“You ready to go?”
“Yes,” I moaned.
“Good. Paige fell asleep, so we can leave.”
“Wait. What?” I stepped back and had to shake my head, trying to clear the sensual haze mocking my ability put together a full thought. “I have to tell her goodbye.”
“She’s down for the count,” Kai insisted.
“I should make sure Abbi’s okay with watching her.”
“She is. Let’s go.”
“But—”
“I really need to feel you come all over me,” Kai said. “Now. We’ll see everyone on Sunday afternoon.”
And just like that, we were out the door of the restaurant. People in the front room turned toward us as we walked by, Kai’s arm possessive around my waist. A few people whispered, a young woman nearby gasped Kai’s name. I tilted my head up to look at him. He was dark and foreboding. As we neared the front door, he slowed our pace and placed another kiss on my lips. This one was chaste compared to the others, but the windows reflected my slightly dazed expression. His words, his touch left me yearning for more. Not that I minded. I didn’t. I loved Kai’s desire for me and how it had him hustling me into his car and heading back toward my place.
After opening my car door, Kai helped me into my seat. He drove with the same care he always did around me and Paige, something I greatly appreciated. I closed my eyes and leaned my head back against the seat, needing a moment to collect myself.
We slowed to a stop as Kai ran his hand up between my legs, his fingers caressing the soft, bare skin of my thigh.
“Ungh. Shouldn’t you keep your hands on the wheel?”
He chuckled, a dark, haunting sound I craved to hear again. His fingers slid closer to my panties and I squirmed, my face flooding with heat as my body welcome the idea of Kai touching even more of me.
“We’re at your place now. Want me, do you, Evie?”
Like it wasn’t obvious. I bit the inside of my lip. He turned onto my street, his thumb rubbing over the damp material between my legs.
“You like the way that feels?”
“Y-yes.”
“Want more?”
“Yes!” I all but wailed.
“Good.”
Kai turned off the ignition. His hand was out from under my skirt and he was out of the car before I could do more than draw a shaky breath.
Once again, he opened my door. This time I needed his help out of the car because my knees wouldn’t support my weight.
“Not much of a stander during seduction. I’ll keep that in mind,” Kai’s lips slid over mine in a soft, gentle kiss before he swept me up into his arms. I looped my arms around his neck and snuggled into his chest, pressing open-mouthed kisses to his neck and jaw. I loved how dainty and feminine he made me feel.
“I don’t have the best control right now,” Kai rasped. “It’s been a long time since I’ve had sex, and you look so gorgeous, and you’re mine.”
A long time. Not as long as my abstinence spell, but his words warmed my heart. I nipped his jaw just as Kai pushed open my door. He strode in, slammed the door shut with his heel. He lowered me until I was on my feet, keeping an arm around my waist. He slid the lock and turned the deadbolt on the door.
His eyes were dark, his face all hard angles as he bent his head over mine. “I want you, Evie. Right now.”
“Yes.”
“But I’m not fucking you against a door, no matter how much I want to. You deserve special. So here’s what we’re going to do.”
He stepped away from me but kept his hands firm on my waist. I waited, barely breathing.
“You’re going to walk into your bedroom and strip off that gorgeous dress. Then you’re going to lie down on the bed and wait for me. Leave the heels and definitely leave the wet panties. I want to feel them again.”
I mumbled something inarticulate. Kai turned me toward my room and patted me on the bottom.
“Go on.”
I went. Followed his instructions exactly. My heart turned to gooey mush when I saw the dozens of white roses shoved into vases placed all over the room interspersed by tiny white tea lights.
Quivering with need, my heart racing, my nipples ached behind the silk and lace of my bra as I lay down on the turned-down sheets.
Kai walked into the room. He’d taken off his suit coat and his shirt was untucked. He looked so delectable I moaned. This man was my husband. I would see him like this all the time. I’d be the only one he talked to like this, that he looked at like—holy goodness, that look was even better than the smolder.
“Thank you for this,” I said, encompassing the flowers and candlelight.
