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CHAPTER TWENTY-TWO

SILAS

“How did you know about today?” Rachel asked me as I headed down the highway toward my Greenwich Village apartment.

I could hear the smirk in her voice before I noticed it in my periphery.

“I may have checked your social media when your new book released and saw the post about the signing. It said open to all, so I got in the car, bought your book from the woman at the door, and here I am.”

“Here you are. Stalker much?” she teased.

I turned my head when traffic bottlenecked in front of us. Her smile was wide and beautiful, her full lips still swollen from our crazy kiss in front of the bookstore.

Something we shouldn’t have done in public, but once she was in my arms, begging me to take her home with me, I didn’t give a shit where we were or who could see.

In fact, I wanted them to see. I was pleased as fuck to let everyone around us know that she belonged to me, because she’d owned me since that first day.

And it shouldn’t have taken me so damn long to do something about it.

“Your social links are in the back of every book. I thought that meant you’d want readers to keep up with R.M. Dioro and her book tours.”

“Book tours,” she scoffed. “One signing is hardly a tour.”

“But I’m sure one is coming. I saw the line you had,” I said, reaching over to squeeze her knee, running my thumb back and forth over her silky skin. The blue dress she wore had driven me crazy when I’d only been able to see it from the waist up. When she’d run outside, I noticed how it hugged all my favorite places, places I couldn’t wait to get reacquainted with all night long.

“It was nice,” she said, covering my hand with hers. “More than I’d expected.”

“Why would you say that?” I asked, driving with one hand as I kept the other on her leg, not wanting to stop touching her now that I was finally able to. “You have how many books now?”

“Yeah, but that doesn’t matter. When you’re a one-woman show, it’s hard to get traction. I’ve been lucky and my readers are good to me, but I don’t plan on touring anytime soon.”

“Well, if you do,” I said, picking up her hand and bringing it to my lips, “I’ll be your first groupie.”

“You’re so ridiculous, Silas,” she said on a sigh, looping her arms around my neck and pressing a long kiss to my cheek.

“I only seem to be ridiculous with you.” I turned my head, dragging kisses along the inside of her forearm as I kept my eyes on the road.

“Don’t let that get out on Instagram. You’ll lose your fan base.” Her words were breathy and husky, tempting me to slide my hand between her legs and check how turned on she really was.

“You’re the one with groupies. So I couldn’t be your first.”

Technically, she wouldn’t be my first groupie, thanks to all those stupid reels, but she was the first for so many other things. Things I still didn’t totally understand.

“It meant a lot to me to see you there today. In fact, before you came, it reminded me of when I was a kid and I’d be at an assembly in school and the only one with no parent in the audience.”

“I thought you had your grandmother.”

“I did, and she’d come when she could get off work, but most of the time, I had to pretend one of the parents in the back was there for me.”

Her sad smile gutted me.

“It’s something I should have gotten used to, and Auden was there and happy for me. But it wasn’t the same as having you there.” She exhaled a long breath. “I know that doesn’t make sense.”

“No, it does. I felt the same way when I saw you on opening day.”

“Even though I wasn’t holding a sign?”

Her teasing smile faded when my gaze locked on hers.

“You didn’t need one. I spotted you right away.”

Her smile deepened as her eyes glossed over. I’d looked for her just like she’d looked for me today, and we fit in ways we shouldn’t have in such a short time.

My marriage had soured long before I’d ended it. My ex-wife had resented me for all my time on the road and never being present enough while I was home. Being on the road was part of my job, but she’d been right. I’d been just as distant when we were under the same roof.

I’d felt guilty over ending it, so guilty that I’d let it drag on for far too long. In our last conversation, she’d told me I was too coldhearted to be a husband, and I’d thought maybe that’s what I was. I’d left our house full of regret but not sadness.

I’d been sure there was something wrong with me until I met a woman who lit me up from the inside and took over every thought in my head. Seeing her again was all I cared about, even before we were pushed back into each other’s orbit.

Maybe I wasn’t coldhearted as much as my heart wasn’t into it. My heart seemed to be very into the beautiful woman in my passenger seat, and I sure as hell wasn’t letting her go again.

Or ever.

The bone-deep certainty should have scared the shit out of me, but all it did was piss me off that we hadn’t gotten here faster.

“Here we are,” I said after I pulled into my spot in the garage next to my building.

“Wow, even the garage seems fancy.” She scanned the lot, full of cars but no people in sight.

“I was going for convenient with good security more than fancy. You’ll see when we go upstairs and find only the essentials.”

She nodded, chewing on her lip as she climbed into my lap.

“What kinds of essentials?” She lifted her leg to straddle my waist and painted kisses down my neck. “Is there a bed, at least?”

I let my head fall back in the seat, my cock so ready for her, and still getting over the abrupt stop from a couple of weeks ago, I was hard and heavy against the zipper of my shorts.

