Page 27 of Rhett (The Swift Brothers #3)

CHAPTER TWENTY-SIX

Tripp

R hett laughs a lot tonight, more than I’ve ever seen him laugh. Even though I never knew it was there before I got close with Rhett, it’s like this veil lifted tonight with the brothers. I don’t know what the future will bring, and I know things aren’t magically fixed, but tonight it feels like they’re all trying to pretend their past doesn’t exist. In this moment, they’re just three brothers, here with their partners, enjoying being a family.

“Hey, do you remember that time Ella asked for makeup?” Morgan says out of the blue.

Everyone’s gazes shoot to East, Archer’s hand on his nape, fingers dancing in his hair.

East clears his throat, then says, “You and Rhett were shit at it.”

“I think we were shit at most things,” Rhett replies, but East shrugs.

“Yeah, but you tried.” A look passes between them, and somehow, I can feel more of the walls between them crumbling. “I don’t give you credit for that one, though,” East adds. “She looked like a clown.”

“I remember you telling me about that,” Dusty says to Morgan.

“Hey, Rhett sucked more than me. I tried first, and it didn’t turn out so well, but then Rhett came in and made it worse.”

“Gee, thanks, brother.” Rhett chuckles.

“Are you saying it’s not true?” Dusty counters.

“No. It was true, but you don’t have to call me on it.” We share more laughs at Rhett’s words. “It was eight-year-old East who did better than both of us.”

East smiles. “She did my makeup afterward. I was better than her too. Maybe I missed my calling,” he says, and there’s more snickering around the table.

“She was good at that, at finding ways to bring us together,” Morgan says.

“East was too. It was both of them really, trying to teach their older brothers to act better.” Rhett’s gaze darts back and forth between Morgan and East.

Archer leans in, rubbing his temple against East’s, and that seems to unlock something inside him. “Yeah, it was also her idea to stick Morgan’s hand in water while he was sleeping to try and get him to pee his pants, and to put shaving cream in Rhett’s palm and tickle his nose with a feather so he rubbed it all over his face. She was always dragging me into mischief.” There’s a nostalgic smirk on his face as he speaks.

“Are you saying you didn’t like it too?” Morgan cocks a brow.

East holds up his hand, making an inch with his index finger and thumb. “Maybe a little…or a lot.” He plays with his napkin. “God, she was fun.”

“So much fun,” Morgan adds.

“She made people feel good.” Rhett turns to me. “Reminds me of Meadow that way.”

“Me too,” East says, and I can’t help the pride I feel in that, in the way my girl brings people together. “This feels good, talking about Ella like this. We should do it more.”

I hold up my glass again. “To Ella.” And for the second time tonight, we clink our glasses, and this time, everyone says, “To Ella.”

*

“Tonight was fun,” I say as we’re driving to my house. “Let’s do it again.”

“Yeah, it was fun. I agree.” Rhett reaches over, plays in the hair at my nape. “I told them about us.”

Damn, do I like knowing that. “Were they jealous?” I tease.

“They should be,” he plays along, but then his expression sobers. “I never thought I would have something like this, that I would deserve it. I’ve never felt like anyone chose me before, and why would they? But you…I feel like you want me, and I can’t thank you enough for that.”

“Jesus, baby. Why do you have to say something like that when I’m driving?” I pull into the driveway and turn off the truck. The interior light turns on. “I would always choose you. I’ve been waiting for you and didn’t even know it.” I cup his stubbled cheek. “I’m so fucking in love with you, Rhett Swift.”

His pupils take over his dark eyes. “You are?” he asks, sounding mystified.

“Yes, baby. Tell me you see that. Tell me you feel it. You’re so fucking loved, and there are so many of us who will do everything so you never doubt that again.”

I don’t know which of us moves first, probably both of us, but before I know it, our lips are fused together, tongues in each other’s mouths. With a collision of touch and emotion and hunger, we’re kissing and then pulling apart and running toward the house with laughter falling between us.

It’s a new state of Rhett, this laughter and happiness, and I feel like the luckiest man alive that I get to experience it with him.

“I won,” he says when he gets to the door first, cheeks pink from the cold.

“I think we both did.”

I unlock the door, and then we’re stumbling inside, tugging off coats and kicking out of shoes as if we’ll die if we don’t come together right this second.

As soon as we get to my room, both of us shirtless already, I’m surprised when Rhett falls to his knees in front of me. “I want to taste you. To feel you.”

“Yes. Fuck yes.” My voice comes out gritty and needy.

Rhett works open the button and zipper on my jeans, tugging them and my underwear down my thighs. The second I step out of them, he’s pressing kisses to my stomach, around my aching, hard cock. He hasn’t blown me a lot, and the way he looks up at me now, all hunger and eyes filled with fire…there’s never been a moment in my life where someone looked sexier.

“I like doing this to you.” He burrows his face in my groin. “To me, it connects us in a whole new way. I like to make you feel because you always do that to me.”

“Jesus, baby. I always want to do that for you.” I run my fingers through his hair, chest feeling full to bursting.

