4 Play

by Quinn, Cari

  I climbed into my Rubicon and fought my way through traffic. I loved my Jeep, but it was definitely not made for the same kind of action Wyatt’s car was, nor did I trust airport parking with my Mustang, let alone a Alfa Romeo.

  Besides, I had a plan for the day and that required me going into Hollywood. I hadn’t seen Kenny in weeks. In my mind, I could still see her standing in her bedroom. A single lamp on the far side of her room had left everything a hazy buttery yellow that reminded me of firelight.

  The only reason I remembered the light was because it had turned everything about her into burnished gold. From the endless peachy cream of her skin to the fire of her hair, everything had been perfect.

  And I’d walked away.

  Not because I wanted to. I would have cheerfully killed to stay there and taste every curve, dip, and freckle. No, I left because I knew she wasn’t ready for me.

  She didn’t believe how serious I was.

  We knew how to have sex. And fuck, did we excel at it, but it was worth it to hold off. Even if I woke with a hard-on every morning that could pound nails. There was morning wood, and then there was the echo of feverish dreams about putting her in whichever town I was currently staying in.

  I was well aware how stupid in love I was. Now I just had to make sure she knew.

  I parked across the street from the place I’d been looking for.

  We Buy Gold emblazoned in neon across the top of the building. I was here for one reason. I headed to the back of the pawn shop. I passed a sea of dresses, suits, skirts, and shoes. I resisted the urge to press my face to the glass cases of instruments.

  Was that a vintage Telecaster?

  No.

  Keep on walking.

  Shit, that thing was beautiful. I craned my neck back for one more look.

  Not here for that, man.

  I passed high-end electronics and a drool-worthy record player that looked like it could have been in my parents’ living room when I was a toddler.

  And then I saw it.

  What I’d come for.

  “Perfect,” I said.

  “Can I help you, sir?”

  I turned to the older gentleman with a smile. “You sure can.”

  Thirty-Two

  Kennedy

  I flipped over the last page of the file I’d been reading for the last hour. When I was choosing new clients, I liked having physical copies of clippings and magazines to go through. A digital file sometimes didn’t show just how big, or small for that matter, a career or social media footprint was.

  Ever since Bethany and Justin had put the idea of managing couples in my head, I’d been chewing on different angles on how to approach it from a business standpoint. Before I brought Carter into it, I wanted to make sure it was a viable business plan for us.

  And if I wanted to make it work, I’d need to expand. That meant possibly making Carter a partner instead of my assistant. I’d been thinking about broaching the subject for months, but this was the perfect way to go about it.

  I flipped open another folder. Simon Kagan and Margo Reece. With the implosion of Oblivion as a band in the last few months, there’d been a swift blowback in Kagan’s career. The good kind. Billboards and magazine spreads seemed to have his face everywhere. His was a good case to work on, especially since I’d heard Lila trying to put out fires with them all the time.

  They were the perfect couple to try out my services on.

  Sammy barked, dragging me out of the pile of papers on my dining room table. I looked down at my watch. “Need to go out, buddy? Sorry, I wasn’t paying attention.”

  Sammy yipped and did a circle at the front door.

  “It’s a little late for a walk. And I’m not exactly dressed for it.” I put my hands on my hips. Cutoff jeans and a concert T-shirt from my Mumford & Sons show was not exactly going out wear.

  He jumped at the door.

  “Wow. Okay. Chill out, boy. One lap around the circles.” I frowned as I unhooked Sammy’s leash from my coatrack near the door and fastened it to his collar. Was someone playing music? It wasn’t unheard of in my neighborhood, but that was usually on a Saturday night, not a Tuesday.

  I opened the door and a familiar rhythm followed by synthetic tones grew louder.

  “In Your Eyes” by Peter Gabriel was playing at top volume.

  Sammy pulled me down the path. “I’m only wearing flip-flops, you crazy dog. Wait a second.” The music grew even clearer as I got to my driveway. “No way.”

