On My Knees (28 page)

I pulled out and lay on my side next to her, our bodies touching. Her head fell to the side to gaze at me. All noticeable signs of worry and her earlier stress had vanished.

“That was incredible.”

My lips curved into a wry smile. “I’m just getting started.”

I ran a flat palm over her breasts and her belly, and then lower. She quivered when I touched her. I tucked my knee under her thighs as they fell apart. I nudged them farther until she was spread for me.

Sifting through her soft curls, I traced the seam of her pussy. She was wet, dripping with my release. I bit my lip. My cocked surged to life quickly, the ache in my balls returning with the need to do it all over again. I resisted, holding her in a heated stare while my fingers found their mark. I stroked through the lips of her sex, teasing the soft inner flesh until I was inside her again. Curving carefully into her wet heat, I found her G-spot and gave it gentle rub. She jerked at the slightest touch.

“What are you doing to me?”

I withdrew, putting my thumb to work over and around her clit. Then slid inside again, teasing her inside and out. “I’m going to make you lose count of the ways I make you come tonight.”

Her whimpers and the erotic sound of the rapid penetration into her wetness were the only noises around us. Her skin, slick with sweat, heated against me. She shifted and squirmed, like she might wriggle free in her increasing restlessness. I lifted to my elbow and lowered over her, pressing her back down with a hard kiss. I pumped harder, more vigorously and with less restraint, until she came apart. Our lips broke contact and her loud throaty cry filled the room as she seized around me.

When I withdrew she was shaking, her limbs draped boneless across the bed. I might have taken mercy on her then, but I was hard and ready for her again. I was going to fuck her until she begged me to stop.

“One more, baby. Can you get up on your knees?”

Her eyebrows rose slightly. “No fucking way. I can’t move. Who are you, Hercules?”

I laughed and turned her to the side, spooning her from behind.

“I’m not letting you off that easy.”

I kissed over the dark designs down her back, her shoulders, the long line of her neck. Then I drove into her again. As limp as she’d felt a second ago, she was tight around me now.

I withdrew slowly, mesmerized by the vision of feeding my cock into her again. Her skin flushed all the way up her back. Tiny circles reddened her hips where I’d marked her. I became impossibly harder at the sight of them. I thrust deep, relentlessly taking our bodies where we desperately wanted to go, again and again.

“Love the way you feel. I’ll never get tired of this, being this close to you, Maya,” I rasped into her ear. I breathed her in, savoring every part of this moment together.

“You’re so deep.” She covered my arm as I wrapped it around her, drawing her against me. Her pussy was still tight from her orgasms, still responding when I drove in her.

Inspired, I slammed harder. Her breath caught in a strangled moan. She shifted her hips and leaned away so I was able to go deeper, until I was certain I was hitting the very heart of her.

I rooted, again and again, driving steadily, chasing my own desire. I was lost in her, never wanting this closeness between us to end. I was so ramped up I could almost taste it. She’d be sore tomorrow, but I didn’t care.

I was taking her past her boundaries tonight and losing my own damn mind in the process. I grabbed the meat of her ass in my hand, assessing the ample flesh there. From this vantage—and all others for that matter—it was fucking perfect.

I gave it a hard smack, watching at the print of my hand surfaced in a pink outline. She cried out pressed back against me, her pussy crushing down around me. I smacked her again, driving deep as I did. She cried out, a thready wavering sound. Her outstretched hands grabbed fistfuls of the sheet.

“Come, Maya. Give me everything.”

She fell apart with a broken cry, her body rigid in a state of perpetual climax, taking me down with her. I burst inside her. An almost painful release matched the tight fist of hers. I held us there, joined, wasted, until we slipped into sleep.

When I woke, the room was dark save for the moonlight pouring into the window. We’d fallen asleep this way, our bodies tangled. I think. I couldn’t remember falling asleep. I rubbed my eyes, reminding myself that I hadn’t been drunk but the night was hazy. Flashes of everything we’d done flooded my mind. I don’t think I’d ever fucked a woman quite as thoroughly as I’d fucked Maya tonight. If she hadn’t been completely out of her mind with desire, I sure as hell was. We’d damn near blacked out afterwards. If that didn’t rival a night of heavy drinking, I didn’t know what could.

