by Cassie Wild
Something that might have been surprise flickered in her eyes, but it was gone, hidden by that cool mask she so often showed the world. Understanding more about her now, I couldn’t say that mask was a surprise. It was her defense mechanism. She practically had to hide, especially from most of her family.
“I’m going to the police,” she finally said. “Joelle isn’t old enough to marry, and if she’s forced to, especially to a man in his forties, it might well be some sort of child abuse. I don’t know for sure, but I know most of the clans don’t do it anymore, and some have gotten in trouble for it.” She swallowed, and I could see her throat working with the movement. “I haven’t worked it all out yet, but it’s all I’ve got for now.”
“Will it be dangerous for you to go?” I don’t know what prompted me to ask that.
Her eyes flitted away. “Of course not. How can talking to the cops be dangerous?”
“For one, if your father finds out. Or…what do you call them…the clan? What is that, like your family?”
She jerked a shoulder in a restless shrug, still not meeting my eyes. “We’re a group of families. It’s one of the larger ones, and the head of the clan is Vano.”
“And if you do something that the clan doesn’t want you doing, is it dangerous?”
“Well, nobody will be happy about it,” she said with a huff of laughter.
Taking a step toward her, I waited for her eyes to come back to mine. “How about you tell me whatever it is you’re not telling me? It is dangerous, isn’t it?”
She glared at me. “For fuck’s sake, Kian. I’ve been running cons since I was thirteen. There have probably been complaints about me. I don’t know! The way my life is going, I’ll walk into the police station, and they’ll arrest me on sight. People in the clan get looked at all the time, so yes, when I go to the police station and tell them what’s happening, people are going to be pissed. It could cause some trouble for me, especially since I’ll tell the fucking cops anything they want to know if it will help Joelle. I know some shit, and the families in the clan know that I know it.”
My gut went cold, and I reached out, catching her arms. Pulling her up against me, I said, “Figure out another way then.”
“There isn’t one!” She jerked against my hold, but I didn’t let her go. Eyes full of fire and anger and fear, she planted her hands against my chest, but instead of shoving a second time, she curled her hands into my shirt. “There isn’t one. There’s no time. I’ve got to do something before Joelle is married to that snake. He’ll rape her, Kian. He’ll break her. I’ve got to keep that from happening.”
“Then let me help you,” I said, the words coming out before I realized I was going to say them.
But once they were out there, I didn’t want to take them back. I couldn’t.
Suria gaped at me. “What?”
“Let me help you,” I said again.
At some point, I’d started to stroke my thumbs up and down her arms. She felt almost…fragile right then and I wondered why I hadn’t realized how small she was until this moment. Not delicate, exactly, but small. She was sleek and strong, a veritable powerhouse of curves and muscle, but she was also petite. She didn’t need to carry a burden like this on her own.
“Why would you want to help me?”
I didn’t have any way to put the whys into words, so instead of trying, I lowered my head to kiss her.
She pulled back at the last second, staring into my eyes. “This doesn’t solve anything, Kian,” she whispered.
“I know it doesn’t. But I still want to do it.”
I hadn’t ever wanted to stop doing it.
Even when I’d been pissed off at her, mad enough to wring her neck, mad enough to shake her, I’d still wanted her.
I was still mad now, although the focus of the anger was shifting away from her and focusing on her family, her father, and the fucking clan – the people who’d put her and her sister in this situation.
And the want was still there.
Watching her, I went to kiss her again.
This time, she didn’t pull away.
This time, she opened for me, and when I closed my mouth over hers, she moaned against my lips. I swallowed the sound down and sought to make her do it again.
Her taste was sweet and wild, a taste I’d come to crave even though I’d only known her a short time.
As she rose up onto her toes and curled her arms around me, I wrapped one forearm around her waist, tugging her in close. I slid my free hand into her hair, letting those wild curls twine themselves around my fingers.
I wanted to see her naked again, wearing nothing but those curls and that killer smile.
She moaned again, and I lifted my head to gaze down at her.
Her lashes fluttered open after a moment, and I said again, “Let me help you.”
It was imperative that she give me something just then. I didn’t know why, but it was.
“I don’t know how you can,” she whispered, her eyes stark.
“We’ll figure something out.”
She bit her lip, and I wanted to catch that plump curve in my own mouth, bite just where she was biting, then soothe the small hurt away.
“Just tell me you’ll let me help. Trust me now, Suria…and I’ll try to trust you again.”
Her eyes glittered in the dim light, overbright and damp. And she nodded.
It was enough.
I fisted my hand in her hair and dragged her mouth back to mine. For now, at least, I had what I needed.
Maybe I was a fool to believe her, but I did, and it was enough.
Ten
Suria
The feel of his hands on my body was unlike anything I’d ever known.
The taste of his mouth on mine seemed wholly different.
Even though we’d made love before, something felt…different.
No walls, I realized as he reached between us, grabbing the hem of my shirt. I didn’t have to hold up the walls anymore.
