Meant To Be Family (Meant To Be Series Book 3)

by Amelia Foster

  Connor popped from his seat. “Off, my vote is off.”

  She tilted her head back with a light tinkling laugh and shoved gently against his chest, sending him back down on the sofa. Her finger slipped beneath one strap, slowly sliding it off her shoulder before repeating it on the other side. But when she reached behind her and unfastened the clasp, letting the thin lacy material drop to the floor, his mouth turned to cotton.

  “Holy hell.” He breathed the words softly and thanked whatever good thing he’d done right in his life to witness the hottest damn pseudo striptease to ever exist.

  Within seconds, Kelsey peeled off the final scrap of fabric and straddled his lap. She linked her arms behind his neck. She rubbed against him and pressed her lips to his.

  Connor ran a hand down her hair, silently willing her to move just an inch… “I’m so damned proud of you, gorgeous.”

  She lifted slightly, sliding him inside with a low moan. “I couldn’t have done it without you, Picasso.” Her mouth trailed along his jaw to lick the shell of his ear and nip the lobe. “I spent the entire dinner just trying to figure out how to get you alone.”

  His hands went to her chest, each squeezing a soft globe in a firm grip. “Damn, gorgeous, you’re gonna be the death of me.”

  She grinned and rocked her hips faster, her fingers digging into his shoulder. “But what a way to go.”

  Connor snaked a hand between them and lightly pressed the small nub and smiled when Kelsey responded with a breathy sigh. “You’re gorgeous always,” he leaned forward to pull one of the rosy buds on her chest into his mouth, licking and sucking before releasing it on her frustrated growl, “but when you fall apart in my arms, you’re stunning.”

  Her nails dug deep into his skin, and her head dropped to meet his as she shouted his name. Connor gave himself permission to find his own release as shockwaves rolled through her body.

  She lay bonelessly on his chest as their breathing slowly regulated.

  He moved her to sit sideways in his lap then hooked an arm beneath her knees and carried her into the bedroom. Connor pulled the covers over them and held her close to his side.

  Kelsey buried her face in the crook of his arm. “I love you, Picasso.”

  His lips curled into a smile in the darkened room. “I love you too, gorgeous.”

  ***

  Kelsey

  Four Years Earlier

  “Are you kidding me?” The irritated shriek erupted from her mouth with zero warning and with much less patience than she normally had.

  She was exhausted. Managing the transition of the Asheville office of Donovan Rehab that she’d finally convinced her father to open was frustrating on multiple levels, but adding in the distance with only a few trips back and forth as she and Connor moved into their townhome, it was a nightmare.

  And coming home to a total and complete mess in their apartment was the final straw that snapped her tightly wound nerves.

  Connor dragged his eyes from the TV, and he blinked at her, confusion painted across his face as wide and blaring as the swath of black on his latest piece standing on the easel in the corner. “What’s wrong, Kels?”

  “What’s wrong?” They had always made a point to calmly discuss things in their relationship and managed to avoid nearly all arguments, but derision and sarcasm coated her words tonight. “I just drove more than two hours after spending the day drowning in paperwork and dropping off another load of boxes to the townhouse and the one thing I’d asked you to do, the one thing, was to pack up all your DVDs and art supplies and books.”

  She paced the length of the small room, raking her fingers through her hair. “I’ve tried to be understanding. I get that you’re the portrait of a right-brained thinker. You’re perpetually late and completely disorganized and easily distracted. I get it. But I only asked you to do one thing while I was gone. Instead of that, you managed to somehow make an even bigger mess before losing yourself in some stupid reality TV show.”

  “Kels, I—”

  She held up a hand and silenced his apology. “I don’t want to hear it, Connor.” The chronic exhaustion commingled with her frustration, and her boiling point was not only reached but overflowing. “I don’t want to hear another meaningless ‘I’m sorry’ that’ll never bring any actual change.”

