Head Over Heels

by Crystal B. Bright

  Thane thought so too. “See you all in a few days.” He had to make a special trip first.

  What he needed to do couldn’t be done with a call. He glanced at the clock on his phone. By the time he got to where he needed to go, it would be eight or nine at night. He didn’t care.

  Thane made sure to gas up his ride before hitting the road to go north. He kept a laser focus the entire drive. Until he drove to the place where Kari worked, he didn’t remember listening to the radio or hearing anything else. His mind stayed on Kari.

  He started to head up to the building when a blonde strolled out. As soon as she saw him, she dropped the coffee she held and cursed.

  “Are you okay?” Thane struggled to bend over to pick up her cup.

  “Um, yeah. You would think after working here for so long that I would get used to seeing good-looking athletes.” She put her hand to her head. “I’m so glad I agreed to work late tonight. Sorry. My name is Chelsi.”

  Thane accepted her hand and shook it. “Thane Wells. I’m here to see Kari Meyers. I’m hoping she’s as dedicated as you. Can you tell me where her office is?”

  Chelsi looked like she wanted to say something, then she stopped herself and reached into her saddlebag purse. “I’ll do you one better.” She scribbled something down and handed it to him. “You can find her there.”

  He glanced at the address. “Thanks.” He headed back to his vehicle.

  “Oh, no. Thank you.”

  Thane looked behind him and caught Chelsi taking a picture of him. She had her camera aimed down at his ass. He had to shake his head.

  It took him no time to get to the other address. It surprised him to discover that Chelsi had given him Kari’s home address. He hoped she didn’t do that with every client looking for Kari.

  A few vans lined the street in front of her townhouse. Thane pulled into her driveway and got out, which incited a feeding frenzy. The few remaining photographers jumped out of their vehicles and started snapping away.

  Thane paid them no mind as he walked up to the front door and pushed the bell. He heard someone inside screaming about the nerve of the photographers approaching her home. When the door opened, he lost his breath as he stared at the beauty before him.

  Kari’s mouth hung open as she gazed at Thane. “You’re here. What are you doing here? How did you find me?”

  “Someone named Chelsi at your office gave me your address.”

  He heard Kari grumbling over that bit of information.

  “Can I come inside to talk?” When Thane saw her screw up her lips, he knew this wouldn’t be an easy conversation. “I promise I won’t take up too much of your time. Please.”

  Kari glanced behind him before she nodded and took a step to the side. “You had better make this quick.”

  Thane didn’t know about quick. He would have to make his plea good.

  Chapter 23

  Kari’s heart hadn’t stopped pounding since she opened the door and found Thane. She hadn’t talked to him since that fateful day in his hospital room. Now her head and heart warred with each other. Her head had the lead.

  She allowed him into her home but kept him standing by the front door. She would be kicking him out as soon as he finished whatever he had to say.

  She glanced at her watch. “Hurry up and say what you have to say. I have to put Michael to bed.”

  Thane moved in closer to her. She remained where she stood. The hell she would run from anyone inside of her own home.

  “I am sorry.” He put his hand to his chest.

  “Don’t you mean you apologize?” She kept her stare on the front door. When he didn’t respond, she connected her gaze to his.

  Damn those blue eyes.

  “I never meant to hurt you.” He eased into her space more.

  At this distance, she caught his heady, musky scent. She had to lock her knees together to keep from swaying.

  “You did.” Kari raised her chin. “You made me feel worthless. I can’t be with a man who doesn’t respect me.”

  Thane opened his mouth to continue his plea when he smiled and looked behind Kari. “Michael. How are you, buddy?”

  Michael beamed and ran up to Thane.

  “No, no. Easy. He had surgery.” Kari held up her hands to her enthusiastic child.

  Michael wrapped his arms around Thane’s waist. Thane didn’t grumble or grunt in any pain. He hugged the child back.

  “Mr. Wells. I can’t believe you’re here.” Michael pulled back from him. “Are you okay?”

