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25

RAVEN

W hen I wake, Wraith is gone from the bed, but I hear the quiet noise of someone puttering in the kitchen.

I glance at my phone and see it’s only six in the morning. Fen won’t wake for another hour at least, so I climb from the mattress and leave the room, closing the door behind me.

Wraith’s jeans hang low on his hips, and in the light from the small lamp, I can see the muscles in his arms. My dressing held and is still tightly wrapped around his body.

He must hear my footsteps as he turns and waits for me to reach him. But when I do, there is no gentle morning greeting. Instead, he lifts me into his arms, so I have no choice but to wrap my arms and legs around him. He slides his hand around the back of my neck and tugs my mouth to his.

The kiss obliterates every single thought I try to form.

About brushing my teeth.

About Fen waking up.

About Wraith tearing any one of his wounds open.

Instead, I sink into it.

Into him.

I run my fingers along his stubbled jaw as he bites my lip.

He carries me to the bathroom and locks the door before sitting me down on the vanity. It’s cold through my pajamas, but every other part of me is heating fast.

“Fuck, Raven,” Wraith mutters, his lips soft against mine.

We line up with each other, and I can’t help but seek the pleasure I want. I want this man in any way, shape, or form I can take him.

“If you want me, you can have me,” I say on a whisper.

He glances to the wall that leads to the bedroom. “You sure?”

I nod. “The door is locked. He’s a heavy sleeper.”

“Thank fuck,” Wraith mutters. “Lying next to you with your ass pressed up against my cock all night had me dreaming some real freaky stuff.”

I grin at that. “About me?”

He huffs. “Course about fucking you. You see my cock straining for anyone else right now?”

Wraith reaches his hands beneath my T-shirt, slipping it over my head before dropping it onto the edge of the tub.

“You okay if this is a fast fuck? Because, Blue, I’m a patient man, usually, but right now, I want you something nasty.”

It’s strange how the body lets you know what it wants.

Headaches when thirsty.

Bellyaches when hungry.

The twinge I get two days before my period.

And a wetness between my thighs I rarely experienced with my husband because my pussy knows that this is a man who will treat it right.

I bite on the lobe of his ear. “Then take me.”

He cups my face and kisses me with a ferocity I can’t comprehend. Like I’m the only thing in the universe keeping him alive. Like he needs me more than oxygen.

And it’s not just the carnality of it.

It’s more.

Finally, he slides his hands into my pajamas and lifts me while shimmying them down over my butt. Then, he drops them to the floor, before unzipping his jeans. He’s naked beneath them.

His cock is already hard and leaking.

“You were dreaming about me?” I ask, already knowing the answer.

“All fucking night,” he replies. He grabs a condom out of his jeans, and carefully rolls it over his piercing.

Then he looks up at my face as he lines himself with my opening and pushes into me. The angle isn’t perfect, and it takes several strokes for him to seat himself deeply into me. His head drops onto my shoulder and then he sucks on the skin. “I wanna consume you, Blue.”

I slide my hand over his shoulders, stroking the skin exposed above the bandages. His cock throbs inside me.

For a second, I wonder if he’s coming already. But then he withdraws and begins to slam into me. I push my hand out to the wall to steady myself. I feel a little out of control, wanton, desperate for what he’s giving me.

The way his piercing rubs me inside is impossible to explain, except it feels like magic.

The feelings I experience are unexpected. I want to say this isn’t like me, but deep down, it’s the me I’ve always wanted to be. Aroused, wet, and so close to begging, even though he’s already giving me what I need.

Wraith slides his hands behind me, clenched on my ass, sweeping me so close to the edge of the vanity that my legs fully dangle. I manage to get them up and hook them around his ass.

His size makes it impossible to fight back and I love the feeling of being overwhelmed and manhandled by him. So, I let my head fall back until I’m leaning on the wall.

The shift in angle is heaven.

His head dips, and he bites and then sucks on my nipples in a way that feels shockingly good.

“More,” I cry, uncertain why I feel like I’m about to burst apart from his touch. My skin feels stretched across my body as Wraith repeats the action on my other breast, harder this time.

It’s raw and primal.

He spits between us, his saliva landing on my hooded clit, before he rubs me in teasing circles.

Wraith places his hands firmly on my hips, holding me in place as he fucks me. “Play with yourself. Help me get you there,” he says between grunts.

I do as he asks, but my actions are unfamiliar. My husband never cared about getting me off. And once, he threw a fit when he found I’d purchased a small vibrator for myself.

I’m out of practice.

Uncertain of what feels good.

“Like this?” I ask.

Wraith watches my fingers. “You tell me, Blue. Looks hot as fuck from my angle.”

And maybe that’s all I need to know.

That Wraith finds what we’re doing hot. That I don’t need to worry about whether I’m enough.

For him, I just am.

I watch where we join, seeing his cock slide in and out, watching his body move as he thrusts into me, feeling the slide of the barbell. All of it starts to well inside me, like a torrent of energy I can’t stop.

“Don’t stop.” The words come out on a whispered cry.

