Ride Hard (Raven Riders 1)

“Okay,” she said, turning against his body and stretching to kiss him. “I’m not a very good sleeper, though.”

“Don’t you worry about it,” he said, tucking a light brown wave behind her ear. “I’ll lock up and be right there.”

She stretched, revealing the soft skin of her stomach—and bringing his cock to life for possibly the thousandth time today. Not that he minded.

As she made for the steps, Dare hauled his ass off the couch, turned off the lights, and checked the doors. Her sounds echoed from upstairs—footsteps on the floorboards, the bathroom door shutting, the water running at the sink. The noises of someone else in his space were so unusual it was like his house was new to him all over again. He liked it. Too much.

He was on her the second she walked out of the bathroom door. Pressing her against the wall and kissing her deeply. Just because he could. She tasted like his mouthwash, and there was something really nice about that. And the smile she gave him when he released her? It lit him up inside like he hadn’t ever felt before.

When he finally made it to his room, he found her sitting stiffly on the edge of the bed. And that wasn’t going to do at all.

Walking toward the bed, he shed his shirt and unbuttoned his jeans. Haven’s eyes on him were like fire in his blood. When he reached her, he tugged her shirt over her head. Because there was no way he could put her in his bed and not bury himself inside her. “I’m gonna reach for you, Haven. All night long.” He tossed a handful of condoms on the bed.

She lifted her hips and let him pull off the borrowed boxers. “Good,” she said around the edge of a kiss. “I hope you do.”

Dare stepped out of his jeans until they were both nude. He didn’t know what tomorrow might bring, so he wanted nothing between them tonight. His fingers dipped between her legs. “Aw, you’re always so ready for me, aren’t you?”

“Yes,” she rasped, thrusting against his hand.

“I’m laying you out this time,” he said, pushing her back onto the dark gray covers. He helped her scoot up the bed until his body hovered over hers. “Nice and slow,” he said, staring into her eyes as he rolled on a condom, settled his weight on top of her, and pushed his cock into her pussy. “Nice and fucking deep.”

As he penetrated her inch by hot inch, he could’ve come from the expression on her face alone. Rapt, almost anguished, and with something that looked a whole helluva lot like affection in her beautiful eyes. Forehead to forehead, his fingers knotted in her hair while hers dug into his shoulders like he was the anchor in her storm. Fuck, he wanted to be that, too. Like he hadn’t wanted anything in a long time. Maybe ever.

His hips snapped against her, driving his cock hard and deep on a series of demanding, punctuated thrusts. She gasped and moaned his name on each stroke, her eyes falling closed and her mouth falling open so that they breathed each other’s air.

“Look at me,” he said, sucking her bottom lip into his mouth. “Look at me while I take you.”

“Yes,” she whispered. “You make me feel . . . oh God . . . better than I’ve ever felt in my whole life.”

Which made him realize he felt the same way.

It was, without question, the first time that fucking became laden with emotion for him. Despite all his lays, fucking had always been about the physical release, and maybe an hour or two of companionship, too. Not about emotion. Never about emotion. Maybe that wasn’t surprising, given the way he’d lost his virginity a million years ago, but a part of him had figured his wiring had just gotten crossed somewhere along the way. And he was fine with that. More than, actually. Because emotions were nothing if not messy. Losing his mother and brother had taught him that.

Haven’s hands grasped at his back, her movements becoming desperate, needy. He could feel her core tightening around him, clamping down. He ground himself against her clit, moving faster, harder, needing her to come.

“Oh, oh, God, Dare,” she cried as the orgasm rocked through her.

The minute it did, Dare let himself off the leash. He grasped her arms, pushed them against the mattress next to her head, and held her down as his hips swung hard and fast and rough against her, their skin slapping, the bed groaning, the wetness from her orgasm slicking his way. He worried he was holding her too tight but couldn’t let go, couldn’t back off, until finally he was coming inside her, coming hard, seeing fucking stars.

Seeing fucking everything.