Color of Loneliness (43 page)

* * *

Myra stares at herself in the small mirror in the bathroom. Despite her red cheeks, disastrous hair, and swollen lips, she can’t stop grinning at the satisfied, deliriously happy woman staring back at her. She shakes her head at herself and puts her hands on her hot cheeks. “Oh my God,” she mouths, giggling at herself. Without a doubt, she just experienced the most mind-blowing sex of her life, and her reflection shows it.

After cleaning up, she hurries back into the living room, grabs Dylan’s T-shirt off of the floor and puts it on. When she walks into the kitchen with the large grin still plastered on her face, she finds him naked, leaning up against the counter, his feet crossed at the ankles with a glass of water in his hand.

Her kitchen has never looked better.

“Oh, hell no,” he says as soon as he takes one look at her.

“What?”

“No damn clothes allowed.”

“But, I need to wear something, I…”

He grabs her and pulls her to him, placing his hands under the shirt and feeling her skin as he inches it off of her. He wads the shirt up and throws it down the hallway. “Don’t fucking care,” he grumbles. Dylan hugs her to him and kisses on her neck, lazily moving his hands over her skin.

Closing her eyes, she smiles as she sighs happily.

“You don’t even understand how goddamn perfect you are. You should be naked all the time,” he says against her neck. His words make her feel incredibly beautiful.

She grabs his face and kisses him deeply. He groans and thrusts up against her stomach, hard and ready again.

“Wait,” she says as she pulls back laughing.

“Hey, it’s your fault. You’re all damn irresistible and then you kiss me like that. This shit can’t be helped,” he says as he waves his hand towards his erection.

Myra giggles as she walks over to the counter. “Maybe we should re-energize first. You want a brownie?” She looks over at the plate of leftover brownies from her dinner at Jackie’s.

“Hell, yeah,” he says, as he stares over her shoulder and wraps his arms around her waist.

It takes an extra-long time for them to walk the short distance to the plate of brownies because Dylan’s hands and lips seem hell-bent on permanently affixing themselves to her body.

* * *

Dylan picks up a brownie and takes a bite. He knows that if he could look at himself, he’d kick his ass for continuing to grin like a fucking idiot. He peeks down at Myra and his smile gets even bigger when he sees a huge ass smile on her face as well. She swallows her bite and continues smiling up at him adorably.

“What?” he asks.

“I’ve never eaten brownies before – naked – while sitting on someone’s lap who also happens to be – naked.”

“Really?” he says as he pulls her tighter against him. “It makes that shit sweeter. These are the best damn brownies I ever ate.”

He watches as she smiles and sighs happily. “Thank you,” she says as she rubs his chest with her hand and leans in to give his neck a quick kiss.

Dylan collects some icing from his brownie and
accidentally
smears it across Myra’s breast about an inch above her nipple.

Myra gasps, looking down at it.

“Oops,” he says his eyes all big and innocent-looking as he smiles at her.

“Dylan,” she says, grinning.

“Sorry. Let me take care of that.” He leans down and wraps his lips around the icing. He licks and nips all over her skin, making sure to lap up every bit of it. Seeing her nipple so close, he latches his mouth onto it, sucking hard.

“I think I’m clean now,” Myra says, giggling.

“Oh, sorry,” he mumbles. He takes it into his mouth one more time sucking and biting the tip of it gently. “I got distracted.”

When Dylan looks at her again, her natural beauty causes his breath to stick in his damn throat. Her rosy cheeks give her a warm glow as her long tousled hair lies gently across her bare shoulders. He grows hungry again, and not just for more brownies.

He pushes her off of his lap, turns her slightly, and tugs her back on so that she straddles him. Reaching around her, he grabs his brownie and raises it to her mouth. He stares intently at her lips as she opens them and takes a bite. His mouth drops open when she moans and closes her eyes and starts chewing.

