“You could just hold it by the bone,” Ada Jane said, picking up her pork chop to show him.
Kol smiled at her and lifted the pork chop from his plate without further hesitation. He took a small bite, and chewed, then his eyes widened and he took half the rest of the pork chop in one bite while he nodded his head appreciatively.
“You like it?” she asked, getting to her feet and moving toward the small kitchen counter.
“Very much!” Kol answered, taking the rest of the porch chop in his next bite and then gnawing on the bone.
“Good!” Ada Jane answered, lifting a platter and bringing it to the table. She set it between the two of them and lifted the plastic lid she’d used to cover the dish. “I made a dozen of them. I didn’t know if you’d like it so I didn’t want you to have to sit and eat something you didn’t really like. But now that I know you do, I made plenty for you.”
Kol grinned at her as he reached for three more pork chops and placed them on his plate. He lifted one and took a big bite. “This is now my favorite Earth meal,” he said, nodding his head as he looked at the pork chop in his hand while he chewed. “I like the crunchy golden pieces on the outside especially.”
“That’s the breading,” Ada Jane answered.
“Breading?” Kol asked.
“Yes, flour, salt, pepper. It’s simple really, no need for fancy stuff. Just bread ‘em and fry ‘em up.”
Kol watched as she used mashed potatoes on the end of her fork to touch to the small pile of green peas on her plate and then place it in her mouth. He picked up his fork and did the same. He chewed thoughtfully, taking in all the flavors and textures. Then he lifted one of his pork chops, ran it through the potatoes and through the peas and took a bite. Kol smiled at Ada Jane as he chewed, nodding his head in approval.
When dinner was over, there were no leftovers at all. Ada and Kol were both full and very satisfied.
“I like your food, Ada Jane,” Kol said, taking a seat beside her on the small sofa. “You are a very talented cook,” he said decisively.
“Thank you, Kol. But to be truthful, I cook country. I could never prepare a fancy chef style meal. I just use simple ingredients like my Mom used to.
“I like country food the best so far,” Kol said. He watched as Ada Jane chose a disk from a stack of them sitting on a table and put it into a small machine beneath what looked like an antiquated viewing screen.
“I thought we’d watch a movie,” Ada Jane said. “I’ve been watching these old DVD’s that Pastor Douglas let me borrow from the exhibit. I’ve watched most of them, but I like seeing some of them again.”
“You could simply watch one via the vidcom if you wish,” Kol said.
“I know, but there’s something about watching the actual DVD’s that makes me feel more like I’m home.”
Kol let it go at once. He completely understood that she needed to get a sense of where she left off in life in order to move forward.
As the movie started, Ada Jane relaxed back onto the sofa and within a few minutes was sitting so close to Kol that she was able to rest her head on his shoulder.
Kol looked down at Ada Jane leaning on his shoulder and pressed a kiss to her head.
Minutes went by with Kol sliding an arm around her and holding her close while she placed a hand on his stomach as she turned her body more in to him while still watching the movie.
He was surprised when suddenly out of nowhere she spoke about a surprising subject. “So, how is Elisher?” Ada Jane asked.
Kol glanced from the screen to Ada Jane who still had her eyes focused on the movie.
“He is well. He was in meetings with me as my assistant today. I suspect he is back in our quarters and working to find as much information as he can to use as evidence against Diskastes,” Kol answered.
Ada Jane just nodded slowly. “Hmpf.”
“Is there a problem, my Ada Jane?” Kol asked, picking up on her discomfort.
“No. Not at all,” she said, snuggling closer.
Kol was not even sure what movie Ada Jane had chosen to watch. He was simply sitting, soaking in the feel of her near him, willfully allowing him to hold her. He dropped a few quick kisses on her head and turned back to the movie. His eyes widened. The couple on screen were involved in a very passionate scene. He sat up a little straighter when they actually got down to having sex. “What is this movie?” Kol asked.
