Chapter 165: Time Away
- RAYA -
The day Luciano brought lunch seemed to be a turning point of some kind for my sister. I don’t know what they talked about. He wasn’t even here that long, but that food must have been magical. I remember him leaving with a goofy smile on his face and Rory walking around with a ghost of the same smile for days after that.
The flowers stopped after that day, too. Instead, a really strange looking plant was delivered and set up in the guest house complete with a special warming light. It came with instructions that I caught Rory studying while sitting at the dining room table one afternoon. When I asked her what exactly that plant was with all the chaotic looking hanging limbs, she just shook her head and changed the subject.
It’s been a month since Rory has been staying with Dex and I. Two weeks since Luciano came with lunch and hasn’t been back. And yesterday Rory decided it was time for her to move into the guest house.
She didn’t tell me, of course. The way I found out was by waking up and finding the spare room empty along with every other room in the house that I ran to search through with ever-increasing panic.
My phone was in my hand ready to call Dex or Luciano or someone, but then I walked out to the pool and saw the door to the guest house open. When I walked in, I found Rory going through a box of her things that had been moved from her apartment weeks earlier.
"I was worried about you," I said on an exasperated sigh.
"Sorry."
Sorry. That’s all I got.
Now I’m lying in bed wondering what’s next while Dex takes a shower to get ready for work. I don’t think I’m ready to go back to the office. Rory is still so much quieter and closed off than she was. She’s not back to normal by any means—not that "normal" should be a baseline. But she gets angry when I suggest going to talk to a therapist or someone with tools to help her. So I’m still really worried about her.
Dex walks out of the steaming bathroom with a towel around his waist, hair dripping with water, and I turn over on my stomach so I can appreciate the view more completely. When he catches my gaze, he smiles.
God, this man. The dimple, the warm honey of his eyes, the fierce, rolling angles of power he carries in his arms and shoulders and torso. He’s like a real-life action figure. A sexy one.
"Good morning, angel." His voice tumbles over deep gravel that I can feel low in my belly, and I close my eyes in appreciation of it.
While my eyes are closed, he climbs on top of me on the bed, blanketing me with the heat he still holds from his shower and raining little glistening diamonds of water on my pillow.
"You’re getting me wet," I giggle, tilting my head to the side so he can graze my cheek with the bristly hairs on his face and his soft, tender lips.
"Am I?" He asks, nibbling on my ear. I moan and arch my back, angling my butt against him, teasing him with the contact it makes against his hips. But he started it.
"Fuck, Raya," he rasps. The oversized shirt I wore to bed slides up with his large, masculine hands gliding over my curves and then dipping between my belly and the bed so he can slide my underwear down.
Dex’s teeth are back teasing my ear, one corded, thick forearm bracing himself next to me, and then he slides into me like he belongs there. He does.
We haven’t been able to do this in the morning since Rory was staying here. I was too worried about her overhearing. And it was worth the wait. Now sounds come tumbling out of me that have been restrained for weeks, and Dex growls into my hair, releasing the darkness that has been clinging to him—giving it to me so that he can be cleansed of it again.
"I missed you," he growls next to my ear. "I missed you so fucking much."
As if to punctuate that sentiment, his thrusts slow but become more forceful—angling differently and circling to find the different points and glides of pleasure, and my body trembles around him as more whimpers come out that he captures with his mouth.
It’s not like we haven’t slept together all this time, but those moments have been quiet and careful with my sister always close by. Now Dex lets go and gives me everything, and I come apart quickly under him with his sexy, satisfied grunts and whimpers chasing me soon after.
"You whimper too, you know?" I pant, smiling against my pillow until he rolls me over into his arms.
"I do?" A breathy chuckle tickles my neck before he kisses it and then proceeds to kiss every other place within reach of his lips. He finishes by kissing one eyelid and then the other and then my nose and then my lips until I’m left giggling and nuzzling into his chest.
"You don’t have to work today, do you?" It’s a mumble bordering on a whine, because I know the answer. I shouldn’t even ask him that question, because I don’t want to tempt him into staying home when he has so much responsibility on his shoulders now.
"I do," he sighs. "But if today goes well with this new client, I can take a little time off. Jeremy can oversee things while I’m gone."
"Really?" My eyes light up. I know he can’t see the hope in my eyes since I’m burrowed under his chin, and he must be thinking the same thing, because he tilts my chin up and smiles down at me.
"Really."
Then he kisses me again, this time long and sweet. My toes curl into the sheets.
"Do you want to take a trip with me?" He asks, the breath of his soft question caressing my face. "I think we deserve a little time away."
"Yes, of course." But then I think of my sister, and I immediately feel torn.
"What is it?"
"Rory," I say, biting my lip. "I don’t think we can just leave her. I know she’s doing better, but..."
"We’ll figure it out," he says, placing a finger over my mouth to shush me. "Let me take care of it. Please just come away with me for a little while, Raya."
"Okay," I smile against his finger.
"Yeah?" He asks to confirm, his honey brown eyes melting me with how intensely adoring they are as they look back and forth between mine.
I nod, knowing it will work out if it’s meant to. "Yeah. Of course. I can’t wait."
