazy.” He pushed her higher against the pillows and gently pressed her knees apart.
“Lose the shirt,” Eva breathed, yanking on the back of his t-shirt.
He yanked it overhead and threw it blindly. Fully naked now, Donovan put his hands behind her thighs and lowered his mouth to her bared center. The brush of lips and tongue had Eva drawing in air through clenched teeth, hissing against the pleasure he sparked.
“You taste like perfection,” he murmured against her folds.
Eva fisted her hands into the sheets. “Oh, g-g-god.”
He fed on her, using leisurely strokes of his tongue to drive Eva wild. Her knees fell open, and she begged him for more with shallow thrusts of her hips. In the soft lamp light, she looked down and decided she’d never seen anything sexier than Donovan’s head between her legs, a devilish gleam in his eyes.
She took that gleam as a challenge and shoved him backwards. Surprise lit those blue eyes now. Surprise and need. Eva pushed him onto his back, and when she positioned herself over his head and leaned down to take his thick cock into her mouth, he groaned.
“Marry me,” Donovan rasped.
She didn’t have to answer. Her mouth was full of him. Eva slid her lips over his crown and smiled to herself when she heard his sharp intake of breath. His hands dug into her arms harder than he probably intended. She used the flat of her tongue to slide up his shaft and heard Donovan murmuring something like a prayer behind her.
She was feeling full of herself when she added her hand and worked him with mouth and fingers. His muscles were so tense beneath hers. She felt powerful. His body was perfection. Big and muscled. So hard. She just wanted to bite those muscular thighs.
God, she had a thing for Donovan’s thighs.
It was then that he remembered what he had access to. She cried out when he slid two fingers home and flexed them just enough, skimming over exactly the right spot. “I want to die doing this,” he whispered, bringing his mouth to her slit.
Eva gasped at the magic of his mouth. “Just not right now, okay?” she breathed out.
His reply was lost as he buried his face against her. His tongue and fingers worked to bring her to a frenzy. Through the haze of lust blinding her, Eva did her best to keep up, to drive him insane. He was achingly hard, and she was so eager to please.
His free hand clamped onto her hip, holding her in place whenever she tried to wriggle free. It was building. She could feel the need taking her higher and higher out of her body as if she were cresting a wave.
“Donovan?” She said his name to ground herself. She didn’t want to get lost. But it was too late for that.
He slipped his fingers into her again, and she came, clutching and begging. She saw fireworks behind her closed lids. Pops of color that shimmered and glowed as she rode out her release.
“There is nothing sexier in the world than you coming for me,” Donovan said, twisting under her. He tossed her to the mattress facedown and closed her hands over the rungs in her headboard. “Hold on for me, baby.”
“Hurry, Donovan,” she breathed.
He stroked his hand over her shoulder, down the arch of her back and across the curve of her hip. He pushed the lace and silk of her slip up until she was exposed. “You’re my every fantasy come true, Evangelina,” he told her.
She bit her lip to keep from blurting out the words that were clogging her throat. There was too much to fix before she could say them.
“Now, Donovan. Please!”
With great care, he lined himself up to her entrance and pushed into her. Eva felt the words she longed to say replaced with an uncontrollable whimper as he finally filled her. Her knuckles went white from her grip on the spindles.
Donovan’s shout of triumph was cut off. “Shit. Damn it, Eva.” He stilled in her. “I wasn’t thinking.”
“What?” she hissed the word out, not caring what the problem was as long as he didn’t leave her.
“I forgot the condom.”
“Birth control.”
“Yes. That’s what a condom is,” Donovan growled, his fingers digging painfully into her hips.
“No. I’m on birth control.”
“You’re okay with—”
“God, yes. Donovan, if you don’t start moving right now, I’m going to die, and this moment will be your life-long regret.”
“Yes, ma’am. I live to serve.”
And serve he did.
Bare, with nothing between them, Donovan stroked in and out of her. Eva dropped her face into the pillow because breathing no longer mattered. Nothing did but the feel of the man inside her, behind her, above her. She felt raw, vulnerable, exposed. But she didn’t feel scared. She felt… free.
