Chapter Thirty-Eight

Rio

The funeral was small. The people in attendance weren’t there for Tory. They had come for Bryn and Cullen. I stood beside her, holding her hand. Her tears had seemed to finally stop, and she was still and silent during the short ceremony. Cullen also hadn’t cried. Bryn was worried about it, but the kid saw what she didn’t realize. She was his mother. She had taken care of him his entire life. Tory had just been there.

Henley and Saul stood behind us. Hillya stood beside Henley with Hazel on the other side of her. Drake was on the other side of Saul. He had come for my sake. Then, there were the two owners of The Red Stiletto—Marley, along with her husband, and Saint, who wouldn’t fucking stop looking at Bryn. A dancer I remembered from the night I had gone to the club was also here, and I knew Drake was glad he had come now. She was clothed, but unlike Bryn, she still wore the heavy makeup and tight clothing when she wasn’t working.

The last prayer was said, and Bryn stepped forward and tossed the bright yellow rose she’d said was her sister’s favorite onto the casket. Cullen tossed his next.

“Good-bye, Mama,” he said, and I heard Bryn let out a small sob. The first one today.

She wrapped her arms around his shoulders when he walked back to stand with her. He hugged her tightly. It was then I saw the tears in his eyes swimming like pools. Bryn sat back down in her chair and pulled him onto her lap and held him while they cried softly together.

I saw Henley pull out a tissue and blot her own tears as she watched them. It was done.

The others talked in muted tones, and as they left, they didn’t bother Bryn and Cullen.

I thanked Saul and Drake for coming. I hugged Hazel and Hillya. They were following the others, but there was one person not leaving. Saint stood off to the side, watching Bryn. I hadn’t forgotten about the night at the club and how protective he’d been of her and how she’d put his leather jacket on like she did that often, nor when he had shown up at her apartment.

She hadn’t slept with him, and he hadn’t gone down on her, but what had happened between them? Because he was looking at her like he wanted to tuck her under his arm and run. I didn’t like it. He needed to leave.

His gaze swung to me, and I met it. He wasn’t taking what was mine. He smirked at me, and that pissed me off. He hadn’t tasted her. He hadn’t been the first and only man inside her. He’d had plenty of time before this past weekend to do both those things.

Was her being off-limits a challenge for him?

Bryn wiped Cullen’s face off with a tissue, then did the same for her face.

She smiled down at him and kissed his nose. “I love you,” she told him.

“I love you,” he replied.

She took his hand, and they stood up. Her gaze went to Saint’s first, and there was some insanely possessive monster inside me roaring. Why did she look at him? Was he someone she wanted and he didn’t give her attention? Did she want him?

Then, her gaze moved to mine, and she smiled. My smile. The one for me. She bent down and said something to Cullen, who nodded, then ran to me. I held out my arms to him, and I picked him up when he reached me. Feeling like I had just been given fucking gold. Then, I saw Bryn hadn’t followed him. She had walked over to Saint. I tensed, watching them.

“Aunt Bryn had to tell that guy thanks for coming. Then, she’ll be over here. Don’t worry; he won’t hurt her. I thought he was scary, too, at first.”

He had seen him more than once? How often had he been around?

“Do you know his name?” I asked him, wondering how well Cullen knew the guy.

Cullen shrugged. “Can’t remember.”

I put Cullen down and took his hand, then started walking over to Bryn. I wasn’t going to just stand here and let some other man look at her like she might be his. She wasn’t. I would make that shit perfectly clear for him. I didn’t give a rat’s ass that he was built like a wall.

Saint locked his gaze on me as I approached. I didn’t look away from him. I stopped beside Bryn. I could feel her gaze on me, but I didn’t break eye contact with Saint.

He shook his head and smirked, then looked at Bryn.

“I can wait,” he said. “One day.”

“Don’t,” she said to him and shook her head. “Not here. Not today.”

He nodded, then looked at me. “If you mess up, I’ll be waiting.”

I scowled at him. “You’ll wait in vain.”

He gave a small shrug, then turned and walked away.

I wouldn’t make her tell me or explain today. She needed today to be about Tory. It was clear she had chosen me. But if there was a history between them, I wasn’t sure I could live with her working with him. Especially topless.

Cullen took Bryn’s hand. “Let’s go,” he said.

Each of us holding one of Cullen’s hands, we walked silently together toward the Jeep.

“Are you coming to our apartment?” Cullen asked me.

I looked over at Bryn. “Yes,” I replied.

She smiled, then rolled her eyes as if she could read my thoughts and they were unwarranted. Either way, she was going to have to explain Saint and his belief that she would be his one day. The image of her in his leather jacket, naked underneath, was going to fuck with my head all damn evening. But I would not make her talk about it today. I wouldn’t. I was better than that.

Cullen fell asleep after eating the chicken casserole Hillya had sent over and the mac and cheese my gramma had sent. Bryn had bathed him before dinner because she was afraid he might not make it much longer. There had been no nap today, and after burying his mother, he was drained emotionally. I carried him to the bed, and Bryn pulled back the covers, then tucked him in. She pressed a kiss to his temple, then stood up. Neither of us touched the sound machine.

We went out quietly, and she closed the door, then looked up at me and sighed. “This is a day I never want to live through again.”

I took her arm and pulled her closer, then kissed the top of her head. “Come on,” I said, then led her to the bathroom in the master bedroom.