  Hunter stood in front of his Jeep, a boombox circa 1989 over his head. The song started over again. “Finally.”

  I laughed. “What are you doing?”

  “I’m wooing my girl,” he shouted over the music. “Are you impressed?”

  “You’re an idiot.” I couldn’t stop laughing. The scene from Say Anything unfolding on my lawn. Even his Jeep was parked crooked to block the street.

  “Can I put this down now? I think my arms are broken.” His arms shook a little. God, I missed those huge arms around me.

  I crossed my lawn, Sammy in tow. He was running in circles beside me. Hunter slowly lowered the boombox to the roof of his car.

  “It was nice of you to finally come outside.”

  “Come on. That’s more than Diane did in the movie.”

  “This is true.”

  I slowly moved into the street until we were just a few feet apart. “You’re crazy.”

  He shrugged. “You knew that.”

  “Yeah.” I couldn’t stop the smile on my face.

  He smiled back, his dimple flashing. The song kept playing as he stuffed his hands into his pockets.

  “Jesus, just kiss him already! I can’t hear NCIS!”

  I whirled around. “Sorry, Mrs. Donnelly!”

  Hunter grabbed me and turned me around into his arms. Nerves gone, I went up on tiptoe and met his mouth. He wrapped his arms around my waist and lifted me until my toes were dangling. I held onto his shoulders for dear life, my fingers instantly searching for the silky perfection of his hair.

  He stumbled back against the Jeep and set me down before collapsing against the hood. I stepped between his legs. It was very similar to our first kiss. Enough that the smile melted into the kiss as I linked my fingers at the back of his neck.

  He curled a finger into the belt loops at each of my hips. “When you came out in these Daisy Dukes, I almost had a heart attack.”

  “I don’t wear dresses all the time.”

  “These,” he dipped his hands into my back pockets. “I want to see these every day of my life.”

  My stomach flipped. “Every day?”

  The smile slid off his face. He looked over my shoulder, then quickly twisted to hit a button the boombox. “Sorry!”

  The door from Mrs. Donnelly’s house banged shut.

  His gaze met mine. “Every day, Kenny. I’m dying without you.”

  I played with the overlong strands of his hair. He’d let the shaved sides grow in, leaving him a little shaggy. So many little changes since I’d seen him. And so many things that were exactly the same. I played with one of the walnut beads of his rosary.

  This man, who had become far more important than I ever imagined, had so much power over me. “Me too,” I whispered. “Come inside.”

  His grip tightened.

  I didn’t want there to be any doubt this time. I pulled him down to meet my mouth. “Inside.” He groaned into my mouth and the kiss spiraled from sweet to hungry.

  I missed his taste. I missed his smell. I missed the way he touched me like I was the single most important thing in the universe. I’d been afraid of those feelings for so long that letting them in made my head spin.

  Sammy pulled on my arm, breaking us apart.

  “We should probably bring this inside,” he said against my cheek as he headed for my ear.

  “Definitely.” I stepped back. Hunter picked up the boombox and took it to the back of his Jeep. “Um, can you bring that inside?”


  He grinned. “Yes, I can.” He pulled out a basket and closed the door.

  “Came prepared?”

  “Well, I always wondered what Lloyd Dobler would do if the girl actually came out to see him. Does he just kiss her stupid, or does he take her to dinner?”

  “So you voted for kissing me stupid and dinner?”

  “Damn right. Because I intend on making love to you until we can’t breathe or move.”

  “Oh.” I swallowed. “I could be on board with this plan.”

  “I have everything we could need for a carpet picnic. And all of it will hold for hours.”

  “I do love a man who thinks ahead.” I switched Sammy’s leash to my other hand and took the basket. “What are you waiting for?” I jogged ahead.

  Hunter hit play on the boombox and lifted it over his head as he chased me inside. I locked the door, unhooked Sammy’s leash, then leaped into Hunter’s arms.