  “Okay, that’s going a little far, don’t you think?” Connor stood to face her, propping his hands on his hips. “I’ll admit I’m messy, but I’ve been trying like hell to do better and somehow meet your obsessive standards.”

  Kelsey choked out a disbelieving laugh. “Obsessive? Connor, I want the damned dishes cleaned the night you use them and the clothes put away before they wrinkle. I want you to wipe the toothpaste off the sink and put your dirty clothes in the basket.”

  She sighed and waved her hand around the room. “And today I really wanted you to put all your shit in these damned boxes so we could move the rest of this without racing around at the last minute.” Her hands fell to her sides. “But, as usual, you got lost in painting something and ignored the real world and your actual responsibilities.”

  Kelsey turned her back on a speechless Connor and walked into their nearly empty bedroom. The muted click of the door behind her nearly sent her ten feet in the air. They never fought before, and this was a petty battle to start.

  The slamming of the front door broke the dam, and her tears flowed. Her heart crumpled as she fell on the mattress and cried out the ache that seemed far more dramatic than necessary over a few missed chores.

  Deep exhaustion and overwhelming emotions were knitted together with a strong thread of confusion and sent her aching head into a light, restless sleep. She wasn’t sure how long she was asleep, but it wasn’t anywhere close to long enough to untangle her gnarled brain. Connor’s warm palm gently shook her shoulder.

  She blinked against reality and the soft, but intrusive, bedside lamp. “Connor.” She breathed his name on a relieved and grateful sigh and levered up on her elbow. Her free arm immediately encircled his neck and pulled him close.

  He angled slightly away from her, his lips drawn down. “Kels, I—”

  Kelsey rested her fingers against his lips, silencing his next words. “We need to talk.”

  Chapter Fifteen

  Connor

  Present Day

  Connor pasted his most pathetic expression on his face. Even though he was fairly sure that the haircut he was beginning to regret—not to mention the frosted tips his brothers never stopped harassing him over—didn’t hold quite the same effect his slightly too long former style offered. “Can’t we wait until tomorrow? I’m totally beat.”

  She folded her arms across her chest and sighed. “You’re walking. Today.”

  He rolled onto the platform between the two railings. Despite his assertions both publicly and to himself that all he wanted to do was get back on his feet literally and proverbially, there was a dark fear monster lurking in the recesses of his mind, taunting him with all the possible disastrous outcomes.

  With much more ease than before, he stood on his feet, and it took only a moment to find his balance, a significant improvement. Kelsey’s small, encouraging smile coaxed him to take a step. And then another. And a third. Until he’d reached the wall. Or, more accurately, Kelsey had walked in front of him the entire time and now stood pinned between Connor and the wall.

  Her eyes glittered and tears ran down her face unchecked. “You did it.” It was barely more than a whisper, but the soft words echoed loudly through his mind.

  His breath came in labored, staccato gasps, not from the exertion of walking, but from her. The lemon verbena scent of her body wash was light but coated the air around them. With another step forward, the planes and curves of their bodies fit together like the pieces of a puzzle, perfectly in place. She filled all of his senses, consuming him in the way only Kelsey had from the beginning.

  Connor reached a hand up to cup her face. “There is no one else in the world I wante
d here with me in this moment. Thank you.”

  Her lower lip quivered, and she wrapped her fingers around his wrist. “No matter what, I didn’t want to share this with anyone else.”

  “Stop me.” The plea was hoarse and ragged and ripped from his chest by sheer willpower that he never really believed he possessed. He lowered his mouth to hover a breath above hers. “Please, Kels, if you don’t want this, please stop me.”

  She slid an arm around his waist and pulled him impossibly closer, shaking her head. “I want this.” She lifted onto her toes to brush her lips against his. “I shouldn’t, we shouldn’t, and this is going to be confusing as hell, but I want this almost as much as I want my next breath. Maybe more.”

