Page 34 of Cinder & Secrets (Ink & Ashes #2)

River

Three Months Later

“Red, if you don’t hurry up, we’re going to be late.” I rap my knuckles on the bathroom door, not sure what’s taking her so long.

“I’m almost done,” she calls back, followed by a loud crash and a slew of curses.

“You okay in there?”

“Yeah.”

“Can I come in?”

“Since when do you ask?” I hear the smile in her voice seconds before I push my way inside the bathroom.

“What are you doing?” I chuckle, finding her on her knees in the bathroom.

“I knocked over my makeup bag.” She gestures to the contents spread across the floor. “Don’t just stand there watching. Help.”

“But watching is so enjoyable.” I grin, crouching down to assist her in cleaning up her items. “Are you okay?” I ask again, for an entirely different reason than I asked moments ago.

She seems flustered. Off. Very un-Charlotte-like.

“Yeah, I just...” She rises to stand when I pick up the last item, dropping it into her cosmetics bag, giving me my first full view of her.

I have to bite down the groan of appreciation that works its way into my throat at the sight of her.

She’s dressed in a pair of tight, black pants with an oversized deep blue sweater that damn near hangs to her knees.

While I will take her in one of those little tight numbers she likes to wear any day, she is equally as beautiful when she’s fully covered, especially when I know how much I’m going to enjoy stripping her out of this outfit later this evening.

She has her red waves tied up in a loose pony that hangs softly down her back, little tendrils left down to fall around her face. She’s kept her makeup light and natural, showing off her freckles. She is absolutely stunning, as per usual.

“Is it weird that I’m nervous?” she finally asks.

“Nervous?” My forehead furrows in confusion. “We’re meeting Lyric and Kai for dinner. What could you possibly be nervous about?”

Char has spent the last half of winter break with me in North Carolina, and since Lyric is here visiting our parents, I thought it would be the perfect chance for all of us to get together, which is something our schedules have not allowed up to this point.

Between me and Char alternating weekends that we visit each other, and Lyric busy with Kai and school, we’re rarely all in the same place at the same time and even when we are, someone is usually busy with one thing or another.

“I don’t know. This is the first time we’ve all been out together.” She shrugs, unable to meet my gaze.

“Hey.” I close the space between us in one step, using my hand to tip her chin up, forcing her eyes to mine. “You survived dinner with my parents,” I remind her, sliding my hand across the side of her face. “Lyric and Kai should be a walk in the park.”

My mom insisted on having us over the day Charlotte arrived, and while I tried to get out of it, wanting her all to myself, Char thought it would be a good idea for her to get to know my parents a little better.

Not that I had any objection to that. I just don’t have a fondness for sharing her with other people.

Even if those people are the ones who brought me into this world.

“I know it should be, but what if it’s... I don’t know... Weird.”

“Why would it be weird?”

It’s only now dawning on me that she is actually worried about this.

“Because Lyric is your sister and my best friend, and this is the first time we’re going out with her as an official couple.”

“We’ve been around my sister since we’ve been dating.”

“Yeah, but mainly just in passing or with other people around. This is different. A more intimate setting.”

“You have nothing to worry about. My sister knows how crazy I am about you. She’s not going to make it weird.”

“Maybe not. But what if I do?”

“How could you possibly do that?”

“I don’t know. I’ve been known to be a bit handsy. What if I touch you in a way that freaks her out or makes her uncomfortable? I mean, I don’t have any siblings, but if I had a brother and he was dating one of my friends, I can’t say I would enjoy seeing them grope each other.”

“So then we only grope where she can’t see,” I offer with a smirk, cupping her other cheek so I’m holding her face in my hands.

“You’re not helping.” She groans, a semblance of a smile playing on her lips.

“No? Kinda seems like I am.” I chuckle, dropping my mouth to hers.

She melts into the kiss, opening for me when my tongue drags across the seam of her lips.

I dip my tongue into her mouth, groaning when she matches my eagerness.

Letting my hands fall from her face, I slip one around to the back of her neck, the other falling to the small of her back as I pull her flush against me.

Breaking the kiss, I trail my lips down the side of her neck, licking and sucking along the soft skin.

“We’re going to be late,” she tells me, her fingers tangling in the back of my hair as she urges my face back to hers.

I kiss her again, slow and deep, the hand at her back slipping to her ass as I palm her cheek through the thin material of her leggings.