  Thane placed his hand on his stomach. “I will be. Turns out I was holding a lot of stuff inside and it was making me sick.” He stared at Kari. “I’m learning to be more open and honest.”

  “Mom is always telling me to tell the truth.” Michael rolled his little eyes.

  “That’s right.” She held her son’s shoulder and pulled him toward her. “Honesty is the best policy. Everyone knows where you stand.”

  “As usual, your mom is right.” Thane looked at Kari. “I trust you with every part of my being. That day at the hospital, I wasn’t questioning your integrity. I was wondering about my own. You have done nothing but be professional and straightforward and truthful. I’ve held back. I’ve made it difficult for you to get close. But you, you’ve made it so easy to love you.” Thane moved in close to her, wrapped his hand behind her neck, and pulled her in for a kiss.

  Kari immediately closed her eyes and let herself be transported to a life that included this hunky man and her child. She’d missed the feeling of his full lips against hers.

  “Oh, wow. Looks like I walked in on something good.”

  Kari broke from the kiss and noticed Reagan standing behind them. Reagan smiled as she stared at the three of them.

  Thane pulled back from Kari to give Reagan a hug. “Good to see you.” Then he brought his attention back to Kari.

  “I believe you were apologizing to me.” Kari had to bring this back to reality.

  “What?” Michael worried his little eyebrows. “You hurt my mom?”

  Thane gazed down at the boy. “Not on purpose.” He returned his stare to Kari. “I accused her of trying to get my business in an unscrupulous way.”

  Michael thought about the word for a moment before he spoke. “That means something bad, right?”

  Thane nodded. “Some not-so-nice folks said some things about your mother that I believed. I can’t blame it on being drugged or in pain. I should have known better. I know her. I know her as a woman, as a friend, and as a mother. She saved me. In every sense of the word, she saved my life.” He looked down at Michael. “I wouldn’t be here without her.” Then he connected his gaze to hers. “I love you. I think I loved you from the moment I saw you in New York.”

  Kari finally broke. She smiled. “I love you.”

  “Because of his pitching and how he plays?” Michael asked.

  She shook her head but kept her stare on Thane. “Because you’re man enough to apologize when you make a mistake. Because you came back to me. You make me feel worth it.”

  Thane wrapped his arm around Kari’s waist and kissed her cheek. “I will never doubt you again. If you give me another chance, I will treat you like the queen that you are.” He started to go in for another kiss when Michael put himself in between the two of them.

  “You made my mom get upset.” He shook his head. “She wasn’t the same after she saw you. I don’t like that.” His little mouth turned down.

  “I know. If she’ll let me, I’ll apologize to her every day for the rest of my life.” Thane put his hand on Michael’s shoulder. “If you’re really sorry and you apologize, you can repair most relationships.”

  “Like with my dad?” Michael split his attention between Thane and Kari.

  “That’s up to you.” Thane tapped Michael on his chest. “You have to feel it in here.” He looked at Kari. “Do you feel anything for me?” He put his hand on her chest over her
heart. “In here.”

  The connection broke her. “Yes. I love you.” She cried and embraced him.

  Feeling him hold her gave her a sense of security she hadn’t felt in years. No man, except for her grandfather, had been so open and honest with her. From his kisses to his stares, she knew he loved her. She loved him. Beyond the stats and how he played, she loved the man.

  “I got to capture this.” Reagan held up her phone and snapped the picture of the family. “So now what?”

  Thane gazed down at Kari. “I finally went to my mother’s house in North Carolina. My brothers and their fiancées are coming down this weekend. I want you to come with me.”

  Kari stared at the man she thought she knew. “You invited your brothers to stay with you?”

  He nodded. “It won’t be complete unless you’re there. You pushed me to open up to them. You’ve pushed me in a lot of great ways.” He held her hand. “I want you there.” Then he scanned the rest of her family. “And you all can come.”

  Kari shook her head. “Not this time. I’ve already had Michael on vacation once.”