My eyes adjusted to the darkness. Maya was curled beside me. Her body seemed small and peaceful in the quiet of the night. I turned down the covers and carefully positioned her closer to me, covering her up as I did. She hummed and reached for me, nuzzling into my chest, her skin cool on my own. I wrapped my arms around her, cocooning her until her own body heat emanated against me.

I brushed her hair back, staring in wonder. Despite everything that had gone on between us these past weeks, I was still amazed that she’d come back into my life at all. Like a wish that I hadn’t realized I’d been making for so long had finally been granted. I’d never been so deeply grateful for it until tonight.

Tonight, something had changed. Somewhere between fucking her and loving her and not giving her anyplace else to run, I’d found the soul of the girl I knew. Underneath the crutches and the don’t-give-a-shit attitude, she was there—my Maya.

Any concerns I’d had about the emotional risks of falling for Maya again were quickly brushed aside by the fear of what might become of her if she kept on this way. Deep down she needed me as fiercely as I needed her. Knowing that she did bound me to her in a way that I’d never felt before. I was going to put her back together. I’d unbreak everything I’d broken and bring her back to me if it was the last thing I did.

MAYA. We pulled up to my apartment. The car idled, but I couldn’t bring myself to get out. Too much had happened between us on our brief trip. He’d peeled back a layer of my life that I’d always kept hidden. In the small room of that house, in a nowhere town so far outside the buzz of city, my universe had tilted. I stared out the window at the snow-covered rails leading up to my brownstone apartment, and somehow, none of it seemed real.

“Stay with me.”

I turned to face Cameron, questioning him with a look.

“Maybe it’s just me, but I don’t want to be away from you right now. I feel like you’re going to disappear on me or something. The very thought of it is driving me a little crazy. Give me some peace of mind and come stay with me for a while.”

“I’m not going anywhere,” I promised.

“Prove it.”

“But your parents are visiting. I’ll be intruding.”

“They left. Darren texted me that the coast was clear. There’s Olivia, but she’s usually pretty good about keeping to herself. And she’s going to have to get used to the idea of you being around anyway, so we might as well break her in now.”

“I don’t want to cause problems, Cam.”

He laughed, his eyes glittering. “Well, you do. You’re a royal pain in the ass.”

I scoffed, slapping his shoulder. “You’re no picnic either.”

He caught my hand, giving it a meaningful squeeze. “I know that. I was only half joking. Come stay with me, though. I miss you already. It’s kind of pathetic.”

His lips quirked up into a smile and my heart melted. I sighed. I didn’t want to say goodbye any more than he did.

“I don’t have to be at work for a couple days anyway. Let me pack a bag and I’ll be back down in a few minutes.”

I turned to leave when he pulled me back, tugging me closer until I was nearly on his side of the car. He pressed a kiss to my lips, his hold both warm and possessive.

“I love you.”

“I love you too,” I breathed. My head buzzed, my limbs tingled with delicious warmth, as if I’d been given a dose of something strong. The usual attraction between us was now amplified with the full out admission that we were falling hopelessly in love with each other again. My body and brain’s reactions were almost more than I could handle.

When he finally released me, I rushed upstairs to pack, a stupid smile on my face. I gave Eli the briefest of updates, which ended in a kind of hopeless shrug that he seemed to understand.

We drove back to Cameron’s place. With no sign of Olivia, we settled in. He made us a late lunch and showed me around the building, pointing out all the improvements he and Olivia had made over the past few weeks. It really had come along since the last time I’d been there, and as much as I begrudged Olivia for personal reasons, she’d been a positive force in his world since arriving. In the spirit of moving forward with Cameron with an open heart and a lot more hope than I’d given us before, I harbored a little optimism that Olivia and I could find a way around our differences.

“Everything looks great. This is so much space for the two of you though, isn’t it? Won’t she get her own place eventually?”

“I’m sure she will. I guess I was thinking about the future. I haven’t written off the idea of sharing my home with someone yet.”

My cheeks heated a little. “It’s a lot even for two people. For New York, this is an enormous living space.”

He nodded and bit his lip. “Families can get big, you know.”