  He wrapped my legs around his waist, moving through the living room, past the kitchen to the hallway. He paused briefly at the pictures.

  “I love them,” I said against his mouth.

  “Good,” he mumbled back and kept on walking. He crashed through my bedroom door and we fell to my bed. He pushed up my shirt and bra together, his lips finding my nipple. He drew on it hard, cupping the other as I struggled to get both articles of clothing off.

  He scraped his teeth down my ribs while I was trapped in bra straps and hooks. Before I got my bra unclasped, he had my cutoffs and panties down around my knees.

  “God,” I gasped. “Naked. Not just me,” I muttered as I tried to pull at his shirt.

  “Shh,” he said against my thigh. “Just let me.” He groaned at the first swipe of his tongue along my folds. “This.” He buried his tongue in my pussy. “The best taste in all the world.”

  I laughed and closed my legs, trying to pull him higher. “Hunter, I don’t have the patience for that. I need you inside me.”

  He looked up from between my legs. “There’s always time for this.”

  I fell onto my back, then bowed up as his tongue did this swirl thing and then there was nothing but warmth and suction and Hunter.

  He drove me mad with his mouth, not stopping until I screamed his name incoherently. My nails dug into his back so hard that he finally had to physically move them to the sheets. My fingers actually cramped from twisting into the material.

  Every blessed nerve was alive and all my muscles were strung tight. He teased and taunted, then backed off and started all over again.

  I slapped the mattress and he finally climbed up to me. “I could drink you down all night.”

  “You better do more than that,” I panted as I pushed at his jeans. “Get this buckle open. Sweet Georgia, I need you inside me.”

  I heard the clink and felt the release of his buckle. He groaned as I ripped at the button fly of his jeans. Then he was in my hand. I curled my fingers around his length. Manaconda to the world, and to me…just mine.

  I used my toes to shove his jeans down.

  “Inside.”

  “Wait.” He tried to get his wallet out.

  I shook my head. “No. Just you.”

  He stared down at me. “Kenny.” His tone was reverent. “Are you sure?”

  I nodded. “I trust you.”

  He stood at the end of my bed as he kicked off his jeans, sneakers, and reached back to pull his shirt up and over his head.

  So beautiful and so much mine.

  I knew it as surely as my own name. Finally, there was no doubt brewing inside of me. Not when he looked at me like this. He crawled up between my legs, and the cross from his rosary skimmed over my thigh before it hovered right over where I wanted him most.

  The corner teased over my belly as the beads pooled between my breasts, then finally it was only Hunter who I could focus on. He drew the tip of his cock through my folds with a groan.

  I was beyond wet, and the emotions I’d been shoring up with logic and fear finally overflowed. Love. A love I’d never allowed myself to even think about, let alone voice, bubbled up out of me.

  He sank into me with one, slow thrust. He filled me, and when I didn’t think there was anything left to take, he gave me more. And I took it. His fierce gray eyes never blinked. He never faltered.

  I broke under him, the pleasure outweighing the words I wanted to give him. I hung on to him as his thrusts went from slow and easy to fast and hard.

  “Kenny,” he said against my throat with a ring of helplessness.

  I curled around him tighter and gripped his ass to let him know I could take it. I couldn’t make words work.

  The shimmer of release blurred the room, and my skin heated until it was almost unbearable. The friction between us tossed me over even if I didn’t want to let this end.

  I cried out his name. My body bowed up and I shook through an orgasm so sweet and powerful I finally let out the words. I whispered them against his neck. “I love you.”

  Warmth filled me as he drove into me then stilled over me. He stared down at me, his eyes blind, the cords in his neck standing out as his muscles locked. I cupped his face as the tension drained out of him. He dropped on top of me, only his forearms saving me from a cracked rib.

  He slid his arms under my shoulders until his fingers were buried in my hair. “I can’t ever go two months without you again.” He pressed his forehead to mine. “Never.”

