Never Tied Down (The Never Duet #2)(46)

“Hey,” he said, pulling away. “It’s okay. I can’t walk past my couch without seeing him there either.” He cradled my face with his big hands and I leaned into one of them. “It was really hard at first, to see the spot where he’d slept. But eventually it got easier. I don’t expect you to go there. Not ever if you don’t want to. I will come to you.” He pushed back the hair that had fallen around my face during our embrace, then said, “Can we go inside, have a beer, relax, and then go to bed?”

“Yes,” I said happily.



“Riot, yes,” I cried, as he thrust deep into me. “God, yes.”

I was draped over him, his hands were on my ass, and he was absolutely f*cking me into oblivion.

I had been exhausted—emotionally and physically—and I wasn’t even entertaining the idea of taking advantage of Riot Bentley in my bed, but he’d had other plans. Plans that involved me doing absolutely nothing, but still feeling absolutely everything. My heart was racing, my breaths were panting, and I was wet. Soaked from the orgasm he’d given me with his mouth, and now drenched from his perfect cock sliding in and out of me, hitting every single button inside me that only he’d ever been able to find.

“You’re so f*cking perfect,” he growled. I loved it when he growled. I leaned up, putting all my weight on one hand, and crashed my mouth down on his. He swallowed my cries as I came, and when I fell limply against him a few seconds later, he continued to piston in and out of me, rapidly finding his own release.

It had been quick, hot, sweaty sex. It had been perfect. I couldn’t have handled anything more involved than that, and he’d kept his promise that he’d do all the work.

He rolled me over so we were both on our sides, still connected, and he pressed a kiss to my lips.

“I totally owe you one round of effortless, amazing, sex,” I said after he’d pulled away, breaking our connection.

“Is that, like, a coupon or something I can cash in on whenever I want? Or is that something I have to wait to enjoy until you feel like gifting it to me?” He was smiling and that made me happy. Since we’d gotten back to my place he’d been pretty quiet, sullen even, drinking his beer and watching late night television. I’d expected to head to bed, perhaps cuddle a little, and then fall asleep. But as soon as we hit the bedroom he’d grabbed me, thrown me on the bed, and his mouth seemed to be on a mission.

“You can cash it in whenever you want, as long as I’m capable,” I replied, winking at him.

After a brief moment of silence he asked, “Can we talk about something?”

“Sure,” I said, then immediately yawned.

He rolled to his back, bringing me with him, and I moved so that my head was nestled right in the crook of his shoulder.

“At lunch today, that was a panic attack, right?”

I stilled at his words. My panic attack was the very last thing I’d thought he was going to bring up. When I didn’t answer right away, his hand came up and started moving up and down my arm.

“Yeah. It was.”

“And you said you’d had them before?”

I pushed back a little bit and looked up at him. “Did you just f*ck me into oblivion so that you could ask me questions about my anxiety?”

“That wasn’t my intention, no, but it doesn’t sound like a terrible plan now that you mention it.”

I kept looking at him, trying to figure out exactly how I felt about what was happening between us, and then I was laughing softly. He was right. I was exhausted, even more now than I had been an hour before, and I was relaxed.

“Most of the people I surrounded myself with after his death kind of figured out that his name was a trigger for me. Talking about him at all was a trigger. So, for a while no one talked about him, including me. Then I moved here and no one knows about him so no one asks about him. I think about him all the time, but I’m used to that. I wasn’t prepared to hear someone mention him so casually.”

“I’m sorry,” he whispered, kissing my temple.

“It’s not your fault, and there’s really nothing to be sorry for. I should be able to talk about him. I want to talk about him, at least, I think I do. But then, if I’m caught off guard, I guess it backfires on me.”

We were both quiet for a moment, his hand still running up and down my arm, his lips still resting against my skin.

“He’s part of the reason I fell in love with you.” Never before had words affected me the way those words had. “I knew I wanted to get to know you, more so after hearing your story and meeting your brother, the way you took care of him, the way you protected him, but I was a goner after that first time I came to your house and had pizza. You think you were so blessed to have him in your life, and you were, but he had someone smiling down on him when he got you as a sister.”

I rolled fully into him, burying my face in his chest, trying hard not to break down and sob. I didn’t want to cry anymore. I wanted to smile more than I cried. I wanted to laugh more than I frowned. So, with tears in my eyes, I lifted my face and looked up at Riot, saying, “There’s not one person on this planet I need more than you. I can get through anything if I know you’re beside me.”

“Lucky for you I don’t ever plan on going anywhere.”