Chapter 16

CHAPTERSIXTEEN

I watched Davis come in from the porch, phone still to his ear. I held up the coffee pot in a silent question.

He brought his mug to the counter and set it down next to mine. I warmed his up and heard, “The later flight would be better.” He paused to kiss my temple before going back to his conversation. “Who’s taking us to the airport?”

Airport.

Oh, shit we’re going home.

I glanced down at my mug and waited for the fear to infuse me but none came.

Yesterday Wilson had reported that my father had been “defused”—Wilson’s word, not mine. I’d never known my father to be defused or denied anything but I was trusting that Wilson knew what he was talking about. But I knew it wasn’t my trust in Wilson that kept my fears at bay, it was Davis. He wouldn’t agree to go back to Idaho if he didn’t know I’d be safe.

“He has everything for Jane?”

Right. I’d need a driver’s license to fly, something I didn’t need for our marriage license because that had been arranged by Wilson.

“We’ll be ready,” he finished. “Jane?”

“Yeah?” I lifted my head and found he was close.

“You okay?”

“Yeah.”

“You know I’d never take you back if it wasn’t safe.”

See?

There it was.

I knew Davis.

“I know.”

“Then why do you look…” he zeroed in on my eyes and continued, “Sad.”

Sad was a good word for what I was.

I was also disappointed our time had come to an end.

“It’s beautiful here.” I shrugged.

I knew Davis wasn’t buying it when he stepped closer, hooked me around the waist, and pulled me to his side.

His head tipped down, mine tipped up, and he muttered, “Baby?”

God, why did he have to be so damn hot when he was being sweet?

“Okay, fine, I’m sad. Kind of. I’m just disappointed we’re going home and our time together is over.”

“Over?” he asked, his arm around me getting super tight.

“Well, yeah. We’re going back to Idaho.”

“What does that have to do with our time being over?”

I wasn’t sure how to answer that. We hadn’t exactly talked about what was happening when we got home. So, I asked him.

“What’s happening?”

“What’s happening?” he mumbled under his breath. “What’s happening is we’re going home—together.”

It was my turn to mumble under my breath though mine was more of a breathy sigh because together meant maybe our time wasn’t over.

“What?”

“Jane, we’re married.”

Fake married.

My heart clenched and I dipped my chin to study the floor. Davis didn’t allow this for long. Ever so gently he grabbed my chin and forced me to refocus on him.

“Jane?”

“Huh?”

My heart got tighter in my chest when Davis’s expression went funny. Not guarded, not irritated. It was full-on concern but something else, too, and I couldn’t put my finger on it.

“You good?”

“Why wouldn’t I be?”

“With last night, baby, you good with how that went down?”

Was I good with being ruined for all other men for all of eternity?

Yes.

Was I good with Davis making good on his promise to fuck me breathless?

Hell to the yes.

Was I good with round three when Davis kissed and/or licked every inch of my body to the point I was breathless again but felt cherished and adored?

That was a big hell yes.

Was I good with how it started?

I hadn’t been but I couldn’t deny the results of my admission that I’d only had sex with one man didn’t end with a spectacular outcome. That being me ending a self-imposed dry spell to end all dry spells with too many orgasms to count and waking up the next morning next to the beautiful man who’d given them to me, feeling used in all the best ways.

“Yeah,” I answered, suddenly feeling shy.

Davis being Davis was not shy when he pushed. “Baby, I was rough with you last night.”

“Yes, I was there, I remember.” I smiled.

“I’m being serious, Jane.”

He looked like he was very serious.

He’d been honest with me and he’d proven I could be honest with him but still it was hard.

Old habits and all that jazz…

I sucked in a breath.

“Last night was great—all of it. I’m just worried—”

Davis tightened his arm around me and interrupted with, “Last night was great?”

“Yeah.” I drew out the word, confused.

Did he not think it was great?

“Uh, no,” he clipped. “Last night wasn’t great it was fucking phenomenal. Told you that last night but now I’m seeing you didn’t get me so let me explain again.”

Davis dipped down just enough so we were eye to eye and there was no avoiding his stare. Which meant what came next was done in a way I couldn’t ever forget.

