KEPT: A Small Town Second Chance Romance Novella (Reckless Falls Book 0) Page 19

  “They’re all stained and water-logged.”

  “That makes two of us,” I shivered as I peeled off my balaclava.

  She rushed over to the wood stove and stretched out her hands. Drips of water rained down from her sodden hair and her cheeks were flushed rosy pink.

  I had never seen anything more beautiful.

  Quickly I turned away from the vision in front of me and went to the stove. I’d left the cocoa on the warmer and it steamed comfortingly as I poured it into two mugs.

  “Derek?” she called.

  “Here,” I said, extending her mug.

  Her fingers brushed mine as she took the mug from me. She laced her fingers together and took a long, sip. My own mug was pretty scalding, so I knew she had to be pretty frozen.

  I ached to warm her up.

  “What were you going to say?” I asked.

  She swallowed and licked a bit of chocolate from her lip. I had to restrain myself from leaning in and kissing it away. “I was going to say thank you,” she sighed.

  I nodded once. “You’re welcome.”

  “For rescuing me. You really are a full-service tenant.”

  I looked away and then back at her, double checking to see that her eyes were shining with amusement. “I like to be of service,” I said.

  “The hot chocolate was a nice touch,” she breathed. I couldn’t seem to stop staring at the shapes her lips were making.

  “I like to add a personal touch to my service.”

  “I wish you had a little extra something to put in it.”

  I winced.

  “But you wouldn’t have that, would you?”

  “No.”

  “You don’t drink anymore.”

  I stepped towards her. “I don’t need alcohol to feel drunk around you.”

  She lifted her chin as I brushed my fingers down the side of her reddened cheeks, then closed her eyes and pressed her lips together. “Derek,” she sighed.

  “Yes?” My cock was a fucking diamond.

  A fierce light that had nothing to do with the fire burning in the wood stove blazed in her eyes. “Why were you spying on me?”

  I ducked my head. I knew this was coming. “I told you, your grandfather asked me to find you. I owe that man…a lot. So I did it.” I swallowed. “It was just part of the job.”

  “Part of the job? It’s your job to break into people’s stuff?”

  “In a word?” I licked my lips. “Yes.”

  “What the hell are you?”

  “I’m a hacker Aria. Hacker for hire I guess. I just do whatever job my employer asks me to do. But in your case…I guess I went a little overboard.”

  She narrowed her eyes. “Why?”

  “Maybe I was a little too…personally invested.”

  “So you thought you’d break me up with my boyfriend?”

  “Aren’t you happy I did?”

  “He was a piece of shit. I can’t believe I didn’t realize that until….”

  “I told you.”

  “Yes.”

  “You deserve so much better, Aria.” My throat felt tighter but the words still spilled freely. “You deserve someone who will care for you, who will watch out for you and protect you. You deserve someone who thinks you’re the most amazing fucking woman on the planet.”

  Her eyes were shining as she listened to me. She breathed in and out, delicately strong shoulders rising and falling. “Is there someone who thinks that?”

  “There is,” I said, reaching out to play with a lock of her hair. “He just finished rescuing you.”

  “You?”

  “Me.”

  “What if I don’t believe you?” she whispered.

  I stepped closer to her. The heat from her skin put the fire to shame. “I’m telling you now. But you don’t have to believe my words.” I trailed my fingers down to her lips and brushed a gentle kiss against her lips. A test. It was all I could do not to devour her now, to lean her backwards and just take her right here. But I held back and my voice only trembled a little when I said. “Actions speak louder than words. Don’t you think?”

  She closed her eyes and a soft little sound escaped her lips. “Goddammit,” she whispered.

  “I know sweetheart. I’ve been fighting it since the moment I saw you. Aren’t you tired? I know I am. I’m tired of fighting.”

  “This is a terrible idea,’ she moaned as my hands slid lower.

  “I know,” I whispered as I knelt down. “But then again, I always want what’s worst for me.”

