The moment I’m free I scuttle back to my table, grab my purse and head outside, which is where I’m assuming they’ve all gone, seeing as the table is deserted.
I march over to where they’re all gathered. Chucking my purse on to the table I grab the packet of cigarettes in the middle, quickly lighting one.
They all look up at me with a raised brow. “What?”
Kaidence gets her oar in first. “How come you get the good looking one?”
“Don’t start with me.” I reply, getting shaky that questions are already flying.
She shakes her head and dramatically wafts the smoke away from her face. “Why? You’ve never been interested in guys while you lived here and then suddenly you are?”
“One, I’m not talking about this and two, can you please stop going on about it. It’s not important it was just a dance with a nobody.”
I watch as their eyes gaze up someone behind me. Motherfucker.
Cautiously, I turn to look at him and feel like I wrenched his heart out. He had to catch the last part didn’t he. The one bit I used to deter their questions. “Hi. I got side tracked.”
“I can see. I just came out for some air,” he explains and I want to cuddle him so tightly to apologize for what I said. “Are you smoking?”
“I…erm…no?” I stutter trying to get someone to grab it, but they don’t.
He takes hold of my arm and lifts it, grabbing the cigarette and stubbing it out in the ashtray. When he looks at me again, his eyes are filled with so much anger, I want to cower away, under a rock, like a troll.
“Do I even know you? What the hell happened to you? You know what, don’t answer that. I’m just going to say the feeling is mutual.”
He shoots me a look that makes me feel centimeters tall. I want to pretend that he feels the same love for me as I do for him. But, considering the context, he doesn’t like the new me. He just has to remember that his thoughts about me are wrong. The “other guy” in my life, according to him, is his Son and as for smoking, that’s a one off just to cease the nerves. He’s got me all wrong.
He says no more, just storms away, leaving.
Watching him walk out of my life again, I feel our connection losing power. “Shit!” It hits me. He’s hating me because of seeing things and assuming…just like I have. I’ve been doing the same thing and now the shoe is on the other foot. It hurts to feel like your words mean nothing and your actions mean everything.
“Great. Thanks to you scaring him away, I don’t get my chance.”
“Kaidence. I love you to the edge of the earth but there was never going to be a chance. So please, keep your mouth shut and your eyes to yourself.” I snap. Because obviously, this is what I need to hear.
Kacey, Kaidence and Abbey get up from the table and walk back inside without saying a word. “Even better.” I say plonking my arse on the bench. Sabina’s still there, obviously not fazed by my mood.
“Trouble in paradise?”
I snort a laugh. “It’d be fantastic if we got to paradise. I’ve just realized what it’s felt like for him these last few weeks.”
Sabina blows smoke in my face getting my attention. “Payback’s a bitch, ain’t it?” she laughs. “I thought I’d hang back just in case you wanted to talk about anything. You look little bit stressed. I’m guessing he’s the cause.”
“Thanks, I want to, I just don’t know where to start,” I reply, wriggling and bringing my dress underneath me so my bare ass isn’t getting splintered on the rickety bench.
She looks thoughtful, tapping away on the table with her acrylic nails. “The start? How did you two meet?”
“Shit! Sabina, if I tell you, you have to promise to keep your mouth zipped. I don’t want people on my case, that’s why I said he was a nobody. I don’t want people on at him.”
Her eyes brows screw up as she flicks ash into the tray. “I’m intrigued.”
I take a deep breath and look at her. Stare at her hard. “That’s Kyle.” The words leave my mouth and it sounds foreign to be saying his name to them. “Kody’s dad.”
Her jaw hits the table and color drains from her face. “You’re shitting me. Him? Why the hell are you even talking to him?” she starts to screech.
“Keep your voice down! He doesn’t know. He’s oblivious. His Mom made sure he didn’t find out and now he hates me because he thinks Kody is another guy. He thinks I’ve made out our relationship to mean everything to me when it wasn’t. I haven’t seen him in a week. He left and said he was done and now he’s here and thinks he means nothing to me.”