  A low growl reverberated in the back of his throat, and he captured her mouth in a needy kiss. The days and weeks of working with her, the emotions she stirred that consumed him and his every conscious thought, and just the sheer pleasure of having her back in his arms was poured into the act. The depth they’d known since their first kiss had nothing on the power in this moment. It surpassed all their previous ones, even the one that sparked the biggest fight they’d ever had last week.

  Hell, fireworks in Times Square on New Year’s Eve couldn’t come close to the electricity exploding between them in this moment.

  She whimpered against his mouth, and he tightened his hold. Joy, pain, sadness, heartache, triumph…they all mingled to create a symphony of passion.

  His lips broke from hers, and he pressed his forehead to hers. “I don’t want to stop.”

  The hand that had a death grip on his wrist slid up his arm, across his shoulder, and toyed with the small hairs at the back of his neck. “Me, either.”

  His conscience stood on a soapbox and shouted through a megaphone all the reasons this was wrong and shouldn’t happen. Connor ignored the wise voice as he led her out of the room on unsteady legs, leaning heavily on her for support as the unused muscles screamed in protest.

  At the edge of the bed, he turned to her, unable to stop himself from asking once more. “Sure?”

  Her teeth sank into her lower lip, and he barely banked the urge to tug it free and kiss her again. “No. I’m not sure. In fact, I am pretty damn sure this is a mistake, but right now I don’t freaking care. I want you. I’ve missed you. Please, Connor.”

  Throbbing aches and stabbing pains sent him down on the mattress with much less finesse than he’d have liked, but when Kelsey tumbled down beside him, he didn’t care. Their lips found each other again in a much more tempered kiss. His fingers traveled over her body, beneath her scrubs, the digits rejoicing at touching familiar skin.

  He tugged his shirt over his head at the same time she removed hers. The creamy, freckled skin he adored tempted his mouth to taste. Gently he rolled her beneath him, and his lips descended to travel along nearly every inch of flesh exposed above the satin bra.

  Kelsey’s fingernails dug into his shoulders, and she arched her neck, her head pressing into the pillow. The initial taste of her sent him over the edge. He flicked the clasp open and threw the undergarment across the room, driven by the need to pull one of the tiny pebbles into his mouth. She gasped in response, and he smiled against her skin. He knew exactly what she loved the most.

  His hand traveled beneath the waistband of her pants, and she let out a small yelp as his fingers found the treasure they were seeking. One then two digits slid inside her. She whimpered and rocked her hips forward to meet him. Within moments, she was shrieking from pleasure and clamping her legs around his arm.

  He slid down her body, pulling her scrubs and underwear with him and tossing them somewhere in the direction of her other clothes. He stopped at her belly button long enough to circle his tongue inside as another shuddering wave washed over her.

  Connor lifted her thighs over his shoulders and lost himself in her. His tongue licked a familiar path, touching every area he knew was crying out for attention.

  “Dammit, Connor.” Her words held a thread of frustration, and he couldn’t help but smile.

  He licked the quivering flesh once more before looking up at her. “I told you, gorgeous, stop me anytime.”

  She growled and gripped the short strands of his spiky hair. “Don’t you dare stop now.”

  He winked at her and gently massaged her thighs. “I’m so glad you said that.” He dropped back down and moved his tongue inside her in slow, languorous motions. Occasionally, it traveled just north to tease the tiny bundle of nerves he knew would send her into oblivion.

  But not yet. He’d been deprived of her taste, of her moans, of her sighs, for far too long. Her hiccuping “please” several moments later broke his patience, and he sucked the little nub between his lips until she screamed his name on a piercing shriek…and then just a little longer.

  Connor kissed his way back up her body, and her hands fell to his cotton lounge pants, tugging at the elastic waistband. He shook his head and dropped his palm to halt her work. “I…can’t.”

  ***

  Kelsey

  Present Day

  “You have got to be kidding me.” Although the sentence held slightly more bite than she’d intended, it was the best she could manage through the haze of desire Connor created. Her muddled brain was blissed out from the pleasure still coursing through her veins.

