Page 47 of Saving the Rain (Crimson Ridge #4)

As soon as I see those words, my cock stirs, and my stomach clenches.

Because all I can think of is how it felt in the shower when he was cleaning us up after setting the charges to detonate my entire world apart.

.. after fucking me senseless and watching me disappear into an orgasm the likes of which I could never have imagined was possible.

He’d insisted on being the one to do everything in the shower after and I was nothing more than a boneless thing propped up against the wall, watching him from behind heavy eyelids, with cartoon hearts floating in woozy circles around my head.

He kept batting my hands away if I tried to help with the soap or to make a feeble effort to clean him in return.

Instead, growling at me with that sinfully sexy command to his voice.

All, let me do this for you and turn around, put your hands on the wall.

Before I knew it, he was indeed multitasking until I couldn’t stop shaking, with strong hands stroking me from in front and behind again, and oh dear fuck, I want more of everything with him .

I’m stammering, even here on my own, unable to form words. Completely lost in the way he can have such an impact on my body despite all the distance between us.

Maybe that’s what prompts me to say what I say next.

Would you want to come up here... to Devil’s Peak, I mean.

If you can get time off work.

The forecast is supposed to turn kinda soon, and if you wanted to come before this next front is due to arrive.

God. I’ve never suffered from nerves like this.

The apprehension is so overwhelming, like I might actually crawl out of my skin if he turns me down.

It’s awful. The worst kind of sickness to be standing here with my heart in the back of my throat, shifting my weight at the prospect of a few words appearing on my phone from him.

That night, I told him I wasn’t gonna run away—I wasn’t disappearing like I have an awful tendency to want to do—but we both knew I had to get back to the ranch.

There was an unspoken line that we’d accepted, one that meant I was going to leave, and we weren’t exactly gonna be discussing what had just gone down between us.

Or, at least, not in the immediate aftermath.

So, I’m really not sure where we landed on the whole ‘can I see you again’ issue, or if he’d even contemplate actually coming back up here without a solid reason that doesn’t involve my needing his help around the ranch like before.

I’m a microsecond from flinging my phone across the room, because I don’t know if I can bear seeing him turn me down after putting myself out there to ask him that. Fucking hell, I’m such an idiot.

You want to see me again, snowflake?

I swallow hard, fiercely trying to cool my jets and not type back the world’s fastest and most over-enthusiastic yes . Surely, there is no greater shame than practically crawling through your phone screen to beg for your stepbrother’s cock .

As I let my thumb hover over the keyboard, the thought of him, freshly out of the shower and towel-drying himself, is front and center in my mind’s eye.

I couldn’t do much more that night than stand there, dumbstruck, while watching him, because he’s just so damn nice to look at.

As he wrapped the towel around his waist, highlighting that v pointing right at his dick like a beacon, Raine had caught me staring.

The deadly smirk on his lips at that moment quite possibly marked the final stage of my complete ruination.

Every scalding second of his intense focus had stayed on me, before he arched an eyebrow. “ Don’t look at me like that, or I’m gonna have to take that mouth of yours again. ” His tattooed hands had tucked the towel in on itself, before reaching up to tousle through his damp hair.

I didn’t even have an answer before Raine stepped forward, grabbed me by the hips, and kissed me roughly. The type of branding that left me starry-eyed and struggling to remember my own name.

With all that fresh in my mind, I hit reply.

Do you?

Do you want to see me?

I shouldn’t.

But it turns out I seem to keep forgetting those kinds of rules.

When it comes to your pretty little mouth, I’m in the mood to ignore words like “should” or “shouldn’t.”

Ok, it’s official. I’m grinning at my phone, and floating. Totally not playing it cool.

This weekend, maybe?

I feel like we need to talk.

I’m sure I can make something work.

Although, I’m not gonna come all the way up to the top of that mountain and turn around five minutes later. If I agree to this, you can’t run away or try to kick me out in the middle of the night, pretending like it never happened.

I won’t.

You gotta know, I’m sorry. That’s not what I meant to do at all... I just got caught up with everything here.

And, well, you know how phones are almost useless around this place.

It feels like he takes an absolute eternity to respond this time, with those little dots bouncing and then pausing, time and time again.

Finally, his next words come through. My eyebrows pull together immediately.

Well, I won’t take it personally next time you ignore my texts then, huh?

That makes me pause. Ignore him ? My stepbrother doesn’t talk to me, let alone text me, so I have no idea what he means.

Like a fiend, I dive into my messages—seeing there are a slew of unopened ones from that night.

Between doing my best to avoid my mom and not wanting to talk to Chaos, I had tossed my phone aside while driving and didn’t think to go back in and check for anything else that might have arrived.

All I’d done was keep going, operating on autopilot, until I found myself slumped on his doorstep, waiting in the dark for him to return.

My next breath stalls halfway to my throat. There are texts there. From Raine. Every single one I’d ignored that night was from Raine.

What I’m seeing before my eyes... none of it seems real.

Even before I turned up on his doorstep, without me knowing, he’d been trying to get in contact.

Raine had been checking on me.