“I like you. I like the way we connected. I think you got that part, but if you didn’t I’ll recap and remind you. I enjoyed every second, every moan, the way you clawed at my back, the way you felt, tasted, gave, and took. Start to finish, unbelievably phenomenal. I seriously like your mouth and how you kiss. I’m looking forward to getting your mouth around my dick and watching you suck me off. But beyond all of that, I told you I wanted real.”

Davis gave me another squeeze and went on. “I meant that in bed and out of it. I don’t want you holding back or hiding. If you have something to say—say it. If you’re not sure about something—ask.”

“We’re fake married,” I blurted out.

Davis did a slow blink.

“So I wasn’t sure what was happening when we got home. Like, do we just go back to our separate lives? Do we exchange phone numbers and keep in touch?”

A sexy smile pulled at his lips.

“Yeah, baby, we’re gonna keep in touch.”

Why did that thrill and sadden me at the same time?

Thankfully Davis didn’t make me ask for the ins and outs of the ways we were going to keep in touch.

“Mia and Cole already moved your stuff into my place. Not your furniture but your clothes and shit.”

“My clothes and shit?”

“Don’t know what shit Mia packed, but Cole told me the whole time she was in your bathroom she was waxing poetic about your perfume collection and Mia was snapping pictures of the bottles.”

I had a serious addiction to perfume.

“I like the pretty bottles,” I sheepishly told him.

“Not sure why you look like you’re embarrassed. There’s nothing wrong with liking pretty things even if it’s bottles of perfume.”

He wasn’t wrong about that so I went back to the moving in part.

“I’m moving in with you?”

“Fake married or not, you’re my wife. We’re living this real.”

I wasn’t sure my heart could take living it real with Davis. I was already too invested.

“Right,” I murmured.

“Jane,” he impatiently snapped. “If you have something to say, say it.”

God, he was annoying.

“Fine,” I returned matching his tone. “I’ll say it. I’m scared.”

“Your father—”

“I’m not scared of him. Well, that’s a lie, he scares me because he’s an asshole and unpredictable and I know he’s not done fucking with me or my brother but if you tell me I’m safe to go home I believe you.”

“Then what are you scared of?”

“You!”

Davis flinched.

“Me? So I did hurt—”

“No, you big dummy, I’m scared I’m going to fall in love with you. I’m scared that I’m already falling, and going home and playing house with you is going to make me fall more. I’m scared that living it real will make me forget it’s fake. I’m scared when this is over I won’t want to stop being your wife.”

My admission was met with silence.

Silence in words but not in action.

As I was finding with Davis, he was good at communicating his feelings and not just verbally. Truth be told, I liked when he said it straight but when he showed me I liked it a whole lot more. So when his mouth came down and his tongue tangled with mine I melted into his kiss.

When he broke away he stayed close, and with a whispered growl that sent shivers up my spine he asked, “Did that feel fake?”

“No,” I whispered back.

“We’re living this real, and while we are I’ll have a mind to where you are. But just so you know, I’m right there with you.”

Before I could stop myself I squeaked, “You are?”

“Do we need to have another conversation about last night?”

Perhaps my earlier thoughts were in haste; sometimes Davis’s straight talk freaked me out.

“No.”

“I think we do.”

Oh boy.

“We don’t—”

“You’re gorgeous,” he stated, and that felt nice. But I sensed he wasn’t paying me a compliment. “You’re loyal, even if those loyalties are totally fucked, you still can’t help yourself. The love you give the same.”

I didn’t know where this was going but I didn’t like it. I opened my mouth to tell him just that when he lifted his hand and pressed his thumb against my lips. I really didn’t like that and felt my eyes narrow.

“I like that. I don’t like the man who’s on the receiving end, but I like that you have that in you and I understand it even if I disagree.”

He was still pressing on my lips so my, “how great for you” came out distorted.

