As soon as he pulls his pants off, I guide him to my entrance. He pushes into me hard, no easing, no teasing, just a strong, aggressive thrust. Taking what belongs to him. Punishing me for saying the word in the first place. He grips my hips and drives into me. Harder. Deeper. I dig my heels into his back and meet him pound for pound.
Our bodies are covered in sweat. He’s breathless. I’m breathless. He lets go of my hips and takes my hands and pins them above my head, locking his fingers with mine. He buries his face in my neck, slowing his pace and catching his breath.
He makes this sound, this utterly manly growl from low in his throat as he moves in, and out, and in, and out. So achingly slow. So incredibly deep. Hitting that spot over and over until I don’t think I can take it anymore.
“You feel this?” he asks, and I answer with a moan. “This isn’t nothing.” He looks at me and I’m lost, doomed for all eternity because I know no other man will ever compare to him. “This… this is every-fucking-thing.”
Tears spill down my cheeks as that familiar tingle builds and builds deep down. “Come apart for me, babygirl. Let me have you.” He thrusts into me again then leans down and brings his mouth to my neck. “Let me love you.”
His words send me over the edge. I lose control, and he loses it with me.
It’s not until he collapses beside me, panting and staring at the ceiling, that I realize we didn’t use a condom.
We lie here, naked, legs tangled, him on his back with my head on his shoulder while we stare at the ceiling and enjoy the sound of each other’s heartbeats. I slide my hands over his sculpted chest, down his stomach, tracing every defined line and crease with my fingertip. “Can I ask you something?”
He draws tiny circles on my upper arm. “Anything but math. I suck at math.”
God, I’ve missed this man.
“Why did you leave? I mean, I understood you not wanting me—”
He flips to his side and pins me with a stare. “Never, not for one fucking second, have I ever not wanted you.”
“But—”
He props up on one elbow. “I had to make you believe that. It was the only way to protect you.”
“Protect me from what?”
“From my father.” He trails a finger from my shoulder to my elbow. His eyes travel from my face to my bare breasts to the sheet covering the lower half of our bodies. I almost think he’s done talking, that those three words are the only explanation I’m going to get. Then he licks his lips. “My dad has been after me for years to go back home. He has this idea that he’s going to retire, and I’m going to take over.”
“Is that what you want?” Is that why you left everything? Is that why you left me?
“Fuck no. The last thing in this world I want to be is another Chase Abbott.” Bitterness laces his words. It radiates off his body. But you still left. “He used the sponsorship as blackmail. He threatened to pull his part of the donation and to tell Kai you were involved with Mal.”
That’s what he was protecting me from.
“Kai would never have believed it. I had nothing to do with Mal.”
“I know that. You know that. But it’s kind of hard to call the guy writing you a two-hundred-thousand-dollar check a liar.” Okay, score one for Old Man Abbott. Blaze runs his fingertip across my collarbone and over my breast, stopping at my nipple. “I know how much you care about your job, about the boys. I couldn’t let you lose everything.”
He left a life he loved to go to a life he didn’t want. For me. To save me. And all this time I thought I was the one trying to save him.
Goosebumps scatter across my skin. He’s making it hard to breathe, much less form words. “And now?”
“Now, I’m being a little fucking selfish.” He reaches around with both hands and squeezes my ass.
I smile and bite my bottom lip. “I like it when you’re selfish.”
He rolls onto his back then slides his hands to my hips and pulls me on top of him. “Well, I did have some help from Levi. He came up with a way to cut Dad out—a fundraiser, an auction actually. He had to pull a shit ton of strings, but the highest bid won the chance to drive the lap car at his next race. I couldn’t have done this—I wouldn’t be here now—without his help. He raised one hundred thousand dollars. The rest we hope to get back with tonight’s event.”
My heart soars at the thought of the two of them working together as brothers again.
“Which was also Levi’s idea?”
“Oh no. Tonight was all me.” He smiles proudly. “I walked into Kai’s office with a cashier’s check for a hundred grand, told him I had a way to match it, if not beat it. I used the connections I made working with Dad to pull in some big names for the gala. He wanted to know what was going on, so I told him everything.”
“Everything?”
His hard cock moves along my slick folds. I need him inside. I need it like a sinner needs forgiveness, like my soul won’t survive without it.
His eyes glint with mischief. “Everything.” He moves his hips again, and I moan.
“Now here we are.”
“Yes. Here we fucking are,” he says then lifts me up and eases himself inside.
The condom. He forgot the condom again. I’m on the pill, but I know how important it is to him to be sure.
I hold myself steady with my palms on his chest, making sure neither one of us moves. “We aren’t being very careful.”
His fingers dig into the flesh of my hips, pulling me back down as he pushes himself deeper. “I’m done being careful with you.”
The next morning over breakfast, Kai lets us know the fundraiser was a huge success. Not only were we able to match the other one hundred thousand, we doubled it. Chase Abbott can take his threats and go suck balls.
The restaurant is buzzing with early morning risers drinking coffee and chatting about their plans for the day. Servers carry carafes of orange juice on trays, and there’s a table off to the side with watermelons and cantaloupes cut in the shapes of baskets and flowers. It’s all very fancy, and I feel completely out of place.
“I didn’t get a chance to say thank you,” Kai says as he pours creamer into his coffee. “It took a lot of courage to do what you did.” The haunted expression on his face jars me. “I knew you grew up in foster care, but I had no idea…” He lets his words trail off with his thoughts.
I put my hand on his and give him a reassuring smile. “It’s okay. No one knew.”
“I know the numbers, Adrienne. It’s what I do. You beat the odds.”
Yes. Yes, I did. And I’ll make it my life’s mission to make sure to help as many kids as I can beat the same odds.
Blaze places a hand on my thigh and squeezes. Two men walk past our table, stopping to say good morning with a smile.
“Was that Henry Kissinger?”
Blaze nods and smiles. “And Morie.” I lift a brow in question, and he chuckles. “I’ll tell you about him when we get home.”
Home. For some it’s an address, the place you rest your head. For some it’s a sense of belonging. For me, home is so much more than a place. For me, home is a person. For me, Blaze is home.