“Oh goddamn!” I closed my eyes and held fast onto the pillow, as he curled his fingers into a hook inside of me, forbidding me to move any farther. He held me there, licking and sucking and f**king me with his fingers until my body became stiff as I felt my orgasm coming on.

“I’m going to come,” I said through uneven breaths. “God, please don’t f**king stop.”

He stopped.

“No, please, Elias, don’t stop!” I wanted to cry. No, I was crying. Every part of my body was opened up to him, wanting him, yearning to feel him inside of me. But I needed that orgasm. I f**king needed it.

He shoved his c**k deep inside of me where I ached for him, hitting the spot. I gasped and grabbed fistfuls of the sheets again. The surprise and the intensity of it took the breath right out of my lungs. Tears streamed down my face. Tears of emotional pain. Of anger. Of guilt. I wanted it out of me. All of it. And instead of clawing at my wrists for a release, I wanted Elias to f**k it out of me. The bed banged against the wall as he slammed against me from behind. His strong fingers dug partway into my thighs and my ass cheeks as he made sure to keep me spread wide open for him to see.

I still wanted to watch. I wanted to see what he could see, his hard c**k moving in and out of me, glistening with my wetness. I felt the orgasm brewing again so quickly. I wanted to call out to him, tell him I was about to come again, but I was afraid he would stop again.

I got very still. Very quiet. But I think he knew I was going to come, because I was so quiet and still.

“Say it,” he told me, still thrusting in and out of me. “Say it, baby.”

“I’m going to come,” I whispered.

He thrust hard and held his c**k deep inside of me for a moment. Then he did it again and held it there for another moment.

I felt my eyes rolling into the back of my head.

“Oh goddamn, Elias… if you f**king stop I’ll kill you. I’ll f**king kill you!”

He slammed into me harder and held himself there, so deep I could’ve sworn I felt it in my soul.

I gasped and shuddered as an explosion went off deep inside my belly, my legs trembled and shook and felt like jelly the more I tried to hold myself up on them. I felt myself constricting around his c**k as I came, and tears of relief and pleasure streamed down my face.

Elias let out a moan and pulled his c**k from inside of me just before he came on my backside.

Everything was quiet except our heavy breathing.

He collapsed on top of me, the sweat of his naked chest mixed with the sweat on my back. He kissed me there with his arms wrapped around my stomach. I felt the tip of his tongue moving up my spine and between my shoulder blades. He rosed up and made his way back down and kissed me between the legs softly. Chills attacked my body all over. He kissed my thighs, giving each one the same amount of attention.

I rolled over onto my back, and Elias crawled up my body, his hands pressed into the bed on either side of me, and he kissed me all the way up. My belly button. My stomach. My breastbone. And with the same grace and attention that he gave my thighs, he kissed each breast.

I cupped his face in my hands and guided him toward my lips. His warm naked body fell between my legs and he kissed me with so much passion that I never wanted to open my eyes again. I wanted to die in this bed, just like this, with him on top of me. If I’d known he would’ve given me that kind of death, I would’ve asked it of him. But I didn’t want to ruin the moment. Because I knew in my heart that it would be the last moment like this I would ever share with him.

Three days. I promised him, and I had every intention of staying true to my word.

Three days.

Elias

“I love you, Bray,” I whispered as I lay with my face nuzzled against her br**sts. I wanted to hear her heart beating. “I love you more than you will ever know.”

She wound her fingers gently through the top of my hair. “How is that?” she asked in a quiet voice.

“Because I would do anything for you,” I said. “You just don’t realize yet what ‘anything’ truly means.”

“Maybe I will someday,” she whispered, and I shut my eyes softly, holding in the tears. “I love you, too, Elias. More than you could possibly ever know.”

“How is that?” I asked.

I felt her lips against my hair. “Because I’d never ask you to prove your ‘anything.’ ”

We fell fast asleep, our bodies tangled, the sound of her heartbeat so soothing in my ear.

Chapter Twenty-Five

Elias

Caleb saw my fist coming, but he didn’t have time to react. I heard the crunch and felt the pain sear through the bones in my hand as he fell against the side of the Jeep.

“You ever f**king hit on Bray again,” I said, pointing my finger at him, “I’ll beat you unconscious.”

“Elias!” Bray came running out of the motel with wet hair. “Baby, please! I told you he wasn’t serious!”

I felt both of her hands pulling on my arm, but I didn’t move from in front of Caleb. And he wasn’t fighting back. He massaged his jaw with one hand and just looked at me with no emotion.

Tate came out of his room, wondering what was going on. “Something tells me you deserved that, little brother,” he said, looking between Caleb and me.

“I guess I did,” Caleb said, and a small smile crept up in his eyes. I almost hit him again on principle, but I stepped away from him and let Bray feel as though she was pulling me back.

Tate gave me a nod of approval and said, “All right, we need to hit the road. Rocky is expecting us by four o’clock. I want to get this over with.” He looked at Caleb. “Get your shit together,” he said, and he wasn’t talking about personal belongings.

* * *

Two hours passed and we were getting closer to the Texas state line.

Tate glanced at me over his shoulder from the driver’s seat. “When we get there I’ll drop you and Bray off at a store or restaurant somewhere. It’s not a good idea if you come with us.” He looked at Caleb in the front passenger’s seat and then put his eyes back on the road. “It’s probably not a good idea that you come, either.”

“No way, Tate,” Caleb argued. “I’m f**king going with you.”

“Look, I can just go in, meet with Rocky, hand him the money, and go about my day. If you’re there it probably won’t go as smoothly.”

“I’m not letting you go in there by yourself,” Caleb snapped.