“Stop drooling on the bike, man,” Johnny muttered out of the side of his mouth with a grimace, knocking him back into the moment.
Right. Get ahold of yourself, or you are going to rip the seam right out of your jeans. How did she do that with nothing but a sway of her hips and a toss of that incredible mane?
“Ready?” he asked. Shit – did his voice just crack? On top of everything else, was he reliving puberty now, too?
She smiled at him, and just like that his heart pounded twice as hard, beating against the walls of his chest. “Yeah, I’m ready. If Johnny can take his hands off our ride, that is.”
“It’s a cherry bike, Lina,” her brother said in his defense, as if that explained everything.
Chapter Six
Lina directed Kyle to a secluded, but spectacular spot along the shoreline. Located in the mountains, the place had been formed by glaciers during the Ice Age, according to her. He’d heard about it, of course, but he’d never had a reason to see it for himself. Watersports weren’t his thing, and his light-sensitive eyes preferred darkness over bright sunshine and the reflective surface of the lake.
The full moon hung heavy and low in the sky, surrounded by more stars than he had ever seen. After pulling a blanket from her pack, Lina laid it out near a massive, canopied tree on a slight knoll overlooking the lake. The still water resembled a mirror, reflecting the sky in every detail. Acres and acres of forested lands surrounded them, with jagged mountain peaks rising up in the background. The air was cool but pleasant, blowing lightly across the surface of the lake, carrying the scents of the water, the pines, and the late-blooming honeysuckle and mountain laurel.
Celina sat down and patted the blanket beside her, almost shyly. Kyle’s heart did a little stutter thing. He rubbed his chest absently. That was happening a lot lately. Maybe he should go in for a checkup.
“How did you find this place?” Kyle asked, dropping smoothly next to her and extending his long legs. Don’t say you were here with another man. The unexpected plea popped into his head, surprising him.
“My father built a cabin about a mile from here,” she told him. “My family spent every summer here when I was a kid.”
“But not anymore?” he asked.
“No, not anymore,” she sighed, gazing out over the water with a wistful expression on her face. “I haven’t been back since my parents passed.”
“Why not?”
“It’s so strange, being back in Birch Falls and not having them here. It’s different, you know? Everything looks the same, but it doesn’t feel the same, if that makes any sense.”
Kyle leaned back on his arms to prevent himself from wrapping her in them and making her forget anything that put that sadness in her eyes. She wasn’t looking at him, but he could still see the moisture shining there in the light of the moon. He knew that Johnny had taken over the construction company from his dad a couple of years back, but not the details behind it.
“I was away at college when it happened. They were flying down for a long weekend at the beach with some friends. One of the guys who worked for my dad had his pilot’s license, and had just gotten his own single-engine. They hit a freak storm and the plane went down. No survivors.”
“That sucks,” he said, knowing first-hand what it was like to lose your parents. He and Jamie had lost theirs to a drunk driver coming home from a New Year’s Eve celebration. He’d been sixteen at the time. Jamie had been twelve. It had changed everything.
“Yeah, it does.”
Celina leaned back, too, mirroring his pose. “After I got my degree, I did some traveling. Nothing exotic, just a few places here and there. I wasn’t sure I wanted to come back at all, but Johnny’s here. Staying with him in the house we grew up in is helping me finally deal with everything, accept that they’re gone and they’re not coming back.” She paused. “You lost your parents too, didn’t you?” she asked quietly.
“Yeah.”
“Jamie said you were from Detroit originally.”
“Yeah.”
“Have you ever gone back?”
“No.”
There had never been a reason to, as far as he was concerned. The boy he’d once been was gone forever, and the only family he had left – his brother - was here. Thankfully, Lina seemed to sense he didn’t want to expand on that and didn’t ask for anything more. She shifted, and her hand inched over so that their pinky fingers touched, just barely. He wasn’t even sure she was aware of the slight contact, but he was.