“I’m saying that to mean a woman like you, who’s held herself distant for decades doesn’t give herself to a man unless she’s falling. So I already knew before you told me. But it’s good to have you confirm. It’s also good I get to tell you I’m feeling the same. I don’t bullshit. I don’t lie. I don’t play games. I wouldn’t have taken us where we went last night if I wasn’t all in. If I didn’t want to explore where this is going, and I didn’t want real. You with me on this now?”

His thumb brushed over my bottom lip, then over my cheek, and he waited for me to answer.

“Yes.”

“You sure?”

“Yeah.”

“Good. Now I’m gonna fuck you again before we have to pack.”

I felt another shiver glide up my spine.

Davis wasted no time getting down to business. I was up in his arms for the ten steps it took him to get to the bed then the skirt of my dress was bunched at my waist and Davis was lowering himself to his knees next to the side of the bed while dragging my panties off.

“Whoever had the foresight to buy you nothing but dresses is getting a case of their favorite hooch.”

I smiled at the ceiling.

Davis opened my legs, traced the seam of my sex with his thumbs.

I lifted my head off the bed and looked down to find him looking at me, his face openly hungry.

Davis Wright on his knees for me.

The sight was so hot I trembled.

I didn’t get a chance to process why I liked that so much before his mouth closed over my pussy and he went at me. There were no soft flicks or lazy build up. Davis’s fingertips dug into my thighs and he tongue-fucked me deep.

I cried out, my hands went to his head, and I rocked into his mouth. I was close and getting closer when he pulled away.

My protest died when he surged to his feet, rolled me to my belly, yanked me to the edge of the mattress, got me on my knees, and in one thrust drove his big, thick dick deep.

My head flew up, my back bowed, and I panted through his driving thrusts. One of his hands slid around, down, and hit his target with shocking accuracy.

He toyed with my clit.

I writhed.

I chanted his name.

I attempted to meet his thrusts but it was too much.

All of it.

This wasn’t fucking.

This was a claiming.

He wanted real and this was his way of communicating that.

It was as beautiful as it was brutal.

“Davis,” I breathed as my climax started to sear through me.

He pounded deeper, faster, his breaths now labored as he fucked me through my orgasm.

“Honey,” I mewled.

“Thank fuck,” he grunted.

Davis pulled out and suddenly my pussy was clutching at nothing. His finger left my clit, went to the back of my neck, slid down to my shoulder blades, and he put pressure there. I caught his meaning, lowered my upper torso to the bed, leaving my ass up and on display. I turned my head enough to watch him finish himself off. I groaned when the first jet of warm come hit my ass.

“Fuck,” he groaned and closed his eyes.

My orgasm was great, his looked better.

His hand slowed and his eyes opened. When they did they immediately found mine.

“Need to get on the pill, baby.”

He was correct. I did.

Though I liked him marking me so maybe I didn’t.

I liked it more when he rubbed the head of his dick over the mess he’d made on my ass.

“Love seeing me on you.”

It was good we agreed on that.

“Yeah,” I whispered and watched.

“We straight about earlier?”

Davis wanted real.

He’d told me, shown me, and now he wanted confirmation I was with him.

I wanted to ask him if he was real or if he was a figment of my imagination. No man was as perfect as him. At least not the men I’d grown up around or any of the men I’d met.

“We’re straight about earlier.”

“Good. Now we gotta clean up and get packed.”

I didn’t want to get packed. I wanted a nap and maybe round two.

“Okay.”

I started to move but stopped when Davis bent over me, pinning me to the bed. His mouth went to my cheek, his lips brushed a sweet kiss there, then they moved to my ear.

“Stick with me, Jane, and I promise, I fucking vow I’ll keep you safe. Not just from your father and brother. You’ll be safe to be you and while you’re doing that your heart’s safe with me, too.”

I felt tears prick the backs of my eyes.

I hoped with everything inside of me that Davis Wright kept that promise. Because in that moment I fell headfirst in love with him.

“I’ll stick with you,” I promised.

Davis went solid, but I felt him smile.

His smile felt great.

“Seal the deal.”

I had no idea what he meant until his mouth moved to mine and the kiss he gave me rivaled all the ones that had come before.

Though, it slipped into the first place slot of being the best kiss of my life because Davis was again showing me in the best of ways I could trust him.