“That’s a whole lot of man meat.”
“Yes it is.” Ali agreed, only having eyes for one slab that had her mouth watering like a cartoon wolf seeing a steak.
The trio of man-meat men were all animatedly discussing something that Ali would bet dollars to donuts had to do with MMA. They were talking with their hands and demonstrating different moves. It was a blur of muscles, tattoos, and hotness.
“Damn.” Jess stood motionless, as if moving would somehow make it all go away. “You could charge admission. This is as hot as the Magic Mike show I saw in Vegas.”
Ricky and the dog ran up to them, interrupting their viewing pleasure.
“Can Ryder stay the night?” he asked.
“Sure. If it’s okay with his mom.” That was one parenting trick Ali had learned the hard way. The parental approval caveat.
“Thanks!” Satisfied with that answer, Ricky went back to his friends but Dumbass remained at Ali’s feet.
“Who brought a dog to the barbeque?” Jess, an avid dog lover, had just noticed Dumbass, which was another testament to just how hot the Man Meat Show had been.
“Kade.”
“Kade has a dog?” Jess lifted her oversized sunglasses and set them atop her glossy black hair, revealing her perfectly applied wing-tip eyeliner.
“It’s his dad’s, or was his dad’s. The poor baby was tied up in the sun.”
“Fucking George,” Jess bit out through clenched teeth before she bent down and rubbed the pup’s head. He took that as an invitation to lick Jess’s entire face.
“Actually, George was doing the best he could, it was just too much with his health issues.” Everyone in Whisper Lake knew that George was gravely ill since he collapsed outside The Snack Shack last summer.
“What’s your name, handsome boy?” She asked the dog directly before shooting a look up at Ali. “He is a boy, isn’t he?”
“Yes, he’s a boy.” Ali smiled down at the mutt and Jess did the same. “That’s Dumbass.”
Jess’s head whipped back up to look at her friend.
“George named him,” Ali explained.
“Fucking George,” Jess repeated, this time with affection.
“Dumbass, come here!” KJ called out and the dog sprinted toward the twins and their friends, jumping up at the last second and almost knocking KJ over. All of the boys burst out laughing.
“Wow. The twins look like they love him. Is Kade taking it with him when he leaves?”
“He’s not leaving.” It was the first time Ali had said the words out loud and it caused her heart to jump.
Jess’s perfectly arched left eyebrow rose in silent question.
“Come on,” Ali threaded her arm through Jess’s, “help me get some chips.”
Ali had been dying to talk to her best friend all day, but she’d known that Saturday was Jess’s busiest day of the week. And Ali had been busy with the barbeque, anyway. But now that it was in full swing, it was the perfect time to sneak away to download everything that had transpired since she’d left Jess sixteen hours ago.
The sliding glass door off the deck that always stuck, now glided easily when Ali gently tugged at the handle, taking her by surprise.
Kade.
He must’ve fixed it while she’d been taking a shower. He’d seen her fighting with it all morning. It seemed like every time she turned around she discovered something else he’d fixed. First it was the dryer, then the loose railing on the stairs, the light in the pantry, and now the back door.
It was unnerving and amazing at the same time.
I never touch anything I don’t know I can fix, she heard Kade’s voice in her head and her hormones did a jig.
Damn. It got her every time.
As soon as the girls were inside and the door shut behind them, Jess turned to her friend.
“Talk,” she demanded.
“When I got home last night, Kade was waiting up for me. He said we needed to talk.”
Ali did a quick glance around, even though she was fairly certain that no one else was in the house. She lowered her voice to a whisper. “He told me that after Patrick’s funeral he went on a three-month bender and then checked himself into rehab. He said that once he got out, he wanted to have at least one full year sober before he came back. He didn’t want to be like his dad or my mom and put the boys through the same things we’d gone through. He wanted to make sure that he could be the man that Patrick thought he was and that I deserved.”
Jess’s jaw was hanging like it was on a hinge and her eyes were wide as saucers. “He said that? The man that Patrick thought he was and the man that you deserved?”
“Yep.”
“Damn.” Jess looked just as shocked as Ali had been.
“I know.”
“You know what this means?” Her friend asked somberly.
“What?” Ali’s breath caught as she waited to hear what this meant, cause she sure as shit didn’t know.
“Looks like Kade is well on his way to earning his title back. McKnight-in-Shining-Armor rides again!”
They both devolved into laughter but in the back of Ali’s mind there was a little nagging voice telling her that there was no such thing as a knight in shining armor. Kade might be riding in on a white horse now, but everyone left. Even if they didn’t want to. First her granddad when she was a little girl, her mom when she was a pre-teen, and then Patrick.
Her granddad’s death had been hard on her because she loved him so much. Her mom’s death had been scary because she was placed in foster care. Her brother’s death had devastated her because he’d been her whole life. She wasn’t sure she could survive losing someone else she loved and depended on. Which meant, she couldn’t love or depend on Kade…no matter how tempting it was.
