Don't Forget Me Tomorrow(77)

I drove into her harder, deeper and faster, and I swallowed her cry with a desperate kiss when the orgasm blazed through her body.

Her nails sank into my shoulders, digging in as she rolled beneath me, clinging to me like she might float away if she didn’t.

And I gave her mine as I split, the roar of rapture that burst in my blood.

The streaks of pleasure that whipped out to touch every nerve in my body.

My cock throbbed as I poured inside her, and both of us were gasping as we rode that high.

A high I was never going to come down from.

I held her like that as we trembled and shook, both of us relishing the aftershocks, before I eased back a fraction so I could look down at her face.

Cinnamon eyes watched me with the kind of tenderness I couldn’t fathom.

I ran my knuckles down the soft curve of her cheek and down to her chin. “Nothing could ever feel as good as being loved by you, Dakota Cooper.”

“That’s good, Ryder, because I promise you, I’m going to be doing it my whole life.”





THIRTY-FOUR





DAKOTA





“You might as well not bother getting dressed.”

At his words, I stumbled to a stop just inside the doorway.

I had the same sheet wrapped around me as I’d had this morning, but this time when I’d slipped off the bed to go into the bathroom, I’d promised I’d be right back.

Redness flushed across my skin as I looked at the man propped on a pillow against the headboard, a blanket coming up to cover him just to his hip bones that jutted out from his waist, his arms tucked behind his head.

A cool, casual king.

One that dripped midnight.

Covered in all those colors and designs.

Imposing with all that corded strength.

Every inch of his gorgeous body rippled with power, except I felt no threat as he laid there smirking at me.

“Is that why you want me to stay? So you have me naked and ready for you?” I remained in the doorway as I tossed out the tease.

Clearly, I was only teasing myself because I was so ready for him.

My insides throbbed at the sight of him.

Gunmetal eyes raked over me where I stood hugging the sheet. They left a scorching path in their wake.

My knees wobbled, and his gaze gleamed as he quirked a dark brow. “Tell me you’re going to complain about that?”

It was purely a challenge.

“Do you want me to lie to you, or do you want the truth?”

“The truth, Cookie, always the truth.”

Only we had never really given that to each other, had we? It was time, though. Time to come out from behind the veils where we’d kept our feelings secreted.

“Then I’d have to say that you can have me any time and any way that you want.”

A growl rolled through the room, and those dark eyes gleamed with greed. “That’s a dangerous proposition to make to a man like me.”

Even though I shivered, I cocked my head. “I think you might underestimate me.”

Ryder chuckled a low, disbelieving sound, and that grin cracked at the edge of his mouth. “Get over here.”

Biting down hard on my bottom lip, I shuffled toward him, the worn, wooden planks cool on my bare feet. I attempted not to trip on the fabric that draped around my legs and brushed the floor.

I made it to the side of the bed then yelped when he suddenly reached out, grabbed me around the waist, and hauled me onto his lap. It left me straddling him with only the thin sheet separating us.

“You’re ridiculously strong, Ryder.” It came out sounding like I was scolding him for picking me up.

He leaned forward, buried his face at the side of my neck, and murmured, “Nah, baby, these arms were just made for you.”

I might as well have been melting in those arms as he wound them around me and pulled me tight against his chest.

My own looped around his neck, and I played with a short lock of his hair as we stayed like that for the longest time, both of us just breathing in the moment.

“Then why did you wait so long to hold me with them?” My question broke into the stillness that had descended, a whisper that fell in sync with the ghosts that played along the walls of the room.

Ryder barely tensed, the muscles on his back going rigid, and he slowly eased back. Enough that he was leaning fully against the headboard. Enough that he could lay the full intent of his gaze on me. “I knew I wasn’t close to being worthy of you when you were going away to college, Dakota. I was barely finding myself, thanks to you, but I had a lot of shit to work out in my life. Problem is, when you live a life like mine, working that shit out isn’t so easy.”

Dread dripped into my bloodstream.

I’d always known there was something that Ryder was hiding beneath the easiness. The way he walked into a room so casually, tossing out smiles and grins, all while he always seemed to be looking over his shoulder.

I’d turned a blind eye to it, no doubt because I didn’t want to see.

Didn’t want to know.

I wanted to go on happily delusional that my friend was just fine. That he’d overcome the demons of his past.

I knew better now.

I just prayed they weren’t the kind that could destroy him.

The kind that could destroy us.

I had to curl my arms back around his neck and press my mouth to his ear because I was too terrified to look at him when I got the answer. “Are you still…using?”