Her grip tightens in my hair and I take that as a request to give her more. I continue circling my tongue, parting her, moving inside of her until I can’t go any further. Her hands move to my shoulders, and her fingernails are piercing my skin, but it feels amazing. I hum against her, needing to release my building need. She’s crying through moans and whines, trying to fight the volume but losing the battle. I slide my hands around her perfect ass and lift her up a little higher to get a deeper reach and close my lips around her, sucking her in as I do. Her body bucks against my mouth as she continues to make sweet sounds that make my cock hard and filled with pressuring pain.
When her body relaxes and falls to the bed, her erratic breaths take over, and she’s calling my name without question or need, but rather just the desire to connect with me.
I pull myself up beside her and sweep my knuckles against her flushed cheeks. “How was that?”
“Oh my God,” she breathes. “Oh my God, Denver. Holy crap. Oh my God.”
“Wow,” I tell her.
“Yeah, wow.”
“I hope I was better than Thumper,” I whisper.
“I don’t think I need to experience Thumper now.”
She replaces her dress down over her thighs and loops her arms around my neck, pulling herself up so she can straddle me. I have no expectations, but I have a good feeling about whatever might happen next. “I need to show you what you just did to me. I know this isn’t your first time, but I want to make you believe it is.”
Holy damn.
Chapter Eighteen
Kai
I’m not coming back from that. Ever. The years I’ve spent enduring loneliness while wondering, waiting, and desiring the touch of the right man who also desires me—those years are all being erased by the blissful few minutes I just experienced with Denver. I don’t know what the hell I’m doing. I’ve seen stuff. I’ve heard of stuff. I’ve prepared myself in case the situation was to ... um ... arise, but now I want to give him something in exchange for everything he gave me.
“I’m nervous,” I tell him. I want to act as though I have enough confidence to back up my lack of experience, but my fear of messing up and doing this wrong is overwhelming. I don’t want to be the laughing stock of this island.
“You don’t have to do anything you don’t want to,” he says, weaving his fingers through the dangling strands of my hair.
“It’s not that. I want to do this. I want to do everything … and with you. I just don’t want to do it wrong.”
“You can’t do it wrong,” he assures me. “Just … no teeth.”
I wasn’t planning on it, but God, imagine if that just happened?
I know how to unbutton a pair of shorts. I can do that. One, two, swoop. Done.
“Look at you, unbuttoning like a pro,” he teases. I ignore his remark and continue maneuvering his shorts down his legs with a bit of his assistance.
“Crap.”
“What did I do? Did I hurt you?” I ask him.
He laughs at my questions. “No, you didn’t hurt me. I forgot I still have these damn shorts on.”
“Oh, I need to figure these cute shorts out, huh?” I slip my fingers under the waistband, noting how tight they actually are. Denver doesn’t seem to have an ounce of fat on his body, considering the lean cut he’s still sporting while his circulation is almost completely cut off. “I think I can manage.”
I attempt to pull the material away from his skin. It’s seriously tighter than I’ve ever seen an article of clothing, and I’ve worn Spanx under dresses before.
“Maybe I should get it,” he says.
“No, I can do it.” I pull harder, and these goddamn things are not moving. “Did you superglue them on?” I laugh. This is embarrassing, but I’m not sure who it’s more embarrassing for—him or me. I attempt to roll the shorts down, and it’s obvious I’m not just embarrassing him now too, but I think I’m making him physically uncomfortable. “Okay, maybe you should get them.”
He slips his fingers beneath the material over his thighs and pulls them down, but not without a struggle. The moment he frees himself from his shorts, a lump forms in my throat. Whoa. That is impressive, I think. I mean, yeah, I don’t see how it couldn’t be. “Much better,” he says with a sigh of relief. “I can’t stand those things.”
“I don’t see how you could. I hope it has ventilation.” Ventilation? Why would I even bring that up right now?
“Actually, the material is breathable, so it does, technically.”
This is awkward. He’s lying here with his man-dog on display, and I’m just staring at it like we’re in the middle of an art museum. Man-dog? Did I just think that in this romantic moment? I need to snap out of it. Act sexy. Something. No wonder I’m twenty-eight and at a total loss for human interaction.
He must notice my erratic mood, so he pulls me down and kisses me gently. “I promise, you don’t have to do anything you don’t want to, Kai.”