“It’s your turn to bathe, then get in bed,” I told her, then started to prepare her bath for her.

“I want a shower. I need to wash everything about today away.”

I then moved over to the walk-in shower to make sure she had a washcloth, towel, and other necessities. When I turned around, she was standing there in nothing but her panties. It took all my self-control to look at her eyes and nowhere else. Today was not the day. She was exhausted.

“I’ll leave you to it,” I said and started to leave the room.

“You’re going to make me shower alone?” she asked.

I slowly turned back around and looked at her. “Yeah. I figured that would be what you wanted,” I replied.

She started taking off her panties. “It’s not what I want. I want to be touched. I want to be reminded I am alive. I want to feel something that isn’t sadness or regret.” She dropped her panties in the laundry basket. “I want you to make me forget everything.”

I closed the bathroom door and locked it. Then, I let my eyes rake over her body while I stripped off my clothing. She turned on the shower and was just stepping into the warm steam when I followed her inside.

I wrapped my arms around her and ran my hands from her stomach up to her breasts to hold them and pinch her the way she liked. Her head fell back on my shoulder and gave me the view I wanted while I adored every inch of the best tits I had ever seen.

Her full lips opened as she moaned, and I wanted to feel them against mine. I grabbed her waist and turned her around to face me, so I could kiss that plump bottom lip, then bit it before enjoying the unique, addictive taste that was hers alone. My hands roamed over her body, grabbing her ass and squeezing. Then, finally, I slipped my hand down between her legs and played where she wanted me most.

“Y-y-yes,” she said, breaking the kiss and letting her head fall on my chest as I teased and rubbed her wet folds.

“Is this what you wanted?” I asked her, then shoved a finger inside her.

She tilted her head back and gazed up at me. “No. F-f-fuck me,” she panted. “I n-n-need y-you.”

“Turn around,” I said in her ear. “Put your hands on the wall and stick that sweet ass out for me.”

She looked unsure, but she did as I’d told her.

So fucking innocent. God, I loved it.

“Open your legs wider,” I said, and when she did, I slipped my hand between them to prepare her a little more. Although she felt ready.

A condom. Fuck!

“P-p-please!” she begged and wiggled her ass at me.

“I don’t have a condom.” The words felt like a damn knife in my gut. I hadn’t come inside tonight, prepared to have sex.

She looked back over her shoulder. “I don’t care. I want you inside me.”

I looked down at her open for me. I knew I was clean. I had been tested, and I didn’t fuck without condoms. But that wasn’t all there was to worry about.

“Rio! Please!” she whimpered, as if in as much pain as I was.

Screw the damn condom. I’d never done this before, but if I was gonna go without one, then it would only be with Bryn.

I grabbed her hips and thrust inside her, not prepared for how it would feel to go bare.

There was no fucking explanation that would do it justice. The sheer fucking nirvana. Hot, wet. So, so tight. All without anything between us. I could feel the heat, the juices from her pussy with no barrier. I stilled inside her as my body roared with the newfound paradise.

She moved her hips back, wanting me to move. I looked down at her round ass stuck up against me. She pleaded to be fucked, and I snapped. The caveman inside me wanted to mark her. I wasn’t thinking about anything other than giving us both what we wanted.

“FUUUCK,” I groaned when the pleasure was just too good. “I love this pussy.”

I pounded into her from behind, and she met me with every thrust. Crying out my name and God’s.

“That’s it. So damn perfect. Mine,” I said, splaying a hand on her back and watching as I slid in and out of her. Growing more insane as I saw my bare cock with her wetness on it.

She moaned and began to tremble and shake. “I-I-I’m co-coming!” she cried out, and I knew I needed to pull out and finish on her back.

She slammed up against me and arched her back. “M-m-m-more!” she begged.

She threw her wet hair over her shoulder and looked back at me. “Don’t st-st-stop,” she said, continuing to moan and press back into me with each thrust.

Clenching my teeth, I held on. Watching her made it harder. When she started to come again, she cried my name, and I couldn’t hold on anymore.

My release burst out of me as I held on to her hips. “GAHHHH!” I roared as I pumped into her, feeling like she was truly being marked with each spurt of my cum.

I was making her mine. Saint wouldn’t take her. He didn’t have this. I did.

When we were both sated, she turned around and wrapped her arms around me. I held her as the water continued to wash over us.

“Thank you,” she whispered against my chest.

The idea of her thanking me for that made me chuckle.

She looked up at me and frowned. “What?”

I pushed the wet locks from her face. “You just gave me the most incredible experience of my life, and you’re thanking me? I came inside you, Bryn. I couldn’t pull out. I tried. God, I tried, but you were so hot, and you felt so good, and you were squeezing me and crying out in orgasm. I wanted my release inside you.”

She smiled and pressed a kiss to my chest. “That was what felt so good. There was a warm gush, and then everything just felt even better.”

Jesus Christ. I might end up fucking us both to death.

“We are going to need to get you on birth control,” I said.

She grinned. “So, you will do it again?” she asked hopefully.

I cupped her face in my hands. “I will do it as many times a day as you want it.”

She smiled, pleased, and then she yawned.

“Time for bed,” I told her.

She didn’t argue.

When we curled up in her bed together, she didn’t tell me to go to another room. She held on to me, and, damn, it felt good.