Page 21

twenty-one

Rowan had been right, damn her.

He had needed sleep. As soon as his head hit the pillow, he was out like a light. No tossing and turning, no nightmares. Just blissful oblivion.

When Davey woke, weak sunlight filtered through the blinds over the two narrow windows on the wall opposite the bed. He blinked, disoriented for a moment. This wasn’t his apartment, wasn’t his bed. Then he felt Rowan’s warm body pressed against his side, her arm draped across his chest and the tension leaked out of him.

The safe house.

He turned his head, drinking in the sight of her. Her dark hair was tousled, fanned out on the pillow. Her lips were slightly parted, her expression peaceful.

Jesus, she was beautiful. Fierce and deadly, yes, but in this moment, she looked almost angelic. He trailed his fingers lightly along her arm, savoring the softness of her skin. His pulse hammered against his ribs, his skin prickling with awareness as she shifted closer. Every nerve in his body seemed attuned to the heat radiating from her, to the whisper of her breath against his jaw.

Rowan’s eyes fluttered open, instantly alert. A slow, seductive smile curved her lips as she met his gaze. “Good morning,” she purred, pressing herself more firmly against him.

Without a word, Davey cupped her face and kissed her deeply. Rowan responded instantly, pressing her body against his as she returned the kiss with equal fervor. Her hand slid down his chest, fingertips tracing the defined muscles of his abdomen before dipping lower.

Davey groaned into her mouth as she wrapped her fingers around his cock and gave him a long, slow stroke from root to tip.

“Someone woke up happy,” she teased.

“You have no idea,” he growled, nipping at her lower lip, then he rolled, pinning her underneath him. He kissed a trail down her neck, reveling in her breathy sighs as he laved attention on her sensitive skin.

His hands roamed her curves, caressing and teasing as he mapped every dip and swell. He cupped her breast, thumb flicking over the peaked nipple. Rowan arched into his touch, a needy whimper escaping her throat. The sound sent a bolt of lust straight to his groin.

Davey took his time worshipping her body, determined to bring her pleasure. He traced the tip of his tongue along the valley between her breasts before drawing one straining nipple into his mouth. She buried her fingers in his hair, holding him to her as he suckled and nipped. A shudder rattled through her.

“Davey, please...”

He released her nipple and kissed his way down her taut stomach, swirling his tongue around her navel. Her breath hitched as he nudged her thighs apart and settled between them. He could smell her arousal, musky and intoxicating. Reverently, he trailed his fingers along her inner thighs, savoring the way her muscles quivered under his touch. She watched him through heavy-lidded eyes, her cheeks flushed and lips parted.

“Show me where you want my mouth, Hellcat.”

She slid a hand down between her legs and parted her folds with her fingers, exposing her slick, swollen flesh to his hungry gaze.

“Here,” she breathed, tracing a finger around her clit. “I want your mouth here.”

He licked his lips, then lowered his head and dragged the flat of his tongue along her slit, from her entrance to her clit. He groaned at the taste of her, sweet and tangy on his tongue.

Rowan let out a sharp cry, her hips jerking upward. He gripped her thighs, holding her steady as he explored her with long, slow licks, savoring her taste, her texture.

“Oh. Oh, fuck, Davey...” She fisted her hands in the sheets as he slid one finger inside her slick heat. She was so tight and wet, and he shook with the need to bury his cock deep inside her, but he held back. He wanted her to come first. He wanted to watch her unravel as he teased and stroked and sucked. Curling his finger, he found that always made her lost her mind, stroking it in time with the flicks of his tongue against her clit.

Rowan writhed beneath him, reduced to incoherent whimpers and pleas and gasps as he worked her higher. Her legs trembled against his shoulders.

“That’s it, Hellcat.” A second finger joined the first, stretching her, preparing her to take all of him. The wet sounds of his ministrations filled the room, obscene and arousing. He reveled in every hitched breath and choked off moan he drew from her lips.

