He propped over me, his eyes searching mine. “Are you sure?”
“God, yes,” I breathed, pulling him down. He kissed me hard, grinding his hips until I arched up to meet him. The thin jeans did nothing to dampen the friction. He slid a hand between my thighs, his skillful fingers searching out my clit through the denim. I gasped, and bucked, and he echoed the sound with a growl, biting my shoulder as I reached for his belt.
My fingers trembled with urgency as I undid his belt one-handed. He kicked off his jeans and boxers as I shimmied out of mine, and then we were skin-on-skin, nothing between us but sweat, heat, and hunger.
My fingers traced the planes of his torso, memorizing his warmth. He responded in kind, his palms grazing the swell of my breast, eliciting a soft gasp as he circled my nipples, his thumbs coaxing them to a tight bud. I arched into his touch, moaning when he closed his lips around one. The soft tug of his mouth as he suckled sent me spiraling.
Then, with a deliberate glide, he slid a hand down between my thighs. His fingers found me insanely slick with wanting, and he moved them in a gentle, coaxing rhythm that had me pressing my head back into the pillows and biting my lip.
I tangled my legs around his waist as he toyed with my clit while he entered me slow and steady. A patience I didn’t know he had, as if he wanted to memorize every second, every gasp and shiver. The cheap motel sheets bunched in my fists as he untwined my legs from around his waist and gently pressed them wide and higher. He paused, glancing down at my swollen pussy, slick with want and I have never felt so exposed in my life until that moment.
“Before we continue, I need to know how deep you want me to go,” he said, almost respectfully, as if I were the one to set the rules. My mouth went dry, but I forced words out anyway. “As deep as you want,” I breathed.
He grinned. “Good answer,” he said as he pushed in, slow at first, thumbs digging into my hips, his cock filling me, stretching me in a way that hurt so damn good I forgot to be embarrassed about the way I moaned for him. Not softly, not prettily—just raw, hungry, helpless. He moved with that same careful slowness, building a rhythm I had no defense against. With every thrust, my body arched, my hands pushed against the headboard as if somehow that would make me closer to him. All the while, his name spilled from my mouth. He took me with such intensity as if he had to fuck the fear out of me, make me believe he could keep me safe even if the whole country was hunting me down.
It didn’t take long before the pleasure began to build, intense and all-consuming until I thought I’d split open. When it hit, I shattered. I screamed while clawing his back, coming so hard it left me shaking because I didn’t want it to end. He held me through it, never breaking rhythm, riding every wave with me, despite my body freezing in time as he pounded into me. When he let go, I rode the wave with him, as he buried his face in my neck and came with a desperate groan, his whole body going tense, then loose. For a few moments, we just lay there, tangled, covered in sweat.
Finally, he rolled off and pulled me to his side, pressing his lips to my hair. “You okay?” he whispered.
I let the question settle in my bones, feeling the fading ache between my legs as my pussy contracted, and the beginnings of the bruises on my hips where his hands had gripped me.
The rest of the world—Matheson, guns, my sister that I barely remembered, would still be there in the morning. But for now, in this scuzzy motel, for the first time in a long time, I felt safe in his arms.
I turned and kissed his jaw, slow and grateful. “I don’t know how, but you make me feel brave,” I said.
Silently, he stroked my back, as if he were thinking about what I said.
“We’ll keep running,” he murmured. “Until we don’t have to anymore.”
“Promise?”
He kissed me again, soft as a secret. “Promise.”
Chapter 13
Lily
The next day, Royal taught me how to pick locks on the doors of the other motel rooms. Lucky for us, the patrons inside never woke up, and we silently closed each door behind us. When Ryker found out, he shooed us out to the parking lot.
“This one might come in handy,” Royal said, demonstrating on a vending machine. “Someday you might find you need some quick cash.”
He grinned as I fumbled with the picks and triumphantly hooted when I pulled open the door. I stood, smiling from ear to ear, and looked up where Ryker watched from the balcony of our room, cleaning his gun with meticulous care.
“Beginners' luck?” I asked Royal, swinging my gaze back towards him.
“Or you’re just good,” he said. And not for the first time, I thought he and Ryker were more alike than either would admit.
Later, the three of us walked to the fairgrounds. It was an exercise in blending in. But as we wandered through the stalls and booths, trying to act normal, I realized something that felt foreign, something I hadn’t felt in a long time… I was having fun.
Mabel prowled after us, wearing a makeshift leash made of an old rope I’d found in the closet. She darted beneath a corndog stand and hid until Royal dug her out.
“This is no place for a cat,” he muttered. “I’ll take her back to the room.”
Royal texted Ryker just as the fairgrounds started to glimmer with lights as the sun set, saying he would stay in with Mabel.
We rode rickety carnival rides, and I shrieked when the Ferris wheel swayed at the top. But there was no fear in it. Not the kind that made my heart race for survival. This was the crazy, reckless kind that made me laugh and clutch Ryker’s hand like we were the only two people in the world.
We were headed back to the motel room when he saw them.
