His hands were back on my bottom. Caressing and kneading. Winding me higher. “I love this sweet ass, Hope.” He gripped two fistfuls in his hands.
He started running his thumb around that sensitive spot.
“Kale,” I whimpered.
“Need you to know, I’m an ass man, sweet girl.” His thumb pressed into that tight hole, and I clenched around him. “Not tonight, but I’m going to want to fuck it and lick it and bite it.”
He shocked me again when he leaned down and sank his teeth into the flesh of one cheek. Not enough to hurt. Enough to send my stomach tumbling with the decadent, dark threat.
From over my shoulder, I looked back at him, floored by the sight of him. My spirit reeled with the impact.
Winding us. Wrapping us. Bonding us.
I gave him my truth. “I’m yours.”
He groaned, and I could feel the fat head of him broaching my lips, nudging in, spreading me. “So sweet. So fucking sweet.”
Then Kale slammed into me.
Filling me full.
So full.
All other sensation lost. Nothing but him.
Taking me. Owning me the way only he could.
He clutched me by the hips when he pulled out and then took me again.
I jolted forward, my heart frantic, my need escalating as I gripped at his comforter to keep myself grounded.
Fearing I just might float away.
He began to pound into me, his cock so massive he stole my breath with each powerful thrust.
He fucked me exactly like I knew he would when I’d seen him that first time in the bar.
Arrogantly.
Confidently.
Relentlessly.
And he still felt like a broken heart. Because I had no idea what I would do if I lost him.
It was true.
I needed him.
Needed him not because I would fail without him but because he perfectly fit that hollow spot that had been carved out inside me. Filled it till it was close to overflowing, the way he was filling me right then.
Stroke after stroke.
Too much, and somehow, I wanted more.
Pleasure glowed all around me, this needy feeling that was desperate and shaky.
Sweat slicked my skin and light flickered behind my eyes.
“Is this what you wanted, Hope? Is this what you wanted? Tell me.”
“Yes,” I rasped, rocking back to meet every dominating thrust. “Yes. I want this. I want you.”
Everything sizzled and sparked.
Kale’s palm slid around to my chest, and he pulled me up, my back against his chest. I reached up and hooked my arm around the back of his neck.
Our bodies pressed together.
Sweat slicking our heated skin.
Through the reflection in the plate glass window, I met his eye. “Look at you, Hope. Look at you . . . what I see every time I look at you.”
I gasped a tiny sound when I did, my body all stretched out, my breasts heavy and peaked. Flesh flushed and hair a mussed-up mess.
Kale’s stunning, chiseled face gazed at me from over my shoulder. The man so gorgeous I felt the earth shake.
And I was sure I’d never felt so wanted in all my life.
So sexy.
So adored.
Kale fluttered his fingertips down over my trembling belly, before he strummed them where I throbbed, rolled those magic fingers around my clit.
He continued to drive into me from behind.
The angle almost more than I could take.
Thrust after obliterating thrust.
He spun me into the tightest knot.
And the light.
It was brilliant when it shattered.
Crashing, crushing waves.
Radiating through me. Taking me under.
I writhed and pitched and begged as the most tortuous kind of bliss flooded my body.
Kale grasped my breasts in both hands as he bucked into me.
Hard.
Desperate. He buried his face in the fall of my hair to cover the roar of my name when he came.
He pulsed and I soared.
We rode through ecstasy. The two of us lost to each other.
He held me against his shuddering body until I slumped facedown onto his bed.
“Stay,” he told me. Naked, the man walked into the en suite bathroom and flicked on the light.
His gorgeous body was set on display, the sight of him sending a fresh round of shudders through me. He grabbed a washcloth, wet it under the sink, and sauntered back out.
Leaning over my back, he kissed my temple, brushed back the damp hair from my face, and pressed the warm cloth between my legs.
“Are you okay?” he asked, crawling up and lying on his side facing me. Those blue eyes swam, all his goodness pouring out, darkened pools of adoration.
This man.
This man.
I let my fingertips trail down the side of his face. “I don’t think I’ve ever felt better than I do right now. Right this minute. With you.”
He grabbed my hand and kissed across my fingertips. “Good. Because I don’t think I can let you go. Not ever.”
His tone was playful, but his expression flickered with something serious and sincere.
“Stalker,” I let myself rib, though I knew there was no way he missed the soft affection that tripped from my tongue, knowing I was exposing everything I was feeling right then.
Love.
It sang all around us.
Whispering and thrumming and spilling into the sanctity of his room.
He wrapped an arm around my waist and pulled me flush against him, fingers brushing through my hair, the peace that echoed through my body swift and whole. “If that’s what it takes for me to get to keep you. Keep Evan.”
A knot grew heavy at the base of my throat, and I searched him in the shadows. “You can’t keep saying things like that if you don’t mean them.”
His voice was rough. “What if I mean them, Hope?”
Hesitation billowed in my spirit. All the things we didn’t know about each other suddenly felt like a chasm between us.