Each time he says that I’m more motivated to continue on with my quest. I remove the straps of my dress and let the top fall to my waist before shimmying out of it entirely. It seems the small act of removing my dress is all it takes to impressively excite him. His hands caress my shoulders then slide down the length of my arms. His touch sends chills through my body, and I move backward, positioning myself over his cock. I close my eyes and lower my lips down, taking him into my mouth. The salty warm taste is turning me on, and I feel like I just know what to do. I move up and down along his shaft, sucking gently, being careful to shield my teeth from touching his sensitive skin. How do I just know how to do this without learning? Maybe it’s like riding a bike—but without having to even learn how to ride the bike. Ha ha. Or maybe I’m just a natural sex kitten and never knew it …
“Oh, man, Kai. Yeah, you know exactly what you’re doing, don’t you?” His hands both cradle my head while his fingers tangle through my hair. With his quiet moans of gratification, I move faster, wanting to hear more reassuring sounds. It’s easy to respond to his pleas with more of the moves he seems to enjoy the most. I curl my hand around the bottom of his shaft and glide it up and down, following the rhythm of my mouth.
His waist is moving against me, and I think he’s coming close to the end. “Kai,” he breathes. “You don’t have to finish.”
I’ve heard it isn’t bad to swallow, and I’ve had worse I’m sure. I lift my head and run the back of my hand across my mouth. “I want to,” I mutter. Without giving him the option of arguing I dive back down, taking him in until his cock hits the back of my throat. With more confidence, I twist my tongue around his length and use longer strokes with more pressure. His hands fly up, grabbing his bedpost and it feels as though I’m holding him down but without the need to use strength. “I’m coming, gorgeous.” I brace myself as the warm cream-like texture seeps down the back of my throat like a warm drink. It’s not what I thought it would taste like and the urge to gag hits me hard. I pull away and cover my mouth. I don’t want him to see my face as I thrust forward while forcing the rest of it down. I need something to drink. Oh my God. I have to breathe in and out slowly to relax my throat a number of times before I turn back to face him.
“I’m sorry,” I sigh with embarrassment.
“There’s no way you haven’t—I mean—wow. I don’t even know what to say.”
Now that the gagging sensation has passed, I refocus my attention on Denver’s look of appreciation and pleasure. That’s what I wanted to see. I lay down in the crook of his arm and feel more than comfortable being in this spot that seems as though it was made just for me. “I hope I did it right,” I tell him.
“I have no words to explain how right that felt, Kai.”
Silence finds us as our breaths slow from a furious rate to a place of calmness, but it’s short-lived as footsteps stomp in the hallway.
“Dad!” The shock from a banging fist on the door forces me to rip the comforter away from Denver, covering myself up.
“Baby girl, I’m sleeping. Are you okay?”
“Can I come in?”
“Uh, no. Let me get up. I’ll go to your room. Be there in a second.”
“Dad!” She continues banging.
I have a bad feeling she’s opening that door, and I know I didn’t lock it. I move off the bed and lie down on the floor on the other side of the bed, just in case.
As I suspected, the door flies open, and Denver is bouncing around on the bed, most likely trying to cover up his massive erection. Oh my God. Oh my God. She’s going to be traumatized and it’s my fault!
“Aya, I said I’d be there in a minute. Come on now. You know not to walk into my room like that.” Of course, I can’t help but wonder why, and I’m not sure I want the answer to that question.
“Why are you butt naked, Dad?” she asks.
No, no, no. I’m horrified for him. I want to hand him the blanket I selfishly ripped off the bed because all he has is a measly sheet to cover up with, which won’t shield anyone from what I did to him.
“Aya, go to your room,” he says sternly.
She closes the door, and I exhale. “I am so sorry.”
Denver flops over the side of the bed, hanging his head down. “Don’t be sorry,” he says, staring down at me. “You’re adorable.”
“I’m mortified for you.”
“She comes with the territory of owning the title of a single dad.”
“I should have locked your door,” I tell him.
“I should have locked my door,” he says. “There are no boundaries with Aya. I’m lucky if I can go to the bathroom without her trying to storm the door down.”
“Oh,” I say, unsure what else to respond with. There was never much privacy in our house either, but Lea and I are both girls and closer in age, obviously. “Does she wake you up a lot?”
