Kian

by Melody Anne

  They tore at each other’s skin as if they couldn’t get close enough, and Kian reached between their bodies and freed himself just enough to plunge inside her. He swallowed her cry of pleasure and pounded against her in a frenzy of movement.

  He felt her clench around him, and he had to fight not to let go with her. This was too fast. He should have been sated enough to love her for hours. But he desired her so much, he couldn’t get enough. And looking down at her flushed face was making him come undone.

  Her thighs gripped him tightly, and he stopped moving for a moment to catch his breath. “More, I want more,” she demanded.

  Kian smiled down at her. “You’re a greedy little thing, aren’t you?” he said. He leaned down and sucked the curve of her shoulder, leaving his mark there.

  “Yes, I want more,” she demanded.

  There was a new urgency in her tone he couldn’t possibly deny. Kian jumped up and shed his shorts, his erection wet and ready for more. He looked down at her flushed body and nearly came.

  “You better be damn glad I didn’t leave when you so easily dismissed me,” he growled.

  Her eyes widened, and then she looked at him defiantly. That only turned him on more. He reached down and flipped her over, causing a squeal to escape her pretty little lips. He reached out and smacked her once on her perfect little cheek, making an outraged squeal escape from her throat.

  She wrenched her head around to give him a piece of her mind, but he climbed on the bed, grasped her luscious hips, and slammed himself inside her again, buried so deep he didn’t want to ever stop making love.

  Any protests she might have been ready to give him evaporated, and she faced forward and called out his name, demanding more. His hips surged forward, his body making a perfect sound as it slapped against hers. Her ass turned a sweet pink as he pounded against her over and over again. His fingers dug into her skin, and he couldn’t stop loving her.

  She called out for more and more, and he gave her what she needed, what they both needed. He climbed on top of her, grabbing her hair with one hand as he pounded against her tight flesh while he reached around her sweet body and gripped her full breast with the other. Her nipple stabbed into his palm, and he felt a massive explosion building.

  She bit into the pillow in front of her and screamed as her body convulsed around his, and that’s all it took for him to let go and release with her. His pleasure shot deep within her, and in a few more pumps, he had nothing left to give.

  Both of them collapsed on the bed, and Roxie tried crawling away from him, tried putting some distance between them. “No,” he told her, his voice harsh.

  She stiffened as he pulled her back to him, her back flush with his chest, her butt cradled in the safety of his thighs. She was tense for several moments, but finally she relaxed. Neither of them had gotten their breathing under control yet.

  He didn’t say a word. He knew she needed to process whatever it was she was feeling. She would talk when she felt she could. He wasn’t going anywhere, and he had the luxury of giving her the time she had to take.

  This was right where Kian belonged. He was done with letting her push him away, done with accepting her rejection. She was his, and it was damn time she knew it. They were a family, whether they’d chosen it or not, and it was time they started acting like one.

  Kian’s hand rested against her chest, and it comforted him to feel her heartbeat begin to slow. He wanted her, still. He would always want her. But for now, he was sated enough to talk to her; then he was going to make slow, sweet love to her, was going to show her with his body and mouth how much she meant.

  “I want you and Lily to move in with me.”

  The words escaped him before he could stop himself. Well, his good intentions of letting her speak first flew right out the damn window. He felt her stiffen again and her heart rate increase. She twitched against him, but he refused to let her go. It was what he wanted, and at one time, what she’d wanted. He didn’t see why it should have changed. They now had a daughter to think about.

  “I don’t want to talk about this right now,” she finally said. She was trying to pull away from him, physically and emotionally, and he wasn’t having it.

  He flipped her over on her back and trapped her with his body, forcing her to look into his eyes. The mellow light cast shadows all around them, but she couldn’t escape him like this. He could see into her very soul. He could see she was scared, but he knew it wasn’t of him.

  “Why did you leave four years ago?” he asked.

  She blinked, refusing to look him in the eyes. It infuriated him, but he wasn’t going anywhere, and it was damn time she knew it.

  “I don’t want to talk about this,” she told him. “It’s been a long day, my body is sated, and now I just want to sleep.”

  He smiled down at her, loving the crisp forcefulness of her voice as she tried to put her foot down. She’d been stubborn when he’d first met her, and it had made him want her all that much more. It helped that Kian knew exactly who he was and what he wanted. It gave him the confidence and strength to handle a woman as spirited and feisty as Roxie.

  “I’ve been giving you time, and that doesn’t seem to do me a hell of a lot of good, so I figure, time’s up. You will talk to me,” he said casually, as if he had all the time in the world.

  He leaned down and licked the top of her breasts, lazily circling his tongue over the soft orbs before he circled her nipple. It instantly hardened, straining for his mouth. Her hands were both clasped in one of his, being held over her head, and he loved having her at his mercy. He licked her nipple and her back arched. He looked up and smiled at her. She gave him a withering glare.

  “I hate you, Kian Forbes,” she said, but the words ended on a sigh as he sucked her nipple into his mouth and ran his tongue over it.

  “No, you don’t,” he said before switching to the other breast and repeating what he’d just done.

  “I can desire you and still hate you,” she gasped, her body arching again.

