“I know.” He hauled me into his arms, hugging me tight. “Let’s take a breath. We’ll go downstairs and have some dinner. Yeah?”
I nodded, though I still felt a little rejected.
Rational or not.
Thane took my hand and led me downstairs.
We avoided the kitchen table and ate dinner in front of the TV for once.
The atmosphere was strange between us. Thane kept us physically connected, snuggling with me on the sofa, kissing my head now and then, caressing my arm. And that night when we went to bed, he took me to his.
My heart was in my throat as he switched off the lights and hauled me back against him. I waited.
“Good night.”
I couldn’t say good night.
I was choking back tears.
Either he didn’t want me anymore or he didn’t trust me to know what I wanted.
Neither felt wonderful.
Wanting nothing more than to cry myself to sleep, I felt suffocated by his arms because his presence meant I had to hold it in, and now that I wasn’t holding anything in, I never wanted to bury my feelings like that again. It was too painful once they exploded. The awful panic attack in the bathroom was proof of that.
Pressing my lips together to stifle the sobs, the tears rolled down my cheeks, hidden in the dark.
So busy concentrating on not making a sound, I didn’t feel Thane tense against me. Seconds later, however, I heard him whisper hoarsely in my ear, “You kill me, mo leannan.”
And then I was turned as if weightless and hauled over Thane’s body as he fell onto his back. My palms landed on his chest and I straddled him in the dark. As my vision adjusted to the shadows, I made him out through the moonlight peeking in around the window blinds.
“Take whatever you need.”
Relief flooded me as he grew hard beneath me. An answering throb pulsed between my legs, and I reached for the hem of my nightdress, pulling it off, followed by my underwear.
Thane reached for my bare hips, his long, strong fingers caressing and squeezing as he undulated gently under me. I lifted off him but only to yank down his pajama bottoms and underwear just far enough to free him.
Then I pushed down onto him, and our gasps filled the room as his thickness filled me.
“So good,” I panted, leaning over to brace my hands on his shoulders.
“Take it,” he grunted, gripping my hips harder now. “Take everything you need.”
Wanting his hands everywhere at once, I opted for moving them from my hips to my breasts. Thane groaned and massaged them, his thumbs plucking at my nipples.
“Yes, yes,” I gasped, riding him slow but deep. When I twisted my hips at a certain angle, he hit me exactly where I needed him. My hands curled into his shoulders for better purchase as I grew more desperate for the exquisite tension building inside me.
“Fuck.” Thane squeezed my breasts harder as his hips flexed under me, his movements constrained by his pajamas and boxers.
It made me hotter. Knowing I could do whatever I wanted to him.
Bending to his powerful chest, I licked at his nipples and then sucked before I bit him gently.
His hips bucked under me and then he sat up, changing the angle of my drives, roughly pulling my hair back so he could clamp his mouth over my breast. The relief of him playing with me as he always had excited me more than anything. We hadn’t changed.
He wouldn’t let us change.
My fingers scraped through his hair as his mouth tormented me, and my hips picked up pace. Thane released me to lift his head to mine, and we stared into each other’s eyes as I rode him. We held gazes, his hot and desire filled, tender, and mine the mirror image.
My fingernails bit into his back as I increased my pace, the pleasure building higher, higher, our breaths mingling as we panted against each other’s mouths.
And then that tightening coil inside me snapped, and I arched my neck, crying out my release, Thane’s lips pressing against my throat seconds before he groaned in climax.
I shook, trembling as the orgasm melted through my limbs. As I throbbed around Thane’s pulses, he kissed me. Deep, possessive, wet kisses that fired my blood.
“Again,” I said against his mouth.
He grinned. “I’m not twenty anymore, mo leannan. You’ll need to give me ten minutes.”
I shoved him none too gently back on the bed and slipped off with a little gasp that made him grunt. Then I shifted down his body, pulling his pajamas and boxers all the way off. And I kissed my way back up.
Thane laughed softly in the dark. But his amusement died when my kisses reached his inner thigh. I teased and tormented him until he was begging for my mouth where he wanted it most. And before I gave it to him, I smirked. “That was less than ten minutes.”
He gave a bark of laughter that cut off with an abrupt “Jesus!” as I took him deep into my mouth.
We made love until light streamed into the room through the blinds and then finally, exhausted, we collapsed in each other’s arms. As sleep drifted over me, I smiled, our shouts of pleasure still ringing in my ears. It was like I’d marked him tonight. Made him mine in a way he could never be anyone else’s.
While he had given me exactly what I needed—the reminder that what Austin did to me and what I’d unintentionally done to myself could never taint the connection I had with Thane Adair.
And just maybe … maybe we wouldn’t turn out to be temporary after all.
The next morning when I woke up, the first face I saw wasn’t Thane’s; he was behind me, cuddling me in his sleep. No, the first face I saw was Francine Adair’s, grinning from Thane’s lap in the photo on his nightstand.
Just like that, the hopes I’d gone to sleep with—while early-morning dusk and the musky scent of sex-exhausted bodies clouded my reality—deflated.
28
Thane
He couldn’t remember the last time he’d slept in this late, but he wouldn’t chastise himself for it. And last night had been bloody worth it. Just when he thought sex with Regan couldn’t get any better, she’d devoured him, barely letting him up for air.
He grinned, feeling their workout in his muscles as he stretched. Regan had slipped from the bed to use the bathroom a few minutes ago, and he anticipated her return with hot blood in his veins.
Unbelievably, he wanted her again.
Rolling onto his elbow as she emerged from the bathroom in her nightdress, he let his eyes roam over her, his chest swelling with emotion. She was so beautiful, inside and out. Stronger than she gave herself credit for. After she’d revealed her attack, he never imagined they’d spend the night the way they had. But she clearly refused to let that son of a bitch screw with her head any more than he already had, and Thane knew he had to follow her lead on this. He was proud of her.
He opened his mouth to tell her so, but as she neared the bed, he noted her eyes weren’t on him. They were on his nightstand.
Thane looked over to see what had her attention and then froze.
A quick glance back at Regan confirmed his fears.
She was staring morosely at the photo of Fran and him.
It had always been there. Thane had never had reason or want to move it.
But guilt suddenly gnawed at him as Regan dropped her gaze.
“I’m going to put the coffee on.” She didn’t look at him. Just threw a small smile in his general direction before leaving the room.