Myra takes the remaining bite of brownie from him and lifts it up to his mouth. He likes the way her eyes stay on his lips. He doesn’t take the bite right away. Instead, he takes his time, wetting his lips with his tongue. It excites him to see the way her lips open slightly and her breathing hitches. He slowly opens his mouth and takes the bite from her, closing his lips around her finger and sucking on it. He groans deeply. “Goddamn delicious,” he mumbles. Before he can even finish chewing, Myra’s lips are on his, her hands in his hair. He surrenders willingly to her assault.

She pulls away from him and starts kissing down his neck.
He moans and his damn eyeballs roll back in his head. Eventually, he gently pulls her away from him. “Let’s go up to your bedroom.”

She nods.

As he follows her down the hallway, he smiles devilishly as his eyes stay fixed on her beautiful ass. Just as she gets to the bottom of the stairs, he scoops her up and tosses her over his shoulder.

“Put me down,” she yells. “Your back.”

“My back is fucking fine.”

He smiles all the way up the stairs to her bedroom as she continuously giggles. He throws her on the bed and watches as she bounces and laughs. “I didn’t know you were such caveman.”

“I’m a damn contractor.
Of course I’m a fucking caveman.”

Myra giggles, but stops when Dylan begins to crawl up the bed and over her body like a predator, trapping her beneath him. She squeals and tries to scoot back on the bed, but he’s too fast for her and grabs her ankle. Her screams turn to moans as he begins kissing his way up her thigh.

CHAPTER 21

RUSSET, APPREHENSION

“Mm, wake up,” a velvety voice whispers in Myra’s ear as she feels a warm hand moving slowly up her thigh. Keeping her eyes closed, she smiles as she becomes aware of the body attached to that sexy voice. She can feel him snuggled up behind her, spooning her affectionately with his warm, naked body.

The hand climbs higher up her thigh and skims across her stomach to softly caress her breast. A thumb plays with her nipple as a mouth makes a hot path of open-mouthed kisses across her shoulder.

Stretching, she lazily reaches up and slides her fingers through his soft, thick hair. “This is the second time you’ve woken me up,” she says in a hoarse, sleepy voice with a contented smile on her face.

“Mmhm,” he hums against her skin, making it tingle. “I’m a needy man. Everything about you turns me the fuck on.”

Myra closes her eyes and moans softly as his words do delicious things to her body.

They take things much slower this time as they explore each other’s bodies. Dylan’s thrusts are deep yet controlled as his hand grips her waist and she stares up at him. She watches as a chunk of his hair falls onto his forehead before he leans down and places his mouth on hers. She moans as she responds to his kiss and wraps her legs around his waist, pulling him closer to her. They move unhurriedly together, hyperaware of every movement, sensitive to every touch.

“Please,” she begs as she clutches Dylan tightly. She simply wants more of him: more of his tender caresses along her skin, more of his hard length inside of her, more of his taut body against her own. She can’t get enough of him like this: so gentle yet so firm, so caring yet so passionate.

“Myra,” he says in a raspy voice against her throat. He gives her exactly what she begs for with every thrust, every touch, every breathy pant against her skin. It’s never been like this before for her. She’s never felt this way.

“Dylan, I... I’m...” Closing her eyes and throwing her head back, she can’t finish her sentence as her mouth opens with a silent scream and her orgasm overtakes her. Dylan’s movements become erratic as his grip on her waist tightens and he releases, pulsing deep inside of her.

“Myra,” he says her name again, barely above a whisper, as he lowers himself carefully onto her still-trembling body and tucks his head into the crook of her neck.

They lay quietly together for a long time, not talking, only being.

* * *

Lost in thought, Dylan pulls Myra onto his chest. Somehow being with her was different for him. He hasn’t felt this way since Sabrina, and maybe not even then. The nightmares that normally haunt him stayed away last night. It felt good, damn good.

His brows pull together. He needs to talk to her. When he showed up last night, he had every intention of just talking. And of course kissing, and maybe doing a little fondling, but nothing more. But as soon as he took one look at her, any thoughts of conversing immediately vanished from his damn brain. But right now he doesn’t want to ruin the memory of their incredible, amazing night – and morning – together. He’ll talk to her over breakfast. He’ll tell her all about his past. He’ll tell her everything.