She puffs out a pent up breath. “Are you going to tell him? Because I think it’s important he finds out and from you.”
“Oh, you think?” I reply sarcastically. “I do want to tell him but whenever we’re together it’s like there is something that stops me. Mainly an argument. I just can’t say the words. What if he hates me?”
“What if you don’t and he finds out, what will he think then?”
Damn her for being right. “I know.”
As darkness sets in, Sabina decided she’s going to head back in but I can’t hack it. I just want to go to sleep and hide away from my problems. I was feeling better before tonight, knowing that I’d “seen” Kody but now I was back at square one.
Alice comes out at that point and we say our teary goodbyes and make promises that the next time it wouldn’t be a flying visit.
After the obvious goodbyes to everyone else, I drag my butt around to the hotel, dreading what was going to come of life if he hated me.
Outside the hotel entrance I spot a lone figure sitting at a table all on his own and my heart falls to my feet. I don’t know if he even wants to talk to me but sometimes you’ve just got to pick up the courage and find out, even if there is a good chance that he’ll reject anything I’ll say.
I don’t point out that I’m there, just take a seat on the opposite side of the table and face him. He briefly looks at me over his hands that are clasped infront of his mouth as his elbows rest on the table before looking away into the night sky.
“I’m sorry about what I said, I didn’t mean it,” I say, hoping that he’ll bite and talk. For a few, very long moments, he doesn’t. He doesn’t even look at me, like I don’t exist.
“I’m slowly grasping that. You say a lot you don’t mean.”
“That’s not true. I mean everything I’ve said. I love you, always have and always will. You just got the wrong picture the other night.”
He laughs at me in disbelief, “That makes two of us recently then, doesn’t it?”
Not quite, but I get his point. “That’s not fair. You haven’t seen me locking lips with anyone. You just saw me dance with a guy and got all pissed off.”
He rolls his eyes and goes to get up but I place a firm hand on his arm to stop him. Bad move when you’re trying to talk and your body suddenly wants to do anything but talk. “Don’t walk away. I’m trying to apologize to you. I get that my words hurt you and you think you don’t know me, but you have no idea how hard it is having you here. This is my family and you have to understand that they’ll be asking questions about you. It’s not something I want them to worry about. They saw me the first time I was destroyed by you, and although I know now that me being a mess wasn’t your fault, they’re still going to be cautious.”
“Whatever. I’m going to bed. It looks like I’ve made a completely wasted trip and I’d rather not be dead on my feet when I get home.”
This time I let him get up but I insist on following him. I still have questions myself. He can huff and sigh all he wants in the elevator. I’m going to barge into his life like he has mine.
“What the hell are you doing, Cat?” He shouts, which makes me recoil as I barge into his room the moment he opens the door. He can think that just because I’ve not been invited in I won’t come in all he wants. We are talking!
Throwing my purse on the side I turn on my heels and stare at him in the doorway, loo
king extremely pissed off, the light from the hallway almost making him look like a silhouette in the dim lighting of the room. “Talking. You can’t just show up here and not explain that to me. You said you would and so you are. We always argue and let everything eat each other up so, for once, we are talking.”
“I don’t want to. You’ve said enough, don’t you think?”
“Why? Because I called you a nobody? I explained that and one day you’ll understand that, so you might as well get over it. I didn’t mean it,” I grit out, frustrated at his lack of communication skills.
The door slowly closes behind him, his button down shirt shimmering one last time before the room takes on a new darkness without the hallway light. Only the dim glow from the bedside lamps is stopping the room being pitch black. “No. You made me feel like I came over for no fucking reason.”
“What exactly was your reason? I’d love to know that too. You made a bloody good effort to find out where I was and get on the next flight out. You must have had a fucking good reason.”
His mouth tips up slightly as he says, “I was on the same flight as you. And in the car with you. Your parents house is cute.”
Cute? Is that another word for small because we don’t have a massive house like them? “You were what? How?”
