Page 79 of Against The Tide

“Doc, don’t stop,” I plead as he slows, pulling out to edge back inside me, teasing all the pleasure from my core to my extremities, stealing every piece of my soul with his wildfire eyes and hungry kisses. “Please don’t stop.”

“Never.” Bucking deeper into me, Rhett releases one of my hands to grasp my thigh, hooking it over his hip as my body begins to slacken with my murmuring orgasm.

“Ever,” he repeats over my muted cry.

Curse after curse spill from my lips the harder he drives into me, faster until I come apart for him.

“I can’t—“ The words shatter on my tongue as my body convulses around him.

“You can.” His pace doesn’t slow. If anything, Rhett drives deeper, his hand cradling the back of my head as his lips find my ear. “One more, sunshine. Give me one more. Please.”

“Rhett—” My voice is a wreck. Every nerve ending is lit up, raw and screaming, and each thrust sends shockwaves through flesh that’s already spent. It’s too much. It’s agonizing and exquisite, and I can’t tell which is winning.

“I know.” He groans it like a confession, like he’s as undone as I am. “I know, sweetheart, but please, I need—” His voice cracks against my skin, and the desperate, broken need in it squeezes around my chest. “I need all of you.”

And God, I want to give it to him. I want to give him every last piece of me, even the ones that are trembling and burning and begging for mercy.

“I can’t get enough of you.” Rhett’s forehead presses to my temple, his breath ragged and hot as he holds still inside me. Waiting for me even though he’s drowning in his desperation.

“Then take it…take what you need,” I whisper, barely audible. “Take everything. Use me.”

A guttural groan tears from his chest as he buries himself so deep inside me, my vision whites out. His hand slides from my head to my jaw, tilting my face to his as he drives into me with a tenderness that contradicts the ferocity of his pace. Slow and hard. Deep and devastating.

Another wave of pleasure unravels through me. Thread by thread, it pulls me apart from somewhere so deep inside me, I didn’t know it existed.

“Oh God…Rhett...Rhett!” A sob breaks from my lips as it washes through me, endless and merciless.

“Avery, sweetheart…” Rhett follows me over with my name on his tongue, spilling into me with a shudder that racks his entire body. “So fucking perfect…”

His legs buckle, and with a grunt, Rhett braces one hand against the wall beside my head and locks the arm around my waist tighter, holding me flush to him as he pins us both upright. My legs are useless, boneless things, and the only reason I’m still standing is because he won’t let me fall.

For the longest time, the sounds that exist are our jagged breaths, the rapid, synced thrum of our hearts thundering between our pressed-together chests as the water hammers down on us.

Then his lips find my shoulder.

So soft that I almost don’t feel it through the haze. One kiss. Then another. Then another. Slow and reverent, tracing the curve from my shoulder to the base of my neck and back again, like he’s memorizing every inch of my skin… of me.

All I can do is close my eyes and bask in this man and his boundless affection.

CHAPTER 22

RHETT

The morning comes too soon with the sun glowing red and the birds chirping glory. With the curtains wide open, the room is bathed in golden light, shimmering over Avery’s soft skin. She looks peaceful as I brace my head on my hand and peer down on her.

With her back to my front, we’re sandwiched together, and every time I’ve tried to move my arm from around her waist, she stirs with a grumbly whine that makes my heart squeeze tight. I’m beginning to understand how Callie can mean so much to Rowan. Why Jo is so desperate to join Duke. It’s all down to her and her little girl. I would do anything for them, and that includes asking a favor from the last person I ever would want to bring back into my life.

Last night can’t happen again. Carl can’t keep coming here and screwing her around. He’s done enough, and it’s time he disappears out of her life. For good.

With a soft sigh, Avery shuffles closer, her bare ass rubbing over my morning wood. A low groan rumbles through my chest before I can stop it, and she does it again—a slow, sleepy roll of her hips that tells me she’s not as asleep as she’s pretending to be.

“Good morning, Doc.” She smiles.

“Morning, sweetheart.”

“I like it when you call me that.” Her smile broadens, and she wriggles her ass.

“Don’t start something you can’t finish,” I tease her with a buck of my hips that has her ass tensing. “I’ve given you fair warning, Avery.”