Page 58 of Explorer’s Revenge

FORTY-NINE

RICK

T ime in the hospital is moving weirdly.

I know Ajax and our company are protecting us, giving us time to rest before we return.

I also know we’ll have to move eventually, but for now, this is our own little paradise.

It can be stifling, however, and my wanderer’s soul yearns for fresh air and the outdoors, so the next night, when everyone is doing their own thing, I head out in search of the quietness of nature.

I sneak up to the roof, not wanting to go too far in case something happens. The door doesn’t alarm, which is lucky. A few nights ago, I heard the nurses admitting that the doctors sneak up here for a break and a smoke since there are no cameras, which is why I hoped I could too.

There’s no staff up here at the moment, and I’m grateful as I walk to the ledge and lie down, dangling a leg off the rooftop. One of my arms hangs, my fingers playing with the air as I stare up at the night sky. My lungs slowly expand with fresh, warm air.

I lie like this for a while, letting it heal me. I’m comfortable in cities and around people, but my heart always belongs to the wilderness.

“Rick?” Turning my head, I lock eyes with the person my heart also belongs to, someone equally as wild as the world I love—Maeve Carter.

“Are you stalking me, pretty girl?” I tease.

“I heard the nurses talking about the cutie sneaking up here.” She smiles as she heads over, and I sit up, crossing my legs as she sits beside me. She winces when her bad leg causes her pain, so I grab it and lay it over my lap. “What are you doing here?”

“I just needed some fresh air,” I reply. “Too long inside and I start to go a little crazy.”

“Only a little?” She bumps into me with a grin as she leans back on her hands, dropping her head back so she gazes at the sky, but I’m looking at her. “It’s beautiful here.”

“It is,” I murmur, but she’s the view I’m talking about.

Her head lifts as if she heard something in my voice, and she meets my gaze. “Flirt,” she retorts.

“It isn’t flirting if it’s true.” I shrug. “How long before you get the itch?” I know she understands what I mean. We all have the urge to get back out there and explore. It’s why we do what we do.

“Usually a few weeks, maybe a little longer this time since I’m healing. I want to spend some time with my dad at home and feel safe for a little while. What about you?”

“Already got it,” I respond, “but we need some peace and time at home. I can wait.”

“You’re restless,” she murmurs, and I nod, looking back at the stars.

“I’ve always been this way, unable to stay in one place for too long. There’s just so much out there to see and do, so much I want to achieve and experience, that it feels like a waste to sit around.”

“And this, right here, right now, is it a waste of your time?” she asks carefully.

Dropping my chin to my chest, I meet her gaze. “Any time with you is not a waste,” I answer truthfully.

Her lips purse as she hides a smile. “You’re good at saying what people want to hear. I bet the girls love it.”

“There are no girls.” I shrug. “There were some in the past, but never anything serious. I don’t stick around long enough for relationships, nor did I ever want one with people who couldn’t understand why I want to be out there rather than settling down.

Pretty words only last so long. They all say they are okay with it. ”

“But they aren’t,” she says. “They start getting angry and impatient. It becomes a fight, and then they leave, unable to handle the lifestyle. It doesn’t matter how much you warn them or give them outs; they all say they can handle it.

They can’t. How could they understand why I’d rather be standing on a random beach across the world or scaling a dangerous mountain?

I can count the number of relationships I tried before I realized it wasn’t worth the heartache—mine or theirs. ”

She understands—of course she does. She’s just like us—a soul filled with the need for more. Partners don’t usually understand that. They think it means they lack something and they aren’t enough for us, but the truth is, it isn’t them—it’s us.

“We are never going to be this world’s norm,” I murmur, “and that’s okay. We just have to find people who are the same . . . the ones not afraid to take risks.”

“Are you afraid to take what you want?” she asks, and something in her voice indicates she means more than this life I lead.

“You tell me,” I counter.

“Well, you haven’t taken me,” she responds, refusing to back down. “You want me, yet here we are, so I think you’re afraid.”