“Now that I’m back, though, I’ve thought of coming back up here, staying for a long weekend or something, but Johnny says he’s too busy with the business.”
“He busts his ass.”
“I know he does, which is another reason why he needs to take a day off every now and then. He needs some downtime.”
Kyle knew exactly how Johnny got his downtime, but he wasn’t about to share that with Lina. “So why don’t you come by yourself?”
“I guess I could,” she said slowly. “There are a lot of memories there. Memories I’m not sure I want to face alone. And Johnny would probably have something to say about it, too. You probably didn’t catch it – it’s very subtle, actually, not many people would – but my brother tends to be a little overprotective sometimes.” Her mouth curved in an impish grin, and he couldn’t help but think what it would be like to kiss her at that moment.
“I did pick up on that, as a matter of fact,” he laughed. “I had to put my balls up for collateral just to take you riding with me tonight.”
“Oh my,” she said, handing him a cold beer from the pack. “I’m not sure I would have agreed to come if I had known that.”
Kyle swallowed hard. Was she flirting with him?
He twisted the top off and she took it, handing him another. She scooted closer, so that their arms were touching. Her skin was like satin. Warm, smooth satin that was giving him fiery chills up and down his spine.
“Maybe it wouldn’t be so bad,” she said thoughtfully. “But it would be so much better if I had someone to share it with, you know?”
Kyle crossed one ankle over the other. It did nothing to help the ache in his groin. He should have taken care of himself earlier, but doubted it would have done much good. Nothing seemed to help quell this exceptionally powerful desire he had for Lina. He could have tossed off all day and she’d still have him ready to spill with just a look or a few words. Thing was, she never seemed to deliberately choose her words. He had the impression that they just sort of tumbled out based on whatever was going through her mind at the time.
“Have anyone in mind?” he asked, hoping he sounded nonchalant, when every fiber of his being was screaming Say Me! Say Me! Shit, he really was twelve years old again. Maybe he should ask her to the junior high dance next week, too.
“Yes, actually, I do.” Those words were too close to his ear. He shouldn’t be feeling her warm, moist breath on his neck, or her silky waves brushing against his cheek. He closed his eyes and held himself perfectly still, hardly daring to breathe for fear of inhaling too much of her scent, willing himself not to cover her with his body and make mad, passionate love to her beneath the full moon.
And why wasn’t he doing exactly that? If this had been any other woman Kyle would’ve had her repeatedly by now, well-sated and begging for more till he’d had his fill. But with Lina, he wasn’t even trying to kiss her. As much as he wanted her, he also liked just being with her. Talking to her. Seeing her eyes light up when some little thing made her happy. Sitting along the shore of the lake beneath the full moon while she shared a part of her soul.
And that, right there, was the answer. Finding a woman to fuck was easy. But finding one who made him feel like this – like she was interested in him for more than just a good ride... not so much. When he was with Lina, he felt like more than a badass. She made him feel better than he was.
Caught up in those revelations, he was fully unprepared when he felt her soft, full lips on hi
s.
Kyle groaned loudly, and her tongue reached out tentatively, stroking his bottom lip. It was a curious, exploring touch, and he automatically opened to give her better access. She shifted her position, and Kyle felt her breasts pressing lightly against his chest as she tried to deepen the kiss.
His head swam dizzily as the taste of her seeped into his mouth. Oh, she was delicious. Her lips suckled his; her tongue made tiny strokes in his mouth, teasing, begging his to come out and play. He tried to fight it, he really did. If she had forced herself against him it would have been easier. But her exploration was so gentle, so uncertain, that it completely undid him.
Kyle took control of the kiss; he skillfully stroked her lips, lightly sipped from her tongue, showing her how it was done. One large hand reached up and cupped the back of her head – was her hair really that soft? – pulling her closer. He thrust his tongue into her mouth, drinking her as if he was dying of thirst and she was a clear mountain spring.