“It’s an old one from the early 2000’s. They were very relaxed about sexuality apparently. Does it bother you?” Ada Jane asked, watching him curiously.
“No,” Kol answered honestly.
“You don’t seem so comfortable anymore,” Ada Jane teased, smiling at him.
“I am not comfortable,” Kol answered. “It is arousing. And I am already aroused by being near you. I do not wish to make you uncomfortable. I know you are not ready for such things and I do not wish to frighten you,” Kol said, forcing his eyes to stay away from the images on the screen.
Ada Jane turned to fully face Kol, curling her legs up beneath her. “Kol, I’m not afraid of you. I’m not going to run from you if you become aroused.”
“Are you sure?” Kol asked.
“Yes. I know this must be hard for you, and I’m not asking you to hide who you are, or to pretend to be something you’re not. All I’m asking is for you to be patient for a little while.”
Kol nodded his head once in acknowledgment of her statement.
“I’m not trying to make anything difficult for you. I’ve tried to be honest with you every step of the way. I apologize if I’ve made things hard for you.” Ada Jane answered. “Please don’t feel like you can’t be completely honest with me as well.”
Kol looked down at his hands which were now holding one of Ada Jane’s in both of his. He kept looking at their hands when he answered. “It was very difficult when you ran away with Rokai ahl. It was very painful for me.”
“I didn’t mean to hurt you. I just wanted to go home, and he and his Ehlealah offered to bring me home.”
“I would have brought you home,” Kol said.
“Would you?” Ada Jane asked. “Would you really? Because there was a chance for me to come home with some of the other girls, and you intentionally made sure I missed that transport. And every time I’d ask you to take me home, you’d get frustrated and leave our quarters,” Ada Jane said quietly.
Kol rubbed his thumb over the back of her hand and didn’t say anything. She was right. She was absolutely correct. He’d prevented her from coming home and avoided the issue until she had no choice but to take things into her own hands.
“I didn’t meant to hurt you. And every moment of the trip home I wondered if you’d come after me. I wanted you to, but I wanted to have time to make peace with everything that had happened to me. To make peace with the way my home has changed.”
“I am trying, Ada Jane. It is very difficult for me to not sweep you into my arms, throw you into my cruiser and take you back to my world. It is my instinct to do just that. But I know that you need me to do things differently. So I am trying to be what you need.”
“I appreciate that, Kol. I really do.”
Kol nodded and glancing up to her eyes offered her a small smile. “Is there anything else I can do to help you feel more at peace?” he asked.
“Yes,” she answered at once. “You can forgive me.”
“For what,” he asked.
“For running away. For hurting you and not giving you the chance to bring me here yourself.”
Kol shook his head. “There is nothing to forgive. You are right. I was not interested in bringing you home. I believed you already were home. I have never had my life stolen away from me. I did not understand how you were feeling,” he said, lifting a hand and cupping her cheek. “But I am learning. And I am trying every day to let you see that I am here, and that I will always be here. You will never have to face life without me beside you,” Kol said sweetly.
Ada Jane leaned forw
ard and pressed her lips to Kol’s.
Kol’s heart thundered in his chest as he returned her kiss. When he felt the tip of her tongue teasing his lips, he opened to her and allowed her to kiss him at will.
Slowly Ada Jane pulled away from him and smiled.
Kol leaned toward her while slipping a hand behind her head to hold her in place while he kissed her, taking the lead and gently, but firmly letting her know that he was more than aroused. When he finally stopped, he pulled back just a little to allow Ada Jane to catch her breath. “If you do not wish me to touch you, you only need say so,” he said while he looked at her with his eyes heavily hooded from the passion of their kisses.
“I’m not sure what I am or am not ready for. But I know I like your kisses.” Ada Jane paused before offering him a bright smile. “No, that’s wrong. I don’t like your kisses; I love your kisses.”
Kol smiled. “Then, I will kiss you more?” he asked.
