His dick wasn’t really listening, though. He stayed erect, picturing Elise, soft and sleepy and curled up in his blankets.
Rome turned his bike off before he pulled into the parking lot, rolling it just off the road and walking the rest of the way in. It was late, and if he roared in with it, the muffler would announce to everyone that he’d arrived, and he wanted to talk to Elise in private. One on one.
He walked to the line of cabins and headed toward his old one. For a moment, he wanted to peer into the window, but that would mark him as a perv, wouldn’t it? Very carefully, he turned the doorknob, testing it.
Not locked. He carefully eased the door open and slipped in, then closed it behind him.
And gazed down at the woman sleeping in the bed.
She was wearing an old T-shirt to sleep in, her long hair spilling across the pillows. And she looked so achingly beautiful that his heart hurt. He moved to the bed, watching her sleep for a moment longer, and then crouched next to the side of the bed and brushed his fingers over her cheek. In the sliver of moonlight let in by the curtains, her cheek was perfect.
Hell, what was he saying? She was always perfect in his eyes. Always.
Elise started awake, her gaze automatically turning to him. Her eyes were unfocused, and then a smile blossomed across her face as she realized who he was.
“Hey, baby,” he whispered, his voice aching with want. God, he wanted this woman. Not just for sex, but to be his, forever.
“Rome,” she breathed, sitting up. To his surprise, she immediately reached for him and pulled his face toward hers. Her lips descended on his and she began to kiss him hungrily.
His shock abated a moment later and he kissed her back, his tongue sweeping into her mouth as if he’d never left her. As if the weeks of depression and self-loathing for ignoring her were forgotten. His Elise was kissing him, and the world was perfect in that moment.
His hands dug into her hair and he held her against him, his mouth working hers over as he gave her every ounce of his passion and longing. His tongue slicked against hers over and over again, and she made a soft mewing sound of appreciation that made his dick even harder. She was so very sexy, even freshly woken from sleep.
“Rome,” she breathed between kisses. “Oh, Rome. You came back. I’m so glad.”
He reluctantly pulled his mouth from hers, though he was unable to resist sucking on her lower lip one last time. Then he sighed. “God, I missed you.”
“I missed you, too,” she said softly. “Why’d you leave me like that?”
“I’m just . . . I’m wrong for you. It’s a shit answer, I know. I thought it’d hurt less if I just up and left.” He’d been wrong, though. He’d ached over it every hour of every day, even when trying to lose himself in mindless work.
“You really, really hurt me,” she said, her hands covering his where they cupped her face. Tears spilled out of her eyes. “I didn’t know if I was just imagining how things were between us, or if you really cared for me after all.”
He felt like the lowest man on earth for making her cry. “Me leaving has nothing to do with how I feel about you. It was all me.” He leaned in and kissed her mouth tenderly again. “I’m so sorry for hurting you, baby. But I’m here now, and we’re going to make things right, okay?”
The look on her face became guarded, uneasy.
He hated that. He hated that she felt wary around him. Like she didn’t know if she could trust him. He didn’t blame her—he’d run off on her, hadn’t he? Like a fucking dirtbag.
“Rome—”
“Shh,” he told her, kissing her sweet mouth again. And again. He could kiss her for days and never get tired. “I just want you to know that whatever you decide, I support you. I’m here for you from now on.” He didn’t tell her that he wanted it, though he hoped she’d choose to have it with him. To have a family with him.
She closed her eyes as if in pain.
“I’ll get a job somewhere. Anywhere. I’ll make money for you and the kid. I promise. You can count on me. I know that sounds ridiculous, considering what just happened, but I want you to know that I’m serious about this.”
She licked her lips, opened her eyes, and sighed.
“I’m not pregnant, Rome.”
The breath whistled out of his lungs. He stared at her. “You . . . lost it? Already?” Was that why she looked so unhappy?
“No.” Her fingers brushed his, trying to soothe him. “I was never pregnant. I said it so you would come back and we could talk. I’m sorry.”
