I closed my eyes, drowning in the pleasure as he pushed in and out and then soothed me with long licks all the way down to my clit. Then he moved upward, kissing my back, trailing his lips along my spine until I quivered. Then up my neck to my head, where he kissed my hair and inhaled.
And then he slid his cock into me gently.
I let out a soft moan.
I was sore from all the frantic fucking we’d done, and his entrance this time was oddly soothing, as though I was meant for this. We, together, were meant for it.
He made love to me slowly, sweetly, my walls hugging his cock every time he entered me. I felt so full, so complete. That emptiness I’d felt since I’d woken up in that room with Juliet was gone now.
Gone for good.
“So nice, baby,” he whispered against my neck, kissing it. “So perfect.”
He continued to pump in and out of me, and soon the familiar tingles in my clit emerged and I soared into climax. Every time was different yet the same. The feeling of two souls meeting and becoming one.
“That’s it, love. Come. Come for me. For us.” He thrust forcefully into me, his own orgasm erupting.
When his cock stopped pulsing, he withdrew and lay on his back. I turned to face him. His face and body were gleaming, his hair sticking to his neck. He’d never looked more magnificent.
“Three times in a little over an hour,” I said. “That’s got to be some kind of record.”
He chuckled. “I wanted you. Needed you. When I saw you… I was just so relieved that you were safe, and after talking to my father…” He sighed. “It’s all just too much to handle. Both he and Daphne have been alive all this time.”
“I know it’s a lot to digest. But you’ll get through it. You and your siblings are some of the strongest people I’ve ever met. Your sisters-in-law too. You’re all amazing.”
He opened his eyes and rolled onto his side so our gazes met. “And so is my wife-to-be.”
My skin prickled. He’d proposed in the heat of passion a few days ago, and I hadn’t answered. I wasn’t about to hold him to anything he shouted out during climax.
“You’re not saying anything,” he said.
Warmth crept up my neck and into my cheeks. “I’m not sure what to say.”
“‘Yes’ would be a good start.”
I smiled. “I want to say yes. But we haven’t known each other that long and—”
He covered my mouth with his fingers. “I was with Anna— Oh, God…Anna!” He sat up, pushing his damp hair off his forehead.
“What is it?”
“Anna. She’s here. They took her. She never went to Hawaii. I think the reason my father bought her ranch was… Oh my God.”
“Ryan. It’s okay. None of this is your fault.”
“If it hadn’t been for me… Shit, if it hadn’t been for me, Anna would still live on the little ranch next to ours. My mother wanted her away from me. That woman is pure evil!” He stood and paced around the bedroom, his feet imprinting the plush white carpeting.
I went to him, wanting to offer comfort but not knowing how. Anna was here? “You saw her?”
“Yeah. She was chained up with some other girls in the hallway of this place. A big building with rooms.”
“The dorms.”
“Yeah, like dorms. Wait…what?”
“They put me there my first night.”
He turned to me and gripped my shoulders. “What? Did they hurt you? Chain you?”
“No, no. I swear. Just put me in a room with a concrete floor to sleep off the drugs they gave me. Juliet was there.” Images flooded back to me, and tears welled in my eyes. “Two masked goons came in and raped her right in front of me.”
Ryan embraced me. Hard. “My God, I’m so sorry. But they didn’t touch you, did they? Swear to me that they didn’t.” His muscles were tense and rigid, as if they’d hardened into rock.
“No. They didn’t.” And the guilt I still felt from that was overwhelming.
“Ruby…don’t lie to me.”
“I’m not. I swear!”
“If you’re thinking you have to keep me out of trouble by lying—”
This time I placed my fingers over his mouth. “I’m not. It was terrible. I couldn’t help her. All I could do was watch. She didn’t even react.”
“I’m so sorry. We have to put a stop to this. We have to get Anna and Juliet and everyone else out of here.”
“Juliet is safe for now.”
“So are those two boys Talon insisted we rescue.”
“I can understand. I’m sure he saw himself in them.”
His features twisted into anguish. “But I couldn’t help Anna. She was locked up. I couldn’t get her away.”
“We’re going to get them all out. As soon as your father tells us what we’re dealing with. I swear it.” I touched his cheek.
He placed his warm hand over mine and lowered his head—
A cell phone rang.
He dropped his hand. “That’s me. Sorry.”
“Get it. It’s probably important.”
Ryan dug through the pockets of the black pants he’d been wearing and put the phone to his ear. “Tal, what’s going on?”
Chapter Twenty-Nine
Ryan
“I talked to Joe,” Talon said over the phone. “He’s fit to be tied, but the good news is the Grand Junction PD has dropped their investigation of him for accessory to the murder of Larry Wade.”
“That’s good.” A load should have lifted off my shoulders, but so much weighed me down, I didn’t feel any lighter.
“So Dad chartered a plane. Joe and Marjorie arrive late tomorrow morning.”
Ire prickled my spine. “Marjorie is coming here? That’s insane.”
“That’s what I said, but Dad says he won’t talk unless we’re all here. He has assured us of her safety.”
“And you believe him?”
“No. I don’t believe a word that comes out of the bastard’s mouth. But we can’t keep this from our sister forever, and with the three of us here, no one will get near her.”
“Bringing her here is nuts.”
“Well…I think we can safely say Dad is nuts. As are both your mother and mine.”
“At least yours isn’t a psycho.” I sighed and closed my eyes. “I’m sorry, Tal. You’ve been through so much more than—”
“For fuck’s sake, Ryan, this doesn’t always have to be about me! I’m so sick of you tiptoeing around me. You’re entitled to your own pain. Own it, for God’s sake.”
“I just meant—”
“You just meant that anything that has happened to you can’t possibly be as bad as what happened to me. Maybe it isn’t. Maybe it is. But what happened happened. I’ve had to own it. It’s time for you to own your own pain. Finding out you have a different mother than the rest of us couldn’t have been easy. None of us think it was. So stop feeling guilty for wanting to own your pain. It doesn’t lessen mine for you to keep belittling yours. I’m your brother, for God’s sake. I feel it with you.”
I had no words. Talon was so wise. He always had been, despite trying to push everyone away for so long. Joe was strength and Talon was wisdom. Where did that leave me? For now, I’d give my brother what he seemed to need and want. “All right, Tal. I get it.”
“Good. Because I have more news, and it’s not good.”
Chills raked over me as I prepared for the worst. “What is it?”
“Raj is missing.”
* * *
“Hey, he came highly recommended.” I gripped the edge of the table where I sat with my father and my brother over breakfast. Ruby was having breakfast with Juliet and the boys on the deck. Talon and I were eating with our father in the formal dining room, where no one on the deck could see us or hear us.
My father shook his head.
“I hear what you’re not saying,” I said. “You think we made a mistake hiring him. Well, you weren’t around to advise us, Dad. You were supposedly ashes in the earth.”
“I’m not in any position to give either of you advice.”
“You can say that again,” I said.
Talon was eerily quiet.
“What is it?” I asked him.
“Something was never right about him,” Talon said. “Someone on that yacht tampered with my oxygen tank or regulator.”
“We don’t know that for sure. It could have been a malfunction.” Though I couldn’t fault my brother’s observation. I addressed my father. “What were we supposed to do? Leave him when we got to this place? He was all we had.”
“No one’s criticizing,” Talon said.
“Bullshit.” I pointed to our father. “He is.”