“Oh, yeah,” she answered, leaning toward him while he leaned toward her. Ada Jane surrendered herself to him. To his touch, his taste, his scent. Everything in her brain screamed Kol to her. She was safe, she was loved, and she was at this particular point in time being practically worshiped by his attentions to her.
Kol was turned halfway toward her, and Ada’s knees were bent between them. She couldn’t get close enough. She broke their kiss and slid into his lap, straddling him while she faced him, holding his face in her hands while he settled his hands at her hips.
Kol gave a slight rumble as she settled herself on his lap.
“Is this okay?” Ada Jane asked, lifting herself up off him.
Kol tightened his hands on her hips. “Yes!” he growled at her, forcing her back to his lap. “Do not move. Please. Stay right where you are,” he said huskily while angling his head to kiss her more deeply.
Ada Jane kissed him again, her hands roving his chest and shoulders, finally ready to admit to herself that his growls excited her a great deal more than she’d once thought.
Chapter 18
Kol was lost in the feel of his female on top of him. Her scent told him that she was as aroused as he was. But he also detected a trace of fear in her scent. “You do not have to continue with this. I can scent your fear, my Ehlealah,” Kol rumbled at her, his voice gruff with arousal.
“I’m not afraid of you. It’s just the whole thing… I just…”
“Shh. Stop, do not distress yourself,” Kol said backing off and pecking a chaste kiss to her lips as he sat back, smiling at her as she still sat straddling his lap.
“But I don’t want to stop, not really. I just get all these memories and then I start feeling like I’m panicking.”
“There is no rush. You are mine, and I am yours. I know this. We will take our time,” Kol said, brushing her cheekbone with his forefinger.
“But I want you to touch me. Then I just get panicked. I don’t know if I can follow through, and I don’t want to tease you,” Ada Jane said frustratedly.
“You are not teasing me. You tell me what you want and that’s what we’ll do,” Kol said, smiling despite the pain in his groin from wanting her so badly for so long.
Ada Jane's gaze dropped from his face to his chest and began to nervously toy with the edge of his shirt. “There are other things we could do,” she said softly.
“What other things?” Kol asked, thinking she would suggest a walk in the moonlight or perhaps another movie.
Ada shrugged one shoulder. “Things with mouths, or hands, and maybe I wouldn’t be so nervous as I would be if your body weight was on top of me.”
Kol almost choked. This was not at all what he expected her to suggest.
“I mean, if you would enjoy those things,” she said, feeling suddenly like maybe suggesting them was a mistake.
“I want those things,” Kol said, the snarl back in his voice.
Ada Jane grinned at him as she slid off his lap. “Follow me,” she said, reaching out her hand.
Kol wasted no time getting to his feet and taking her hand.
Ada Jane led him into her bedroom where she went directly to her bed and turned to face him. Ada Jane watched his face for any sign of approval or disapproval as she lifted her shirt over her head and tossed it to the side.
Kol’s eyes widened at the sight of her standing before him with the thin covering of cloth holding her breasts as they strained to break through it. His hands with a mind of their own reached out to touch them, needing to caress her through the thin fabric. He realized only inches away from her that he’d not made sure she was okay with his touch and lifted his gaze to meet hers. He opened his mouth to speak, but didn’t have time to say a word before Ada Jane took his hands in hers and placed them gently on her breasts.
Kol’s chest rumbled softly as he stepped closer and rubbed the pads of his thumbs across her nipples. Ada Jane’s breath caught and she inhaled deeply on a gasp.
Kol let go of her and took a step back.
“No, it’s okay,” Ada said, reaching for his hands and putting them on her body again.
Kol stepped closer and cupped each breast, feeling their weight in his palms, the look on his face completely reverent as he slowly discovered his mate. He dropped to his knees in front of her and leaned forward, pressing his nose to her soft flesh and inhaling deeply. “Better than pork chops,” he mumbled completely seriously.
Ada giggled and he glanced up at her briefly before turning his attention back to her breasts. He pressed a kiss to first one, then the other before laving one with his tongue through the fabric.