  I swept her legs out from under her and laid her gently on the rug. Her eyes were wide and gleaming as she watched me move over her, tracing my hands down the curves of her body. I could still feel the echoes of that first time in the creek but this time, with her watching me with something close to awe in her eyes, this time was completely different.

  “Fuck,” I cried hoarsely and buried my face in that warm space between her thighs. She made another sound. Fuck, I was already addicted to the sounds she made. I wanted more. “Show me,” I asked her, no begged her. “Let me know how this feels.”

  She raised her hips and I hissed sharply when I pulled down her sodden jeans to reveal the creamy white skin of her thighs. Her panties were soaked, whether from snowmelt or desire I wasn’t sure, but the way the simple white cotton had gone achingly translucent had my cock throbbing painfully. “Shit baby, are you wet for me already?” I wondered, sliding a finger along that pretty cleft. “You’re so warm,” I groaned, bending down to kiss it. “You burned my lips.”

  “Unh,” she moaned, arching her hips towards me. “Sorry,” she babbled.

  “It’s okay,” I told her. I hooked my fingers around her panties and slid them down. “Let’s see if my tongue can cool you down.”

  That first taste. Fuck. I’d been dreaming of tasting her since the moment I saw her. Maybe even before that. For all I knew in this moment, I’d been wanting her forever, and that first sweet flick of my tongue was everything I’d been wanting and more. I lapped and sucked and kissed and teased and with every rhythmic arch of her back, Aria moaned louder and louder, her cries filling my ears and driving me fucking crazy.

  “Yes,” I exhorted her, burying my tongue deep inside of her. “Make noises for me. Louder, scream if you want, baby. I want to hear it.” I did hear it, in her voice, that ragged singer’s shriek that had made her so famous. Her moans were a song I already knew by heart, and I sang along with her, moaning as my finger slipped inside of her, that scalding hot softness.

  Her shriek filled my ears as her whole body went stiff. I knelt up and watched her with my finger still moving, just in time to see her eyes squeeze tightly shut before flying wide open again. She screamed and it was so fucking beautiful the sound she was making that I hurried to join her song.

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FOUR

  Aria Jane

  From somewhere outside of my mind I heard the crinkle of the condom wrapper. If I had any thoughts left in my head I would have cried out “yes,” and begged him to fuck me, now, please I need it now.

  But I had no words left. Lightning bolts were still crackling through my brain. I arched upward as the orgasm took me.

  He knelt above me, positioning himself right at my entrance so when I rose to meet him he slipped inside of me, sinking all the way down to the hilt.

  “Shit…” he hissed. His eyes went wide as he looked down where we were joined. “You are completely fucking amazing, baby.”

  In that moment, I believed it. With each thrust, warmth fizzed through my veins. I was melting, liquefied, my whole body dissolving into a puddle underneath him. I felt transformed, like I had fallen to pieces and was becoming brand new. My wind-whipped cheeks, the scratch from the airbag, the purpling bruise on my shoulder, they were all fading away and I was a new Aria Jane.

  “Jesus, Derek!” I cried.

  His eyes were nearly black with desire. “Yes, talk to me, I want to hear.”

  “It’s…fuck!”


  “Tell me.”

  “It’s so good,” I babbled. “So fucking good.”

  “Christ, you have no idea how fucking good you feel,” he groaned as he drove himself deeper. “You’re not the worst thing for me baby, fuck, this, this is the best thing. Jesus, do you feel that?”

  I felt it. I fucking felt it, how could I not? The way our bodies fit together was nothing less that magic. All that heartache and mistrust and fighting against the feelings I was finally fucking feeling…”Shit!” I exclaimed, throwing my arms around his neck.

  He ducked his head so his forehead touched mine and the whole world was filled with the fathomless darkness of his eyes. I looked up at him, drowning in those depths as the fireworks burst inside of me, sizzling across my skin and sending a whipcrack sensation down my spine. I shrieked and buried my face in his neck and he roared like an animal, thrusting so fucking hard I thought I would split in two but that was fucking fine because the new Aria could take it, she wanted it, she fucking needed it and…

  He let out a string of filthy curses as he groaned into my neck, his whole body stiffening before he collapsed bonelessly on top of me.