“My pleasure.”
I panted—panted!—as he closed the distance between us.
“You are so beautiful,” he said.
He ran his fingers up my arm, over my breast and down my stomach and cupped the wetness that used to be panties.
“So wet and hot and mine.”
He growled the last word and that had me arching up into his palm, trying to get some friction where I needed it most.
Right there. I moaned again, this sound longer and more ragged, as Kai rubbed his thumb against the bundle of nerves that had been screaming for his attention.
“Like that?”
Duh. I arched against him harder this time, my head whipping from side to side.
“You do.” He slid his hands over my white stockings. “I love these.” He licked the skin on my thigh just above the lacy white garter. Maybe not the wedding day of my dreams, but I’d gone as bridal as I could, hoping Kai didn’t see it for the pathetic attempt to romanticize our arrangement it was.
He pulled my panties down my thighs in a languid move. His lips skated up my thigh while he rubbed his thumb in a circle against my clit. Pulling back, he kept his gaze focused on that area between my legs as he inserted a finger inside me. My skin heated further. I reached for him but Kai shook his head.
“Right now, this is about you. Enjoy how I make you feel.”
Great goddess of love, his touch wreaked havoc—I struggled to breathe. He pumped his finger in and out of me in a too-slow but delicious rhythm. I circled my hips, striving for that elusive burst of pleasure.
Kai’s lips skated up my leg, his warm breath hitting my sex so I clenched tight around his finger. Kai’s moan matched mine. And then he closed his lips over my wet heat.
I arched so hard against him, I nearly knocked us both off the bed. He levered upward, placing his free hand on my belly to hold me down while he continued to stroke in and out of my body with his other hand. He lapped at my lower lips before inserting another finger into me. The friction was too good to worry about the light sting. Plus, his mouth . . . another kiss with lots of tongue. My thighs quivered, my need building.
“Kai.” My voice was high and thin. I clutched at his hair, unable to stop from grinding harder against his mouth. “Kai,” I gasped. He sucked my nub hard into his mouth as he pushed a third finger into my tight channel.
My thighs quivered once more before the pleasure rolled over my belly, my legs, my sex. I gasped and moaned as Kai continued to pump his fingers into me. He sat back, watching me with intense focus as the pleasure continued to ripple through my muscles.
“That was . . .” I gasped. “That was so good.” One detail I hadn’t shared with Kai was how I shut down the more sensual side of my nature many years ago. I lived on the streets and saw how a body was used as currency. When I added what I’d seen at the gang house and with Lainey’s posse to my mom’s choices, I knew I had to respect my body because no one else would. But with Kai, I wasn’t able to temper my responses—my need for him was too great.
“If you respond like that every time, this is going to be a fuck of a lot better than good.”
“Are you going to ma—er, fuck me now?”
He pulled his fingers from me and I winced, surprised by the soreness there.
“You ready for that?”
&n
bsp; His pants were tented and his eyes gleamed with lust. But Kai didn’t assume I wanted sex. He’d asked. My heart squeezed with painful need to tell him how much I loved him. He’s not ready. Those words were the only reason I was able to keep my mouth closed over the emotions near bursting from me.
I nodded.
Kai hopped from the bed and began to shuck his clothes. I admired each new inch as it became available. Those ridiculously hard biceps that I loved to hold when he was kissing me. Broad shoulders tapered to a narrow waist, his abdominal muscles rigid enough to form a V that disappeared into his boxers as he dropped his pants.
Kai’s body was a work of art. He was undeniably sexy. But it was his eyes; the way they drifted with such possessiveness over my skin that had my sex clenching with need. Again.
He pulled out a condom from the box he’d bought and stored in the bedside table before shucking his boxers, too. Sliding the latex over his length, I had to swallow against the dryness building in my throat. Sure, people had sex all the time, but Kai’s girth was impressive—and daunting.
“We’ll go slow,” Kai said.