Lina was a fast learner. She followed his lead, until they executed a perfect dance together. It wasn’t a kiss. It was a soul-searing, out of body, mind-blowing experience. When he finally released her, she licked at her swollen lips, her eyes half-closed, chest heaving with ragged breaths. “Wow,” she whispered.
Yeah. Wow. He was in such deep shit.
She fell back on her ass and looked up at the stars. One hand propped her up, the other was fingering her lips, as if she had never felt them before. Kyle felt like beating his chest. If he could do this with just a kiss, what would happen if his hands roamed freely over her naked flesh? Or if he put his lips to work on other areas? God help him, what if he ever got his cock inside her? She might just explode. And he wanted to absorb the blast.
And with that thought came another right behind it, one he didn’t want to consider. He could never do any of those things, because Lina was Jamie’s girl. He couldn’t even bring himself to call her a piece anymore, because everything about her screamed against her being a piece of anything other than pure heaven. And he shouldn’t even be here, let alone be kissing her.
As if someone like her could actually be interested in a guy like him, he thought cynically. A blue collar biker who’d sworn off higher education the day he’d graduated high school and never looked back. A man who’d found his niche and was exactly where he wanted to be.
It made him great for a one-nighter, but he sure as hell wasn’t white-picket fence material. Unlike his brother, who was always trying to better himself in one way or another.
He could rationalize it somewhat when they were just going out for a ride. Two people who shared a love of the open road, mutually enjoying a common interest. Even talking beneath the stars.
But not that kiss. There was nothing rational about that.
It wasn’t his fault. He’d just been sitting there, minding his own business and keeping an iron grip on his Lina-fueled libido. She had kissed him, not the other way around. He couldn’t just push her away, right? So he tasted her a little. Played a little tongue hockey. Nothing more than kids did in the back row at the movie theater. Much less, actually. He hadn’t even tried to cop a cheap feel.
What the hell was Jamie playing at when he was bitching and moaning about not getting any from her? She was totally smoking. If she was his girl, he would have her so thoroughly fucked she wouldn’t remember her own name.
He chanced a sideways glance at her again. She was still touching her lips, staring out across the lake. It was exactly what he needed to get his shit back together. He was good, but he wasn’t that good.
She was acting like it was her first real kiss or something. Yeah, right. Because he certainly hadn’t felt the lightning shooting through his body, straight from his lips and into his groin. And he hadn’t felt every nerve ending sizzle, or had the nearly unbearable urge to wrap her in his arms and fuse their bodies together.
Jamie was the sucker, not him.
They sat in silence. He drained the rest of his beer and stole sideways glances at her out of the corner of his eye. At least she wasn’t rubbing her lips anymore, and the swelling had gone down considerably.
“Are you hungry?” The sudden question startled him.
“Is that a trick question?”
Lina laughed softly. “No, not really. I brought a few things, if you’d like.” She leaned over to pull the pack closer and Kyle was treated to an eyeful of her sweet ass. Damn, those jeans should be illegal, making her ass look like that. Wonder what it would feel like in my lap as she rode my cock...
He pushed those thoughts away. They were definitely not helpful.
She pulled out a hunk of cheese, a small loaf of crusty bread, and a bag of fresh cherries. She broke off a piece of the bread and handed it to him, then pulled a small utility tool from her jacket and sliced off a bite-sized piece of cheese, holding it to his lips.
She was feeding him? He chewed slowly, savoring every bite. He noticed that she was avoiding looking at him in the eyes. Guilt, perhaps?
Opening the bag of cherries next, she popped one into her mouth, keeping the stem between her fingers. He watched, fascinated, as she worked the small fruit around, extracting the pit and tossing it to the side. “I’m sorry, am I being too gross?”
“No, not at all,” he said, watching her make quick work of another, wondering what it would feel like to be that cherry. Shaking himself free again – was everything sexual with her? – he reached out his hand. “May I?”