  “Fuck,” I breathed.

  He inhaled sharply. “I agree.”

  I flicked my tongue against his earlobe, tasting the salt and delighting in the way his whole body shuddered when I touched him. “That was…unexpected.”

  He turned his head to nuzzle into my hair. “Not for me.”

  I punched him in the shoulder. ‘Oh not for you, huh? How long have you been expecting to fuck me?”

  “Expecting? Not very long. Wanting to fuck you? Well that would be since the moment I saw you, darlin’”

  “I thought you only wanted the worst things for you.”

  He pulled back and grinned, wrapping his arms around me from behind. I settled into him as he curled his body along my length and brushed my hair back from my neck. Kissing the pulse at my neck, he sighed a soft sigh that raised goosebumps along my arm. “Maybe I’m getting better after all.” He pressed his lips to my throat, holding them there so long that my toes curled again. “Twelve steps be damned. Maybe you’re what’s making me better.”

  He couldn’t see my face so I allowed myself to smile a private smile before teasing him again. “I wouldn’t be here if you hadn’t hacked me, though,” I reminded him.

  He pulled me tighter and kissed my bruised shoulder carefully. “And I’m really fucking glad I did.”

  I twisted to face him and touched the high slash of his cheekbone. He was too fucking beautiful for words. “You know what? I am too.”

  *****

  The whole world was suddenly wrapped up in that rug. I rolled on top of him and rode him like a wild thing, taking everything he had to give and then some, and then he twisted his body and took me from behind, hard and deep but still not deep enough to quell the ache I felt for him. When he moved away to stoke the fire, I whined like a child until he came back and curled up beside me, his somehow still hard cock sliding inside of me like it was coming home. He fucked me slow that time, stretching it out for so long that the string of orgasms had me boneless and practically delirious.

  When we finally were spent, the wan light in the windows had faded. Night had fallen but the storm still raged on. “Should we eat?” Derek whispered in my ear.

  “I’m famished,” I realized.

  “I got my fill eating you,” Derek said, slipping his hand between my thighs. “I could live on this, I swear to god.”

  I touched his nose. “I need you to keep your strength up.”

  “Why, do you have plans for me?”

  “There’s still a whole night ahead of us.”

  “You think you’re spending the night, huh?” He kissed a trail down my neck to my shoulder.

  “Yes,” I nodded. “I’m spending the night. At your place.” The way his smile spread across his face was like the sun peeking out from behind a storm cloud. I couldn’t help but smile back. “But baby? Could we maybe move to the bed?”

  He grinned and stood up. Before I could move, or even think, he swept his arms under me and lifted me as easily as if I weighed nothing at all. “It’s cold!” I shrieked as he moved us away from the fire.

  “Don’t worry,” I growled, his mouth already at my breast. “I’ll keep you warm.”

  CHAPTER TWENTY-FIVE

  Derek

  It was sometime in the early hours of the morning when I heard her breathing change.

  We never actually stopped making love. Our movements just slowed and slowed until we were moving softly, sleepily against each other. I knew she was asleep when her body took on that beautiful boneless quality it had in my Jeep, the trusting way she just let everything go, relaxing her body against me.

  I held her, wakeful and watching, listening to the sound of her breathing. From off in the living room, I occasionally heard the buzz of her phone, but she didn’t seem bothered by it, so neither was I. What else could possibly matter when I had her here in my arms?

  But her quiet, regular breathing suddenly caught in her throat. Her chest hitched a little under my arm and I pulled back to see that her eyes were open and glowing slightly in the moonlight that spilled from the window. The storm outside had passed and everything was quiet.

  “You okay?” I whispered in the dark.

  I felt her chest rise and fall as she took a deep breath.

  “I need…”

  “Whatever you need.”

  “I need to know something,” she breathed, rolling over and pressing her lips into the center of my chest. “Something that’s been bothering me.”