  Granted, the boys she’d dated before him had been high school novices with next to no experience under their belts and far more testosterone than they could actually handle. The couple of frat boys she’d dated in her first two years at college had a lot more ego and a lot more experience than them, but…not nearly enough skill.

  But Connor had always focused his attention on her and giving her everything she needed before even considering himself. Apparently three months, a serious motor vehicle accident, and a broken heart hadn’t changed a damn thing about the man.

  He nuzzled into her neck, and a contented sigh escaped her lips and tempered the frustration forming at his refusal. “Kels…I…” His hand trailed up her spine. “I can’t. The doctor hasn’t cleared me for…that, and I don’t want to damage anything.” He pulled his head back and rocked his hips forward. “Don’t you dare try to convince yourself I don’t want to.”

  The contact of his hardened length barely concealed behind his pants and boxers reignited the fire he’d so recently quenched for her. She stroked her hand along his chest, her index finger trailing along the path between the lean muscles. “That certainly can’t restrict…everything.”

  Connor moaned and trembled beneath her touch. She gently pushed against his chest, and he rolled onto his back. Kelsey moved to kneel at the foot of the bed and hooked her fingers beneath his waistband. She slid his boxers and pants down in one quick motion, depositing them on the floor behind her.

  She ran her hands up and down his legs, her heart aching at the formerly strong appendages now noticeably smaller and marred with ugly red scars that were still healing. Kelsey leaned down to press her lips along the mottled flesh, and Connor slapped his hands over his eyes, his palms digging into them.

  “Kelsey, holy hell…”

  She wrapped her fingers around the base and looked up at him. The body she once had memorized now sported mostly healed cuts and abrasions from shattered glass, and she swallowed back her emotions.

  Her lips pressed on the tip, and her tongue flicked across it. Connor groaned in response, and she smiled through the pain. She could give him this. She couldn’t give him…but she could give him this.

  She rotated her wrist slowly, caressing him as she wrapped her lips around him and moved up and down. When his hands stroked her hair and toyed with the strands, she picked up her pace. Her tongue circled around him as she stroked his length.

  His breath caught on a hitch when she massaged the satiny flesh below, rotating the orbs between her fingers. “Dammit, Kels, what the hell are you doing to me?” He lifted his head to stare down at her.

  She pulled him free from her mouth and loo
ked him in the eye as she licked him from the base to the tip. “If I need to explain it, I’m clearly doing something wrong.”

  “Oh, damn, gorgeous, you’re doing everything right.” He fell back against the pillow with a string of muttered curses that made her chuckle.

  The use of the pet name he’d used on her since they first began dating sent an unexpected arrow through her heart. She wrapped her lips around him again, working faster as she bobbed up and down as far as possible, twisting her hand around the rest of his length.

  Within minutes that felt like a second, he exploded with a deep, guttural growl. She continued to slowly stroke him with her mouth until he stilled after a shuddering sigh. She sat back on her heels with silent tears streaking down her face and stared as his heavy breathing finally calmed and he lifted himself onto his elbows.

  His face fell from a euphoric and satiated smile into panic. “Hell, Kels, you didn’t need to—we didn’t need to…dammit, I am so sorry.”

  She swiped at her cheeks with the backs of her hand and shook her head. “Like hell. We both needed that.” Kelsey climbed off the bed and grabbed the closest piece of clothing she could find, which just so happened to be his shirt, and pulled it over her head. She picked up his lounge pants and tossed them in his direction.

  “I’m gonna get us each a drink and then…” She carded her fingers through her hair and bit the inside of her cheek. “We need to talk.”

  Chapter Sixteen

  Connor

  Four Years Earlier

  “What in the hell happened here?”

  Kelsey was always calm, even tempered, and patient. So the loud shriek followed by the slamming of the front door immediately brought Connor’s head up from the changes he was making to the kitchen design for their house that was slated to begin construction soon. He’d taken over the dining room table in their small townhome, and papers were spread all across it.