She what?
He jerked away from her, getting to his feet. Anger surged, mixed with relief and confusion. He ran a hand over his skullcap of hair, trying to get a handle on his mind, and paced.
“God damn it, Elise, that is a hell of a lie.” The shock was beginning to settle in to him and he glared at her. “How could you do that to me? I’ve been in a panic all night, thinking I ruined your life!”
“I know,” she said, pressing her palms to her forehead and looking just as distraught as him. “I know it was an awful thing to do, but I didn’t know how else to get you back here so we could talk about you and me!”
“You and me?” Ah hell. If there was no baby, he had no excuse to be around her at all. “There can’t be a you and me, Elise. You need to give up and find someone better than me.”
She smacked a fist into the bedding. “Stop saying that, Rome! I’m so sick of hearing you talk down about yourself.”
“This is a hell of a joke to play on a man, Elise.” He shook his head and began to head for the door again.
“No!” she said in a panicked voice, and to his surprise, she barreled past him to press her body against the door of her cabin. “You’re not leaving until we talk.”
He looked down at her, at the tangles spilling over her shoulders, her breasts heaving under the thin material of the T-shirt, nipples pressing against the fabric. He could barely see a glimpse of bright pink panties. His cock reacted to her nearness again, and he forced himself to ignore it. “I don’t want to talk to you if you’re just going to try and manipulate me. I can’t stand that.”
“Because people do that to you all the time, don’t they?” She gasped, a hand flying to her mouth. “Oh shit. I’ve made this worse, haven’t I? God, I am so stupid!”
He shook his head. “Stop that. Elise, just let me leave, okay? Clearly this was a bad idea.”
“No,” she said, clinging to his shirt and blocking his way to the door. “I’m not going to be sorry, because it got you here with me, okay? You’re just going to have to suck it up and deal.”
He gave her a look of surprise. Tough love coming out of his sweet, giving Elise? That was a new one. “That was a shitty thing you did.”
“And it was shitty of you to abandon me and ignore all my calls, so now we’re even.”
To his surprise, he found himself smiling down at her. His shy Elise was standing up to him and giving him lip? That was so . . . sexy.
She stared up at him, her gaze serious. “Rome . . . I know about your past.”
Sickness churned in his gut, but he somehow managed a half-grimace that he hoped looked like a smile. “Guess it had to come out at some point.”
She said nothing, simply watched him with shining eyes.
He jerked away, turning and pacing across the room. Great. Just when he thought things couldn’t get more fucked-up. “How did you find out? You run a background check on me or something?” So much for trust.
Elise leaned against the door. “Actually, my brother did. And he showed it to me.”
“Figures,” he murmured. Should have known. Grant had been waiting to nail him with the information after all. Rome paced, staring at the floor, at the wall, anywhere except at her. He couldn’t look at her. Not right now.
God damn it, he felt embarrassed. Why had she called him back here? So she could rub it in his face?
“You should have told me.”
He laughed at that, shak
ing his head. “It’s not something you ease into a conversation. Hey, how are you doing? Did you know I served four years in Huntsville? Gee, hope this doesn’t change your opinion of me.” His voice was sarcastic, bitter.
“I wasn’t trying to pry,” she said quietly. “I only found out because I wasn’t sure why you . . . abandoned me.” He hated to hear the wobble in her voice. “Grant wanted me to understand . . . the bigger picture.” She took a deep, shaky breath. “He’s been trying to convince me that you’re not right for me, and that you’re dangerous, but I just keep telling him that I love you and your past doesn’t matter to me.”
He stilled. She still loved him? “Elise—”
“I know what you’re going to say,” she interrupted. “That you aren’t good enough for me and that same old song and dance you constantly trot out all the time. I know you went to prison for four years. I know your credit’s shit. I know you have a record. And I know on paper it looks really, really bad.” She paused, and then added softly, “And I know none of that is you. Never has been. Never will be. You’re not a dealer or a scam artist. You’re just one person, very alone, trying to find a place in the world. And I know what that’s like.”
