23. Riley

twenty-three

Riley

Something big and dangerous was churning like a storm on the horizon. I could sense it the moment I told Cam that Preacher had slipped out the door with Wanda rather than join the rest of them in the brawl.

But he’d come home to me, in one piece, after the meeting. We’d made love. Unlike most nights, he hadn’t slept after. He’d tossed and turned, restless beside me, until the sun came up. So, I didn’t wake him and laid beside him, comforted by the quiet hum of the air conditioner, until midmorning.

Cam was beautiful, laying there with the sheets wrapped around his waist, strips of sunlight snaking through the blinds in strips across his back. His eyes were closed, but he wasn’t asleep. He’d stretched, licked his lips, and lay there quietly.

I traced the lines of the skull tattoo on his shoulder, across the gilded lines of the broken crown.

“What would you think if I went Nomad, and we left to start a life somewhere else?”

“Nomad?” I dragged my fingers lower, tracing the dip his spine took at his lower back. Touching him openly, whenever and wherever I wanted, was a thrilling delight I didn’t think I’d ever get used to. Knowing that he wanted a life with me was something else entirely.

“I’d keep the cut, the patch, but wouldn’t belong to a charter.” He rolled to his side to face me and wrapped an arm over my hip beneath the sheet.

“Will they just let you?” I didn’t know all his secrets, but he definitely knew all of theirs. I snuggled against his chest, content in the warmth of him.

His voice turned dark, haunted. “I’ll take care of it.”

Could he really leave? That was the scariest part. That they wouldn’t let him. Even if he could, how did I tell him I wanted to stay? I felt at home here. This was the life I wanted. And even if I found the words, there were too many secrets piling up between us. There were things he couldn’t tell me and things I was afraid to tell him.

In this, I understood the fear of the Desert Kings, of what they could do. I’d seen it firsthand. I couldn’t act on assumptions and half-baked theories.

“What If I want to stay?”

“In Dry Valley?” Surprise lifted his voice.

“Here, with you, is the first time in my life I’ve felt like I belonged.”

He nuzzled the top of my head in the way that left me feeling safe, secure, and warm low in my belly.

“Besides, Boyd Law School is in Vegas.”

He chuckled at that, nudged his leg between my knees against the core of me, and kissed me. His warm lips were soft at first but grew increasingly more demanding, and I found myself grinding my hips against his thigh, wishing I weren’t wearing panties.

Cam had a way of making me forget we were having a serious conversation.

He shifted, rolled me onto my side, and kissed down my neck. “That smart shit is sexy. You going to let me do bad things to you while you write dissertations?” He nipped at my nipple through the thin t-shirt I’d worn to bed.

Laughter bubbled up with my moan. “Be serious for a second. If I wanted to stay here…how do we make it happen?”

“I need proof Archer didn’t kill himself.” It was what he didn’t say that hung so heavy.

“Proof ?”

Cam squeezed his eyes shut. “Yeah.”

I thought about all the little things that were bothering me. And only one was tangible. “I don’t have that, but I may have a lead.” I might have shoved the box of books into a corner, but the keycard had stayed at the forefront of my mind.

I scrambled from Cam’s bed, jogged down the stairs to the main house, and back so fast I was breathless and my cheeks red when I returned. He’d sat up and opened the blinds so that sunlight lit up the room. His hair was a little messy but did nothing to deter from his sex appeal. Crawling onto the bed, I settled beside him.

“I found this in some of Archer’s things.” I told him about the significance of the book and where I’d seen it at the lawyer’s office. “I saw this place last night, right near the motel where he died.”

“I know what we’re doing today.” Cam shook his head in disbelief.

Cam’s wicked grin turned my insides to lava as he tossed the keycard onto the bedside table.

“And I know how we’re getting started.” He pushed me onto my back and climbed on top of me, kissing all the way down my shirt and jerking my panties off. He nipped at my inner thighs as I gasped.

“I think I really like how this day is starting off.” I squeaked, and my cheeks heated as he glanced up from between my thighs.

Then he kissed my slit, licking and sucking my lips between his while my hips bucked. With no warning, his tongue whipped up and circled the apex of my pleasure. He drove me mad with his mouth, over and over until I was shouting and bucking, coming hard against his face.

He chuckled and climbed up my body, raking his cock across my inner thigh. I wanted it so bad. No condoms anymore, never again, just the friction of his slick skin against mine. When I bucked up to meet him, he nipped at my bottom lip. Then kissed me, hard, sucking my tongue into his mouth as he slid his cock inside me. I groaned and gripped his thighs. He tore his mouth from mine on a pant and a moan.

“I don’t know which I love more, the way you taste or the way you feel around my cock.”

I could only gasp, because I didn’t know the answer to that one either. Didn’t care, so long as he didn’t stop. He moved slowly, pulling all the way out of me, then diving back in.

“Fuck.” It was my turn to groan.

He braced his arms on either side of my head, pumping slowly still, teasing me. When I mewled a complaint, he dragged my bottom lip down with his thumb. “Tell me what you want, baby.”

“More, faster.” I gasped.

He obliged, but not before changing our position, tossing my legs over one shoulder and turning my hips a little. Suddenly he was bigger, harder, and I felt so impossibly tight that I feared I’d squeeze him out of me.

When I protested, he shushed me with that same thumb, drove himself all the way into me, then held still. He traced the light bruises just over my collar bone and his eyes darkened.

“Nobody ever touches you again.” His voice was different, strained in a way that made him sound like a desperate animal.

I took his hand, placed it at the front of my throat, and rolled my hips. I never wanted to think of Lance again. Only Cam. Always Cam. Like that night never happened.

He watched me for a moment, then closed his eyes. Slowly, like he understood, he wrapped his long fingers around my throat, and undulated his hips in a way that sent pleasure spiraling outward from my core.

When I pressed against his hand, he gripped a little tighter. I could breathe, I could feel .

Then he pinned my head to the pillow. White hot sensation lit up my spine. The feel of him moving inside me, the stark power imbalance of the way he held me, all of it washed away any memory I had of that frat party.

Nothing else existed but Cam.

“Tighter.” I gasped, wrapping one hand around his wrist. He’d asked me once if I’d want to be choked. I’d thought no. But now, with Cam… “Please. Faster.”

His eyes flicked open, pleasure and desire flaring inside them. He did as I asked, stealing my breath with a strong squeeze of his long fingers. I pressed against that touch, embraced the fear and pleasure all rolled into one.

Cam thrust faster, panting, his eyes narrowing the way they did right before he came. With each thrust I was closer, growing lightheaded, shaking.

And as he exploded inside me, filling me with liquid heat, I came on a wordless cry, Cam’s touch stealing everything.

He let go, dropping my legs and falling behind me, curling around me.

“Fuck me, you’re amazing.” He kissed the back of my neck, stroked down my hip with his hand.

“Not too bad yourself.” I chuckled, pulling his arms around me. “You can do all of that, anytime.”

“Getting a little kinky there, darlin’.” He nibbled across my shoulder. “Makes me think I need to show you a few more things.”

I snorted a laugh, but really, I was curious.

“Maybe you should.”