“Fuck,” Wraith grunts. “Love the way your cunt squeezes me, Blue.”

He presses his lips to mine. It’s messy as both of us squirm and thrust to seek that last push of sensation to tip us over the edge.

I find it first.

Light explodes behind my eyelids, and I gasp against Wraith’s mouth. He bites down on my lip, harder than I should like, but it triggers deeper feelings of delicious overstimulation.

I cry out, and Wraith slams his hand over my mouth.

He tips his head back, and I see every muscle in his neck is strained.

His mouth is open in a silent yell.

And then his strokes flounder as he rocks gently back and forth deep inside me. I feel him throb as he comes.

The energy dissipates between us, but the feelings…

They go nowhere.

Wraith kisses me, this time with a tenderness that aches. He runs his hands over my thighs, and I stroke his hair when he lowers his forehead to my shoulder.

“Didn’t think it could be better than the last time,” he mutters before kissing the bite marks on my breasts.

“Me either.”

“Sorry about the biting. You good, Blue?”

I nod. “I am. It felt surprisingly good.”

I guess this is what afterglow feels like. I feel so utterly connected to Wraith right now as my body periodically shudders coming down from the places he took me.

We stay like that for another minute until we start to cool, and Wraith’s cock begins to soften. He reaches between us and eases his cock out before removing the condom and dealing with it.

I wiggle to a more comfortable seating position on the edge of the vanity while he cleans up and zips up his jeans.

“That’s a fine way to send a man out to start his day,” he says when he catches me watching.

“I’m sorry we had to make it work in here,” I say, suddenly aware of the shitty bathroom we just fucked in.

He touches my cheek. “Never apologize. This place isn’t forever. And you have a son. We do what we have to do to make it work. And honestly, five-star hotel or tiny apartment bathroom, your pussy is still going to feel incredible to me.”

“Are compliments about your pussy meant to make you feel all warm inside?”

Wraith laughs. “Wouldn’t know. I don’t have a pussy. But compliments about my cock are always accepted. Get cleaned up. I’ll make some breakfast.”

He moves toward the door, but I reach for his wrist and stop him. “When you go out there, it’s not all going to change again, is it? You aren’t going to suddenly not want me around and tell me to leave with Smoke?”

“Ah, fuck,” he mutters as he lifts me down off the vanity. “No. I’m not. What happened was not your fault and was all me. You see, I’m?—”

“Mom?” Fen’s shout echoes through the wall.

“Shit,” I curse, reaching for my pajamas. “You need to get out of here.”

He opens the door once I’ve pulled the T-shirt over my head. “I’ll tell you what happened. Maybe one day when you don’t have a shift and Fen is at school.”

“Okay…just get back out there for now.”

We don’t get the chance to talk again. Between me getting Fen ready for school and refusing to let Wraith take him to kindergarten on his bike, we use up the rest of the time we have before Wraith gets a call from Butcher and has to leave.

But he squeezes my fingers discreetly when we part ways on the sidewalk.

After dropping off Fen, I arrive at the diner with a pep in my step, ready to help despite it being my day off. Some men in leather cuts that state they are prospects are passing broken furniture out through the shattered windows. Margie is busy with a broom.

“Morning, Margie. How can I help?”

She glances up from her sweeping, but there is something in her eyes. A coldness that I don’t like.

I shake my head. I must be imagining things. Margie probably had a sleepless night due to stress over the future of the diner. I can’t imagine the insurance claim and police and everything else she has to deal with is easy for her.

“Behind the counter. Sweep everything, then vacuum. Glass got everywhere.”

Even though her words are curt, I refuse to overthink it.

Instead, I grab a dustpan and brush, then get to work.

It takes an hour for my path to cross with Margie again. “Have you been in contact with the insurance company?” I ask when she pours some coffee from the pot.

She rolls her eyes. “Of course I have.”

I take a breath. “Did I do something to upset you? I don’t expect pay for today if that’s what you’re concerned about.”

Margie puts her hands on her hips. “I told Wraith, the night you blew into town, there was blood around the moon. The worst kind of omen. I guess trouble follows you.”

Her words couldn’t have hurt more if she’d punctuated them with actual punches. “I’m sorry, what?”

“You heard me.” She steps closer to me. “Wraith was so busy looking after you, he didn’t do his job as sergeant at arms. He should have protected the diner, the people in it. But no. He dives on you and doesn’t even lift his gun. Butcher will be furious with him.”

I raise my hands in surrender. “I have nothing to do with his choices yesterday.”

Margie huffs, a thin-lipped smile on her face. “No? Is that why he bailed with you instead of helping me out here?”

“You’ll need to speak to him about his choices. But my personal life is, well, personal.”

“Not when it comes to my son-in-law.”

“Your son-in-law?” I ask. I always assumed she was his mom, the way he called her Ma . Wraith is married?

Shit. Shit. Shit.

No. Didn’t he say he was married? Like, past tense.

Now I’m confused.

“Yes,” she says. “And if you want to keep this job, you’ll leave Wraith alone.”