Rome stared at the wall, unable to turn around and look at her. His eyes were burning rather suspiciously, but he blinked rapidly to quell any tears. He was a man, damn it. He didn’t fucking cry.
Especially not when a girl told him that she believed in him. That the worst about him wasn’t true.
No one ever believed in him. They just took one look at his appearance, at his record, and they assumed the worst. That Rome Lozada, aka John Lozada the third, was exactly the shitbird that showed on paper.
“Elise,” he said, and hated how hoarse his voice was.
Her arms went around him from behind, locking around his torso, and he felt her cheek press against his back. “I never thought it was you. Not for an instant. And when I talked to Jericho—”
“God damn it, I knew it—” he began.
“Hush,” she said with a light smack to his chest that surprised him and amused him at the same time. “I refused to take no for an answer. He can’t be blamed. But he did tell me about . . . your family. And your childhood. And your mother, and that you took the fall for her. It just confirmed everything I knew about you. That you’re a good guy who came from mixed-up people who tried to drag you down. And you’re trying to rebuild yourself into someone new.”
He swallowed hard.
Her hands continued to caress him, wrapped around him, her cheek pillowed on his upper back. “Just because I’m shy doesn’t mean I don’t know what I want, Rome. When I told you I loved you, I meant it. It’s never changed.”
His throat ached. “You deserve better than me.”
“You and I both know that’s not true,” she murmured, her hands gliding up and down his chest, as if she couldn’t get enough of touching him. It was strangely intimate to have her behind him, caressing him, when he couldn’t see her face, couldn’t know what she was thinking. “How could I possibly deserve better than a man who is sexy, kind, patient, wonderful, and makes a scarred virgin with lopsided shoulders feel like she’s the most beautiful woman in the world when she’s with him?”
Rome groaned and turned around in her grasp, cupping her face in his hands. He stared down into her shining eyes, so full of love and trust, and his heart ached all over again. Very slowly, very tenderly, he leaned in and kissed the tip of her nose. “How can I not think you’re the most beautiful woman in the world when you are to me?”
She blinked rapidly, and he realized some of the shine in her eyes was tears. “You’ve always seen me, Rome. You don’t know how rare that is. How can I not see you? How can I not love you with all my heart?”
“God, I love you so much,” he said to her, and leaned in and gently kissed her mouth. “So, so much. I wanted to tell you how I felt, but that would have been so shitty of me when I was planning on leaving.”
She kissed him back frantically, her mouth as urgent as his. “Why go, though? Why abandon me?”
“Grant wanted me to leave you alone,” he said between hot, fierce kisses. Exultation poured through him as her mouth softened under his, welcoming his touch, and her hands dragged at his clothing, as if she wanted him naked. “It was either push you away or go. So I left.”
“But you still pushed me away,” she told him breathlessly, her hands moving to his belt buckle and undoing it. “Don’t you understand? You still hurt me. Also, I’m going to kill my brother.”
“You can’t be mad at him,” Rome said, burying his hands in her silky tangles—god, he loved her hair—and tilting her head so he could slick his tongue against her ear. “He was just looking out for you like a good brother. I’m not mad at him. If you were my sister, I’d have done the same.”
“If I were your sister, I wouldn’t be about to shove my hand down the front of your pants,” she murmured breathlessly, and then did exactly that. “So let’s not talk about family anymore.”
Her hand wrapped around his dick and squeezed, and he groaned. That felt amazing.
“Come to bed,” she told him softly. And she began to step backward, toward the bed.
Well, considering she had her hands around his cock, he’d follow her anywhere. He tore off his shirt as he headed toward bed with her, loving the soft little sound of pleasure she made as he bared his chest.
As they got to the bed, she gave his cock another squeeze and then moved her hands out of his pants and began to tug them down his legs. “I have condoms,” she told him. “I bought them when I first asked you out.” She gave him a shy little smile. “I’m so glad I did, too.”