“It’s called getting there earlier and being let off the airplane before you.”
“No. Fucking. Way!” I gape. “Are you serious?”
He smiles smugly. “As a heart attack.”
I place my hand against my forehead and stare at him, feeling the temperature rise within me. “Why? What could possibly have been that important that you couldn’t wait till I got back to talk to me?”
Kyle shakes his head and gives me a half smile, and a fake one at that. “That. That was exactly my problem. I didn’t know if you were coming home. When I left I told you to go and find Kody. I just never expected you to go ahead and do it.”
God, I want to throw up. My forehead is now sweating and I’m grateful I left my hand there to hide it. I wipe it away as I throw my hands in the air and out of disbelief I shout, “That’s not what I’m doing here! You’ve seen there was a wedding. I haven’t gate-crashed it,” completely. “Was that the reason? To check up on me?”
“Yes,” he shouts back. “I realized that I couldn’t let you go without a fight. I wasn’t going to let some other guy have you. I want you!”
I take a deep breath and step towards him on shaky legs, the room spinning around me. “You have no idea what you’re talking about. Which part of I love you, hasn’t registered? Kyle, you have never been a nobody. In fact, you’ve always been my everyth—”
I don’t get the opportunity to finish my sentence.
He closes the final few steps faster than a striking lightning bolt. The only thing that registers is the feeling of his hands around my upper arms and his lips hitting me. It sends the correct message to all the right places.
When he pulls back he looks over my face, a lost whimper leaving my mouth from him doing so too.
I’m too stunned and confused to do or say anything. I thought he hated me, I didn’t think he’d kiss me.
I watch as he brings his lips back to mine, his breathing erratic and filling the room, although mine isn’t much better. “Wait.” I grimace just as he’s about to kiss me again. “You can’t kiss me if you hate me. If everything I’ve said means nothing to you then don’t bother. Only kiss me if you believe me.”
I don’t like the hesitation.
“I believe you. But you have got to start believing me and trusting me. Last weekend was a mistake but I promise that if you give me the chance, I’ll prove to you that it’s only you, too.”
His eyes gleam. I want to take that sparkle and bottle it up. We both need to start with clean slates with each other. If he can promise that and I can tell him the truth then we might stand a chance. If we love each other like we say, we can conquer it, right? “I will.”
His lips find mine again, his tongue instantly wanting access, which I eagerly allow.
The kiss quickly becomes our life source, my body coming alive, hyper aware of everything as his hands glide up my arms and to my jaw, cupping it.
We’re in our own little bubble, nothing matters outside of it for the moment.
The whole room is full of static, static from the electricity that’s becoming charged between us. Every hair on my body is standing up, reacting to the force field.
His hands slip from my face, making me feel like I’m losing him, so I grab onto his shirt and dig my fingers in, clawing at his chest like a starved lioness.
Kyle’s hands continue south, brushing over my chest, my nipples feeling sensitive to his touch, even through the dress. One hand slips around to my lower back, while the other gently tugs at the ribbon that helps keep the dress together.
He unties it, and then starts on the zipper, the sound as it slowly and painfully becomes undone fills the room, amplified by the bubble we’ve made.
Pulling back, he rests his forehead against mine, breathing heavily against my face. “I’ve wanted to get this off of you all night,” he whispers, the words strained like it’s torture for him. “It’s hard trying to keep out of your sight while trying to keep you in mine.”
I smile and bite my lip as I glance up. “You didn’t take long to do it. I thought you’d be needing an instruction manual to get in.”
Starting at my shoulders, he starts to slowly peel the dress away from my skin. “The first thing I did was memorize it. I looked and felt for everything I could, so I wouldn’t fuck it up.”
“Quite the Sherlock when it comes to it.”
He chuckles, continuing to remove the dress. It eventually drops from my hips, pooling at my feet. “Nothing was going to stop me tonight C.J.. It’s. Killing. Me.” Punctuating his words with a forceful kiss, he then resumes to tackle my mouth, our tongues dancing to their own song.