  “Then you go, Mom.” Michael smiled.

  “Michael, I’m not going to leave you.” Kari crouched down to get eye level with her child.

  “You won’t be leaving me. You’ll be building our family.”

  Kari gasped along with Reagan.

  “When did he get so smart?” Reagan wiped under her eyes.

  “Besides, with you two gone, maybe the photographers will go away.” Michael jutted his thumb over his shoulder.

  Kari laughed. “As nice as you are to be so understanding, I can’t—”

  Reagan cut her off. “Yes, you can. I’ll stay here with him and make sure he studies. There will be other times for us all to be together. I have a feeling that this trip is something that’s strictly for adults only.”

  “What do you say?” Thane asked.

  Kari gazed at Reagan and Michael. “You two are awesome.”

  Reagan pulled Michael to her. “We know.”

  “But I won’t be gone long.”

  Michael rolled his eyes. “We know.”

  Kari hugged her son and her friend. “Thank you.”

  “Anytime. Now I can help you pack.” Reagan rubbed her hands together.

  “So can I.” Michael started to head to Kari’s bedroom.

  “Oh, no, mister. Time for you to go to bed.” Kari held Michael’s shoulders as she headed him to his bedroom.

  “Aww, Mom.” He hung his head as he stomped to his room.

  “I know. Life is so hard.” She managed to get him back to bed before she went to her bedroom to pack.

  She found Thane standing in the middle of the room.

  “I was fine with Reagan and Michael coming along,” he said.

  “I know. I think you need some time with your brothers first.”

  Thane moved in closer to her. “I think the big question is what are we going to do alone in that big house until they show up?”

  She wrapped her arms around his waist and held him gently. “I’m sure we’ll figure something out.”

  * * * *

  Kari turned over in the plushest bed she’d ever slept on in her life. She ran her hand over the sheets and moaned.

  “Good. You’re awake.”

  She felt a hard body snuggling up behind her. While keeping her eyes closed, she smiled. She didn’t want to wake from this dream. After three days of being alone in a huge house on the beach, she knew she hadn’t stepped into a fantasy.

  Thane wrapped his arm around her waist. “I haven’t touched you in the way that I want in three days.” He kissed the shell of her ear. “The doctor said I can have sex now. The sutures are all gone.” He eased his hand up her shirt. “And the blood is flowing everywhere in my body.”

  Kari giggled. “We shouldn’t.”

  “Yes, we should. My brothers and their fiancées will be here today. This will be the only time I can make you scream.” He flipped her on to her back, which did make her squeal.

  “Thane, wait.” She held his strong, broad shoulders. Damn, she wanted this man. “Look me in my eyes and tell me the truth.”

  “Always.” He stared into her eyes even as he deftly removed his pajama bottoms while under the comforter.

  “Did the doctor really say you can have sex now?” Although she wanted him, she didn’t want to hurt him. It would be hard, but she could wait.

  Thane nodded. “I could have had sex a week ago. I didn’t want you thinking that I only wanted you here to jump your hot body. But every time you put on a bathing suit and got into the pool or hot tub, I had to find something else to do to stay away from you. It was bad enough sleeping in separate bedrooms.”

  Kari removed her sleep shirt, revealing her bare chest. “Not my fault. I wanted us to share a room.”

  “Honey, if we did, this would have happened multiple times by now.” He opened the nightstand drawer next to the bed and pulled out a string of condoms. “Sorry, baby. I’m going to go all frat boy on you.” He smiled as he placed a wrapper between his teeth to open it.

  She pushed him over to get him on his back. “Not if I don’t play cougar first.” She snatched the condom from him and rolled it down the length of him.

  “I like the sound of that.” He held onto her hips as she grabbed the base of his shaft and aimed him at her core.

  As soon as she slipped him inside, time stopped. Kari gripped his chest as she undulated her hips on him, up and down ever so slowly.

  “Better than I remembered.” Thane pulled her back and forth to help guide her.