“I’m glad you did, too,” he admitted. “I didn’t bring any with me. I didn’t picture . . . this. Not any of this.” It was more than he’d dreamed of, to be honest. To know that Elise knew all of him and still loved him? He felt like the luckiest son of a bitch ever.
She grinned up at him and patted his leg. “Then you undress and I’ll get the condoms.”
“Yes, ma’am,” he told her, shucking his pants and watching her walk to the bathroom. There was a sexy roll to her hips as she walked, and he wondered how he’d never seen it before.
Everything Elise Markham did was sexy. She even slept sexy. Damn, he was lucky.
She returned a moment later and held up the condoms, just as he slipped under the blankets, naked. “Found them.”
“Then get over here,” he told her, opening his arms.
A brilliant smile crossed her face and she looked so beautiful in the moonlight. She moved to his side of the bed and slid under the blankets next to him, her leg hitching around his naked hip.
He pulled her close and began to kiss her again, his mouth feverishly working hers with hot, nipping kisses. His hands tugged at her shirt, dragging it up and exposing her breasts.
Hot, delicious little whimpers escaped her throat as he kissed her, and her hands clawed at him, urgent in their need. Her mouth opened under his, hot, wet, and demanding.
Rome dragged her hips over his, his hands clasping her ass and spreading her legs so she straddled him. Then he pressed up against her sex with a push of his hips, and loved her moan of response. Her shirt was getting in the way, so he pushed it higher. He thumbed both tiny nipples, then took the closest one in his mouth, sucking on it.
She gasped and her hips bore down on his cock, and she gave a fluid little roll that rubbed her pussy down his length.
He groaned, teasing the nipple in his mouth even as he pulled at the waistband of her panties. He wanted her naked, wanted to feel that slick heat against his cock.
She rolled off to the side then, tugging her panties off with a speed that shocked him, and then dragged her shirt over her head. Then she was naked, all stretched out and glorious next to him, and he moved, pushing her down on the bed and covering her delectable body with his heavier one.
“Gimme that condom,” he told her, then kissed her mou
th again.
“I want to be inside you.”
She moaned. “I want you inside me, too.”
He took the condom from her and sat up, opening the package and quickly rolling the sheath down his cock. He tossed the wrapper on the ground and then fell over her again, kissing her hungrily. He had to make sure she was ready for him, though. His hand reached between her legs and he brushed his fingers over the folds of her pussy. She was already wet for him. “Damn, Elise. How do you get so wet so fast?”
“Your mouth,” she said, pressing kisses to his jaw. “Your touch. Everything. You make me wet.”
“I love you,” he told her again, and pressed his length between her thighs. He dragged his cock up and down her slickness, lubricating it. “Love the way you’re always so ready for me. Love the way you look up at me. Love the way you feel when you’re around me.”
“I love you, too,” she said softly, and her fingertips danced over his mouth. “You make me so happy.”
He kissed her again, even as he hitched her legs around his hips. Rome positioned his cock at her entrance, and then thrust deep.
She arched off the bed, her breath shuddering. “Oh, yes. Oh, I missed you, Rome.”
He’d missed her, too. Missed her sweet body, her lovely smile, her shining eyes. He took her mouth again, even as he began to thrust into her, each stroke pounding into the tight clasp of her pussy. This wasn’t going to be a long, tender seduction. This was a claiming, and he was staking his claim on Elise. She was his.
Her hips rose to meet his furiously, and she panted with each stroke. “Yes,” she told him each time he pushed deep. “Yes, yes.”
He reached between them and placed his thumb over her clit, her movements making friction in her most sensitive of places.
Her cries became louder, and his mouth covered hers, swallowing her shrill cries of “Yes, yes!” as he pumped into her fiercely, claiming her for his own. As soon as he felt her begin to spasm around him with her own orgasm, and felt her grow even wetter than before, he came, groaning her name and his love for her into her ear.