“I love you, Raven.” He tilted her head back, staring down at her, his eyes dark, filled with emotion, with a savage intensity that clenched her chest and brought tears to her eyes. “That won’t change in a day, a week, or a century. But I won’t destroy myself chasing after you. You have to decide what you want, and once you do, you have to stick to it. Either way it goes, there’s no going back.”
Chapter Eight
“We really should get out of bed,” Raven muttered drowsily the next morning as Reno smoothed his hand over the rounded curves of her rear and watched her quietly.
She lay on her stomach, her head turned away from him, the long tangled locks of her dark hair flowing around her. Reno trailed his hand from the rounded flesh of her buttocks to her back, his fingers tangling in the rich mass of curls. She looked so delicate, small and tempting as she lay beside him, exhausted from their lovemaking.
This was the picture he would keep in his mind of her. Her beside him, tired and replete, her hair fanning over her back as he touched her, stroked her.
He kissed the curve of her shoulder, allowing himself to breathe in deep, to fill his senses with the scent of her.
“Did you hear me?” she mumbled as she lifted her shoulder against his lips.
Reno smiled at the irate drowsiness. He could hear the threat of laughter in her voice, despite her tone. She liked to play at being tough, unemotional, but he could hear the threads of feelings that she tried to hide.
“I hear you, grouch.” He raked his teeth over the flesh he was caressing, smiling at the faint shiver that gripped her body. “You’re just a coffee hussy. You think you’re going to convince me to fix you some.”
Soft laughter greeted the accusation.
“Guilty.” She rolled to her side, dragging the sheet around her as she glanced up at him.
Something in his chest expanded, threatening to steal his breath as he stared down at her. Her angel’s face staring up at him, those dark, sleepy eyes staring at him from the flushed expanse of her face. She had the power to steal his breath, and often did.
He held her close, his arms tightening around her as she cuddled against him hesitantly. He could feel her breasts pressing against his chest through the sheet she had pulled around her like a shield. But at least she wasn’t running.
“I really need that coffee, Reno.” Her voice was languid, as lazy as the hand that played almost unconsciously through the mat of hair on his chest.
“You gotta pay for it first.” He grinned as she sighed with exasperation.
“You should be tired,” she grumped. “I’m tired. You didn’t even let me sleep last night.”
“Of course I did.” He smiled against the top of her head as he pushed the sheet away impatiently. “You slept between two and seven while I made some calls and reenergized with a snack.”
“You eat too much.” Her casual tone was spoiled by the tensing of her body when he mentioned the phone calls.
He wasn’t going to let her ignore who and what he was. That wasn’t going to help when the next assignment came up. That, unfortunately, he knew would be sooner than he had expected.
“I have to keep up my energy,” he whispered as he pressed her to her back, pulling the sheet away from her as she watched him, her eyes darkening with arousal.
“How pretty,” he sighed as his hand smoothed down her stomach, feeling the muscles ripple beneath his fingers as he moved unerringly to the heat between her thighs.
Her breath caught, her eyes widened as he cupped the damp, bare flesh there. He loved that look, surprise and arousal, a hint of confusion, as though she hadn’t yet figured out why the pleasure was so intense.
His head lowered to capture the sweetest lips he had ever kissed as his fingers played erotically in the hottest, silkiest folds of flesh God had ever made. Raven just felt different from any other woman. She tasted different; she smelled different. Everything about her was so unique, so soft and sweet and spicy that it sent his senses spinning. She was addictive. She made his head spin, made his heart pound out of control and his hands ache to hold her forever.
For now, his fingers parted the swollen folds between her thighs, caressing her gently as she gasped beneath his kiss. Her hands clenched his shoulders, dragging a groan from his chest as pleasure whipped through him. He tightened against the surge of lust that nearly overwhelmed his senses.
She arched beneath his hands, her hips pressing closer, the swollen bud of her clitoris rubbing into his palm as she tensed beneath him. Reno raised his head, staring down at her intently, seeing the wash of heated hunger suffusing her face as she stared back at him in bemusement.
He slid a finger slowly past the tender opening of her vagina, watching her mouth open as a cry escaped them. God she made him crazy.
His cock twitched in anticipation as he thrust his finger inside the heated depths of her cleft, massaging and caressing the silken tissue that rippled beneath his touch. Her breathing was harsh now, thready little moans escaping her throat as her head tilted back, her eyes closing while her hands moved down his chest, her nails raking over his flesh.
“What are you doing to me?” she moaned, writhing beneath him as he slid another finger inside her, working her muscles slowly, easily, feeling the slick cream of her arousal coating his fingers as she clenched around them.
“Loving you,” he whispered as he read the dazed pleasure consuming her expression. “Do you feel me loving you, Raven?”
He thrust in harder, deeper, finding the ultrasensitive mass of nerves, so that when his fingers pressed into it, rotating subtly, she cried out with sensual abandon, arching closer, her hips pumping against his hand as the muscles of her cunt convulsed around his fingers.