  Try as I might, I couldn’t keep myself from tensing up and I knew she felt it when she pulled away. Her voice hardened and she sounded fully awake and alert when she dropped the bomb in my lap. “Tell me about the accident, Derek,” she said.

  “What accident?” I said, but even I could hear the false note in my voice.

  She inhaled sharply. “Well, that’s just the thing. I heard this rumor, this little fucking innuendo from my mom and that’s literally all I know about it. So that’s what I’m asking you.”

  “What exactly are you asking?”

  “Why are you hiding from up here?” she demanded.

  The steel in her voice left no room for me to wiggle away from the question. I took a deep breath and rolled onto my back to stare at the ceiling. “You don’t really trust me, do you?” I was trying to sound casual, but I ended up sounding pissed off and petulant.

  “I don’t know you,” she protested. “Because you keep all these secrets.”

  “It’s not a secret what I was.”

  “You were a drinker.”

  “A drunk,” I corrected.

  “Did you crash your car or something? Is that it?”

  I shook my head even though she probably couldn’t see it. “No. I didn’t drive drunk.” I took another deep breath. “But it sort of didn’t matter.”

  “Why?”

  “Because my friend got hurt anyway.”

  “Which friend?”

  “Jesse.”

  “Jesse Klingman?”

  I took a deep breath. “Yes.”

  “You guys were like best friends,” she mused.

  “We were.”

  “What happened?”

  “You have to have figured it out by now.”

  “I have a guess. But I want to know for sure. Was it your fault?”

  She had me trapped against a wall of my own making. There was no way I could run from a question like that. “In a way,” I said. “Yes, it was.”

  Nausea twisted in my stomach and my brain echoed with the screech of metal on metal. I saw her eyes widen in the dark. “Yeah,” I chuckled ruefully, “That wasn’t what you thought I’d say, was it? You thought I was going to protest my innocence, that it was all just a terrible accident that no one could have foreseen.”

  I could see her silently regarding me, watchfully listening. I closed my ey
es. "But that's a fucking cop-out. Because I would have known it would happen that way if I was fucking sober at that point.” I pinched the bridge of my nose between two fingers and squeezed tightly. “But I was too drunk to know anything that night, and so the idea of letting my friend - my fucking best friend in the world, a guy who’d never touched a stick shift in his life - drive me home on icy roads seemed like a brilliant fucking plan.” I opened my eyes and stared into the dark, not even caring if she hated me now. I had to tell it. “Because with two DUIs under my belt, it was the only way I was gonna get home that night.” I rolled over and looked her right in the eye. “I put my own ass above his safety. I was a shitty fucking friend and he has every right to blame me. As does everyone else in this town.”

  She was silent for a long while, just looking at me. I felt like she could see inside of me, way down deep into the parts of me that I kept hidden and locked away. The parts that I didn’t want to acknowledge were mine. All the fucked up and bruised parts that refused to fucking heal. She saw them there in the dark and I couldn’t help but reach out and touch her face.

  She cupped my hand with hers and pressed it to her cheek. “You’re sober now, right?”

  I nodded fiercely. “Three years. Haven’t touched a drop since that night.”

  She was nodding too. “So that shows you’re sorry, right?”

  “More sorry than you can know.”

  She sighed and rested her head on my shoulder. “Have you told him?”

  I nodded. “Once. I went to him while he was lying there in the hospital coming to terms with the fact that his would never heal, that he’d never walk on his own two feet again, and I told him I was sorry.”

  “What did he say?”

  I slid my hand away from her face and gripped the sheet. Her hand slid over mine and I exhaled. “He laughed.”

  “Laughed.”

  “In my face. And asked me if being sorry was going to let him walk again.”

  “Oh.”

  “Yeah.”

  “Have you spoken to him since?”

  “I’ve tried.”

  “How hard?”

  “Very. The accident, it changed me. It changed the course of my life. I tried for a few months longer, but I finally realized he was right. Sorry wasn’t going to let him walk again. I decided the only way I could show him how sorry I was is by making it so he could walk again.”