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He glanced at her in shock. “You’ve checked up on me?”
She ducked her head in embarrassment. “It’s my only contact to the outside world,” she admitted. “To real people I’ve known and any friends I used to have, and what their lives are like now. But you clearly don’t share much online.”
“No. Social media isn’t my thing, really.” He popped the rest of his cookie into his mouth and chewed. “After college, I came back to New York and was offered a job at MadX-Tech as a security analyst, which I love, and that’s pretty much where I spend the majority of my time.”
He’d already told her he hadn’t had a girlfriend in a long time, and though she was curious about the reasons, she didn’t ask. “Now, your sister is much more open about her life on social media.”
“Yeah, she posts everything,” he said, clearly not understanding the appeal of sharing things online.
“I love that she married Kevin,” Raevynn said of the guy Avery had dated exclusively in high school. “And their two kids are adorable.” Yes, she’d scrolled through all of Avery’s posts and photos when she’d had the chance, which had been her only connection left to the best friend she’d grown up with, and she regretted not keeping in touch, because she truly missed their friendship.
“Yeah, Harper just turned four, and Lucas is three,” Collin said of his niece and nephew, then grinned as he ate another cookie. “They’re definitely a handful, but Avery loves being a mom and I love being an uncle.”
Raevynn swallowed hard at the envy crowding in her chest. How many times had she and Avery talked about their futures . . . both of them getting married and having babies and being best friends forever? And their kids would be besties and cousins, too, because Raevynn had envisioned her life with Collin. Avery had made all her dreams come true, even the goal she’d had of going to cosmetology school to become a hairstylist, while Raevynn’s future hadn’t been her own.
Finished with his half of the Oreos, Collin relaxed against the couch and stretched his arm along the back of the sofa. “And what about you, Rae?” he asked, his fingers lazily trailing along her bare shoulder, causing chills to tumble down her spine. “When you’re not touring the world, where do you call home?”
“Most of the time, since I’m all over the place, I live out of hotels,” she admitted, meeting his warm gaze while trying not to be too distracted by his light caresses now at the nape of her neck. “But about a year ago, I bought a house in Hidden Hills in Calabasas, which is just outside of Los Angeles. However, I’ve spent maybe a month total in the place.”
She’d purchased the house—which was more like a mansion and far bigger than anything she’d ever needed for one person—because her financial advisor had told her she needed the investment and write-off. Yet another person dictating her choices and future. But the place was huge and lonely and not at all what she wanted for herself. No, what she’d always envisioned as a teenager was marrying Collin, having his babies, and them living happily ever after—the whole white-picket-fence dream with this man sitting beside her that she’d always wanted and desired.
She still wanted and desired him. Despite the way things had ended between them, there was one thing Raevynn knew with absolute conviction. She was still in love with Collin, which she was certain he’d never understand or even believe when, to the outside world, she’d been coupled with Zane Bishop for three years. But their pairing hadn’t been based on love or the kind of deep emotional connection she’d shared with Collin. No, it had been a relationship of convenience and an easy friendship, for both her and Zane.
And with her body blooming beneath Collin’s light feathering strokes on her skin, just as it always had whenever he touched her, and his gaze gradually darkening as he, too, felt the growing awareness between them shifting into something more seductive, her heart raced in her chest.
She craved this man like no other. Seven years apart hadn’t lessened that deep, sensual hunger but had only amplified it now that they were together again. And for the first time in a very long while, Raevynn did something solely for herself. Because she’d given up so much, and this moment with Collin was what she wanted, and everyone else’s opinions and rules be damned.
Before she lost the nerve, she boldly, brazenly straddled his lap, framed his face between her hands, and kissed him.
Chapter 6
Raevynn caught Collin completely off guard when she suddenly sat astride his thighs and pressed her soft, sensual lips to his, but he quickly recovered from his shock. She’d made the first move, had all but given him an open invitation to taste her, consume her, and savor the heat and desire that instantly burned between them. After seven years of carrying a torch for this woman and no one else, resisting her wasn’t an option, not when she’d just opened the floodgates to all the lust and need and hunger coiling tight inside him.
Now, all that unforgotten passion broke free, rushing through his veins like an addicting drug he had to have. He cupped the back of her head in one of his hands to take control of the kiss and anchored his other arm around her waist, pulling her body closer to his, until the crux of her thighs met the hard bulge straining against the front of his cotton sweatpants.
She gasped into his mouth when she felt the stiff length of his shaft pressing along the seam of her sex through their clothes. Taking advantage of her parted lips, Collin swept his tongue deep inside, elevating the contact between them with a demanding, possessive kiss she returned with equal need.
They spent several minutes making out like they used to . . . hot and heavy kisses that segued into soft and slow and deep, then increased in intensity once again as she arched her body seductively against his. She rubbed herself along his aching cock, making him groan deep in his throat at the image of burying himself inside her again. Their mouths were ravenous, and eventually he lifted his lips from hers and stared into her face, only inches away from his.
Her skin was flushed, her lips damp and swollen from his aggressive kisses, and her chest rose and fell with quick, erratic breaths. Her blue eyes were hazy with desire as she rubbed her thumb along his bottom lip, then raised her gaze to his, revealing raw, vulnerable emotions.
“I’ve missed having your mouth on mine like this,” she whispered, the reverence and longing in her voice unmistakable.
“Yeah?” He arched a brow playfully. “What else have you missed, sweet girl?”
She dropped her hands to his bare shoulders and caressed her palms down his muscular arms, as if reacquainting herself with his body. “The way you used to kiss and nuzzle my neck until I was shivering and moaning and begging you for more.”
Those sensual memories were seared in his mind, and he didn’t hesitate to recreate them. The fingers still resting at the back of her head managed to find their
way into her hair despite her braid. He gripped the strands tight against her scalp, causing her to suck in a startled breath as he used that hold to pull her head back, giving him access to the column of her throat.
Lowering his head, he touched his lips to that place right beneath her ear that was still a very sensitive spot, judging by her soft whimper and full-bodied quiver. He pressed his nose against all that soft skin and inhaled the familiar feminine scent that was imprinted on his brain. His dick throbbed and ached to make her his again. This time forever.
Shoving that impossible thought from his head, he burrowed his face against her neck, his breath damp and hot on her flesh as he traced a tendon with his tongue, followed by the gentle scrape of his teeth, and ending with a love bite that had her making the hottest, sexiest sounds in the back of her throat.
“What else, Rae?” he murmured, wanting to hear all her secret desires.
She slid her hands down to his chest, her nails digging into his flesh with a slight erotic sting as she dropped her head forward to meet his gaze, her own fueled with a bold dare. “I miss your mouth on my breasts and how hard and deep you’d suck my nipples, until I’d cry out with the pleasure of it,” she confessed huskily, and bit her lower lip before shattering the last of his restraint with her next admission. “And I miss your fingers between my legs, touching me and making me come.”
