The Brightest Sunset (The Darkest Sunrise #2)

“Not tonight,” he whispered. “Tonight, he’s happy. Tonight, I’m here with you. Tonight, we’re together. Tonight, nothing outside this apartment matters. Tonight, your son sleeps safely in your bed. Tonight, my kids sleep soundly for the first time in a week. And, tonight, we can share the darkness.”

My mind drifted back to only a few weeks earlier, the first time Porter had taken me to the confessional in the darkness. It was a night I’d never forget because it was the first time I’d ever given myself to someone else. Not physically, though that had happened too. But emotionally. I’d offered him my deepest, darkest secrets. And he’d taken them, devoured them, and made them his own. He’d made the darkness a beautiful place filled with understanding and acceptance.

Porter was like that. Everything was easier with him

Everything except losing him.

So I asked him the same question he’d asked me that first night together. “What’s going to happen when we turn on the lights?”

“Just don’t let go and it won’t matter.”

“How are we going to do this? Technically, Porter, you’re breaking the law by even being here. The police—”

“I had nothing to do with the kidnapping,” he growled.

“I know! And I believe you. But the police are still investigating you. You end up in jail for breaking the protection order, it’s not going to help anyone.”

“So we lay low for a few weeks. But, damn it, Charlotte, we will find a way to make this work. This is my life. This is your life. This is his life. And her life. This is our life and you know it. We’ll figure out the details later, but for now, all I need from you is a promise that we are going to do this. No matter what. We’re in this together.”

My heart soared higher than I ever thought possible. Porter had the most amazing knack of getting into my subconscious and untying the knots I so often made out of obstacles. With him, my thoughts weren’t jumbled and my fears weren’t roadblocks.

“God, I missed you,” I breathed, giving him my very last confession.

“Does that mean you’re with me?”

“Yeah, baby. I’m with you.”

“And we’re going to do this, right?”

“Yeah. We’re going to do this.”

And then Porter gave me his last confession, only his was a little more tangible.

His lips crashed down on mine, our mouths opening and our tongues tangling, needy and desperate.

His lips felt like velvet, smooth even as they were rough and demanding. And, with his every touch, a week’s worth of panic and anxiety ebbed from my system. In its absence, every nerve ending in my body came alive, desire filling me.

I tugged at the bottom of his shirt, frantic to feel more of him—all of him.

He broke the kiss long enough to snatch it over his head, mine meeting the same fate less than a second later.

His mouth once again covered mine, and he yanked my bra down, both of my breasts popping free of the cups. His dexterous fingers immediately found my nipples, plucking and rolling, sending sparks to my clit.

“Yes,” I breathed, falling back on the sink until my shoulders hit the cold mirror.

Using my legs to force him forward, I rolled my hips against his, finding glorious friction against his hard length hidden behind his zipper.

“Fuck,” he ground out, releasing my breasts and moving his hands down to my core. His fingers dipped into my yoga pants, swept my panties to the side, and then pressed in deep.

My back arched and my ass slipped off the vanity, but Porter held me in place with an arm hooked under my hips.

“Keep going,” he encouraged in a jagged voice as I began working myself against his hand. His thumb dropped to my clit, drawing slow circles as his fingers curled inside me. “Come on, sweetheart. Give it to me,” he urged before hunching over to suck my nipple into his mouth.

The combination was too much, beautiful and agonizing at the same time. My nerve endings became overloaded with sensations to the point I couldn’t focus anymore, but Porter never slowed.

His fingers twisted.

His tongue swirled.

His thumb circled.

“Porter,” I cried, my release tearing through me.

His head popped up, sealing over my mouth as he swallowed my moans until I sagged in his arms.

And then…he was gone.

My pants were ripped down my legs, and the sound of his zipper played the harmony to my labored breathing.

And then…he was everywhere.

His mouth came back to mine, his hand guided his thick shaft to my entrance, and his strong body surged forward as he drove inside me.

I clung to his shoulders as he dragged me to the edge of the counter, the lip of it biting into my ass as his hips began a relentless rhythm that lit the fuse on yet another orgasm.

“Oh God,” I moaned as he planted himself at the hilt.

“Shh,” he ordered, pressing up onto his toes to change the angle, as if he could possibly get deeper. “You have to be quiet.”

I nodded even though he couldn’t see me, yet he somehow understood.

He resumed his tortuous rhythm, driving into me in the hunt for his own release. “Fuck, Charlotte,” he groaned, his breaths coming quicker, his shaft swelling inside me.

He was close.

I was closer.

Circling my hips, I ground against him. “Baby,” I called in a whisper.

“I’m right here, Charlotte,” he swore. “Always.”

My release climbed higher until I wasn’t sure I could hold on any longer, and when I felt Porter step off the edge, I eagerly followed him over.

He folded forward, burying his face in my neck, his hips never faltering as we rode our orgasms out together.

Lazily, I trailed my fingertips up and down his back, his large frame hovering over me, both of us panting.

“Jesus,” he breathed.

I smiled.

Righting himself, he gripped my hips so I didn’t teeter off the edge of the counter and grumbled, “Why is there never a fucking bed in the darkness?”

There was no way I could have stopped the loud bubble of laughter that came from my throat.

His shoulders shook as he joined me. Cupping the back of my neck, he pressed his smiling lips to mine in a kiss that meant more to me than he would ever be able to comprehend. Sans the incredible sex that had preceded it, there was nothing special about that kiss.

But maybe that was what made it so perfect.

It was easy, and it made the overwhelming world outside my apartment feel easy too.

“Close your eyes. I’m gonna turn on the lights,” he whispered.

My stomach sank, and I gripped his shoulders tight. “Nothing’s going to change when you do, right?”

He caught my hand and folded his around it, intertwining our fingers before bringing it to his lips. “Everything’s going to change, Charlotte. And I swear to you, no matter what happens, we’re going to do that together, okay?”

My nose began to sting. Fucking Porter and his hand holding.

God, I loved it so much.

“Okay, baby. Turn on the lights.”




“I didn’t know!” I defended.

Porter smirked across the kitchen, his hip propped against the counter and his long legs crossed at the ankle. “Seven?”