Ride Wild(32)

Her expression went so, so soft. For him. "I'm really glad of that, Slider. So glad you feel better."

"It's you, Cora. It's me, too, some. But you worked your way into my  heart and my head and my house and my whole life until I could see again  that I had a life. One I'd been neglecting. One I hadn't been  appreciating. So I don't know how I'm going to pretend, either. And  frankly, I don't want to, not anymore. Because I care about you, too.  And not just as a friend."

"You . . . really?" she asked, her eyes so wide and her face so damn pretty.

God, she didn't get it, did she? Just how much she'd done to change his  life . . . But he was going to make sure she did from here on out.  "Really. I don't know where we go or what we call it or how public we go  with it, but there's something here. And I want it. I want you."





Chapter 16




Cora could hardly believe what she was hearing. She'd been so scared of  what he'd think once he knew her horrible secret, and here, revealing  the truth had brought her this . . . this chance.

"Except for that one terrible moment when I wished for it, I've been  invisible my whole life. A father who didn't want to be bothered with  me. A mother who resented me and didn't want me around. Teachers that  didn't believe I'd amount to anything because of where I was from."

Slider shook his head. "I won't let you feel that now. I see you, Cora. And I don't want to stop seeing you."

"Then don't, Slider. Don't stop."

Urgent and deep, their kiss felt like a promise, an oath, a beginning.  Cora climbed Slider until she straddled him, her body rising up over  him, forcing him to recline against the back of the couch. Clutching his  face, his scruff rough under her palms, she sucked his tongue into her  mouth and ground her body against his. His fingers dug into her hips and  his grip urged her to rub her core against the bulge of his cock. And  God help her, she did. Shamelessly and frantically and breathlessly  until she was gasping into his mouth and shaking.

"Fuck, Cora. I want inside you," Slider rasped around the edge of a kiss. "Before you come, take my cock inside you."

She fumbled with her jeans, giving a frustrated groan when she had to  separate from him to take them off. Watching her strip from the waist  down, he shoved his jeans to his knees. They both needed it too much to  do more, and then she was climbing astride again, her heat to his  hardness.

He didn't ask her if she was sure, and she fell in love with him a little bit more.

She knew her mind and her heart and her body. What her father did took none of that away.

So Cora took Slider's cock in her hand and centered herself over his  long length. Looking him in the eye, she impaled herself on him, inch by  maddening inch.

"Christ. Oh, Christ," he said, fisting his hands at his sides like he didn't want to demand what he needed. Or take it.                       
       
           



       

But she wasn't having it. "Don't hold back on me, Slider. Touch me and hold me and take me, but don't hold back on me."

Her words unleashed something in him, because his hands were on her ass  again, strong fingertips digging into her soft flesh, and guiding her  down until she'd taken everything he had to offer.

And then they were a frenzy of movement and emotion. Her riding him with  abandon, him using his muscled thighs to hammer up into her. The slaps  of their skin and their breaths and their strained curses were loud in  the midnight room. She clutched at his shoulders, his chest, the edge of  his club cut he still wore over his shirt, and the picture of her hand  fisted around his cut shot a jolt of lust through his blood.

"Fucking me so good," he growled, tearing her shirt off to kiss the mounds of her breasts.

He slid down on the couch, flattening himself under her. With one hand  on her ass and the other firm on her belly, he forced her to rock back  and forth on his cock, her clit grinding against his pubic bone on every  thrust. And it shoved her right back to the edge again.

And then straight over it. "Slider," she cried before the orgasm stole  her breath, her thoughts, her very sanity. Her whole body shook with the  force of it, until all she could do was brace against his chest and  ride it out.

Slider didn't let up one bit. He fucked her the whole way through it,  drawing out her release and making the whole world spin. "That's it,  Cora," he said. "That's fucking it."

Just at the moment her body started to calm, Slider flipped them over,  her legs folded up between them, both of her ankles crossed near one  shoulder. He was so deep inside her she didn't think he would ever be  able to find his way out, and she didn't want him to. She could only  moan at the overwhelming fullness and the devastating goodness of it.

His pace changed, his strokes shifting to hard, punctuated thrusts that  rocked the couch and shoved Cora inch by inch toward the corner. She  grasped at him and the cushions and pushed against the armrest. And once  she was braced there, he combined those punctuated thrusts with rolling  curls of his hips that made his cock hit places inside her she didn't  know she had. "Oh, my God, Slider. Oh, my God."

He tore off his cut, and then his shirt, gifting her with the most  mouthwatering view of his ink and his muscles. And then he lowered  himself atop her, his weight pressing down her legs and opening her to  him even more. Leveraging his arms around her head and her shoulder, his  thrusts were relentless and driving.

Slider wasn't holding back. Not anymore.

And it made Cora's heart sing even as her body threatened another explosive release she wasn't at all sure she could handle.

"Jesus, Cora. A condom. We didn't . . ." He made to pull away.

She grasped his back. "Don't go. Not yet. Just pull out. Pull out and come on me."

Rigid and still, his face was a decadent mask of arousal and need and  debate. But then she rolled her hips up, forcing him deeper inside  again. Her movement ripped a groan out of his throat and lured him to  cave. Hands on the backs of her thighs, he set a fast pace that made her  pant and writhe. The lean muscles of his shoulders bunched and his  stomach rippled. He was a feast for the eyes, masculine and raw, and he  was hers.

God, let him be mine forever. And let me be his.

"Coming. God, I'm coming." On a shudder, he withdrew from her and took  himself in hand. Two strokes and he was true to his word, shouting her  name and shooting white stripes on her ass and hip and thigh.

Cora went limp with satisfaction, not caring in the least that he messed  her up. His come on her skin felt like a claiming. And no one had ever  claimed her before. Not really.

Leaning down, Slider kissed her, a soft tug of lips on lips, his hand gentle in her hair. "I see you," he said. "Always."

Four words. And her heart felt too big for her chest.

I love you was so close to the tip of her tongue she didn't know how the  words didn't fall out. But he hadn't said them. She knew he was coming  to terms with the idea of them. And she didn't want to push.

So Cora just said, "I see you, too."

For now, that was enough. And so much more than she ever thought she'd have.



"Hey, guys," Cora said to the boys as they climbed into her red baby in  the carpool line at school. She'd picked them up today because she'd  been out running errands for Bunny and Haven, who were busy with race  night party preparations at the clubhouse.

"Hi, Cora," Ben said brightly, while Sam's "Hey" was more subdued.

As they buckled in, Cora's belly did a little flip. This weekend, Slider  planned to at least tell the boys that the two of them were dating. The  house wasn't that big, and Sam was old enough-and sensitive enough-to  pick up on the change between them. It was important to Slider that they  hear it from him, and Cora agreed.                       
       
           



       

But, God! What if the boys hated the idea? What if they weren't ready  for their dad to date another woman? Thus her belly and the  flip-flopping.

"You guys excited for race night?" she asked, pulling out of the  driveway and heading to the grocery store. At this, Sam, who was as  interested in cars as his dad, finally perked up, and both boys launched  into an excited discussion of drivers and cars and racing stats that  left Cora totally dazed-a feeling that probably wasn't helped by the  ambivalence she felt about going.

She'd attended all three nights of the carnival that the Ravens held on  the grounds of the track back in June, but had attended only two of the  races since, and only because Slider asked her to take the boys while he  worked. Both times, they'd attached themselves to Ravens who were more  than happy to give Slider's kids a behind-the-scenes experience,  allowing Cora to hole up in the brothers' lounge near the ticket and  security offices.