Kyle’s hands find my ass, gripping to it like I’m clinging to him.
The lion got his lioness.
Purposely, he walks me backwards, heading towards the bed. When the backs of my knees connect to it, I stumble slightly, but I don’t fall onto it, not yet anyway. Giving me a little bit of unwanted breathing space, he looks down at me, his lips swollen. “What’s wrong? You’re not questioning this again are you?”
I look up, smiling. “No. I just…” I trail off, releasing his shirt for a split second—only to grip at the opening, finding all the force left in my arms to tear his shirt open. “…wanted to do that. I’m practically naked, and you still have all your clothes on.” The buttons fly around the room, making their own symphony as they hit walls, the floor and the furniture.
“How many shirts do you plan on ruining?” he asks, looking down at his naked chest, completely bewildered.
“Just a few.” I place a kiss on his firmly toned chest. He’s lucky I chose a stay-on lipstick because he’d be looking diseased right now. “Problem?” I ask, sweeping the shirt off his shoulders and down his arms.
“None at all, you can destroy what the hell you like,” he murmurs, looking back up at me, pushing me backwards onto the bed.
I wait for a long second, wondering if he’s going to join me, but he doesn’t. Sitting up on my elbows I look at him quizzically. “You’re second guessing this, now?” He just stands there, staring at me.
“Never. I’m just enjoying the view.”
I wiggle a foot at him. “Make yourself useful then, while you’re memorizing your beautiful ex. You can take these damn shoes off.”
He laughs at me but shakes his head. “Those things stay on. Your legs look amazing in them…I swear they go to the sky.”
He undoes his belt and pants. I watch as they fall to the floor, joining the rest of our clothes, then purposely rake my eyes up his thighs, to his boxers—which don’t hide the raging hard-on he’s sporting—over his tanned torso and finally his gorgeous face, which looks amused and hungry. “Are you d
one objectifying me?”
Collapsing onto the bed I shake my head. “Yes, but only if you stop standing there like that.”
My legs are nudged apart as the bed dips. I peek up to find him on all fours, hovering over me. He licks his lips as he lowers his head, just a fraction. “I think you’ve been drooling.”
Self-consciously I wipe around my mouth, feeling nothing. “Are you lying?”
“Maybe.”
Shaking my head again, the side of my mouth tips up, enjoying the view I have again.
He lowers his lips to the base of my neck, peppering kisses up and down my neck to my chest that’s slowly starting to heave at the feel of the connection.
Once my head is resting on the pillow, he kisses my lips, feverishly eating the air I have. Mercilessly, a hand skims from my shoulder, down to my chest, kneading the cup. He stops kissing my mouth, moving to my neck and behind my ear and finally my earlobe, my weak spot.
Whimpering, my back arches into him. He makes the most of the position, quickly unclasping my black lace bra and throwing it somewhere into the dark.
All the blood in my body rushes between my legs, everything else in me feels numb compared to that area, like it’s craving him.
After a quick nip on my lobe, his head ducks to my breast, latching on to my nipple, sucking and biting it until it feels red raw. He then moves to the other that had no attention, but continues to knead the tortured one, twisting the nipple between his finger and thumb.
My hips buck into him as he sucks one final time.
He looks at me with glazed eyes. “God this is better than I imagined, and I’ve not even done half the stuff I wanted to.”
“Kyle. Please.” I shamefully beg, lifting my head to kiss him, my hand tangling into his hair as I lean up on an elbow. He growls into my mouth, the vibrations from it heading south, like everything else in me.
His shaky hand travels down my stomach, heading straight to the place I want it, need it. He doesn’t waste time, moving the flimsy material to the side. It holds no match for him. The pad of his thumb quickly finds the most sensitive part, rubbing a quick circle over the nub as he sinks his fingers into me. I break the kiss, my head rolling back at the feel of him inside me.
Coming Home (Only Time Will Tell #1) Page 15