CHAPTER 11
Kade dipped his head to let the hot water run over his hair, down his neck and over his shoulders. The pounding stream pulsed into his muscles like the head of a vibrating massager. He wanted to lose himself in the sensation. Just like the old Calgon-take-me-away ads he wanted the shower to be a portal to take him far, far away from the knowledge that he couldn’t escape from. The knowledge that was tormenting him night and day.
He was still in love with Ali. Actually, screw still in love. He was more in love with her than ever. Fuck. His life would be so much simpler if he could just see her the way he used to see her. As his best friend’s sassy, little sister.
Being back in Whisper Lake was quickly showing him that Ali was his life. He felt like he was alive for the first time in a long time. He was a shell of a man without her, and that was no way to live.
But holy shit, he wasn’t finding living with her to be a whole hell of a lot easier. She was just so damn tempting. So damn sexy. So damn perfect.
Watching Ali today at the barbeque had been torture. He closed his eyes and let the water wash over his face as images flooded his brain. Her cute little ass in her jean shorts. It was so distracting that he’d burnt half a dozen burgers and dogs. Her lean, tan legs had skin so smooth it was practically begging him to run his hands over it and every time he was near her he had to restrain himself from doing just that. She might be thinner than she used to be, but she still had curves that could stop his heart. Her hourglass shape displayed by her soft cotton T-shirt and denim shorts had inspired several heart-stopping moments today.
Her frame was still on the thin side but that only served to ignite his fierce desire to make up for his past wrongs and make sure she never had to face anything alone again. But the knowledge that he’d contributed to her pain was gnawing at him.
He’d been a mess, and he’d done what he felt he needed to do. He could rationalize that a million different ways. But his feelings for Ali weren’t rational. They sprang from a primal, primitive place deep inside of him that had him wanting to toss her over his shoulder and drag her into the nearest cave.
He closed his eyes trying to block out his base instincts but it backfired. He wanted to put h
er out of his mind but instead she filled it.
A flash of the small sliver of her flat belly he’d glimpsed when she’d reached above the fridge to grab the chip bowl played in his head. He pictured himself doing what he’d been unable to do in real life: he stalked across the kitchen, spun her around to face him, dropped to his knees, and began planting kisses along that band of smooth skin. He imagined the way she would shiver when he touched her. He felt the vibration of her trembling under his fingers and lips.
His body responded as if it were actually happening and his erection throbbed heavily between his legs. He figured he might as well drive that train all the way into the station.
He reached down and wrapped his fingers around his pulsing shaft and gripped himself hard as he stroked up and down with firm pressure. With each pass, his movements grew faster, ramping up his level of arousal. He pressed his other palm flat against the wet tile to brace himself, his balance growing unsteady as his head swam with swirling lust. There was no cure for the fever that infected him. Ali had gotten under his skin and invaded his whole system and there was nothing he could do about that except to try and take it one day at a time.
The closer he came to blowing his load, the faster the images flashed through his brain. Except now they weren’t just snapshots from today. Now, they were snippets of fantasy, projected onto the back of his closed eyelids as he jerked himself. It was the sexiest movie he’d ever seen.
Ali was on her knees in front of him, her lips wrapped firmly around his engorged tip. He disappeared into the wet recesses of her mouth as she sucked him off, her eyes staring up at him the entire time.
Then she was totally naked, lying back on a bed, offering her breasts to him as her arms stretched out to welcome him into her embrace.
His face buried in her neck as he drove himself into her again and again, his dick buried in her tight wetness, their bare skin creating a friction that could set the world on fire.
Then he was spreading her legs with his hands and covering her sex with his mouth, lapping up her sweet juices as she begged him to keep licking her.
He could only surrender to the overwhelming sensations that these images sent flooding through him. He let his imagination run away and fill in the details—the look on her face, the sound of her whimpers, the flush that spread across her chest as he licked her sex. Then, the taste of her sweet arousal as she came on his mouth and the feel of her body convulsing as she cried out his name.
That finally sent him over the edge. He couldn’t hold back any longer at the vision of her face, flushed with ecstasy and screaming his name. It was just too much.
His entire body shuddered in pleasure as he unleashed his orgasm into the flow of hot water. His stomach clenched in aftershocks as he watched the evidence of his release wash down the drain. As his heart began to slow and his breathing returned to normal, he tried to put the entire episode out of his mind and quickly washed his body and his hair and then shut off the water.
He stepped out of the shower and wrapped a towel around his waist and did his best to push down the shitty feeling he had in the aftermath of jerking off to Ali. It wasn’t the first time it had happened, and he knew it wouldn’t be the last. He’d learned a long time ago that fighting his desire for her was a practice in futility.
Still, it felt worse doing it here. In her house. In Patrick’s house.
He seriously needed to get a grip on himself, at least until he found a place to live. Ethan had mentioned that Kennedy Dawes was a realtor now. As one of his ex-girlfriends, Kennedy was also on his list of people he needed to make amends with. His drinking had played a large role in breaking them up and made him treat her ways he never would’ve otherwise.
Kade wasn’t sure how he could possibly apologize for how much of an asshole he’d been to Kennedy, but he figured admitting that he had been and saying he was sorry was a good start. His mind was busy rehearsing what he’d say when he opened the door of the bathroom, stepped into the hall, and ran smack into Ali.
