Page 197 of Love, Rekindled

He threw her right leg over his shoulder, freeing his hand to stroke her clit. Damn, her body’s reaction to that touch almost choked the seed from his dick, making him pound all the harder into her tightened-up entrance.Need to come, need to come.“You put me in so much fucking pain, Lita. Take me out of it.” The sounds of their bodies joining filled the darkness. Slaps, strokes, and moans. “Taking it raw, aren’t you, plaything? Loving that big, bare cock, aren’t you?”

“Yes.”

“You want me to coat the inside of you? Fill you full?” His mouth latched onto hers for a slippery, sensual kiss. “Give me yours first.”

James pressed his thumb down on her clit and dragged the button of flesh up through her wetness, before letting it go. Doing it again. Her flesh began to shake against his hand, her cries going off like fireworks in a night sky. She fought against him again for a different reason. She was pinned by his thrusting hips, straight through the climax. “Too much.” Her fingernails clawed at his neck, his upper back. “Too much.”

The pain of her scratching made his release a sharper kind of bliss. He opened his mouth but no sound came out—the pleasure had trapped it all inside. Lita’s mouth was his only tether to reality as he shot from the cannon, hanging in the atmosphere as his body weathered a release so complete, it wouldn’t allow him to breathe. Just kiss her. Her.Lita. Finally, he was forced to rip his mouth away to intake oxygen and Lita was right there with him, gulping in air.

Sweat coated their bodies, but James couldn’t deal with being parted from her, so he lifted her limp body into his arms and walked to the bed.

When James laid her down, she dropped a hand onto her lifting and falling belly. “I need…”

Lita trailed off without finishing, making one corner of James’s mouth lift. She trusted him to know what she meant,knewhe would. He returned from the bathroom a minute later with a towel and a glass of water, handing her the drink while he cherished the task of cleaning himself from her body. Thoughts about tomorrow and next week tried to invade the long-needed relative calm in his mind, but he barred them entry. The morning would be soon enough to debate the future. For now, holding a sleeping Lita was the only thought worthy of entertaining. Something he’d needed to do every night for four years, but hadn’t allowed himself the privilege.

Looking over her body to reassure himself there were no marks, James laid down behind Lita, pressing his chest to her back. His eyelids drooped—from exhaustion, tenderness, renewed need—when she snuggled closer, fitting her bottom to his groin. “James?”

“Yes.”

A small hesitation. “I could really get used to that other side of you.”

There it was. That was what scared him.

A horrible twisting took place in his chest.

James didn’t sleep that night.

CHAPTER 6

James had beenquiet all morning, but Lita wasn’t fazed. Sheknewthis man well. With James, brooding was just par for the course. Not to mention? Hot as shit.

His Broodiness sat in the driver’s seat, once again in a pair of faded jeans, this time with a fitted, white T-shirt that hugged his biceps. A hint of his boxer briefs was visible around the waistband of his pants and she wanted to lick the entire perimeter until he begged for her to go lower. Yeah. After James had given her the Orgasm To End All Orgasms last night, Lita wanted a one-way ticket back to bed. She wanted to be roughed up and held down. Wanted more of his disrespectful words issued beside her ear. And she wanted it now.

Unfortunately, James had already been fully dressed when he woke her up by opening the window blinds in a loudzip. Thanks to the haziness of sleep, she’d made a clumsy attempt at seduction by fluffing her hair and winking. He’d left the room like wolves were on his heels, saying he would wait in the car while she got ready.

“You forgot about the rule,” Lita said, donning her Ray-Bans.

“Which rule is that?”

Wowee. Had his voice always rumbled like that? It blew cool air across her senses, creating goose bumps in its wake. She could hear it sayingplaythingin the darkness. “Uh, you know. The one. Never wake a musician before noon.”

His lips twitched. “That rule only applies on the tour.” He slid a glance—not his first—across the car’s console to where Lita’s legs were crossed. Maybe she was playing dirty with the cut-off jean shorts, but hey, it was a hot day outside. She totally got away with it. Although, she really hopedJamesdidn’tlet her get away with it.

The only way for her plan to succeed was persistence. And after last night, after she’d gotten to the bottom of his fears, her new goal was…a relationship. One that didn’t have secrets or hidden insecurities. One where they could be themselves without being afraid of hurting one another. If she’d approached the situation with James with any sort of rational thought earlier, instead of acting out, they might have gotten to this point sooner. Instead, she’d damaged his trust. Now she would make up for it by handing over hers.I trust you. I trust you.If she proved those words through her actions, he would start to believe it. He had to, right? The alternative was going back to Los Angeles without James and the very possibility of that reality…honestly, it terrified her to think about.

“Remember that time I woke up Sarge with a water balloon?”

Lita had to catch her breath when James gave a rare smile. “Oh, I remember. He slept with one eye open for a month.”

“Hid my sticks as payback, too. Right before a show, the bum.” They coasted to a stop at a red light. “I kept expecting him to balloon me back while I was asleep, so I kept one loaded underneath my bunk.” She shook her head. “The attack that never came.”

James drummed his fingers on the steering wheel. “Oh, he tried. I stopped him.”

Lita frowned. “Why?”

Silence passed while he pulled through the intersection. “I didn’t want anyone to see you sleeping. They weren’t allowed in the back of the tour bus.”

A low pulse started just south of Lita’s belly button. “Is that why you were always the one to come wake me?” James said nothing, jaw flexing as he watched the road. Lita wasn’t letting it go, though. “Did you always want to get in bed with me?”

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