Bottomless.
Fingers fluttering across his full lips, I let my whispered question hit the air. “What do you want from your life, Kale? Before you met me . . . where did you see yourself tomorrow? In five years? Where do you picture yourself when you’re growing old?”
Awareness filled his expression. Clearly, the man knew exactly what I was asking. Words faltered on his lips before he got a distant look on his face.
When he finally spoke, his confession was hoarse and choppy. “I think we need to go back to what I used to want, Hope. Not yesterday and not a year ago.”
He grimaced in pain. “But ten years ago? I’d pictured that by now, I’d be married. Have a horde of kids who’d come running out of the house to meet me at the end of the day.”
A sad smile kicked at the corner of his mouth, and his voice turned wistful, as if he were lost to the image in his mind. “They’d be shouting ‘Daddy’ and tugging at my pant legs and driving me crazy in the best of ways.”
He swallowed hard, his gaze filled with longing when he set the sincerity of those eyes back on me. “I thought I’d have a wife, who’d be waiting on the porch after her own long day, and we’d meet in the middle. Our lives would be chaotic and busy, but they’d be perfect because we were living for the right things.”
A tremor ran his thick throat. “Then that picture was shattered. And it destroyed something in me. From the day I lost her, I thought I’d be going my life alone. And I was okay with that.”
No longer was his gaze distant, but he was right there, with me. “That lonely picture remained the same until the day I met you.”
My heart pressed and thrummed and battered at my chest.
Agony.
The words caught, and I had to force them from my lips. “You know I can’t give you that . . . a horde of kids.”
He bli
nked in confusion. It only took a second for the man to come to understanding, and I thought maybe it was anger that flashed through his features. “I know what his records say, Hope. They don’t know where his disorder stems from.”
I blinked my own tears. “And you know I can’t take that risk.”
He rolled me to my back and propped himself on an elbow, staring down at me as he wound a lock of my hair around his forefinger. “And if you knew . . . what would you want?”
Wetness seeped from the corners of my eyes. “I’d always dreamed of a big family . . . but Evan will always, always be enough for me.”
His smile turned tender. “You think the two of you aren’t enough? You two are more than enough. So much more. Which means I can’t help but want to give you everything.”
Dreams and faith. They spun around me, wrapping me whole.
Because to Dane, Evan and I had never been enough.
And I swore, right then, Kale Bryant had become everything I needed.
24
Kale
I glanced at her from the corner of my eye.
Sitting in the front seat of my car like she’d been meant for that spot.
My chest clenched in an almost painful way. Reverberating with a deep-rooted sort of pleasure. The kind that promised it might last forever and, still, you were terrified of letting it slip through your fingers.
That didn’t mean my muscles weren’t knotted in anticipation.
I was heading in a direction I’d never gone. Taking a girl to hang out with my friends, who I considered family.
I’d asked Hope and Evan to go to Rex’s with me for a barbeque.
Not since Melody had I invited someone into our intimate circle, and even then, she’d only hung out with them once or twice because I was attending medical school in Birmingham.
That was where I’d met her.
Where I’d lost her.
I clamped down on the morbid thoughts that threatened to rise from that dark place inside me and, instead, focused on Evan, who was bouncing with excitement in the backseat, his smile bright as he strained to see out the windows.
Funny how all those questions and what-ifs were rambling around me, and I still felt completely at peace.
It was like that frantic lust and greed and want that had flamed inside me since I’d met Hope had become aware that feeling was actually an everlasting need.
An undying devotion.
And it wasn’t ever going to go away.
I felt the weight of her questioning stare burning into the side of my face. I took a right-hand turn, and I let myself peek over at her for a second as I accelerated down the road.
Fuck.
She was gorgeous.
So goddamned gorgeous.
All that red hair aflame, a halo of fire where it was lit up in the streaks of light that blazed through the passenger window.
Body tight and skin soft. Pale with that smattering of freckles.
Like she was sprinkled in some kind of fairy dust and she held her own special brand of magic.
Enchanting.
Entrancing.
That was what she was.
“What?” I asked, word scraping from my throat.
She bit down on that plump bottom lip and fiddled with the skirt of another one of those sundresses I was pretty sure she’d figured out were the ruin of me.
“I’m nervous,” she admitted in that sweet, shy way.
“Why are you nervous?”
She laughed a disbelieving yet hopeful sound. “You’re taking me and my son to meet your friends . . . the people who mean the most to you. You’ve got to know that’s kind of intimidating.”
I arched a brow. “As intimidating as your best friend?”
Her laughter rippled through the cabin of my car.
Swore the sound made me glow.
She tried to hold back a grin. “She’s not that bad.”
“Oh, believe me, Shortcake. A girl starts threatening the most important parts? That ranks her up there with arsonists and serial killers.”
She laughed outright, her gaze so soft. “So dramatic.”
I sent her a reassuring smile. “Seriously, though. They’re amazing. You’re going to love them just as much as they’re going to love you and Evan.”