“Of you? No. Of taking you and being so close to heaven then losing it? Yes,” I reply, but I reach for her anyway.

I slide her onto my lap until she’s pressed against my chest, her legs on either side of me.

The warm air of this foreign land wraps around us, and I know this will be my favorite memory I’ve ever made on any of these trips.

“You scare me, Maeve Carter, in the way scaling mountains does. You’re just as unpredictable, wild, and beautiful. ”

“Your brother?—”

Covering her mouth, I lean in. “This isn’t about my brothers.

This is about us. I don’t care what goes on between you.

I never have. You make them happy, so why would that bother me?

All I care about is that you want me as much as I want you.

If you don’t, then tell me now and let me go because I couldn’t stand falling deeper in love with you if you don’t feel the same way. ”

“And what if I feel the same? What if I’m greedy and want you as well?” she asks, searching my gaze.

“Then take me.” I swoop in, my lips above hers, and let her make the decision.

Her eyes peer into mine until suddenly, with an audible groan, she closes the remaining distance.

I let go, handing everything I am over to her.

Our kiss turns feral as she grips my hair, and I tug her closer so she’s pressed against me.

My head tilts back since hers is above me, and I deepen the kiss, tasting every inch of her mouth as her hands find my shirt then slip under it.

She strokes my muscles until they clench for her.

Careful of her leg, I lift her and open my eyes to see where I’m going as I turn us and lay her across the ledge, coming down above her.

Her eyes open as she turns to see the drop-off, but when she looks back at me, she’s grinning. “Ever had a danger fuck?”

I blink in confusion, my brain not working well enough to form words, and she laughs.

“Rick, the big, bad flirt, has never had a danger fuck? Well, let me be your first.” Her smile only grows as she slides her hand down my chest to cup my hard dick.

“Check my pocket for condoms. I figured I couldn’t be too careful around all of you.

Put one on and fuck me right here where we could fall at any minute.

It will make it even better, and it will fill that itch for now. ”

Lowering my head, I nip her pouty bottom lip. “And what about my itch for you?”

“Sorry, you’re stuck there,” she whispers as I kiss down her throat and across her shirt before pushing it up to expose her abs.

I lick them as my hand slides into her pocket.

As I extract the condoms, I want to ask where and how she got them, but I decide I really don’t care.

I pocket one and toss the rest down next to us as I grab her pants and yank them off, draping them next to us.

She’s naked underneath, and I blink at the sight.

“It’s annoying putting underwear on when people keep taking it off.

” She laughs, and I can’t help but smile.

I know she’s had the others, and it doesn’t bother me.

She’ll be more willing to stay then, and I’m not above fighting dirty to get what I want, which is having Maeve Carter by my side forever.

Kissing up her legs, I force them open and throw them over my shoulders as I get my first look at her pussy.

It’s pink and glistening for me, and I swear my dick practically bursts as I drag my tongue across her wet folds, tasting her.

Her sweetness fills my mouth, and I’ll never taste anything more glorious.

Her moan fills the night air, and I slide my hands up to her breasts, tweaking and rolling her nipples.

I tease her swollen clit with little, sure licks until she grinds into my mouth, making a gasping, moaning noise that has me leaking in my pants.

She drives me crazy, all perfect, tan skin, hard-earned muscles, and a face to rival the greatest of paintings.

She’s all I need, all I’ve wanted since the first time I saw her, and now I’m here with her cream smeared across my mouth.

I suck on her clit until she arches off the ledge of the roof, rolling her hips to get closer.

I feel her lock up and watch as she comes apart for me.

Her cries of pleasure are swallowed by the night as she finds her release, but I don’t relent.

I slide my hands down and slip two fingers inside her, wanting to feel her inner muscles massage me as she rides out her orgasm.

I lick her through it, winding her back up until she can’t catch her breath.

“Rick, Rick,” she rasps. “Fuck, wait?—”

I don’t, and I don’t bother speaking. My words wouldn’t make sense right now anyway. I’m continually making a fool of myself around her, but I don’t care when she grinds down into my mouth, begging for more despite her words.