“You’re so fucking beautiful like this. Spread out for me, lost in pleasure. I could feast on your sweet little pussy for hours.” He punctuated his words with deep, deliberate strokes of his tongue, lashing against her clit in rapid flicks that had her hips bucking off the bed.

Rowan’s back arched off the bed, her body drawn bowstring tight. “Davey, Davey please...I need...”

“Tell me what you need, Hellcat,” he growled against her flesh. “I want to hear you say it.”

She let out a strangled moan, her hips undulating against his face. “I need you inside me. I need your cock. Please, Davey...”

“Not yet. You’re going to come for me first like a good girl.” He hummed against her, the vibrations making her cry out sharply. “I want to feel you come apart on my tongue. I want to taste your pleasure.” He closed his lips around her clit and sucked, curling his fingers inside her to rub mercilessly against that sensitive spot, driving her towards the precipice. He kept her teetering on the knife’s edge of release, backing off every time he felt her start to clench around his fingers.

She made a desperate sound that was something between a sob and a groan of frustration. Her hands fisted in his hair, tugging insistently. “Damn you, Davey Wilde. I swear, if you don’t let me come right now, I’ll…”

Davey grinned against her slick flesh, savoring her desperation, the way she trembled and writhed beneath his touch. He loved reducing her to this quivering, needy mess. This powerful, deadly woman, utterly at his mercy, begging for release. “You’ll what, my little hellcat?”

Her threats dissolved into a wail as he lashed his tongue against her clit in rapid strokes. He pumped his fingers faster, grinding the heel of his palm against her mound. Her inner muscles fluttered around his fingers, and her back bowed off the bed as the orgasm crashed over her. He worked her through it, lapping at her hungrily, fingers stroking in time with the pulsing of her walls, prolonging her ecstasy until she collapsed back against the mattress, spent and trembling.

He gentled his touch, easing her down from the high with soft, open-mouthed kisses along her inner thighs.

When the last aftershocks had faded, he crawled up her body and claimed her lips in a searing kiss.

Rowan reached between them and slipped her hand under the band of his sleep pants, wrapping her fingers around his aching cock.

“Need you,” she murmured against his lips. “Now.”

Davey didn’t need to be told twice. He was shaking as he positioned himself at her entrance. With a flex of his hips, he pushed inside her welcoming heat, sheathing himself to the hilt in one smooth thrust, groaning at the incredible way her body gripped him.

She was perfect, every inch of her. And she was his .

She wrapped her legs around his hips and dug her nails into his shoulders, urging him to move. He obliged, setting a deep, steady rhythm that had them both gasping for breath.

They rocked together, lost in the slide of sweat-slicked skin and the pleasure building between them. Rowan wrapped her legs around his waist, changing the angle so he hit that perfect spot inside her with every thrust. Davey braced his forearms on either side of her head, his hips snapping forward with increasing urgency. He wasn’t going to last as long as he wanted to. Heat coalesced at the base of his spine.

“I’m too close, Hellcat,” he rasped, his face buried in the crook of her neck. “I’m not going to last.”

The sensation built until it was almost unbearable, a tightly coiled spring threatening to snap at any moment. Rowan clenched around him, her nails raking down his back as she let out a keening cry. The sharp sting only heightened his pleasure, pushing him closer to the edge.

“Then come for me,” she panted and nipped at his earlobe. She locked her ankles at the small of his back, pulling him impossibly deeper. “I want you so deep inside me I don’t know where you end and I start.”

Her words were his undoing. With a hoarse cry, he buried his face against her neck and let go. The release roared through him like a wildfire, consuming his every thought, frying all of his nerve endings, his entire body shuddering as he spilled himself deep inside her. Rowan held him tight, her body milking every last drop as she tumbled over the edge with him, gasping his name like a prayer.

They clung to each other as the aftershocks rolled through them, trading soft, lazy kisses as their racing hearts gradually slowed.

Finally, he lifted his head and looked down at her. Her hair was a wild, tangled mess against the pillow, her lips swollen from his kisses. But it was her eyes that captivated him—those fascinating tiger eyes filled with satisfaction and so much love it made his throat tighten.