“Is that your way of telling me to stop?” I suck her lower lip into my mouth, my teeth gently scraping across it as I release it.

“No.” She captures my mouth again. “It’s my way of telling you to hurry up.”

I smile against her lips.

“Oh yeah?” I slip my hand into the band of her pants, pushing the material of her panties aside before dragging a finger along her seam. She’s so wet for me already I can’t help but groan my approval. “Is this what you want?” I ask, dipping a finger inside of her.

“Yes.” She hisses when I slip in a second finger, stretching her.

“Tell me what you want, Red?” I husk against her lips.

“You.” She lets out a little whimper of pleasure when I press the pad of my thumb against her clit and start moving it in slow circles in rhythm with my fingers inside of her.

She drops her head back, shamelessly riding my hand.

“You already have me,” I remind her, kissing the base of the throat. “Tell me what you want.” I bite gently.

“I want you... Inside of me. Right now.”

“Right now?” I smile against her skin.

“Right now.”

“Who am I to deny my girl of everything she wants.” I grin, pulling my hand away.

She starts to protest, but the words die on her lips when I tug down her pants, spin her around, and press her into the vanity so that her ass is up in the air. Freeing myself from my own pants, I step up behind her, line myself at her entrance, and enter her in one swift thrust.

Char cries out, gripping the sides of the counter like she’s holding on for dear life.

Normally, I would take my time, savoring every second of being inside her, but tonight we have somewhere to be. I’ll have to make up for it later when we’re back home and aren’t on a time constraint.

For now, I fuck her hard and fast, the sound of skin slapping skin and Charlotte’s soft groans of pleasure the only sound in the otherwise silent room.

I’m hanging on by a thread less than a minute in, but I keep up the relentless pace until she cries out her release, her body spasming around me, coaxing my own orgasm to the surface.

I let out a hard grunt as I spill myself inside of her, not slowing until I’m sure I’ve milked every ounce of pleasure from her.

Reluctantly pulling out of her, I pull her upright and spin her toward me, smiling at the flush of her cheeks and the sated look in her eyes.

“Better?” I ask, kissing the tip of her nose.

“It’ll suffice... For now.” She leans in, dragging her tongue along mine in a slow, lazy kiss that has me rethinking going out at all. Before I can suggest it, she pulls back with a knowing smile. “Thank you.”

“For what?”

“For always knowing exactly what I need.”

“It’s pretty easy to know what you need when it always seems to line up with what I need.” I reach around her for a towel, proceeding to clean myself off before tucking myself back into my pants. “We really should get going, though.”

“I need a minute to clean up.” She shoos me back toward the door. “Two minutes.”

“Two minutes. I’m holding you to that.”

“If you were so worried about being late, maybe you should have kept your hands to yourself,” she calls to my back as I exit the room.

I pause just inside the doorway, looking at her over my shoulder.

“Oh, but, Red, where is the fun in that?” I give her a playful wink and then exit the room.

“Rumor has it, you had dinner with Mom and Dad the other night.” Lyric looks between me and Char as she takes a bite of her salad. “How was that?”

“Oh, you know Mom.” I sit back in my chair, more relaxed than I have felt in a long time, and I don’t have to guess why. I know with complete certainty that it has everything to do with the redheaded beauty next to me.

“That I do.” Lyric chuckles. “Let me guess, she drilled you about your relationship, trying to gauge how serious it is.”

“Pretty much,” Charlotte answers before I can.

“And?”

“And what?” I look at my sister like she’s grown a second head. “What did you tell her?”

“Nothing. I told her I was madly in love with Charlotte but that we were taking it slow and letting things progress naturally.”

“Boring.”

Kai snorts out a laugh but encourages Lyric to keep going.

“I’m just saying it’s clear you two are crazy about each other. Why waste time figuring things out when things will ultimately figure themselves out regardless?”

“What would you have me do, move to Virginia?” I avoid looking at Char, who clears her throat like she just swallowed something down the wrong hole.

“If that’s what you want.”

“And you’d be okay with that?” I cock a brow.

What my sister doesn’t know—what none of them know, including Charlotte—is that I’ve already talked to my boss about moving into a remote position and I have an appointment next week to look at apartments in Virginia.

Nothing is set in stone, of course, but I’m sick of only getting to see her on the weekends.

I want her all day, every day, not just some days.

“Are you kidding? Nothing would make me happier.”