Page 22 of Wildly Yours (Owl Creek #3)

A fter we settle down from the excitement, we tuck into our dinner.

I look around me and see the family that I have always known, and the family that we have created, Serena included.

She belongs here with us, and I keep hoping that I can stay true to my promise to keep working to be the man she deserves.

Because I can't lose her again. I can't push her away again.

When Mom starts dishing up desert, I know it's time to tell everyone what happened.

Even though my parents and Caleb know, I've left Cole in the dark.

And with his upcoming marriage and no doubt another if Caleb grows a pair and proposes, I think Zoe and Renée should hear this too.

I want them to know they are part of this family, and this family has a darkness we are bringing into the light.

"I need to say something."

The room goes silent in an instant and all eyes are on me.

"I need to get this out in the open so everyone…so everyone understands that things are different now. I'm different now."

"Well that was obvious the moment you walked in with 'she who will not be named'."

"Cut it out, Caleb." Buzz gives him a sharp look.

"Sorry."

"Seven years ago I walked away from my best friend." I reach under the table and give Serena's hand a squeeze. "I walked away from the most important relationship outside this family. I did it because I thought I was protecting her. Because the truth is, I went down to find our father."

Cole and Caleb exchange a look, that I know is Caleb confirming he knew all along. Cole has always been the odd man out, since he's a few years older and not a twin.

"And what I found was a sad, violent man.

The man our mother put everything on the line to save us from when we were little.

I wish I could say that he was repentant.

I wish I could say he was a changed man.

But he was neither of those things and we…

we fought. Physically. And I became convinced that the violence that emerged from me was something I couldn't control, so I needed to hide myself away. And that is—"

My throat is tight, so I swallow down some water.

"And that is why I've been so distant. To protect Serena, and to protect you all. Because I didn't think I was capable of being anything other than just like him."

I look at Serena, and I'm filled with awe as she smiles and nods at me, supporting me as I try to be the man I want to be.

"So now you all know. And I'm putting my stake in the ground in front of you, to say that I'm doing everything I can to be different from here on out."

***

"Not sure I was expecting that proposal. I guess we all just treated them like they were married for so long, we forgot that they weren't. Thanks for coming tonight. I'm glad you were there for it."

Serena smiles at me with sleepy eyes.

"Did we tire you out?"

"Not in the way you think. Talking to the girls took a lot out of me. But I feel relieved they didn't…I don't know. I guess I expected them to tell me I was wrong, or to toughen up."

"Because I hurt you?"

"Yeah."

"I don't know how to change that."

"You can't change the past."

"No. I can't. I feel pretty raw after what I told them tonight."

"Any regrets?"

"None yet."

"But you might?"

"I mean, I just spilled my guts out in front of everyone."

"In front of your family. They love you. They've got your back."

We pull into her driveway and I put the truck in park.

I don't want this night to end. Seeing my mom so happy, my brothers settled, and Serena by my side, it's like a fantasy I didn't know I harbored coming true and now I want to keep it going.

If I can somehow stretch the minutes out maybe it won't end.

"Do you want to come in?"

"You're not too tired?"

She bites her lip with an almost imperceptible shake of her head and it feels like I'm wading into the warm water of a bath. There's something soothing in her look, her smile, her presence. We head inside her house and she tosses her purse on the couch while we kick off our shoes.

"Can I get you anything? Water, beer?"

"There's only one thing I want to make this day perfect."

"What's that?"

I step over to where she stands and push my fingers into her hair before dipping my head down to kiss her. She tastes sweet as dessert, and she relaxes against my hand as I wrap my arm around her back to press her into me. Her lips are soft, but turn needy as I deepen the kiss.

Serena is everything. I want her around me and against me. I want her every breath to be one that I share.

I back her up against the wall and she starts to pull at my shirt. Her breathing is getting heavier as I pull my shirt up over my head.

I don't want to rush this, even as she stops kissing me to pull her top off.

She's wearing a blue lace bra that leaves nothing to the imagination.

Pressure is building all over my body, but I want to savor her, to savor this.

Impulse takes over, and I reach down and pick her up wedding style and carry her to her bedroom.

I lay her gently on her bed with her legs dangling over the side, and I step back to admire her.

I see a surgery scar low on her belly and I lean down to kiss it.

I trace my fingers across her ribcage, reveling in the soft feel of her skin against mine.

I run my hand up her side, following the soft curves of her breasts, her neck, and her cheek.

My skin hunger is being fed. She's watching me as I study her.