“Oh, there’s a bed,” I said, groaning as she dragged her lips over my throat. “And a couch and a shower and a lot of walls.” I threaded my fingers into her hair, twisting my hand around a fistful, and yanked until she looked up at me. “No rush to go, no sad breakfast, I get you the whole night?”

She pulled back, lust still burning in her eyes as her gaze softened.

“You do.” She skated her hand down my chest. “All night. However you want me.”

“Sweetheart, be careful what you say,” I said, running a finger down her neck and tracing the swell of her breasts against the neckline of her dress. “You have no idea how many ways I want you.”

Wanting Rachel had become my whole damn personality since the moment we’d met. Even when I was trying to avoid it. It had been hard enough to stop touching her that first night and even harder to leave her apartment recently.

She was still a fucking dream.

“I think I have an idea of how many,” she whispered, rolling her hips against my throbbing cock.

“No, Slugger. I don’t think you do,” I growled out before taking her mouth in a bruising kiss. She whimpered as I fisted the hem of her dress, lifting it up enough to slip my hand inside her panties.

“Fuck, you’re wet,” I grunted out, dropping my head into the crook of her shoulder as she drenched my fingers. “Close already, baby?” I slid a finger inside her, tracing circles around her clit with my thumb. We had to make this fast because I had no idea who was watching us, and I didn’t want to blow in my shorts before I even got her upstairs.

This building had its share of much bigger celebrities, but there was still enough interest in me to risk being watched. The smart thing to do was stop and take all I wanted to do to Rachel behind a locked door.

And I would have, if anything short of death could have made me stop touching her right now, even if that recklessness might cost us.

All I could see and feel was Rachel writhing on top of me as she clenched around my fingers.

“Be a good girl and come for me. Come on,” I rasped, pushing the hem of her dress up on the other side and swatting her ass with a loud smack.

She dug her nails into my biceps as her legs shook, thrusting her hips against my hand until she collapsed against me.

She rested her cheek against my chest, peering up at me with a wince. Her cheeks were flushed, her hair was a matted halo around her face, and she was so beautiful my throat went dry.

“We’re out of control.”

“Maybe,” I said, chuckling as I pressed a kiss to her forehead. “I’d call it more of a long buildup.” I smoothed her hair off her shoulder and brushed my lips across her collarbone. “But we should take it upstairs. Just give me a minute,” I breathed out, nodding to my still-painful erection. It had taken every ounce of control I had not to come all over myself, like I’d done that morning against the sheets in my hotel room.

She’d tasted too good, too sweet, and I was having the same problem now.

Rachel nodded, slowly climbing off me, her thighs still trembling from aftershocks.

She swept her gaze over the garage before a smile curled her beautiful mouth.

“I can help you with that,” she whispered, leaning forward to undo my belt and zipper. “You poor thing,” she crooned, drifting her hand up and down my shaft before flicking her eyes to mine. That thread of self-control was about to break with those gorgeous lips so close to my dick.

“Don’t tease me, beautiful. If you want me in your mouth, take me.”

She popped her brow and dragged kisses up and down my length before she swallowed me whole.

This was the one thing we hadn’t gotten to that night. She’d offered and tried, but I was too afraid of things ending too quickly. And if our time together was limited, I wanted to be inside her as much as possible.

I’d been right because she was too good. It had been a lot of years since my first blow job, but I’d never had a woman worship my dick before, as if she couldn’t get enough and moaning louder than I was when I poked the back of her throat.

I rolled my hips but fought the urge to fuck her mouth until she grabbed my hand and brought it to the back of her head, pressing on it as if reading my mind and giving me an invitation.

This woman was about to be the death of me, and I’d go a happy man.

“So good. So fucking good.” I fisted her hair, pumping in and out of her mouth as hard as I wanted, going in for more when I eased back.

I tapped her shoulder and pushed her back, but she only shook her head. I finally gave up, coming down her throat in long spurts until my vision blurred.

“Sweet Jesus, Rachel,” I croaked out, chasing my breath as my heart hammered against my rib cage. I hoped the cab of my truck was deep enough not to spot her head as she bobbed it up and down, but it would be clear to anyone who passed by what she’d been doing to me and how much I loved it.

Maybe I loved her.

I dragged a hand down my face, pushing that out of my head for the moment. The mind-scrambling orgasm I’d just had in Rachel’s mouth was probably fucking with me, but the random thought popping into my head didn’t seem so random.

“Hey, where did you go just now? I didn’t short-circuit your brain, did I?” A sweet smile tugged at her lips as she feathered her hand down my cheek.

“A little,” I managed to say, pressing a kiss to her palm. “Two more minutes and I’ll take you upstairs before we both get arrested.”

She laughed, nodding as she cuddled into my chest. I threaded my fingers through the tangles in her hair, an odd peace washing over me.

She was here and she was mine. I shut my eyes, savoring the moment of having everything I wanted in my arms for what felt like the first time in my life.