Tenderness moved through her expression, that feeling rising high between us.
Alive.
I think both of us knew we were embarking on something new. It was no secret I wouldn’t be inviting anyone to meet my family unless I intended for them to become a part of it, and it was palpable in the air, the fact that everything was getting ready to change.
Truth was, my world had changed that night at the bar. I’d thought it was simply because I was changing careers. Taking the partnership at the children’s clinic. Maybe all along, that coming change had been Hope.
I made a left into Rex’s gravel drive, my tires crunching on the rocks as we came to a stop.
The houses in his neighborhood were spread out and elevated from the ground by several steps that led up to the porches of the modest homes.
Yards hedged in towering trees, which gave them a private feel.
Secluded and quiet.
Like they were in the middle of the woods and might not have a neighbor for miles, when in reality, they were in the middle of the town.
I killed the engine. “This is it.”
Hope sucked in a breath, and Evan freed himself from his seatbelt. Grinning, he scrambled to poke his head between the two front seats. That innocent gaze darted between us, excitement rolling from him in waves.
My chest tightened. Affection and that fluttering feeling. The one I was terrified to give a name.
I turned so I could face him. “You ready, little man?”
An energetic nod, and then he was yanking open the back door and flying out. Chuckling, I was quick to follow, wrapping his hand up in mine, running my thumb over the back of it.
Giving him the encouragement he didn’t seem to need but I wanted to offer anyway.
He and I wound around the front of the car just as Hope was ducking into the backseat to grab the container of cupcakes she’d insisted on bringing, her sweet ass swaying in the air, sending all kinds of thoughts and ideas skating through my head and licking across my skin.
She whipped around. A blush rushed to her cheeks when she caught what had to be the salacious expression on my face.
Busted.
“You are nothin’ but trouble, Cowboy,” she said with a jittery giggle, smoothing her rumpled self out.
Affected.
I let a smirk climb to the edge of my mouth. “Don’t act like you aren’t begging for it. Wearing those dresses that you know are gonna drive me straight out of my mind.”
Hope was shaking her head with sweet disbelief while Evan’s attention jumped between us, confused.
Chuckling, figured I’d better stop that train that was quickly speeding out of control and do it fast.
“Come on, let’s go meet everyone.”
Keeping Evan’s hand in mine, I tucked my other arm around Hope’s waist and pulled her to my side. I pressed my lips to her temple and murmured, “Thank you so much for coming with me. It means more to me than you could know.”
Those green eyes found mine. Tender and real. “Just you bringing us here says so many things,” she whispered. “I’m honored to be a part of your world. To get to know the people you love most.”
Fuck.
This woman had undone me. Unchinked all the armor I hadn’t even realized had been there until it toppled to the ground.
An offering at her feet.
Instead of going up the porch steps to the front door, we headed around the side of the house where carefree voices echoed from the backyard, riding on the humidity that was hot and thick and sticky this time of year.
Evan trotted along at my side, continually looking up at me, almost like he was asking for approval, those adorable bug eyes huge behind his t
hick glasses, wearing that blameless smile that completely destroyed my heart.
Putty in his trusting hands.
We rounded the corner, listening to the easy laughter of my friends, and strode into the grassy, sprawling yard at the back of Rex and Rynna’s house that was fenced in by soaring trees.
A big wooden porch ran the back of the house, and a few round tables and chairs sat in the middle of it, covered by colorful umbrellas that stretched out to protect from the searing heat of the Alabama sun.
A built-in grill and outdoor kitchen had been built at the opposite end of it. Smoke already puffed from the closed lid, twisty plumes of white rising into the air, carrying with it the divine scent of grilling steaks.
Hope leaned a little closer to me.
“You’re with me, baby. You don’t have a thing to worry about.”
She peered up at me. “I know. It’s ridiculous, but I just always worry when I get Evan in new situations. How he’s gonna react and how people are gonna react to him.”
I slowed to a stop, tucking Evan to my side before I dropped his hand and turned to take his mother by the face. My hold emphatic. “I would never bring him somewhere he wouldn’t be welcome. Would never put him in danger. Not ever.”
She blinked up at me, her hands winding around my wrists. “And that’s why we’re right here, with you.”
I wanted nothing more than to drop everything right there and kiss her wild, this woman who’d do anything to stand up for her son.
Protect him.
All I wanted was to hold her and keep her and tell her that bastard was never going to hurt either of them.
That I’d make sure of it.
That I’d never let her down.
It was getting harder and harder to ignore what was going on in her life. Something I hadn’t seen firsthand but saw the same as if I was standing in the middle of it.
Her ex a lowlife fucker I wanted to beat down with my bare fists. Destroy and ruin the way he intended to ruin them.
I shoved the urge back, my voice gruff when I murmured, “I can’t wait for them to meet you.”
A tender smile fluttered across those full lips, and I hugged her closer before I gathered Evan’s little hand back in mine.
Fighting the shudder that ripped through me because I loved the way it felt against mine so damned much.
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