“My hellcat.” He brushed her hair back from her face and kissed her softly. “I love you.”

Rowan smiled up at him, her expression soft and open in a way he rarely saw outside of these stolen moments. She traced her fingertips along his jaw, her touch feather-light. “I love you, too, so whatever happens today, you better stay safe. I can’t lose you.”

Davey’s heart clenched at the undercurrent of worry in her voice. He turned his head and pressed a kiss to her palm, his heart so full it felt like it might burst. He’d never imagined he could have this—a love like his parents have, so deep and true it defied all logic. She was his match in every way, and he knew with bone-deep certainty that he would spend the rest of his life by her side, come what may. “You’re not going to lose me. I’m not going anywhere, Rowan. I promise you that.”

She let out a shaky breath and wrapped her arms around him, holding him tight. “You better keep that promise, Wilde. Or I swear, I’ll track you down in the afterlife and kick your ass back to the land of the living.”

Of course she would. His deadly, vicious hellcat would fight the devil himself to keep the people she loved safe. He laughed and kissed the tip of her nose. “Noted.”

They stayed like that for a long moment, foreheads pressed together, just breathing each other in. Finally, with a sigh of regret, Davey eased out of her and rolled onto his back, pulling her with him so she was draped across his chest.

Rowan pillowed her head on his shoulder, absently tracing patterns on his sweat-dampened skin. “I could get used to waking up like this every morning.”

He tightened his arm around her, his heart clenching at the wistful note in her voice. He wanted that too, more than anything. Waking up with her in his arms, making love to her first thing, starting every day just like this. But with the threats hanging over their heads...

He pressed a gentle kiss to her forehead. “I know we’ve got a hell of a fight ahead of us. But I want you to know that when this is all over, when we’ve dealt with the threats and put all this behind us, I’m going to ask you to marry me.”

A soft gasp escaped her lips. For a long moment, she was utterly still, staring at him with an unreadable expression in her eyes.

He’d surprised her. Hell, he’d surprised himself. He hadn’t meant to blurt that out, but now that he had, he realized how desperately he wanted it.

She pushed herself up on one elbow and searched his face, her eyes wide with a mixture of wonder and vulnerability that made Davey’s heart ache. “Are you serious?”

“Dead serious.” He cupped her cheeks in his hands, stroking his thumbs along her cheekbones. “I love you, Rowan Bristow. I love your strength, your fire, your fierce loyalty. I love the way you challenge me, the way you see through all my bullshit and call me on it. I love your courage, your intelligence, your wicked sense of humor. I love every beautiful, maddening, incredible inch of you. I want to wake up with you in my arms every day. I want to make love to you as the sun rises and fall asleep with you curled against my side every night. I want to build a life with you. You’re it for me, Hellcat. You’re my forever.”

Rowan’s eyes glistened with unshed tears. She opened her mouth to respond, but before she could speak, the sound of the front door slamming open startled them both.

A sharp knock at the door cut her off mid-sentence. Davey’s head snapped toward the sound, his body instantly tensing. Rowan was already moving, rolling off him and reaching for the gun on the nightstand.

From the other side of the door, Sabin’s voice called out, thick with amusement and his unmistakable Cajun drawl.

“Y’all best be decent in there, ‘cause I ain’t got the stomach for seein’ Wilde’s bare ass before breakfast.”

A beat of silence.

Then, with even more mischief, he added, “Though Rowan, cher, if you’re the one who’s naked, feel free to invite me in.”

Davey growled, already reaching for his pants. “I’m going to kill him.”

Rowan rolled her eyes and tossed Davey’s shirt at him. “Ignore him. He’s just trying to get a rise out of you.”

“Well, it’s working,” Davey muttered, yanking on his clothes.

Rowan dressed quickly, efficiently. As she reached for the doorknob, Davey caught her wrist. He pulled her close, claiming her lips in a fierce, possessive kiss that left them both breathless.

“We’re not done with this conversation,” he murmured against her lips.

She gave him a soft smile and stroked his stubbled cheek. “I know. Later.”