  “No, you can’t. It’s not in you,” he said.

  He released her hands, and she fisted them in his hair and tugged hard. She was trying to hurt him, but she was only turning him on that much more. He tugged on her nipple with his teeth, just enough to give her a little jolt. She moaned.

  “Why did you leave?” he asked again.

  She closed her eyes and refused to answer him, but her fingers wrenched at his hair again.

  “You’re a dangerous little thing, aren’t you?” he said with a laugh. She opened her eyes and glared at him.

  Kian jumped from the bed, and she gazed at him in surprise. He was still hard and standing proud as he walked over to her dresser, and he didn’t miss the light in her eyes as she caressed him with her look.

  He opened a drawer and shut it, and she gasped at him.

  “Stay out of my stuff,” she said. She sat up as he opened the next drawer, finding what he wanted. He pulled them out, and her eyes narrowed as she tried to scramble from the bed, but he pounced and had her pinned again.

  He grinned down at her and within seconds had her hands tightly secured to her bedpost with her own stockings. He sat on her legs and looked at his handiwork. Not too bad.

  “You will pay for this,” she spat at him, tugging against her hands.

  “I’m not too worried,” he told her. He leaned down and gave her a kiss that had him completely worked up again and left her panting. He had to be careful, because he wanted information from her, and he got distracted too easily by her perfect body.

  He jumped up again and found another set of stockings. It didn’t take long for him to have her feet secured. If looks could kill, he’d be a dead man.

  “Now this is better,” he told her with a smile. He lay on his side and ran his hands across her skin, enjoying how she quivered with each stroke of his fingers.

  “Why did you leave four years ago?” he asked again.

  He grabbed a pillow and held
her body up, putting it beneath her ass to hold her up a little. She shook her head and then turned away, giving him a cold shoulder. He ran his hand down her stomach, then slid his fingers along her wet folds. She was soaked, which had his own arousal twitching. He easily slid two fingers inside her, then lazily moved them in and out as he sucked on her ripe nipple.

  She groaned low in her throat as she struggled against her restraints. He kept stroking his fingers inside her hot body as he moved up the bed so he could see into her slatted eyes.

  “Why did you leave four years ago?” he asked again before kissing her lips.

  Finally, he was getting somewhere. Tears popped into her eyes, and she tried to glare at him, but emotions were coming to the surface. She was too vulnerable, completely open to him, completely at his mercy. He hated how much she was hurting, but the two of them didn’t have a chance if she didn’t face whatever it was she was running from.

  “Why did you leave?” he asked again, gently kissing her as her tears began to spill. He continued gently stroking his fingers inside her body, keeping her languid and vulnerable. He wanted her, he always wanted her, but this wasn’t about sex. This was about her letting go, giving herself to him.

  “Tell me,” he commanded, his voice gentle. He kissed her again, while continuing to stroke her body. Her tears fell in waves as she tried to fight the emotion. She opened her mouth to speak and closed it again. He kissed her softly once, twice, a third time. Then he rested his head against her breast, his fingers gently stroking her. He waited.

  “I had to go,” she finally whispered, the sound of her broken voice nearly undoing him.

  “Why?” he asked. There was no judgment in his tone. He was her friend, he was her lover, he was her soul mate. He kept her vulnerable, kept her flame going, but he was gentle, loving, right beside her. His face rested in the cradle of her chest, where he could listen to her heartbeat.

  “Because . . .” She hiccupped as sob after sob released. He waited. She continued to cry while he loved her and waited.

  “I was lost,” she finally said.

  “I have always found you,” he told her.

  “But you didn’t find me,” she said.

  He wanted to stop this. He wanted to end her pain, but he knew he couldn’t. She wouldn’t be free until she let it all out. He moved over her and slowly eased his body into hers, keeping their eyes connected. He fit so perfectly within her. How could she not feel it, see it, focus on it?

  Gently, his fingers caressed her face as he slowly moved his hips, filling her, touching her, loving her with all he had.

  “I will always find you,” he promised. “I also know that sometimes you need to be free.” He kissed her again and then leaned back, not moving, just allowing their bodies to be one, their hearts to beat in a perfect rhythm.

  “I got so lost in you, I didn’t know who I was anymore,” she said.

  This was it. This was the heart of the matter. Kian didn’t know what to think about her words. She was looking him in the eyes, reaching for him, though she couldn’t break the bonds he’d secured her with. He gazed at her as he shifted his body, letting her feel their connection.

  “Don’t you realize I’m just as lost in you?” he asked. He wasn’t holding anything back in this moment. He was allowing her to see into his soul. He was giving her the gift of his vulnerability, something he’d never given another living soul.

  “I don’t want to be consumed,” she said.

  “I don’t think we get a choice about that,” he told her. “But we can respect each other enough to try our hardest to have boundaries.”

  “I don’t think I know how to walk that line,” she admitted.

  He gazed at this beautiful woman and realized he didn’t have an answer for her. He didn’t know how to solve her problem. He just knew that he loved her, that he was willing to give her the space she needed to figure it out.

  “I love you,” he told her. Her eyes widened, and he watched as she tried to bring down the shutters.