Rhett doesn’t take me into his mouth right away. He presses soft kisses from root to tip, like he’s savoring me, drawing this out.

After a couple of kisses to my crown, he takes me into his hot, wet mouth. He’s not in a hurry like we were moments ago. He sucks me languidly, sliding down my dick while looking up at me, then bringing his mouth to the head again, letting his tongue circle around it.

Pleasure bursts like confetti inside me, bouncing around and filling me up. I don’t stop running my fingers through his short, black hair as he takes me between his lips again, bobbing faster.

“That’s it. Fuck, you feel amazing. I can’t get enough of you, Rhett. I’ll never get enough of you.”

Something about those words spurs him on more. Rhett sucks me greedily, takes too much and gags, but that doesn’t stop him. Now he’s sloppy and hungry, treating my cock like it’s his favorite thing.

I move my hips slightly, fucking into him just a little bit. My muscles are tight, body on edge and already dying to spill down his throat, but I want more tonight. I’m not ready for this to end, so I stave off my need to come, fight through it, and just enjoy the feel of this beautiful man’s mouth around my dick.

“God, baby. I love seeing you like this for me. I love feeling your mouth around my cock. You’re mine, Rhett. I want you to be mine.”

He pulls off, nuzzles his face into my stomach and wraps his arms around me, so damn tight, like he’s afraid I’ll disappear. “I’m yours,” Rhett says, voice breaking.

A possessive streak flares inside me, one that’s completely foreign but welcome. “Damn it. Come here.” I pull him to his feet and slam my mouth on his. Rhett kisses me back while I work open his jeans, shoving them and his underwear down as best I can. I need to feel his skin against mine, need to touch him and taste him and claim him the way we both want.

I ease him toward the bed, being careful so he doesn’t trip since he’s got his pants around his knees. Rhett sits on the edge of the bed, and I push him onto his back, grabbing his clothes and getting him completely naked. He doesn’t hide himself from me. He’s all tanned skin, dark hair, hard cock, and so fucking beautiful.

“You want to be mine?” I straddle him, my mouth hovering above his.

“Yes.”

“Do you want me to kiss you?”

“Fuck yes.”

“Do you want me to stroke you until you’re just about to empty your balls all over your stomach and then stop?”

“Yes…Tripp…please.” His warm breath puffs against my mouth, and my dick twitches in response.

“I want that too.” I grab the lube, then get back into the same position, my thighs around his. After lubing my palm, I pull Rhett up so he’s sitting, wrap my hand around his shaft, and push my tongue between his lips.

We make out, tongues tangling as I jerk him off. His cock throbs against my palm, needy sounds already falling from his lips to mine.

He moves against me, his body asking for more, but we just kiss, kiss and stroke and work him up the way I love to do, the way Rhett loves too. It’s this thing we’ve only had and will only ever have with each other. My pride fucking soars at that.

He reaches out and takes hold of my waist. I love the firm press of his fingers into my skin, the way his kiss is getting messier and hungrier. I know all his tells so well, and it means he’s close.

I pull back slightly, still stroking him, my forehead now kissing his. “You close, baby? You almost ready to come for me?”

“Yes. Christ. How do you get me there so quickly?”

“Because this is good between us, better than it’s ever been with anyone else. It is, Rhett. Better with you. Every-fucking-thing is.”

He arches toward me, a groan leaving his lips. He bites down on his lower lip, trying to hold himself back from coming. I let go of his cock, Rhett’s breaths sharp and urgent as he fights through keeping himself from coming.

And as much as I want to play with him tonight, as much as I want to keep this going, I’m dying for us to release together, dying to have more with the man I love. “That good?” I ask, running my hand up and down his chest.

“Incredible, but I want…”

“You want to fuck me?” I pump my brows.

His eyes hold firmly on mine. “I think I want you to try and fuck me.”

Not gonna lie, my cock twitches between us at that. While I enjoy bottoming and love bottoming for him, I’ve always been more of a top. “Yeah?”

“Yes,” Rhett replies.

“I’d love to be inside you. I’ll make you feel so fucking good, and if you don’t like it, we stop. I don’t have to have this from you. I’m good with the way things are.”

“I know. I said that because I want it. I don’t think you get what you do to me, Tripp. And the thought of feeling you inside me? I need to try it, to feel you like that.”

Jesus, this man. “God, I fucking love you.” I kiss him.

“I love you too. I didn’t tell you that earlier, did I? That I love you. I do.”

My damn heart feels like it’s going to explode, like it’s going to get so big, I’ll float away. “Look at us, loving each other and shit.”

He rolls his eyes and chuckles, but I know he likes it.

“We’re good for each other, Rhett. I know it.”

“I know it too.” He kisses me again, and damn, I enjoy kissing Rhett Swift. So much. When he pulls away, he says, “I’m going into the bathroom to freshen up.”

“Okay.” I climb off him and lie on my back against the pillows. “I’m not going anywhere.”

Tonight or ever.

“I know,” he says again, smiling.