CHAPTER 6 - The smut continues...
Dani retrieved the phone from her discarded coat and glanced at the number, knowing it by heart. Sadness and regret flashed across her eyes, before she looked up at him. She was there, in his arms, flushed with lust and her hair wild, her clothes half off and this would take her away. Charlie was suddenly seized with unreasonable anger at the small inanimate object. He took it from her and calmly walked the bathroom and drowned it.
Dani was shocked, but gradually a wry grin crept over her face as Charlie walked from the bath wiping hands. He leaned down and crawled across the bed on all fours, "Now where were we?" His grin was positively predatory. He meant to make love to her tonight. Even if the entire city burned – they were not leaving this room until she was his.
"What'd you do to my phone?" she asked teasing.
"It's having technical difficulties. I'll buy you a new one. I'll buy you ten of them... or a hundred….tomorrow," he spoke with lust darkened eyes. "I've waited all my life to feel this way about someone and I'm not letting go of you tonight Dani, not now." He pressed her back into the mattress, his narrow hips overlaying her body, now pulsing from her temple to her molten core in time with his heartbeat.
"I want so much….but for now, I just want to touch you, to hold you, to kiss you," he said punctuating his demands with kisses.
"You damned sure better do more than that," she threatened seductively. "You get me this worked up and don't deliver - one of us is not leaving this room alive," she taunted her lover.
"Yes, ma'am," he sunk into her and ground his pelvis against hers. She gripped his back tightly and reciprocated. They both groaned in exquisite agony. "One of us is wearing too many clothes, honey…." He demanded, "I need these off now Dani. You take them off or I will."
"You have to let go of me for me to do that Crews," she laughed. Dani Reese did not laugh in bed. Sex for her was serious business. She didn't tease. She didn't have fun with it. She used it for physical release with everyone but the man now torn between disrobing her and releasing his grip on her. His expression was one of both wonder and frustration.
"Crews, focus, dammit," she helped him along in that demanding tone he'd missed so very badly. "Take off your pants, I guarantee you I'll beat you back to bed," she grinned. With that Charlie pushed off her, unbuckled and dropped his trousers only to find his shoes in the way.
She again laughed. "Rookie."
Crews reached into the pocket of his jeans and produced his ever-present knife, sliced through the laces of his shoes and had them off in an instant. He folded the blade, placed it carefully on her nightstand and reached for her again.
"Nothing is getting between you and me tonight," he coached. "Dani, let me love you," he begged her and latched his hot mouth and talented tongue around her exposed breast.
She gasped at the hunger in his tone and the magical things his tongue was doing to her. She bent to kiss his neck and he pulled her tightly against his chest.
"My turn first, sweetheart," he said in a darkly intimate tone. "Wait till I'm done."
He used his arms to sweep the pillows aside and laid her on the smooth sheet. He kissed a trail down her body to her sensitive inner thighs. He put his hand under her buttocks and raised her till she opened like a flower for him. He made full use of his beard in exciting her with the changes in texture on her thighs and tummy, while he teased at his intended target. Then suddenly he closed on her and she was helpless and writhing beneath him. His tongue flicked over her as he worked her into a frenzy before releasing her shuddering body to climb back up her length.
He wove his hands under her shoulders and held her still as he called her back from the stars. "Dani," he spoke in a voice so low she thought she'd imagined it, "look at me, honey." She forced her eyes open and he moved to kiss her. His tongue drove deeply, but he moved with a languid thorough sweetness that made her want to weep. She reached for him, to steady and guide him and he drew back. "I want you first, Dani."
"God, Charlie, please don't make me ask you," she hated the need in her voice.
"You want this now?" he questioned. "I can wait…" he offered.
She shook her head furiously and ground her moist center against him. He growled a response that could not have meant anything but want and let her guide him to her opening. He wanted nothing more than to bury himself inside her and never leave, but he eased himself along, feeling her relax to accommodate him.
"God you feel so good…like home. You feel like… I'm finally home, Dani," he mumbled nonsense as the emotion of their coupling overwhelmed him.
He returned to his kissing and when her felt her relax he slowly moved in time with her. They moved in a gentle rhythm that he increased as he felt her build toward a second stronger orgasm. He relocated his mouth to the joining of her shoulder and neck and his mouth repeated her name over into her ear as he lost the ability for higher brain function. He was like a salmon returning to the sea, his entire body sang her name, her smell and feel.
She'd been silent, but as she rode the tide of the second wave her head lolled back and the pleasure ripped through her, she gasped his name. He wanted to kiss it off her lips, but he couldn't reach them. She grabbed his buttocks and forced him deeper inside. The last thing he remembered was them moving faster in time together. Time sped up and stood still simultaneously as she bucked wildly under him and he at long last consummated his love with her. He said the words he'd held in for long, "I love you, I love you, I love you…."
She did not recoil or shift away from him, as he expected, she kissed his temple gently and told him she knew. Then after a pause so long he thought she'd fallen asleep, she whispered into his ear in a tiny but true voice, "I love you Crews, but if you ever do that, scare me like that again, I'll kill you in your sleep."
He smiled against her skin and ran his hands up the ticklish sides of her torso. "I'm going to make you deliriously happy for the rest of your life. This is just the start, honey." He promised her things she'd never let him do, buy and try, but he wanted to let her know that there was nothing he wouldn't give her.
"I don't want your damned money Crews. I don't want the house, I don't want…okay, the car maybe…but I don't want anymore than this right here," she intimated them together. "That's all I want, you're more than enough."
"Okay, but if you think of something you want you'll let me know right?" he joked.
"I'll let you know Crews," she shot back, "but this is plenty."
He held her tightly against him and when she drifted to sleep, he made her another promise. "I won't ever let anyone hurt you Dani. I won't let them drive us apart. You and me, we are all I ever want, everything I need. Some day when you'll let me - I'm gonna give you something else. I'm gonna make you a mother and you're gonna have the sweetest little girls. I'm going to spoil you all and no one will ever touch my girls."
In the back of her dulled brain, Dani heard the whispered supposings of her mate and part of her dismissed them as patent Crews ramblings, part of her acknowledged them as the logical outcome of their coupling and the type of man her partner was. All he'd ever wanted was a normal life, couple of kids, a nice house and a woman who loved and believed in him. He had the house and the woman; soon enough the kids would come. She would be terrified, but Charlie would be great and he'd more than make up for her shortcomings.
In a single day her whole life changed, but then a single day had changed his too. That event set them on a collision course and a conjoined future. She wondered if her father were alive, how pissed he'd be and how much he'd insisted her decision was about him. But it wasn't. Jack Reese may have put Charlie Crews in prison, but he didn't make him survive it, thrive on it and emerge from it like a phoenix from the ashes. "They" may have partnered Crews with her, but they'd never understand the things he did to her, the trust he'd rebuilt and faith he'd restored.
The angry part of Dani Reese wanted to turn him away when she'd seen him there on that stoop. But another stronger part wanted to run to him, like she had that day in the orange grove to feel his strong heart beating for her and his embrace that made her feel safe and loved. She realized he'd changed her, she could no longer reach for the easy anger, Crews' shield against the world covered her too. Crews was something no one had counted on – not even her; he was built of steel and tempered in the fires of hell. He looked light and fair but he possessed a strength she was just now beginning to appreciate. He was a force of nature, he was a warrior and he was the one true love every woman hopes for and so few find.