Shocking. Burning. He filled her to overflowing and then made her take more. Delicate tissue parted, clenched, hugging him heatedly as he began to move, sending her flying again, ripping away, layer by layer, the shields around her soul.
“Ah God, Raven baby…so tight…so hot.. hold me, baby. Hold me and mean it.”
She couldn’t do anything less. She held on to him as though her life, her very heart depended on it. And in a way, she knew it did. He was filling her soul, the one thing she had sworn she would never allow to happen, was happening.
Her legs wrapped around his waist, tightening, her arms around his neck locking in place, her lips searching blindly for his as she convulsed again, jerking in his grip, trying to drive him deeper, harder, as the world rocked around her in a release that seemed never ending.
Reno pumped inside her, hard and fast before his groan filled her senses and the heat of his release filled the hungry depths of her pussy. She milked him, moaning in exhaustion as the tremors of release shuddered through her again, leaving her limp, ragged in his hold as his arms tightened around her.
Moments later, she was only distantly aware of him pulling free of her, cleaning her again, then himself, before he shut the water off and dried them with quick, economical movements.
A smile curved her lips though, as he picked her up in his arms and carried her to her bed. Curling against his chest, his hands buried in her hair as his arms surrounded her, sleep overtook her. Warm, sheltered, free of the teasingly erotic dreams that used to haunt her, she slept in her warrior’s arms.
Reno stared into the darkness of the bedroom, Raven’s warmth tucked close to his heart as he sheltered her against his chest. She slept naturally, easily. Not that he expected the battle to be over by any means.
A sleepy smile quirked his lips. He'd better rest tonight, because he had a feeling that come morning, she would be just as prickly as ever. Not that he intended to let it do her any good. He was a part of her, whether she wanted to admit it or not. Just as she was a part of him.
And being a part of Raven was like being reborn. Never had he known anything as sweet, as hot, as soul-fulfilling as being her lover.
He had warned her, the night Morganna had interrupted them, that her days were numbered. He wasn’t waiting any longer to claim what he had known for years was his.
She shifted against his side, a murmur of pleasure leaving her throat as his hands rubbed lightly down her back, and she settled against him once again.
“I love you, Raven.” He whispered the words he knew she didn’t want to hear. Gave them to her while she slept, knowing that, for now, it was the only way she would accept it.
“Reno…" His name as it left her lips filled him with pleasure. Even sleeping, she knew where she belonged.
Chapter Four
She had slept with Reno Chavez.
She hadn’t just slept with him, she had been taken by him. Held by him. Fucked senseless, to be honest, she snapped silently.
Raven leaned on the kitchen counter the next morning, her head cradled in her arms as she waited for the coffee to finish, for the rich fragrance teasing her senses to become an elixir that would hopefully clear her head. Bring her sanity back. It would be really nice if it could turn back time.
She moaned pitifully.
She couldn’t even claim she'd been drunk; she hadn’t so much as touched a beer while at Morganna’s. She had been stone-cold sober until Reno kissed her. Until his hands stroked her body, bringing her nerve endings to life and a ravenous hunger clawing at her womb.
She pressed her thighs together at the memory, hating the feel of her loose shorts rasping against her flesh. She wanted Reno’s hands. Even the loose shirt was uncomfortable on her sensitive body. She could strip it off. She could undress, go to him…. She gritted her teeth in mental refusal.
She was not going to think about it. She was not going to relive each and every slow slide of his cock inside her vagina, stroking the pulsing nerves there, stretching her, filling her, making her burn….
Her fists clenched as she rolled her forehead against her arm.
She couldn’t have made a bigger mistake if she had actually put effort into coming up with one. Sleeping with Reno was tantamount to jumping from a plane without a parachute. It wasn’t just risky; it was suicide to her emotional well-being.
He had been hard-headed as a boy, bossy as a young man, and now he was so firmly dominant, it was enough to make her teeth clench. What happened to the nice young man who put Band-Aids on her knees and bought her ice pops from the corner store? Why did he have to become the big tough SEAL who insisted on a career that risked his life every time he went to work?
“Dumb. Dumb. Dumb,” she muttered as she lifted her head, staring at the slow stream of black liquid that ran into the carafe.
“When are you going to break down and buy a real coffee-maker?”
She stiffened at Reno’s amused voice, refusing to turn and face him, to stare at that incredibly sexy body. The same one that had risen over her last night, pushing between her thighs as he filled her with the hard, broad flesh of his cock. She shivered at the memory.
“This one works,” she mumbled. And it had been her mother’s before she died five years before.
There was no way she was going to consider facing the day without coffee. She needed it. It was essential. Otherwise, she was going to melt into a puddle of aroused goo before she ever managed to push Reno out the door.
He grunted noncommittally behind her.
“We’ll get a coffee grinder later and some fresh beans. I’ll make you some real coffee.”
Turning her head slowly from the shelter of her arms, she stared back at him. Over six feet of lean, smooth, hard muscle. Damn him. He wasn’t wearing a shirt. His chest, with its smattering of hair, was displayed in all its dark glory, muscles shifting, tempting, encouraging….
“Don’t you have a bed to buy or something?" She straightened quickly, jerked a cup from the hook on the wall and prayed the dark brew would hurry. She had to clear her head, or she was never going to make it through the day.
“Are you trying to run me off, Raven?" She could hear the grin in his voice, see it when she glanced back at him.
“Yes,” she snapped desperately. “I am. I can’t deal with you this morning. Go torture Morganna.”
Like she thought for a minute that he was going to do that. She should have known better, she told herself frantically. He had warned her that last time, when he woke her with a kiss, looming over her like a tide of passion, that her days were numbered. She had tried to convince herself he wasn’t serious. She should have known better.