He pushed her to her knees, and her spine bowed.
“I can’t get enough of you,” he said in staccato bursts between his powerful thrusts. “Eva.” He gritted her name out through his teeth.
In response, Eva rose on her hands and looked over her shoulder. His face was tight, the cords in his neck standing out as he fought for control. She’d taken him here. Let him take her with him.
Her muscles clenched and closed over him, and she knew he felt it, felt her.
He groaned, beads of sweat making their way down his expanse of chest. She couldn’t look away. She wanted to watch him as they went off together. She wanted to see him the first time he lost himself in her with nothing keeping them apart.
Her muscles quickened around his shaft. “I feel you, baby. I know you’re ready. Touch yourself,” he commanded.
Eva would have done anything the man asked in that moment. She brought her fingers to the apex of her thighs, and as Donovan pumped into her she stroked herself to a blinding orgasm. She felt him tense on the first explosion. He levered his hips into her and held firm with a half-shout. She came like that, with him buried inside her, pouring his own release into her.
Hot, pulsing need was finally fulfilled. He was moving again, more gently now as he drew out both their orgasms with a slow, smooth ride.
Eva flopped face down with a satisfied moan and Donovan collapsed on top of her.
“I’m so glad you snuck out,” she said into the pillow.
He grabbed her by the hair, lifting her face out of the bedding. “Huh?”
“Glad you snuck out,” she repeated.
He let her face fall back into the pillow and laughed softly as he gathered her to him. “Me, too. You’re worth getting grounded over.”
Eva giggled. “I bet you were a Boy Scout of a teenager. Probably never got in trouble. Never came home after curfew. I’d even wager that when your parents left you home alone, you never threw a wild party. You were a good boy who grew into a good man.”
“You make that sound like a bad thing.”
“On the contrary, there’s something awfully sexy about a white knight with a heart of gold. Makes me want to dirty you up a bit.”
He bit her ear lobe and made her gasp.
“Baby, you dirty me up a lot,” he promised. “I bet you were grounded all the time. Weren’t you?”
She shook her head. “Nope. Never.”
“How did you manage that?” he asked, biting her on the shoulder.
“You’re saying you don’t believe I was a sweet little angel?”
“You’re going to try to sell me on that after you shoved my face between your legs and begged me to make you come? I think you were a bad girl who grew up to be a badass woman.”
“Heat of the moment,” she argued. “You can’t take conversation during sex seriously.”
Donovan buried his nose in her hair. “You can with me. I love you. We’re getting married. And you’re so fucking hot.”
“You’re insane. Uranus has blinded you,” Eva murmured as her heart did a cartwheel in her chest.
“Your incredible body has blinded me. Now, back to how you never got grounded.”
“I was sneakier than my sisters.”
“That doesn’t surprise me in the least. Example?”
“I’d go to bed, wait until everything was quiet, and sneak out the back door. I’d stash my pajamas in the shrubs behind the house so when I got home I could change in the yard. If Dad ever caught me—which he did once or twice—I just told him I heard a noise outside.”
“Franklin believed you were going all scary movie heroine instead of being a bad party girl?”
“I think he wanted to believe it. And I was convincing. I’d mess up my hair. I even had my retainer out there. No one would believe I went to Tammie Germanski’s party with my retainer.”
“You are a natural sneak. Why is that? I’d think, as the baby, you’d be allowed to get away with everything.”
She yawned. “I didn’t want to worry everyone.” She snuggled in a little closer to his chest. “They already thought I’d fall apart over Mom leaving so I tried not be too much trouble.”
“That’s a big burden to carry,” Donovan said. He was stroking his hand up and down her arm, and it felt so good. Every cell in her body felt good.
“Small price to pay to keep my family safe.”
“Safe?” Donovan prodded.
“I mean happy. They deserve to be happy. And so do you.”
“And you’re going to make that happen?”
Eva yawned again. She was going to sleep for a million years in these arms.
“Whatever it takes. I’ll make sure no one ruins it.”
“Who’s trying to ruin it?”
“Parents ruin everything…” Eva’s voice trailed off as she fell asleep wrapped in the safety of Donovan’s arms.