We’d better. I nodded once, my eyes remained fixed on his still-growing erection. Before I thought better and stopped myself, I ran my fingertip from the head down the bottom toward his balls. He was warm, hard, throbbing.
An answering pulse built in my lower belly again. He held himself firmly in one hand, near the root, as he slid between my splayed thighs.
“So fucking beautiful,” Kai said as he settled against me.
He undid the front clasp of my bra and bent his head, taking my engorged nipple into his mouth. I made some inarticulate sound and pulled his head down closer, holding him to my chest as he sucked and licked my breast. Turning his head, he laved my other nipple before sucking it into his mouth. All the while, his hands with those bass-player calluses ran up and down my ribs, down to my hips, and lower, tickling the sensitive skin behind my knees. After another long, deep, kiss that stole my breath, Kai positioned his erection at my entrance.
I tensed, freaked out at the thought of him impaling me. But he didn’t, and his gentleness was a surprise. Kai worked his way from my breast, licking and sucking, to kiss my neck, jaw, ears, and shoulders. I arched into him, mewling softly.
“I gotta get in you, Evie. Tell me you’re ready.”
I exhaled and nodded. “I’m ready. Make me yours.”
Kai groaned as he leaned up to kiss me. He slid his erection farther into my body and I held still, barely breathing, needing something.
“Ah. You feel so good.”
My fingers dug into his biceps. He eased farther into me and I squirmed, needing him out, needing him to move, needing the strangeness of him filling me like this to go away. But at the same time, he felt so right in me, so good. I rotated my hips, my body easing with each movement, needing more of him.
Kai’s breath was ragged against my ear. “Stop that. Shit, Evie, don’t come yet. I want to savor this.”
I rotated my hips again. Kai bit back a curse as his hips started their own rhythm, faster and deeper than my own. Mmm. So good.
I swiveled my hips, and Kai met my thrust with his own. My breathing hitched and my arms slid up to his shoulders then into his hair. I leaned up as he leaned down and our kiss was so carnal, I was surprised I didn’t combust on the spot.
When I came up for air, I threw my head back. “Oh. Yes.” I’d have been embarrassed that I sounded like bad porn movie if I wasn’t so turned on. He rocked back into me and I met him, our hips bumping together.
He was as deep inside me as he could be. Kai was in me, a part of me. I held on tighter to his hair as my inner walls began the now-familiar shudder and squeeze.
“That’s it, Evie. Give it to me.”
I pressed my lips against his shoulder as he thrust into me again. Then again. The little ripples built into an unbearable need.
“Kai!” I screamed, my fingers gripped deep in his hair, my other hand digging into his shoulder as I unwound from the pleasure.
Kai lifted the backs of my thighs into both his hands and slammed his hips into me. That made the slowly lessening pleasure ramp right back up. I moaned and gasped as the orgasm went on. He picked up the pace. I tried to breath. He stilled, his body shuddering.
We lay together, panting. He pulled me tighter into his arms.
“Unbelievably good, Evie,” he whispered before he kissed my forehead. I smiled, one full of bliss.
16
Kai
“Okay. That’s the last meeting for the day. Angela said she was impressed. But I have to ask, are you sure you’re ready for this?” Sue asked.
“I thought I was, but you seemed nervous when we met with Paige’s guardian ad litum, which is making me nervous,” I said. Evie ran her hand over her knee-length wool skirt. Even paired with a prim, white cotton blouse, she was stunning, sensual. Or maybe I couldn’t get enough blood to my bigger head to think clearly. Probably both.
Her engagement ring sparkled on her finger. I’d paired it with a platinum wedding band with the same tiny, brilliant-cut diamonds. No way I wasn’t giving Evie something nice, especially when it proclaimed her mine to the world.
Mine. The way she gave herself over to pleasure—mine, which made me want to give her more—had me thinking about sex pretty much constantly. It wasn’t just great. It was, simply, the best sex of my life.
I grabbed her fingers and squeezed, still admiring my rings there on her finger for everyone to see.
