Rome (Marked Men, #3)(65)

“WHAT?!”

I dropped a kiss on her mouth and nudged her with my hips so that I had enough room to hook a finger under the lace trim and work her panties down over her hips and decorated thighs. She was always so soft and smooth, which was such a contrast to her prickly and sharp-witted personality. I tucked the lace in my back pocket and kissed her on the shoulder where the neck of her shirt dipped down. She always tasted so sweet.

“I own a bar and I want you forever.”

“Rome.” She was breathless and I could hear the undercurrent of fear working in her voice. I knew she wasn’t there yet. She still had reservations having to do with that douche from when she was younger, and because of my dumb-ass freak-out, she wasn’t sold on the idea that I would never do that to her again, but she would get there. I had no doubt. Besides there was no other option. She was it for me.

I shook my head at her and flipped the edge of her skirt over my wrists and grinned down at her.

“You don’t have to say anything, Half-Pint. I just want you to know what this is for me, that I’m not going anywhere ever again. I promise you that, and I’ll prove it to you no matter how long it takes.”

Her eyes were luminous as she stared up at me. I could see a million and one questions chasing across the light to the dark, but she didn’t push me away when I bent down to kiss her like I meant it. Her fingers tightened in the hair on the back of my head and she pulled me closer with her legs. I wanted to sink into her, to remember this moment, the look on her face, forever. Whatever my future looked like, as long as she was at the center of it, I knew I could handle it, even the unknown.

I was really getting into the kiss. I had my tongue in her mouth, one hand up her shirt and under her bra, and the other working on my belt buckle while she wiggled and squirmed on the counter in front of me when the timer on the oven dinged loudly and had her jerking her head away and panting to catch her breath. Her eyes were dazed and swirling with a heat that I was sure matched my own.

“It’ll burn. I have to take it out.”

I leered at her. “I have something hotter you need to take out.”

I adjusted the bulge in the front of my pants for emphasis, which made her laugh like crazy. When she bent over to pull the concoction out of the stove, it was all I could do not to grab her and throw her on the kitchen floor and have at that little peek of her bare ass under all that scarlet material. I would never, ever get tired of this girl; I knew it to the bottom of my soul.

She plopped the glass dish on the stovetop and cranked the dials off. She tossed the oven mitt off to the side and whirled around so that she was facing me. I grunted in surprise when she launched herself at me. I caught her with a hand under her naked butt and hefted her up so that we were eye to eye.

“As hot as the idea of you devouring me in the kitchen looking all handyman hot in your work pants and boots is, Ayden could walk in the door at any minute. And while I may have caught her and Jet in a compromising position on more than one occasion, it is not something I care to relive. Take me to bed, big guy.”

I carried her to the back of the house toward her room. When I put her on the bed I hovered over her with my hands on either side of her head. We were almost nose to nose and she was smiling up at me. Right in that moment I knew that all was right in my world.

“We need to find our own place.”

“Excuse me?”

I reached up over my head and pulled my shirt off with one hand.

“If I want to take it to you in the kitchen, on the couch, in the middle of the goddamn living room, I don’t want to worry about being interrupted. This is it for me, Cora. We need our own place.”

She might not be quite ready to tell me she loved me back, but the idea of being stuck with me for the long haul must not have been all that frightening because she lifted her hips when I tugged the skirt off and pulled her shirt off over her head. I kissed the slight swell of her belly and she tangled her fingers in my dark hair. I felt her sigh against my lips while I licked across the delicate skin covering our baby.

“Okay, Rome. We need our own place.”

I wanted to cheer in victory, but now my attention was focused on all that pretty pink skin nestled between her legs. I licked across the fire inked on her thigh and felt her tremble against my mouth. Going down on a girl wasn’t something that ever really took much effort. It was a surefire way to get them off so that I could take care of business and not feel like a jerk for not being more attentive to their needs. It wasn’t ever like that with Cora. Maybe because she always took such good care of me, maybe because I cared more about her than I had any of the others, maybe it was the contrast of soft, giving flesh and hard metal that always made rolling her across my tongue a total treat.

I vaguely heard her gasp my name and felt her hands get more impatient in my hair. I flicked that hoop with the flat of my tongue and got the edge of her clit with my teeth. She swore and I had to hold her hips down as she bucked up against my face. She was all warm liquid and quivering flesh. She was shifting her legs restlessly against me and I had to move out of the way so she didn’t get me in the junk. I laughed against her and swirled my tongue around inside of her while tugging ruthlessly on that piercing I decided I couldn’t live without. It only took a minute to bring her to the edge, and when she went over I swore it was the most beautiful thing I had ever seen. She looked less like a pixie and more like a woman thoroughly worked over and very satisfied by her lover.