He tore off his cut, and then his shirt, gifting her with the most mouthwatering view of his ink and his muscles. And then he lowered himself atop her, his weight pressing down her legs and opening her to him even more. Leveraging his arms around her head and her shoulder, his thrusts were relentless and driving.
Slider wasn’t holding back. Not anymore.
And it made Cora’s heart sing even as her body threatened another explosive release she wasn’t at all sure she could handle.
“Jesus, Cora. A condom. We didn’t . . .” He made to pull away.
She grasped his back. “Don’t go. Not yet. Just pull out. Pull out and come on me.”
Rigid and still, his face was a decadent mask of arousal and need and debate. But then she rolled her hips up, forcing him deeper inside again. Her movement ripped a groan out of his throat and lured him to cave. Hands on the backs of her thighs, he set a fast pace that made her pant and writhe. The lean muscles of his shoulders bunched and his stomach rippled. He was a feast for the eyes, masculine and raw, and he was hers.
God, let him be mine forever. And let me be his.
“Coming. God, I’m coming.” On a shudder, he withdrew from her and took himself in hand. Two strokes and he was true to his word, shouting her name and shooting white stripes on her ass and hip and thigh.
Cora went limp with satisfaction, not caring in the least that he messed her up. His come on her skin felt like a claiming. And no one had ever claimed her before. Not really.
Leaning down, Slider kissed her, a soft tug of lips on lips, his hand gentle in her hair. “I see you,” he said. “Always.”
Four words. And her heart felt too big for her chest.
I love you was so close to the tip of her tongue she didn’t know how the words didn’t fall out. But he hadn’t said them. She knew he was coming to terms with the idea of them. And she didn’t want to push.
So Cora just said, “I see you, too.”
For now, that was enough. And so much more than she ever thought she’d have.
“Hey, guys,” Cora said to the boys as they climbed into her red baby in the carpool line at school. She’d picked them up today because she’d been out running errands for Bunny and Haven, who were busy with race night party preparations at the clubhouse.
“Hi, Cora,” Ben said brightly, while Sam’s “Hey” was more subdued.
As they buckled in, Cora’s belly did a little flip. This weekend, Slider planned to at least tell the boys that the two of them were dating. The house wasn’t that big, and Sam was old enough—and sensitive enough—to pick up on the change between them. It was important to Slider that they hear it from him, and Cora agreed.
But, God! What if the boys hated the idea? What if they weren’t ready for their dad to date another woman? Thus her belly and the flip-flopping.
“You guys excited for race night?” she asked, pulling out of the driveway and heading to the grocery store. At this, Sam, who was as interested in cars as his dad, finally perked up, and both boys launched into an excited discussion of drivers and cars and racing stats that left Cora totally dazed—a feeling that probably wasn’t helped by the ambivalence she felt about going.
She’d attended all three nights of the carnival that the Ravens held on the grounds of the track back in June, but had attended only two of the races since, and only because Slider asked her to take the boys while he worked. Both times, they’d attached themselves to Ravens who were more than happy to give Slider’s kids a behind-the-scenes experience, allowing Cora to hole up in the brothers’ lounge near the ticket and security offices.
Those places, however, she avoided like the plague.
Because the security control room was where she and Haven had been forced to hide from their fathers when they came to kidnap Haven. And the ticket office was where Cora had witnessed Haven’s dad shoot Meat point-blank in the gut to prove that he was willing to use violence to regain his daughter. If that hadn’t been horrific enough, that room was also where Haven said her good-byes before she fled to sacrifice herself so no one else got hurt.
Just the memory of that moment—Meat bleeding out on the floor as Haven thanked Cora for giving her even the smallest chance at a happiness she wouldn’t let herself keep . . . Cora shuddered. She couldn’t let herself think about it. Because not knowing if she’d ever see her best friend again had been one of the worst moments of her life.