I’d never been with anybody when I didn’t have to hold up the walls that separated all the different parts of me.
Until now.
Kian slid his mouth up to my ear, and I squeezed my eyes shut against the waves of emotion that buffeted me, threatening to take me under. I reached for him, my hands seeking out the hot, smooth feel of his skin under his shirt. It grounded me, that touch of his skin to mine. Lean muscle rippled under my fingers, and I clutched him tighter, moving in closer.
Kian bit my earlobe, and it made me shiver.
One hand closed over my hip, and he tugged me in tighter against him until I felt his cock prodding against my belly. “Do you want this?” he asked, voice husky and raw in my ear.
Did I want it?
Did he even have to ask?
But apparently, he did, and he stopped when I didn’t give an immediate yes.
Lifting his head, he peered down into my eyes, studying me. “Suria?”
“Yes,” I told him, and in case he doubted it, I curled one hand over the back of his neck and pulled his face down to mine, kissing him with all the hunger that burned inside me.
I’d wanted him from the first moment I’d seen him. I’d want him long after this moment ended. How could he even think otherwise?
His tongue tangled with mine, his hands sliding under my shirt and roaming higher. He dragged it off and tossed it away where it drifted down to the floor. My bra soon joined it, and I gasped, feeling something cold and hard hit my back. The window. A delicious little thrill raced through me, but at the same time, nerves chased me.
Shooting a glance over my shoulder, I looked at him nervously.
“I don’t have any neighbors back there. Nobody for miles,” he told me as he sank to his knees.
I whimpered as he took one nipple into his mouth, tugging on it.
A sweet jolt of pleasure ripped through me, zinging down to center right between my legs. I was already hot and wet, softening for him, and we’d barely e
ven started. Without thinking, I thrust my hips toward him.
He laughed softly. “Slow down, Suri. This is going to last.”
“I don’t want slow,” I said.
“I do.” He moved over to my other breast, kissing in a line that left little shivery sensations in his wake. Whoever would have thought the fragile skin right over the breastbone could be so sensitive. It was like he’d tugged on my nipple again or toyed with my clit.
Fire burned everywhere he touched, but he wasn’t touching enough.
Grabbing his shoulders, I pulled at him pleadingly.
“More,” I demanded. “Please.”
“You’ll get more.”
“You’re taking too long.”
He slanted a look at me. “Keep it up, and I’ll take longer. I’m not in any mood to rush.”
And he proved it by turning me around until I faced the window. My breasts pressed flat against the cool surface, a sensation that was insanely erotic and got even more so when he pressed up against my back and began to rock his hips against my ass.
“I could strip these jeans away and fuck you right here, couldn’t I?”
I moaned in response.
“Is that a yes?” he whispered against my ear.
“Yes.” I actually hoped he would.
He did strip my jeans away, hauling them and my panties down to my knees and anticipation began to pulse inside me, liquid heat dampening my folds while my clitoris drew into a tight, hard bud that practically throbbed, I wanted him so much.
“I miss your skirt,” he said against my neck. “All I have to do is pull it up and you’re naked. The panties you call panties don’t even qualify for the name. Witch. But these jeans…they’re just in the way.”
“I’ll stop wearing them if you’ll just fuck me.”
“What, the skirts? Or the panties? The jeans?” He stroked my ass. “Will you walk around naked waiting for me to fuck you, Suri? Cause I kind of like that idea, but only if you’re inside where only I can see you.”
“Yes…no…damn it, Kian, don’t make me think!”
He laughed, the sound a little shaky, a little wild. “I haven’t been able to think clearly since I met you, baby. It’s only fair that you’re in the same shape.” He worked a hand between me and the glass, cupping me in his hand. He hissed out a breath as he found the heated core of me. “Feel how wet you are…is that all for me?”
“Yes.”
He stroked me, and I struggled to widen my legs, needing to feel him deeper, but the material tangled around my knees prevented it. His fingers were calloused, rough. The rasping sensation sent me careening closer to the edge. I wanted to tear my clothes away and ride his hand until I came hard and fast, then I wanted to turn around and climb on him, ride him the same way.
But I didn’t. I just rocked against his hand, letting him tease me with his touch and with his voice.
His mouth slid across my naked shoulder.
I jumped when his teeth sank in.
“Are you going to come?” he asked, the question almost lazy.
“If you keep that up…” My voice broke a little on the last word.
He stopped.
I whimpered.
Laughing, he turned me around and went to his knees, eyes coming up to meet mine. “I think I’d rather have you come a different way.”
Anticipation curled inside me as he began to strip my jeans and panties the rest of the way off. “I’m going to have my hands full of your ass and my face full of your pussy.”
The dirty comment inflamed my face and my body, setting the already burning fire to an inferno.
He leaned in and pressed his mouth just above my mound, slowly kissing a path lower and lower until he reached the top of my slit. As promised, he cupped my butt in his hands, half-supporting my weight by the time he started to circle his tongue around my clitoris. It was the best feeling imaginable, and I moaned, rocking against his mouth. Shifting the material of my skirt to one hand, I gripped the back of his head with the other. “More,” I demanded. “More!”