She offered the bag to him and he plucked out a cherry, placing it onto his tongue, stem and all. It took only a few seconds for him to work the pit free, discarding it off to the side. He chewed once or twice before he swallowed, but his jaw continued to work in tiny movements. In another minute he grinned, holding something between his teeth. Lina reached up and took it. It was the cherry stem, tied neatly into a perfect knot.
Lina squealed in delight. “How did you do that?”
Kyle grinned. “I have skills.”
“So I see. You have a wicked tongue indeed, sir.” She blushed as she said the last, and Kyle wanted to show her just how wicked his tongue really was. Fuck.
“So,” he said, changing the subject to one he knew would have a dampening effect on his surging lust, because he had to do something that did not involve ripping off her clothes and pounding into her body repeatedly. “My brother Jamie talks about you all the time. You two serious?”
Had he imagined it, or did a shadow pass across her face? She reached in and grabbed another cherry. Rolled it around in her mouth a little before answering. “Jamie is really smart.”
“That’s not what I asked.”
“He is also very kind and very sweet.”
“So’s a dog. I want to know how you feel about my brother.” Yep, definite shadow this time.
“Why?”
“It’s important. I’m sitting here in the perfect spot, on the perfect night, with the perfect girl – who my brother just happens to be completely batshit for, by the way. I think I’m completely within my rights to know what position I’m playing here.”
She pierced him with those glistening emerald eyes. “You think I’m the perfect girl?”
Oh, no, not going there. “Answer the question, please.”
“I like Jamie, I really do. I knew he was interested, but I didn’t realize he felt that strongly. He’s a wonderful man, and if I had any sense at all I’d be crazy about him.” Lina paused and gave him a sad smile. “But it appears that I have no sense whatsoever.”
Well, that answered that question. Sort of. It shouldn’t make him so happy, though. “Would you sleep with him?”
“Pardon me?”
Kyle enunciated each word clearly. “Would. You. Sleep. With. My. Brother?”
She looked at him as if he’d lost his mind.
“I mean, I’m pretty sure he’s in love with you and all, but it would make life a lot better for him if you’d just, you know, give him a little something to remember you by. He’
s put in a lot of time and effort; it’d be a shame if he had to walk away empty-handed.”
He was pushing her, and he knew it, but he just couldn’t help himself. This night was turning out to be a hell of a lot harder than he’d thought. Frustration was building inside him like a volcano and it had no other place to go.
Her stunned shock changed to anger, seething right below the surface. Those green eyes narrowed and practically glowed in the moonlight. Whoa. The kitten has a temper. It made her look hot and wild.
“When I do finally take that step, Kyle, it will be with someone I plan on spending the rest of my life with.”
He laughed. He couldn’t help it. A deep, rumbling guffaw bubbled up and echoed around them. The notion was absolutely ridiculous. Her eyes narrowed even further, reducing to mere slits with slices of luminous green barely visible between them.
“You don’t believe anybody waits for the right one anymore, do you, Kyle?”
“The right one?” He shook his head, still laughing. “As if there could only be one? Sorry, Celina, I stopped believing in fairy tales a long time ago. “
Her spine stiffened. “Well, maybe I haven’t.”
Christ, she was serious! And so convincing, too. She should be in Hollywood. No wonder Jamie believed her. “Oh yeah, Jamie told me. You’re a virgin. I forgot.” His lips curved into a cruel smile. At least until he saw the tears welling up in her eyes and her bottom lip tremble before she clamped down on it with her upper teeth.
Lina got to her knees and briskly started shoving the bags of bread and cheese and cherries into her pack with more force than necessary, mumbling. “This was a mistake.”
Warning bells rang in his head but he refused to heed them. “Oh come off it, Lina. I’m not Jamie. No woman who kisses like that can claim to be an innocent in this day and age. You’re as much of a fucking virgin as I am. So what’s your deal, anyway? Did you ditch my brother to slum it up with the bad boy till Mr. Right comes along?”
Celina (Connelly Cousins #1) Page 6
