His eyes flickered from aroused to grave for a split second. “Be careful what you wish for, doll.” Throat working up and down, Vaughn reached behind his head, snagged his shirt and yanked it off, baring the rough-hewn body of her fantasies. But, oh God, it was different. Different didn’t do it justice.
River reached out with gentle fingers and traced the jagged, violent, inked-over scars marring his once-perfect chest. Scars carved in the shape of her name, so crude they appeared as if they’d been inflicted with a dagger. A sound tripped over her trembling lips. “What did you do?”
“I needed something to remind me I’d been lucky once,” Vaughn murmured. “I know it’s not pretty, Riv, but that ain’t nothing compared to waking up and trying to…exist without you.”
His admission cut the leash on something wild inside of her. Frantic for a more substantial connection with the man staring down at her like he could suck in his final breath at any moment, River wedged her hands between them, unbuttoning Vaughn’s jeans. Heavy lids came down to conceal his eyes, that stubbled jaw going slack. “Do you have a—”
“In my pocket.” Vaughn’s eyes blazed open. “Wrap it up this time, you understand? I need about ten years of fucking you without a break. Just want to slide right up inside my woman’s * and remind the back of it what my tip feels like.” He slipped a hand between River’s thighs, twisting his hand in her panties and tearing them off. “Mmmm. You kept it warm for me.”
“Yes.” Lord, she’d missed the way he spoke to her. The way no one had ever dared, as if they were two objects put on this earth for the sole purpose of providing pleasure, giving them permission to touch, talk, move how they wanted. With frantic fingers, she delved into his pocket to locate the condom, holding it between her teeth as she unzipped his pants, whimpering and sobbing the whole time.
The muscles in Vaughn’s arms, neck, and chest flexed, his eyes squeezed closed, his mouth chanting the word hurry, again and again. River thought he would drive himself inside her the moment she’d seen to their protection—she needed him to—
but he took her by surprise, sliding off the bed’s edge and positioning his mouth just above her damp femininity, hovering there as he perused her beneath half-closed lids.
River lifted her hips with a needy sound. “Please.”
“Stop that begging,” he growled. “I’m doing this right, begging for you this time around.” His stiffened tongue dragged through her folds. “Asking you to please let me ram my cock into this pretty flesh. Need it. Need you. Need you so bad.”
Already, the high, inner section of her thighs was beginning to spasm, but Vaughn must have felt the tremors, because he pinned her limbs onto the bed. “Y-yes,” she cried out through clenched teeth. “Yes, you can have me.”
She clapped a hand over her mouth to stop from screaming when Vaughn’s tongue began to flick against her clit relentlessly, making it swell above the deep, resonating buzz of lust. “Love everything about this *. My too-tight second home,” he said, laying a hot, tongue kiss over her sensitive nub, before rising above River and planting a hand on the mattress. A gruff breath heaved past Vaughn’s lips as he thrust into her, his foul curse coloring the air. “And you…you’re my first home, Riv. Always have been,” he said shakily. “But I’m about to demolish you.”
Reunion. Her mind and body synched for the first time in years. She gasped for air and felt her lungs fill to a capacity she’d forgotten them capable of. The evidence of their irrevocable attraction pulsed between her legs, stretching flesh that remembered him, craved him. Thrills raced up her middle, starting at the point he ended and River began, although that line blurred and vanished when Vaughn dragged her hips to the bed’s edge. She expected their first time in four years to be fast and hard, but Vaughn’s heated expression told her he had other plans.
When Vaughn knelt on the floor, he took River with him, holding her against the mattress drop-off until only the tip of his huge erection remained inside her. And then he let go, allowing River to slip down and impale herself with a close-mouthed scream.
Vaughn’s head fell back, sensual mouth opening on a long, vile fuuuuck. “I could have done so much more with all those hours together, Riv. I think about how I missed out on taking you in so many different positions. God, all the ways I could have banged you if I’d just had some patience.” His hips ground in an up and back pattern beneath her, creating a sweet sizzle in her clit as his body massaged her at the deepest possible point. “It was all about getting inside you, wearing you out, slapping my balls up against that schoolgirl ass. I still want to, don’t I? I’d like to flip you over and get my nut, but I’m a man now. And you’re going to be treated like a woman on my watch. Say my name if you understand me.”
“Vaughn,” she breathed, widening her thighs and attempting to ride him, but big hands on her backside kept her seated and still. “Vaughn. Vaughn.”