“Do you think we’ll get rejected?” Evie dove straight into the heart of the issue.
“I can’t see how. Like I said, Angela was impressed not just with you two but how dedicated you’ve been these last couple of weeks to ensure Paige has stability and as much continuity as possible.”
“Then why do you look like that?” I asked.
Sue’s brow pinched tight over her stylish black glasses. “I don’t know what you mean.” She assessed us both, tapping her pen on her notepad in a rhythmic and irritating pattern. “You’re over eighteen, you’re married as of ten days ago—which isn’t an actual requirement for the state, but certainly a bonus—you’re purchasing a house in a highly desirable neighborhood, have a decent income, and money in the bank. Evie’s plan to stay at home for the summer to make sure Paige’s doing well with the transition to the new house and her new school eased Angela’s concerns. Doesn’t hurt that Evie can understand the neurological aspects of Paige’s emotional trauma. And let’s not forget Paige has asked for you two from the beginning of this process.” Sue pursed her lips. “On paper, it’s all together.”
“But?”
Sue shook her head, her eyes troubled. “You’re young. Untried. In a band, and one that’s about to go on tour nonetheless. Musicians aren’t exactly known for their marital longevity or smooth, even-keel home lives.”
I swallowed hard. “You’re saying I’m a detriment? You’re going to bring this up now? After all we’ve done to ensure—”
“No,” Evie said, squeezing my fingers this time, trying to transmute some of the comfort I’d given her earlier. “You’re the reason this was possible. Rather, your former and current earning potential. You’re the reason Paige is going to be so happy.”
Sue busied herself with some papers that were already piled into a neat stack. “There will have to be more in-home visits. Paige will have to meet with Angela and her counselor.”
“Each week for the next six months,” Evie said. “That’s not a problem. I thought you said the fact that we’re friends of Paige will help. That the department mines files for someone close to the child—someone who cares for her—to take her in and ease the transition.”
Evie’s voice was calm but her fingers trembled in mine.
“That’s all true,” Sue sighed. “Just as it’s true that there are over ten thousand children currently in the foster care system. More than two thousand want and need adoptive homes. But . . .” Sue dropped her he
ad forward, looking haggard. “Kai, would you let me talk to Evie for a minute?”
Evie tilted her head up toward mine and I looked into her eyes for a long time, making sure she was okay with Sue’s request. Evie ran her thumb across my palm and then dropped my hand, turning back toward Sue.
“Of course.” I exited the room, bereft and unsettled. Ever since I made love to Evie the first time, I wanted to touch her, smell her, be near enough to feel the heat from her skin. Sleeping next to Evie had helped me heal, but the intimacy we’d built together during our late-night sex-a-thons was both scary and addictive. I wanted, needed more time to touch, taste, and know my wife. I smiled at the words. Evangeline Luchia. We’d gone to the social security office together yesterday, and while it would take some time to get the actual card in the mail, Evie legally shared my name even if she did hyphenate it. Satisfaction, along with something darker, more primitive, welled up inside me when Evie signed her new name onto those forms. Just like it had when she signed the adoption papers today.
My wife, my family. I had everything I’d dreamed about as a child.
I sat on the bench outside Sue’s office, my hands clasped between my spread knees, head bent as I tried not to think about what losing my father had done to me. The tightness in my chest and the roiling of my stomach melted away when the door opened. Evie was here. She’d make me feel better.
I stood, my head and my legs unhappy with the suddenness of my movements. I blinked back the black spots and tried to focus on Evie. She was pale, her delicate jaw set with determination. Sue’s mouth was drawn into a tight, line, her eyes tired, but she nodded at me, giving a tentative smile.
“Work it out?”
“Yes.” Evie’s tone was clipped, her eyes too dark. Very un-Evie like. She cleared her throat. “You ready?”
“No.”
Evie lifted her eyes to mine, hers begging. “Don’t,” she whispered.
My pulse roared in my ears. “You want to go?”
Seattle Sound Series, The Collection: Books One to Five Page 113