  Disappointment tugged at the edges of my bliss. Maybe he hadn’t heard me. Wasn’t there something about not telling your significant other you loved him in the heat of sex?

  Even if sex was the loosest of terms for what we’d done.

  I was pretty sure I’d never actually made love before Hunter. “It wasn’t that long. More like three weeks.”

  He rolled his hips against me. “I haven’t been here in ages.”

  “Five weeks, two days.”

  He pressed his cheek to mine. “Thirty-seven days, eleven hours.”

  “Well, if you want to get technical,” I said sleepily. I drew a lazy pattern along his lower back. The bone-melting release was one hell of a valium. Especially when I had a man with magic fingers playing with my hair.

  “I love you too, Kenny.”

  I dragged in a deep breath. “I didn’t think you heard me.”

  “Oh, I did.” He rolled onto his back, taking me with him.

  I groaned as he lengthened inside me again. He rocked upward, his thumbs rubbing just above my clit as he gripped my hips with each stroke inside me.

  “I’m not stopping until you scream it this time.” He scraped his teeth over my nipple.

  And I did.

  Until I was hoarse.

  Best words ever.

  Thirty-Three

  Hunter

  The buzz of my phone on the nightstand woke me. It had been five days since she’d told me—well, screamed—that she loved me. We’d been inseparable ever since.

  I’d even managed to get her to let Carter take on the brunt of her work schedule for the rest of the week. I knew I was being greedy, but it felt like we’d lost so much time because of work. Between my schedule and hers, then our less than stellar track record of communicating, there’d been a big chunk of time apart.

  I’d been determined to make up for it.

  I flipped over my phone. I’d been ignoring it all damn day. We’d spent a really awesome day in the park with Sammy and a basket of food. I even managed to keep my hands off of her for the day. Well, off any of the fun areas of her body.

  Though an afternoon nap on the blanket had almost ended badly. When she curled into me with just a flimsy sundress between us, it was really hard to remember my manners. Or the simple rules of public indecency in a park.

  Somehow I managed to wait until we got back to my house, but then all bets had been off for the next three hours.

  The text said: 911.

  I sighed and slid out from under Kenny. She settled onto her belly with an arm thrown over a pil
low. I tugged on my jeans and quietly left my room.

  I padded down the stairs to the living room to check on Sammy. He was quietly yipping through doggie dreams, so I left him alone to go to the kitchen.

  I stood in front of the fridge as I gulped down half a carton of orange juice.

  “Some people don’t want your backwash in their juice, asshat.”

  I choked and put the cap back on before shoving the bottle back into the fridge. “Could warn a guy.”

  “Could have some manners. We all want what we can’t have.”

  “When did you get in?”

  Noah leaned against the kitchen island. “This morning. I would like to officially thank you for soundproofing the house. I slept for twelve hours straight.”

  “Tough job?”

  “Yeah, this one got messier than I like, but it worked out for the best.”

  I frowned. “That doesn’t sound good.”

  “No one died. It was a good day.”

  My eyebrows shot up. “Don’t you usually just play babysitter?”

  “Most of the time there’s a reason I have to be a babysitter, little brother.”

  I knew there was some danger to my brother’s line of work, but he always downplayed it.

  “Don’t get all worried. It wasn’t that bad. I just hadn’t slept in three days.” He folded his arms over his chest. “I don’t think you got a helluva lot of sleep either. Though I think your sleepless nights were for far more fun reasons.”

  I grinned. “You could say that.”

  “I caught your boombox trick.”

  I sighed. “I swear, I can’t even do a big romantic gesture without it going on YouTube.”

  “You had women swooning across America. Pretty sure the UK got involved as well.”

  “Shut up.”

  “My baby brother, gone over a woman.”

  “Yeah.” I grinned. “Can’t deny it.” My phone buzzed in my hand.

  HW: You do know what 911 means, right? Pull your dick out of your woman for five seconds and call me.