Ren stared down at me, but his thumbs were sweeping my throat again and his gaze was unwavering.

When this lasted some time, I asked, “What?”

“You do know I think you’re the shit, don’t you, Ally?” he asked back.

I got to feeling warmer and leaned even closer, which was to say, I pressed my body to his and replied, “I know.”

He moved in and brushed his lips to mine, but he didn’t move away or take it further.

He stayed close and stayed on target.

“So what’s on your mind?”

“Dinner,” I answered, and that was partially true.

“Baby,” he whispered, said no more and didn’t move.

I sighed.

I knew what he wanted.

Okay, this was us now and I figured it was time I started sharing.

The problem with that was, I didn’t share. Not with anybody. Not even sometimes Indy. That just wasn’t me.

But I had seen the way my mom was with my dad, and Marcus with Daisy, and any of the Rock Chicks with their Hot Bunch boys and learned that give and take was key.

If I wanted this to work with Ren, who had indeed busted his ass to get in there, then I needed to let him in there.

Starting now.

And anyway, he was being all kinds of sweet.

Shit.

“I think Indy’s pissed at me.”

His hands left my neck so he could wrap his arms around me. When he did, my hands left his wrists so I could rest them on his chest.

Through this, he spoke.

“You two have been through more thick and thin than anybody. She’s gonna bust your chops, babe. She’s also gonna get over it. And you know that.”

Okay, that required more sharing.

Shit!

I pulled in a breath and whispered, ‘I don’t like her mad at me.”

He nodded and his face got soft. “Sucks when anyone you love is mad at you. But if they love you, they get over it. And Ally,” he gave me a squeeze, “that woman loves you. She’ll get over it. You just need to suck it up and let her bust your chops.”

He was right.

And he was definitely all kinds of sweet.

Because of that, I slid my hands up his chest to wrap my arms around his neck and I pressed in, saying, “I’m suddenly not hungry.”

“Anticipation,” was his reply.

I rocked back on my heels, but kept hold of him as I asked, “What?”

“Honey, the next two hours I get to sit opposite you wondering what’s under that fuckin’ phenomenal dress. Then I get to peel that fucking phenomenal dress off and find out. Anticipation. Makes something sweet all the more sweet. You gonna take that away from me?”

“I’m thinking that would be selfish,” I answered.

“It would,” he replied on a smile.

“The problem is, I’m in the mood to be selfish,” I shared, then I got to watch and feel as he burst out laughing.

Both his hands also slipped down to my ass so I thought I was going to get my selfish way.

I didn’t.

He bent his neck, kissed mine then pulled away, as in, entirely, letting me go and ordering, “Get your bag. The sooner I get food and champagne down you, the sooner we can see just how special this night’s gonna be.”

Champagne?

I liked my tequila. Definitely.

But Ren in a suit I got to peel off later, good food, just us, our first date, and champagne?

I was all for that.

Ren tagged his suit jacket from the bed and shrugged it on.

I grabbed my bag.

Ren grabbed my hand.

We were out on the landing, Ren one step down the stairs, when I tugged on his hand. He stopped and looked up at me.

It was time for more sharing.

“Thanks for making this easy, honey.”

Instantly, his eyes got so hot, they burned through me. He pushed back on my hand so I took a step back and he took the step back up. Then his hands were at my ass, his mouth was on mine, and he was shuffling me backwards.

Quickly.

I landed on the bed.

Ren landed on me.

His mouth went to my neck and his fingers went to my zipper.

My lips went to his ear. “What about anticipation?”

He didn’t answer.

He pulled down the zip.

No, I wasn’t right. He did answer. That was his answer.

And I liked his answer.

Jeez. This sharing stuff was easy.

Or, at least, Ren made it be easy.

I hooked a leg around his thigh and slid my hands inside his jacket.

We’d never know if we gave it a couple of hours if the anticipation would have made it sweeter.

Then again, with the sweet Ren gave me, that would be impossible to beat.

Chapter Eleven

Come to Jesus

I slid up, then down, slowly filling myself with Ren.

Ren’s hands moving over the fabric of my new peach silk and cream lace nightie, his head back, his eyes moving over my face, my arms around his shoulders, the fingers of one hand in his hair, he murmured, “Faster, Ally.”

Riding him with him sitting up and close, number one of my five most favorite positions to do the nasty with Ren, I gave him what he wanted.

One of his hands slid down to cup my ass, the other one slid around my ribs to cup my breast over the silk and lace.

This was incentive to move even faster, so I did. I liked it a whole lot, my happy place clenched around Ren and my head fell back.

Both Ren’s hands gave me a squeeze. “Unh-unh, give me that,” he ordered, his voice rough.

I knew what he wanted.

He liked to watch.

I tipped my head forward, tried to focus and caught his even white teeth sinking into his full lower lip.

He liked what he saw.

I did too.

Okay, so I also liked to watch.

So much, I whimpered and moved faster. Ren wrapped his arm around my hips. It tightened and he started lifting me and slamming me down on his cock, even faster and way harder. He did this while the thumb of his other hand dragged across soft silk and hard nipple.

Nice.

At that, I moaned and my head fell further forward so my forehead was resting on his, my eyes looking into his heated ones, shivers sliding over the tops of my thighs.

