They were both breathing fast and hard when he lifted her and pinned her against the wall with his body. When she slid a hand between them to grasp his cock and position it right where it belonged. Rafe managed to pause a moment there. He moved hair off her face, then tightened his fingers in the strands.
“I’ve never wanted anyone the way I want you, Mia,” he confessed, his voice ragged. He dropped his forehead to hers. “This is…”
He didn’t have words to describe the depth of need and emotion inside him and just shook his head.
Her nails bit into his shoulders where she’d peeled his shirt back. “Shut up and fuck me, Rafe.”
A growl rolled through his throat, and his hips lunged forward, penetrating her in one long stroke. Her cry mingled with his. His brain went white with pleasure. And need took over. The need to drive and drive and drive the intense pleasure between them.
With Mia’s legs tight at his hips, her nails digging into his skin, Rafe slammed her against the wall with each thrust. Her cries for more, harder, deeper drove him until she broke, arching against the wall, head dropped back, mouth open.
The feel of her coming, squeezing his cock, her juice raining over him, pushed him to the edge of sanity. Pushed him to demand more. He fucked her until her hands slipped on his sweaty skin. He fucked her with the frenzy of a man who’d found the Holy Grail. With the desperation of a man who knew the prize would be taken from him at any moment. He fucked her until she begged for mercy. And when he came, Rafe’s world spiraled.
While they caught their breath, Rafe grappled with the realization that there was no way in hell he could let her go—Tate or no Tate. Joe or no Joe. Riders or no Riders. He needed Mia with him more than all three of those combined.
15
Rafe felt like he was glowing when he hurried up the steps to the arena the next afternoon, glancing at his watch as he pushed through the locker room doors with two minutes to spare. He could have a goddamned light stick up his ass, he felt so amazing.
But as he walked the familiar cement hallway in the bowels of the stadium, with the familiar sounds of his team working out and talking echoing off the walls, Rafe was high on his fantastic day with Mia. A day that had given them time to bond. Just the two of them, relating as more than friends. And more than friends with benefits. Today, they’d bonded in a whole different way, in a whole different setting, with a whole different future on the horizon. Now, he just had to figure out how to get two other key individuals to see the same future.
And that shit was not going to be easy.
Or even possible.
Rafe turned into the locker room and greeted a few of the guys changing at their lockers, tossed his own bag down, and pushed off his shoes as he unzipped the duffel.
“’Bout time.” Tate dropped to a seat on the bench beside Rafe’s and leaned back, wiping his face with a towel. His hair was damp, and a dark gray sweat stain marked the front of his light gray tee. “Where the hell have you been all day?”
Rafe’s defensive instinct was immediate and automatic, and he had to consciously, purposefully tuck it away and relax. “I told you to come to the party. It would ease your mind about her being so far away if you saw where she was going to live and met some of her friends.”
Tate’s gaze drifted to the floor, and he lifted a shoulder. “If you say she’s good, I know she’s good.” His eyes darted back to Rafe just as he pulled his shirt off. “Is she? Good?”
Rafe’s mind immediately went in a whole different direction than Tate meant. And for the first time, it wasn’t even completely sexual. Mia was good for Rafe in every way. She always had been. Rafe just wasn’t convinced he was good for her in every way. Definitely not living across the country. And especially not if he cost her these important relationships.
Rafe nodded and told him the truth. “She is.”
“So what did you do today?” Tate asked, clearly miserable over the topic, but compelled to know.
“We drove down the coast—man, what a gorgeous day. Stopped at a popular beach spot for lunch. I let her walk around, shop, sort of get the feel of the place, you know?”
When Tate nodded, Rafe went on, leaving out all the handholding, all the smiles, all the sweet caresses. All the kissing and laughing and dreaming. He left out walking barefoot in the sand, chasing her in the cool ankle-deep surf while she laughed at him over her shoulder, picking her up off her feet and twirling her around until her hair and skirt flew out behind her.
“We stopped by the apartment, talked with Cynthia, her roommate, again. Then I dragged her to a department store and got her what she needed so she wouldn’t have to worry about the logistics or the finances of it when she got here. You know how she is. I had to argue with her and call it her housewarming, birthday, and Christmas present all wrapped into one and agree to let her pay me back at least half—which was a total lie on my part—before she relented.”
“Bet that got ugly. Good call, bro.”
“We took the drive to and from work to see what that was like. Did a little research on public transportation and the price of cars…” Rafe trailed off and cut a look at Tate where he bunched the towel in his hands, thoughts turning in the wheels of his head. “You’re taking this move awfully hard.”
“I just wish she’d talked to me first. Between you, me and Dad, we could have found her something closer.”
Another thought Rafe had been tossing around entered his mind again. He braced his hand against the locker, took a breath, and just said it. “You think you might be connecting Mia leaving with Lisa leaving?”
Mention of his ex-wife brought Tate’s head up, and if eyes could throw daggers, Rafe would be a dead man. “That’s stupid. The two don’t connect at all. What are you trying to say?”
Rafe lifted his hands in surrender. “Just that it might bring back some of the same feelings, which could be making this harder for you than it should be.”
“When did you become Dr. Phil? I noticed you and Mia patched up your yearlong silence fast. You two are suddenly inseparable. Want to tell me what that’s about?”