“Merrick!” Hearing my full name on her lips drives me crazy.

I grab her hips and yank her under me, devouring her pretty cunt as I spear a third finger into her and rub her wall until she’s riding me again.

One orgasm flows into the next as she screams. Her thighs clamp around my head tightly as I feel her come.

“Merrick, Merrick,” she chants, trying to push me away, but I’m not done yet. I drag my tongue down as I pull my fingers free so I can catch every drop, and only then do I lift my head.

Her eyes are wild as she watches me, then she tackles me back.

I hit the concrete roof hard, but I don’t care as she tears at my clothes, quickly stripping them off me.

Grabbing a condom, she rips it open with her mouth.

Fuck, that does something to me, almost as much as when she deftly puts it on, rises above me, and sinks down on my length.

My hips lift involuntarily, a groan leaving my choked throat as I look at her above me.

The stars shine brightly in the sky, fighting to shine brighter than she does, but they lose.

She’s all I see as her palms press against my chest and she starts to move. The crooked smirk she aims at me has my balls drawing up as she rides me fast and hard, taking what she wants.

“You still with me, Merrick?” she teases.

“Look at you,” I rasp. “Maeve, you can’t be real.”

She rolls her hips before sliding down my cock, bending over me until she can bite my lip.

“I’m real, and I’m right here. What are you going to do about it, Merrick?

” I don’t know how she figured out what hearing my name on her lips does to me, but it’s what shatters this speechless awe I’ve fallen into.

Snarling, I chase her lips, but she laughs and leans back, grinding on me.

“I thought you wanted a danger fuck,” I growl and stand. She gasps as I hold her, then I drop her onto the ledge, following her down so her back and head hang in the air while her thighs wrap around me.

“Fuck yes!” she cries loudly, her arms floating in the air. She trusts me to hold her as I take her cunt, faster and harder. “Merrick, please.”

I give her what she wants, giving her freedom as I take her. Her smile is wide before it morphs into a moan of pleasure as I slide my hand between us and flick her clit.

Her eyes close, her back arches, and the sight wrecks me. I’m nothing but a wild animal rutting into her, and her noises of pleasure only grow, encouraging me as she meets me halfway. Sitting up, she drapes herself over me and meets my thrusts.

Our heavy breathing echoes through the night, just us and the stars, and when she leans in and whispers my name, I can’t hold back.

My release slams through me, and I rub her clit until she follows me with a soft cry, her body stiffening as I thrust as deeply as I can, holding her there against me as I ride out the pleasure.

My lips press to hers in a breathless kiss as she whimpers, her hips jerking.

Pleasure locks us together until it finally releases us, and we slump, sweaty and satisfied.

Blinking my eyes open, I pinch her chin, tilt her head up, and kiss her as her eyelids flutter open. “I’m in love with you, Maeve Carter. I have been for a long fucking time. My heart belongs to you, and so does my family. Do with them what you will, just don’t leave.”

Licking her swollen lips, she wraps her arms around my shoulders and kisses me softly. Unlike our feral fuck, it’s slow and loving. “I love you too, Merrick,” she murmurs, and the words shock my fragile heart. I feel too full, too happy. It can’t be real. “And I’m not going anywhere.”

I can’t articulate how I feel, so instead, I show her by kissing her.

I pour everything I feel into the kiss, and when we break apart, we hold each other.

The cool night air dries the sweat on our skin.

We should probably move, but neither of us want to, and for that, I’m happy.

I’ll take as much of her time and life as I can—until I hear voices.

She must hear them at the same time I do.

We break apart and grab our clothes. Maeve heads to the exit, but I catch her hand as the voices draw closer, and we run to the side of it, shoving our clothes on.

I press her against the wall hidden behind the door as a nurse and a doctor head to the edge of the roof and light up cigarettes.

She giggles, and I cover her mouth with my hand, but I’m smiling as well, and when I look into her eyes, I have to bite back my own laughter. She presses against my chest, and I lower my head automatically, our lips meeting in a smiling kiss.