* * *

Myra smiles brightly at him as she walks into the bedroom freshly showered. “I never knew cavemen liked to cuddle so much,” she says as she curls up into Dylan’s outstretched arms.

“You need to know these things about me,” he replies with a grin as he pulls her tight against him. “And by the way, your feet are fucking icebergs. You gotta warn a man about shit like that.”

Myra busts out laughing which causes him to start chuckling with her. They both laugh until Myra has to wipe tears from her eyes, and his stomach muscles ache a little. She rests her chin on his chest as she stares up at him. He doesn’t even try to wipe the huge smile off of his face as he stares back at her. She reaches one hand up and cradles his face softly. “I’ve never seen you smile so much.”

“You make me smile.”

“I do?”

He nods as he rubs her back softly.

She sighs. “I like seeing you this way. You usually seem... sad.”

“Maybe if I keep you around, you can keep the frowns off my face.”

Myra smiles. “Do you want breakfast? It’s almost noon but…”

Before Dylan can respond his stomach growls loudly. His eyes widen. “Shit. Sorry.”

Myra buries her face in Dylan’s chest and giggles. He loves that sound. He’ll never get tired of it.

“Why don’t you go take a shower? How’s pancakes sound?”

He pulls her up closer so that he can get access to her lips. He kisses them softly. “Sounds delicious,” he murmurs against them.

She hops off the bed and walks to the door. He smiles at how thoroughly fucked she looks even though she just took a shower. He likes that he made her look like that. He sits up on his elbows, staring at her bare legs that seem to go on for miles.

“There’s shampoo and soap in the shower. Blow dryer is on the, uh, sink. I left a towel and a toothbrush…” she trails off. “Stop staring at me,” she says, looking completely flustered.

“I will when you quit being so goddamn beautiful.”

A bashful smile crops up on her lips before her gaze drops to the floor. “Thanks,” she says before she smiles at him again and quickly leaves the room.

* * *

Myra can’t stop smiling as she steps into the kitchen. Hearing Dylan laugh, admiring that beautiful smile on his face and seeing him relax like that was something very special. She can’t even believe how handsome he looked. She sighs happily as she starts making the pancake batter.

Just as she’s finishing up the last of the pancakes, she frowns when she hears Dylan’s voice. She quickly flips the pancakes out onto a plate and walks into the living room.

He sits on the couch in just his jeans with his elbows on his knees and his phone dangling from his right hand. “Goddamn motherfucking shit,” he mumbles before raking his hand roughly through his hair.

“What’s wrong?” Myra asks.

“Fuck,” he yells as he stares at the floor, causing Myra to jump. “I gotta go,” he mumbles as he quickly tugs on his socks and boots. He stands and shoves his phone in his back pocket.

“Where the hell is my shirt...” he grumbles under his breath. Myra catches sight of it sticking out from underneath the small table in the hallway. Without saying a word, she swiftly walks over, picks it up, and silently hands it to him.

He slips it over his head and quickly shrugs on his coat.

Stepping close to her, he stares down into her eyes. “I…” he says before clearing his throat. “Something’s come up. I’m not mad at you; I’m just pissed at some other shit in my life. I’ll call you as soon as I get this straightened out, all right?”

Myra nods.

“I’m sorry,” he says as his eyes search hers.

She nods. “It’s okay. Go take care of it.”

He leans down and kisses her sweetly. Pulling back, he stares at her again, his eyes soft, as he gently rubs his thumb over her cheek. “Thank you,” he whispers. She doesn’t move as she watches him exit her front door, leaving her confused and all alone in her living room.

* * *

“Fuck,” Dylan roars as he slams his fist against the back of the passenger seat of his truck. He shouldn’t have left Myra standing there like that with no explanation. But how could he even begin to explain to her about the voicemail he just listened to when she doesn’t know shit about his past. His heart pounds as he rubs the center of his chest. He can’t believe he has to leave her after what happened last night between them. It was fucking incredible; one of the best nights of his goddamn life.