I want to commit every curve, every angle to memory so that when I sleep she comes to me just as she is right now. Soft and glowing.

Mine.

Serena squirms a little under my touch as I run my finger along the edge of her jeans, and then I remember we used to tickle each other when we were kids.

Did I know then what she would become for me?

Did I know then that her presence, her touch, would become everything that my soul would need to survive?

I unbutton the fly of her jeans and pull the zipper down before tugging them off of her.

She's wearing matching blue lace panties and even though I think she'd be sexy in a potato sack, it's causing a riot in my mind.

We've only been here once before, but I've thought about being with her again over a thousand times in the last seven years. It feels like I'm living in a dream.

"Kiss me again, Cody."

I climb on top of her and lay against her heated frame. Her lips are parted, and I swipe my tongue between them. I feel her teeth gently rake across my bottom lip, causing a zap of pleasure to shoot through me. The room falls away, the past falls away, now there is just us.

She reaches around and grips my ass with both hands, grinding her hips underneath me. She seems just as hungry as I am, but I still want to treasure this slowly. To treasure her slowly—to unwrap her like the present she is.

Serena tugs at my pants, and I roll to the side to help her get them off of me. Then she straddles me, the heat of her center only two thin pieces of fabric away.

"I have a confession, Cody."

"What's that?"

"Last year I took an online training course from a sexpert."

"A what?"

"A sex expert."

A flush of heat rises from my chest to my face.

"And now we both get to see how well I did as a student."

She leans down and breaths lightly in my ear as her body starts to move.

A haze washes over my mind as her skin brushes against mine, sinuous and pulsing like a slow comforting massage.

Her movements are a drug flushing through my brain and bloodstream.

I relax deeper with every passing second, while simultaneously growing more aroused and erect.

She takes off that blue lacy bra and I reach up and brush a thumb across each of her nipples, earning a whimper of pleasure from her. She slithers down my legs and suddenly I feel the soft wet of her tongue inching its way up my thigh toward my cock. Never in my life have I been so aroused.

Her hot breath is on me now as she pulls gently at my boxers. Every inch of me is hard and pulsing with the thundering of my heartbeat, and before I take my next breath, I feel her mouth wrap around me and take me in.

To be this vulnerable with someone, to let go of this much control, having the most sensitive and needy part of your body at someone else's mercy—it could only be her. I could only allow myself to relax into this completely with her.

I feel her fingers wrap around my balls as she glides one fingertip up and down the skin below. Pulses of pleasure charge down my legs and my whole body relaxes into the feeling that I am not only held by this woman, I am hers to command.

Serena quickens her pace, but I don't want to release this way. I want to merge with her. To become one being, one heartbeat, one breath with her.

I gently pull her face up to meet mine and take her mouth like it's a life preserver. We flip over and she shimmies out of her sexy blue panties, running her fingers over herself as she continues to stroke me with the other hand.

"I want your skin on me, Cody. In me. I'm on the pill."

My cock is pressed against her wet folds, and I grab her hands to raise them above her head, taking one of her nipples into my mouth. I hear her gasp as I run myself up and down her center, covering myself in her wetness. I hear her whimper.

"Please, Cody."

I push myself inside, just past her opening. She arches her back with a moan and then wraps her legs around me, giving me easier access to her depths. I press myself in a little further, and a rush of tingling flushes my system.

"God you feel so good."

I feel her muscles contracting around me as I press further in.

When I finally fill her to the hilt, we both release a sigh and begin to move in tandem.

As if our bodies had memorized each other the one time in the past we were together, we matched each other breath for breath, pulse for pulse.

My head feels light, but my body feels everything.

Every nerve, every cell is tuned into her.

Pressure gathers in my hips and back while our bodies follow the rhythm we've set. I watch her face as pleasure builds and the sounds erupting from her mouth evolve into the ever more wild noises of passion.

Her fingers dig into my back and she shifts again so I feel an even deeper penetration. Her breath grows heavier, her nipples harden underneath me, and just as I feel the rush of my orgasm reaching its eruption, she cries out in an explosion of pleasure to match my own.

***

The sun hasn't risen yet but I'm wide awake in Serena's bed. There's an alert on my phone that someone called in the night, but I don't recognize the number so I step out into the living room to listen to the message.

A mixture of relief, grief, and anger races through my veins as I tiptoe back into her room to pull on my clothes and kiss her cheek, and leave a goodbye note on the kitchen counter on my way out.