Ada reached behind herself and unhooked her bra, then pulled it off her shoulders and dropped it to the floor. Kol became a bundle of need. He reacted by reaching out and putting his arm around her waist, pulling her into him and taking a nipple into his mouth.
Ada held onto Kol, as he teased her with his teeth, sucking so hard he surely turned her pale nipple a dark red from the blood he’d suckled to the surface. He let it slip free from his mouth and went after the second nipple. Then he stroked and petted her, kissing and nipping at her for so long she was panting by the time he was finished. Suddenly she wanted to be lying down and she wanted his shirt off, too.
Ada pulled at the shoulders of his shirt. “Take this off,” she said, gathering the material in her fist.
Kol glanced up to her face. She was slightly taller than he was with him on his knees. He grasped the edge of his shirt and tore it off over his head and horns, tossing it indiscriminately away.
“So powerful,” Ada whispered, caressing his shoulders and biceps.
“Do I please you?” Kol asked, holding her breast up again so he could nuzzle it with his cheek.
“Yes!” Ada answered. “I’ve never seen another male like you. You are so strong, so powerful, yet so gentle.”
Kol raised his eyes to meet her gaze again while she spoke to him.
“You are beautiful. There is no other word,” Ada Jane said, smiling at him.
Ada Jane backed toward the foot of her bed and when she felt it against the backs of her knees, she stopped and took his face in her hands, looking down at him.
Kol could sense her hesitation and turned his face to kiss one of her palms. “All you need to know is that I will stop the minute you say stop. I will not lose my control.”
Ada nodded and reached for the button on her jeans. She unzipped them, and pushed them slightly open, but because of the way he held her with his arm around her waist, she couldn’t push them down.
Kol eased away from her and looked down at her jeans before hooking his thumbs in them and slowly dragging them down her legs.
Once they reached her ankles, Ada Jane sat on the edge of the bed, then scooted back further on it and raised her legs so he could pull her jeans off all the way. She thought for sure he’d rise up over her to do so, but he didn’t. Kol stayed on his knees and pulled her jeans off before just dropping them beside himself.
Kol ran his hands up her legs starting
at her ankles. When he got to her knees and pressed them slightly apart, she pulled them back together.
“I won’t hurt you,” he said. “Open your eyes, Ada Jane. See that it is only me.”
Ada opened her eyes and he saw them glassy with tears. “I will stop,” he said, running his hands back down her legs and massaging her feet.
“I don’t want you to stop!” Ada said frustratedly. “I don’t. I just. I don’t know how to fix this. I want you to touch me, then I feel like I can’t ever allow you to touch me.”
“Why would you never allow me to touch you?” Kol asked, though it was with patience and not irritation.
“I don’t know. I just, I feel like you’re going to see me, you’re going to feel it, too, you just don’t understand!” she burst out.
Kol shook his head. “No, I do not. Only you can make me understand. Tell me, my Ada Jane. Help me understand.”
“I feel so…” she stopped talking, not sure she could make herself say it.
“Tell me. I cannot help you work through it if you do not tell me,” Kol encouraged.
“I can’t work through it!” she said, her voice rising with her anxiety.
“Through what?” Kol finally demanded with a firm tone.
“I’m dirty!” she yelled at Kol. “I’m dirty. I always feel dirty, no matter how many times I’ve washed, or how many times I’ve prayed. No matter how many times I’ve told myself I did nothing wrong, I still feel all used up,” she said, starting to cry.
Kol hurried to sit on the bed beside her. “There is nothing used or dirty about you. You are perfect,” he said, stroking her back as he pulled her onto his lap and held her close.
“I can still feel their touch. I still look around me at all times to be sure no one and nothing is behind me. I’m afraid I’ll always feel them just behind me, or touching me. Even when I think of you touching me, I panic and end up opening my eyes because I’m afraid I’m fooling myself and it’s really them.”
“You let me touch your breasts,” Kol started.
“Yes, because I was watching you and I was in control. And I knew it was you.”
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