  Kian pulled out of her and felt an indescribable emptiness. He untied her feet, then her hands. Then he climbed back on the bed and offered himself to her. It was her choice to take him or not.

  She sat there for a moment and then she crawled over him, connecting their bodies again. But she didn’t want slow and sweet anymore. Now she wanted the pain to go away, she wanted to push it to the farthest places of her mind.

  Kian could give her that because he’d made progress with her. He didn’t know if they were going to have a happy ending or not, but he’d opened the door. It was her choice if she wanted to walk through it.

  Their lovemaking grew more and more frenzied, and when she lay sated in his arms, he held her as she drifted to sleep. Before he allowed himself to drift off, he let her go and got up.

  Kian gazed down at her for a long period of time, and then he dressed and walked out the door. He wasn’t sure what would happen next, but he’d opened himself up to her. Now it was her turn to decide if she could accept what he was willing to give, or if she would choose darkness forever.

  Chapter Twenty-Five

  Roxie’s nerves were exposed, and she felt more raw than she ever had before. She still didn’t know what to think about the other night with Kian. It had been too much for her, and he hadn’t relented. What did that mean?

  Now, she had to go to this party at Evan’s house, and she knew Kian would be there. She’d refused to ride with him, and he would have to deal with that. She wasn’t going to allow him to control her, and she was more than capable of arriving at a place by herself, even if the man didn’t think her car was suitable. He could deal with that. But she still didn’t know what it was going to be like to see him, especially in public.

  Her emotions were raw, her body felt foreign, and her mind was spinning. This was one of the reasons she’d run from him in the first place. She couldn’t handle how he made her feel. It was too much. All of it was just too much.

  Roxie took her time arriving, not wanting to be one of the first ones there. She figured if there was a crowd, it would be much more difficult for Kian to try to corner her. She might have blonde moments once in a while, but most of the time she could think, she thought a little too smugly.

  When she arrived, she had a difficult time parking, as there were so many vehicles. She had to find a space what felt like a hundred miles from the main house. She’d been wanting to have a crowd there so she wouldn’t be even close to being alone with Kian, but this number of people was quite overwhelming.

  As soon as she opened her car door, she heard the noise coming from Evan’s house. There were bright lights shooting up into the sky from what she assumed was a party area in the back. Her heart was thudding as she pulled Lily from her car seat. Her niece grinned at her, but she wanted to walk, so the trip to the house took twice as long as it normally would, but Roxie didn’t mind that. It gave her more time to pull herself together.

  There was a sign on the door that told people to come on in and go straight to the back. She walked into the house, though it felt strange to do so without knocking. There were people milling all about the house, and several said hello to her as she passed through. She recognized some people, and others she didn’t know at all.

  She really could use a drink, but she’d driven herself, so that was off the table. Maybe she hadn’t been thinking enough about this, darn it. When she stepped out the back door, she realized there were a few hundred people milling about. A live band was playing a country tune, and teens and adults were having a great time, dancing and talking, and there was so much laughter all around her, it was impossible not to smile.

  Lily was tugging on her hand as she spotted a group of children over at a giant bounce house. “Hold on, sweetie,” Roxie told her, but Lily wasn’t being patient at all.

  “I’ll take her to play.”

  Roxie turned to find Juliana Forbes standing next to her with a sweet smile on her lips. Kian’s family had alwa
ys been good to her, and they treated Lily with such adoration it was impossible for Roxie to try to pull from them.

  “How are you?” Roxie asked.

  “I’m wonderful, darling. How about you? We need to spend some real time together because I truly miss you,” Juliana said. She didn’t hesitate as she reached in and wrapped her arms around Roxie.

  Without thinking twice about it, Roxie released Lily’s hand and grabbed on to Juliana as if she were a lifeline. A tear fell, and she found herself shaking as she accepted the woman’s embrace. If she could have ever dreamed of the perfect mother, it would be this woman with eyes so kind, they made a person instantly feel warm and taken care of.

  Juliana held Roxie a long time before she released her. Her own eyes were shining as she looked at Roxie with a smile.

  “I miss you, too,” Roxie admitted as she wiped away tears. “I’m sorry I’m such a mess right now. I don’t know what’s wrong with me.” She tried to laugh, but she was slightly mortified at how she was behaving.

  “You have nothing to apologize for,” Juliana told her.

  “I’ve never apologized for not telling you goodbye four years ago,” Roxie said. This was long overdue.

  Juliana cupped Roxie’s cheek in her small hand. “You had your reasons. And you don’t have to explain yourself. I’m just happy to see you’ve found your way home,” she told her.

  Roxie had to fight new tears that wanted so desperately to fall. She’d never felt good enough to be a part of the Forbes family, but it wasn’t because of the way they treated her. No, it was all inside her own head. Anyone who was lucky enough to become a part of their family should embrace their fate.

  “Let me take Lily to play with the other children while you relax for a while. You can have some much-needed time to yourself,” Juliana said.

  Lily was bouncing up and down beside them as she gazed over at the kids. “Thank you,” Roxie said. Though it felt good to finally apologize, Roxie didn’t want to keep thinking about the past.