Using my momentum and his strength, Ren pulled me up and drove me down even faster and way, way harder.

Seriously nice.

Ren,” I breathed.

“Fuck yeah, baby.”

Oh God, it was coming.

“Ren!” I gasped and it hit me.

Powerful.

Mind-boggling.

Soul-enriching.

Amazing.

I tried to grind down, but Ren was stronger and kept yanking me up and pounding me down as his hand drove into my hair and held my head to his so he could watch it sear through me.

And it did. My mouth open and a whisper away from his, my eyes open and locked to his, my breath caught and stayed that way as I clamped my man tight with everything I had.

A minute later, it was Ren who ground me down. His hand fisted in my hair and I watched his sear through him.

Okay. Yeah. This together together thing was easy.

Sure, we’d always had this part. But something about having it and the other made it even better.

And it got better when Ren’s breathing eased and he gently pulled my head back by my hair. I felt his lips at my throat right before I felt his tongue touch there. Then I felt him guide my pendant into his mouth with his tongue and the chain tightened around my neck as he sucked it deeper.

His mouth was working my pendant, but it felt like it was working every part of me. My thighs tightened on his hips, my arms around his shoulders. In fact, everything tightened everywhere (and I mean everything) and I mentally went back on what I said the day before.

Yes, people and memories meant everything and things meant nothing.

Except that pendant.

That pendant meant the world.

He released it, kissed my chest and tipped his head back as he moved mine forward to catch my eyes.

“Want breakfast?” he asked and I grinned.

“Yeah,” I answered.

“Then kiss me and get off me, baby.”

In bed, Ren still inside me, it was these occasions and only these occasions I always did what I was told.

So I did what I was told.

But the first part of his order, I gave it my all.

* * *

I was sitting on Ren’s kitchen counter, Ren leaning against the one kitty corner to me.

I’d swallowed the last ketchup covered tater tot and put my plate in the sink. I was sipping at my coffee when Ren pushed away from his place, dumped his plate in the sink and moved in front of me.

He took my cup from my hand and set it aside. Hands at my knees, he spread them. He moved in and wrapped one arm around my waist, curving his fingers under me to cup one hand to my ass, and hauled me a couple inches forward on the counter so my happy place slammed into his happy place and stayed nestled there perfectly.

He’d never done that before. Breakfast time was when I reestablished the boundaries I blew apart when we fucked each other’s brains out and Ren had always given that to me. He didn’t hide that he found it amusing. But he still gave it to me.

This was tons better.

I curled my arms around him.

Totally better.

“You work tonight?” he asked.

I nodded. I’d called off the night Faye had her thing so I could take care of Faye’s thing. Last night was my night off. Tonight, alas, I was back at it.

“Date night, your next night off,” Ren declared.

Oh yeah.

I nodded. I also smiled. I did it small on the outside, huge on the inside.

“Tonight, you wanna eat before you go or when you get home?” he asked.

God, God, my man was sweet.

“Before,” I answered.

“Lasagna or chicken parmesan?”

Seriously? He had to ask?

I mean, his lasagna was the bomb, but he made his chicken parmesan from scratch and the first time I had it—and every time since—I’d had a culinary orgasm emanating from my mouth. And this orgasm was loud. Ren couldn’t have missed it. He didn’t miss anything.

“What do you think?” I asked back.

“Chicken,” he muttered, his lips quirking. They stopped quirking, he held my eyes and his voice was gentle and sweet when he queried, “She call?”

I pressed my lips together. Then I shook my head.

I’d checked my phone and Indy hadn’t called during our mind-blowing, soul-enriching, together together sex-a-thon last night.

This worried me.

So I did something about it while Ren was downstairs making breakfast and I was upstairs freaking that my best friend was mad at me.

“I called her,” I shared. “Left a message for her to meet me this morning and chat.”

“Right, honey,” he replied. He gave me a squeeze and dipped in for a brush on the lips before he went on, “Don’t worry about it. She’ll hear you out. It’s sweet you care, but she does too, so you two will get past it.” I got another brush of the lips before he muttered, “Now, I gotta get to work.”

He moved to let me go, but I tightened my thighs on his hips and my arms around him and regained his focus.

“We got busy last night and conversation was limited,” I noted. “I didn’t get the chance to ask you about your conversation with Lee.”

“Rather have more time than we got right now to explain that to you,” he said, and I didn’t get a good feeling about that.

“Zano—” I started, but stopped when one of his hands came up and curled around my neck.

“You’re lettin’ me in and you already know you’re in, Ally. But I’ll let you in more when I have time to explain. But just to say now, Lee and I are cool, or as cool as we can be. However, he was not a big fan of you heading off to the mountains and gettin’ involved in that shit, and he was even less of a fan of your apartment exploding. You know what kind of man he is. You know how he feels about you. And if you don’t know, you can guess he wants the kind of man he is, which includes the ways he looks after his woman, for you. This means he feels all that shit is my responsibility. So we had words.”

This was understandable. Lee was wrong about it being Ren’s responsibility, but I knew my brothers, both of them, so regardless, Ren was right in what he said. So it was understandable.

Ren went on, “And there’s shit going down at work between Vito, Dom and me. Lee’s in the know about it, and since he was pissed about other shit, he took that opportunity to get in my face about that. That’s done between your brother and me too.”