His left arm automatically snaked around her lower back, steadying her as she started to stumble backward and his right hand wrapped around her upper arm. Her hands ended up clutching his chest like a cat hanging on a screen door.
Their bodies were plastered against one another and Kade could feel the swell of her soft breasts pressing against the hard planes of his abdomen. She had changed into her pajamas which meant she was wearing a baggy cartoon T-shirt and cutoff sweats. Her hair was wet, telling him that she’d also just taken a shower and his mind filled with images of her naked body, dripping wet.
“Sorry.” Her voice was barely a whisper as she started to push away.
When she did, he became painfully aware of two things. First, he was sporting a fairly significant hard on. And second, the collision had caused his towel to come loose and their current position was the only thing keeping it up.
“Wait.” He tightened his grip around her.
His efforts caused her to gasp as she looked up at him with wide, trusting eyes that made his heart clench. He watched as a pink flush rose from her chest to her high cheekbones. Their breaths were shallow and their stare locked as they fell into an electrifying silence. Between the sensation of their chests moving up and down against one another and her sweet curves molding against him his dick was swollen, steel hard, and pulsing painfully.
Kade knew that the right thing to do would be to release her arm, secure his towel, and hightail it to his room. Unfortunately, he wasn’t really known for doing the right thing, especially when wrong felt this good. He couldn’t bring himself to let her go. He needed one more moment, one more second, of this intimate contact.
He swallowed over a lump that had formed in his throat as he rasped, “My towel slipped and if you move back, you’re going to see a lot more of me than you bargained for.”
“A lot, huh?” A shy grin lifted on her cherry lips as her fingers tightened ever so subtly, her nails dug into his skin as her body rocked into him and the sensation shot straight to his cock. His balls tightened against his body as his erection strained against the terrycloth barrier. “I would make a joke about your ego, but in this case, I can feel that your big head is justified.”
Fuck. He inwardly groaned as he forced himself to release his hold on her and grab his towel as he took a step back from her. If he’d held her for even a second more, he would’ve lowered his head and covered her pretty little mouth with his.
When he let her go, she stumbled back and used the wall behind her to steady herself. He was about to apologize for his abrupt behavior when he saw her eyes fly down to the towel tent he was rocking and she licked her lips. He was sure it was just a nervous gesture and not meant to entice him even more, but that’s exactly what it did.
“Aunt Ali!” KJ’s voice carried up from downstairs.
Kade watched as Ali blinked and looked up at him, her whiskey-colored stare clouded with what he hoped was lust and not embarrassment.
“Can we ride down to the lake? We’ll be back by midnight.”
That snapped her out of whatever haze she’d been in. She started shaking her head no as she walked away from Kade and started addressing her nephew. “No, KJ. It’s already after eleven. You know the rules.”
“But it’s my birthday.” He heard the kid plead as she disappeared down the stairs.
“No. Your birthday was two weeks ago. Today was your party, but that doesn’t change the rules.”
Kade wanted to go back her up but they hadn’t really talked about what his role would be and he didn’t want to overstep. Plus, he was still very affected by their encounter.
A thought hit him as he crossed the hallway to the spare room. What if the boys had been upstairs and seen his reaction? If he stayed here any longer, he was afraid it would be inevitable.
He needed to call Kennedy. He needed to get his own place. He needed to stop popping wood like a teenager who’d never seen boobs before.
That last on
e would be a lot easier said than done if Ali was within a square mile of him. Maybe he would look for a place on the other side of the lake.
CHAPTER 12
Ali lay in bed, staring at the ceiling, after hours of tossing and turning. Her hands fisted in her sheets as frustration bubbled to the surface.
This was so unlike her. She generally fell asleep within ten to twenty minutes of her head hitting the pillow. Those ten to twenty minutes were usually spent crying before she drifted off into an emotionally exhausted coma, but still.
Since Kade had shown up, she’d barely slept. The first night they’d been fixing Ricky’s project. Last night, they’d stayed up all night talking. So tonight, she’d been all set to go to bed early. She’d ordered pizza for the boys, taken a shower, and was about to indulge in a glass of wine when she’d run into a half-naked Kade coming out of the shower. Now, that was all she could think about. She kept playing the scenario over and over again in her head.
She couldn’t count the number of times she’d dreamt of what he might be packing down there. He was a large man, with large hands, and large feet. Since she’d hit sexual maturity, her imagination had gone wild guessing how big, how hard, how thick he might be and it hadn’t come close to what she’d felt pressing against her belly in the hallway.
Her entire body tingled as she closed her eyes and remembered the long, thick, hard impression that was still lingering on her stomach. Her inner muscles clenched with need as she recalled the way he grew larger and harder every second that they stood pressed together.
When he’d pulled her close after she tried to step away, she’d been sure, absolutely positive, that he was going to kiss her. He didn’t and her heart took another hit.
When he joked about his towel falling and her seeing a lot more than she bargained for, she had to bite her tongue to stop herself from saying that she wanted to see it all. Just as well, because the comment she did make had him jumping away from her.
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