He growled against me, and the sound vibrated up my spine, sending sparks of sensation racing out through me.
When he stiffened his tongue and thrust it inside, I all but died. Moving frantically against him, riding him as the orgasm hit me, I cried out his name.
He pulled away, but I barely noticed.
He spun me away from him and grabbed my hands, planting them on the window. As he urged me to bend forward, my legs were still shaking, everything inside me spasming from the climax.
I felt him pressing up against me, and I moaned, not quite ready for him yet, but he was already filling me, so deep and thick and heavy. My breath caught in my lungs as he continued to stretch me until I’d taken all of him. He withdrew, and I sagged, my hands slipping against the cool surface of the window and seeking purchase. I failed to find any and swayed closer to the glass as he slammed back into me, so hard it drove me up onto my toes. I wailed out his name.
He shoved a fist into my hair and yanked my head back, craning my head around until he could kiss me.
Our tongues tangled together, twining and rubbing against each other as intimately as our bodies.
He thrust into me again, again, again…
My knees buckled, and I had to lock my elbows to keep from falling forward anymore. Kian pulled out, and I moaned, tightening the muscles in my pussy as if it would draw him back in. But then he had me turning around, and he caught me around the waist, boosting me up. “Anytime I walk through this room, I’m going to think of the night I had you up against the window and fucked you. I’m going to think about how you look right now with the moon shining down on your hair, your thighs,” he said, voice raspy.
I met his eyes as he tucked the head of his cock against me.
He pressed his lips to mine as he began to fill me.
“I’m going to remember the sounds you make as I do this,” he added, swiveling his hips just the slightest so that his cockhead rubbed…there.
“Ohhhhh…” My toes curled, and I arched against him, my clitoris tight and swollen, aching even. My nipples felt the same, and a pulsing sensation began to echo between them. He thrust again, and I arched up, twisting around him as he hit my G-spot again.
Another.
Another.
His mouth crushed mine as I began to come, and I felt his climax too.
He was coming…inside me.
No rubber.
And in that moment, I didn’t care at all.
Kian carried me into the shower.
We hadn’t said anything about the lack of protection, but now as the water beat down on us, I couldn’t avoid it anymore. Meeting his eyes, I said softly, “I don’t take birth control.”
His lids flickered. “Okay.”
“I…um…well, I don’t think it’s the right time of the month, but I figured I should tell you. I know we talked about it last time, but we didn’t ever mention whether I took the pill. I just…well, I don’t. It’s not that you need to worry or anything. If something happens, I’ll figure out a way to handle it–”
He caught my chin in his hand and craned my head around until we were facing each other. “If something happens, we will figure out a way to handle it, Suri.”
He seemed to be waiting for a response, so finally, I nodded, feeling a little dazed.
I had never been part of a we before.
I didn’t know if that was what he meant, and I wasn’t really assuming it was.
But it felt nice to not have to shoulder everything all by myself for once.
Kian seemed content to handle quite a few things for me just then, including washing my hair and soaping me down with some thick, scented gel that smelled of him. The scent of it was a little different on my skin, but it was enough like him that I had to fight not to lift my hands to my face just to breathe it in.
I didn’t know if I’d ever want to get this scent off my skin.
I’d have to,
of course. It wasn’t like I could skip bathing for the rest of my life. But for as long as I could, I was going to enjoy the scent of him on me.
Once the shower was done, he dried me off, then slung a towel around his hips. He only gave his hair a cursory rub, but he took the towel and gently patted my hair down before leading me over to the counter. He picked up a comb, and I went to take it, but he didn’t let me.
“I’ve got this thing for your hair,” he said, crooking a grin at me.
I blushed. “It’s just hair.”
“It’s gorgeous hair,” he said, shaking his head. He went to work on the tangles in it, smoothing them out patiently before moving to the next section.
I had a lot of hair, and some of the skeins had started to dry and curl around my face by the time he was done.
I caught myself mid-yawn as he stood behind me and tossed the comb down.
“Come on,” he said, taking my hand. “Let’s get some sleep.”
I blinked at him. “You want me to stay here with you?”
“Unless you insist on me taking you home.”
I made a face at him. “That’s a house. It’s not a home.”
I didn’t think I’d ever had what could be called a home.
It was pathetic, but I felt more at home with him than I’d ever felt in the house where I’d lived with my father for years.
He led me to his bedroom, and we lay down, naked under the sheets.
And that was how I fell asleep, my skin pressed to his, my head on his chest, his breath stirring my hair.
Eleven
Kian
I’d been awake for almost a half an hour, listening to Suria breathe, feeling the soft weight of her breasts against my back, her arm slung around my waist.
Having her in bed next to me filled me with all sorts of chaotic emotions – conflicting emotions.
It felt right having her in this bed.
But it couldn’t be right, could it?
After everything that happened between us?
I was ready, I thought, to try and forgive her, but how was that going to go over with my mother?