My breath caught. Oh, fuck. He was talking about us. Maybe his little talk with Ruthie hadn’t been senile banter. I shifted my weight nervously from side to side.

“Thinking a little far ahead, aren’t we?”

He shrugged, and a little smile turned up his lips. We didn’t say anything more about it as we finished the tour and returned to the safe haven of the upstairs apartment.

“So I have to head into the gym tonight, make sure Darren hasn’t burned the place down or something.”

I cocked an eyebrow. “He’s a fire fighter.”

“It’s a known fact that all fire fighters are pyromaniacs. He can’t be trusted. Anyway, come with me.”

“You don’t want me moping around there. I’ll be bad for business.”

He laughed. “Nonsense. I won’t know what to do with myself if you aren’t there bitching about the routine I’m giving you.”

“You’re going to make me workout?”

He flashed a mischievous grin. “Yup. Get dressed.”

I rolled my eyes and groaned. “Fine.”

He swatted my ass as I turned.

I shot him a weak glare. “What was that for?”

“I recently realized how much I like spanking your ass, and when you say snarky shit, it kind of gives me the perfect excuse to.”

I pursed my lips. “I’m not sure I like the sound of that.”

“Oh, I do.” He wrapped an arm around my waist, spinning me so we were chest-to-chest. His mouth was close, his soft breath dancing on my lips. All kinds of dark meaning shadowed his eyes. “I like the sound of my palm slapping your ass. And I like the sounds you make when I do it too.”

I sucked in a sharp breath, heat rising to my cheeks. “All right, you’ve effectively coerced me into wanting to go to the gym.” I disengaged from his hold and gave him a much-needed push before my sex brain took over and let him start acting on these deviant threats.

CAMERON. The gym was fairly quiet. Raina was gone too, with yoga classes being off the schedule until the new year. I was glad for that. I hadn’t had a chance to talk to Raina much about Maya, but I would if it meant quelling her concerns about what kind of relationship we had. The line I’d drawn with Raina to keep things professional would have to be redrawn. I’d let her flirt before, figuring it was harmless. That wouldn’t fly anymore.

I was doing crunches on the mat while Maya killed some time on the treadmill. Darren came into view as I rose.

“Hey,” I said, sitting up.

“Way to bail on us for Christmas, man. That one will go down in the history books, for sure.”

I cringed, regret hitting me in a way it hadn’t when Olivia was spewing her threats over the phone at me.

“Things with Maya got, I don’t know, intense, I guess. I didn’t want to leave her alone and I figured you and Liv could hold things down with Mom and Dad. How bad was it?”

Darren blew out a breath. “Uh, pretty unbearable. More than usual, I suppose, because they were freaking out about you not being there. It basically amplified all the usual awkward shit. So yeah.”

I had to see them at some point. I’d been able to avoid them for nearly a year. I’d had a lot on my plate, but beyond that, no time ever felt right. Our time felt awkward and forced, and even without seeing them, I knew it’d be the same. I’d spent three years watching life and death play out in the desert, letting days of my life slip by. I couldn’t justify wasting another day pretending to be the son they wanted me to be or apologizing that I wasn’t. But for Darren and Olivia’s sake, I’d have to step up next time.

“Sorry. I owe you one.”

“Awesome, because they’re coming back for New Year’s. You’re taking that shift. I’ve got a date.”

“With who?”

“Not sure, but I’ll have one, trust me. And don’t fucking give me that look. You owe me one, like you said.”

I sighed inwardly, hating that I had to deliver on my promise so soon. “Fine.”

“Anyway, what’s up with Maya? Everything okay?”

“Yeah, everything’s good now. Really good.”

“Cool. I’m glad to hear it.”

“All right, I’m heading out for a while. I’ll catch you tomorrow.”

“Sounds good.”

He walked off and I finished up, eager to find Maya.

We took a long walk, which ended at a bakery near the park. I’d promised her chocolate if she finished an extra set of crunches. She reluctantly agreed and I’d made a mental note to bribe her with chocolate in the future.

We stepped into the tiny bakery, the smells of fresh dough and chocolate wafting over us.

“God, these all look amazing. What are you getting?” Maya’s eyes were wide as she assessed the pastries through the display window.

“I’ll stick with coffee. Get whatever you want, though.”