  She didn’t need help satisfying him. She removed one hand from her hip and placed it on her breast. Her hardened nipple brushed against his meaty palm.

  “I signed your contract.” Thane gritted his teeth as he nodded toward the nightstand.

  Kari broke her stare from him long enough to see the contract she’d given to him in his hotel room sitting on a nightstand. “Tear it up.”

  Thane blinked. “Why?”

  She shook her head. “No longer at Winning Edge.” She planted her hands on his shoulders as she rode him harder and faster. “On my own.”

  “Give me your new contract. I’ll sign with you.”

  Hearing that prompted her first of many orgasms. Kari screamed and constricted her legs and arms around him. “Am I hurting you?”

  “Only if you stop.” He pulled her to him and kissed her.

  Kari sat up on him. When she gazed down, she noticed his incision scars across his lower abdomen. “We should have done this days ago.” Her insides tightened again like she wanted to come.

  “Yeah, if we did, you wouldn’t have respected me.” He winked at her.

  At his statement, she did something that she’d never done before. She released a combination laugh-scream when another orgasm hit her.

  She stayed entwined with him for another hour. Kari didn’t care about the beach or the big house or even the contract as long as she had this man in her life.

  Thane plopped back on the bed. “So good.”

  Kari lay on top of him but kept him inside her. “When did you say your family was going to arrive?”

  As though she’d cued it, the front doorbell chimed.

  Thane cursed. “You take a shower.” He gave her a quick peck before removing the used condom and wrapping his body in a sheet. “I’ll go answer the door. I’ll be back after I let them in.”

  “Good.” She jumped out of bed. “You can join me.” She winked before disappearing into the bathroom.

  * * * *

  Thane had never felt more alive than in this house. No wonder his mother had kept it a secret.

  Instead of taking the stairs down, he went down by elevator. Kari had drained him of his energy, but he would do it ten times over if he could. As he headed to the door, he saw Gunnar and Gideon on the other side with their faces pressed against the glas
s to look inside.

  Thane smiled as he approached the door and opened it. “Hey, you made it.”

  Gunnar scanned him. “Looks like you made something yourself.” He hugged Thane.

  “You’ll have to excuse my attire. Late start to the day.” He kissed Eboni’s cheek.

  “I’m guessing you’re not here alone.” Gideon hugged him.

  “Kari’s upstairs.” Thane kissed Janelle on her cheek.

  “Really?” Eboni raised her eyebrows. “Glad you two worked things out. I like her.” She nudged Gunnar with her elbow.

  “Yeah, she’s good people.” He tried looking hard, but every time he glanced at Eboni, he let a smile peek through.

  “You all need help with your luggage?” Thane pointed to the cars in the driveway.

  Gideon shook his head. “You go shower and get dressed. We’ll be fine.”

  “Let me at least give you a tour first so you all can decide on your rooms. There’s not a bad one in the house.” Thane took them around to every part of the house with the exception of the third floor.

  “What’s up there?” Janelle asked and pointed up.

  “It’s the master suite. It spans the entire floor. And Kari is there getting ready.” Thane gripped the sheets tighter around his body.

  “And, of course, you’re in it, right?” Gunnar stared at Thane.

  Before his stomach could twinge, Thane spoke up. “Of course.”

  Gunnar waited a beat before he nodded. “Makes sense.”

  Thane exhaled. “You all pick the rooms you want. I’ll get ready and meet you down in the living room.”

  He took the stairs up to the third floor. When he opened the door, he found Kari slathering lotion on her nude body.

  “I thought you were going to wait for me.” Thane dropped the sheet that covered his body.

  “And I thought you were going to let them in and come back.” She gave him a seductive smile before sauntering back to the bathroom.

  No way could he let her go. Not right now. He followed her and stood behind her as she washed her hands. “Now I wished I hadn’t waited so long.”

  Kari turned to him. “I’m glad we did. This morning was so intense.” She gave him a quick kiss.