“No, she’s probably just having a tough time, being the first night in this house.”
“Probably.” I’d happily go in there and comfort her, but she should not know I’m still here. That would cause a whole lot of unnecessary questions.
“I’ll be right back, beautiful. Get into that bed.”
My car is still in the driveway, right outside of Aya’s bedroom. Oh no.
“Kai!”
You have got to be kidding me. What the hell am I supposed to do right now? I can assume Denver doesn’t want to get into detail with Aya about us, especially not yet with everything so new. She mentioned her plan of finding a new mom. It broke my heart, and the last thing I’d want is to start something with Denver, have it end, and hurt her. I should have thought this all through better.
Dammit. I grab my dress from around the side of the bed and slip it over my head. I find my panties and shoes and put myself back together, debating if I should run or continue hiding out.
Chapter Nineteen
Denver
“I’m so sorry about that. Thanks for not responding when Aya yelled out for you—” I look around the room, making my way over to the other side of the bed since that’s where I left her, but as I feared, she’s not here. “Kai?”
I head back into the hall and jog down the unfamiliar stairs in the dark. I don’t hear anything, and I wouldn’t think she’d be walking around downstairs in the dark anyway, but I can’t figure out where she went. I look out the front window, and a wave of rejection hits me when I notice her Jeep is gone. She left.
I spot my phone on the entryway table where I left it after I walked in earlier. I search through my recently made calls for Kai’s number since I never saved it in my phone after Aya called her.
Three rings and no answer. Did I do something? Maybe it was Aya, and it’s too much for her. Being a single dad to a seven-year-old daughter is baggage but nothing I’m ashamed of or hide. I would embrace a permanent single-ever-after for Aya in a heartbeat if that’s what she needed from me, but she’s made it clear she wants me to find someone.
I haven’t made a big effort to find the “right” person after Isla left. Her abandonment hurt me, but the pain it put Aya through was more than I can consider putting her through again. Of course, Aya’s already attached to Kai, which means I have to deal with this one way or another, but not until I find out what’s wrong and if I fucked up.
Her phone continues to ring on the other end and then goes to her voicemail. Normally, I’m not the voicemail type, but it feels necessary if there’s any hope of Kai hearing me out at the moment. I listen to her sweet voice on the recorded message before the beep stings my ear.
“Kai, I hope I didn’t do anything to upset or embarrass you in any way. I guess I should have warned you more about Aya and how life gets interrupted more often than it did before I had her, but I didn’t think to mention it, I guess. In any case, please call me back when you get this.”
I hang up the phone and check the display for any new messages before heading back up the stairs to my lonely bedroom. What the fuck?
The good part about working night shifts is having the daytime free, but I have tonight off too because Aya and I are supposed to go to the hotel’s luau to watch Kai. She never called me back, though, so now I don’t know what’s what.
“Are you full?” I ask Aya as she finishes the eggs I made for her.
She nods her head yes but doesn’t say anything else. Her silence is giving me a headache this morning. I don’t know what she knows or what she doesn’t know, but she looks upset and won’t tell me why.
“I have an idea,” I tell Aya. She looks up at me after scraping her fork around her plate. “Do you want to go to the kids’ club at the hotel? I think I saw they have a painting activity today.”
“Okay,” she mutters. “I’ll go get dressed.”
She slides her seat back across the tiled floor and scuffles to the stairs, stomping all the way up, then slams her door. Women are going to be the death of me.
I’ve been up since five, so I’m showered and dressed, just waiting on Aya now. This isn’t how I was expecting the first couple of weeks post-Marine Corps to be. Aya isn’t adjusting, and I don’t know what to do to fix it. Maybe I should just go back to Oahu and try to put life back the way it was somehow. Of course, I just signed a year lease with this house, so that’s going to be hard. Maybe moving in the summer wasn’t a good idea because Aya has no friends or school. I can’t win.
Twenty minutes slowly crawl by and Aya returns. She’s dressed in a bathing suit with a coverup sundress. “I put my suit on in case you want to go swimming later.”
“Why are you so upset? Will you tell me now?” I ask her.
“I’m not upset,” she says. “Let’s just go.”
“Aya, you’re my daughter and I know when you’re upset. I don’t like it when you’re not happy, baby.”
“I kind of thought Kai would still be here this morning,” she says.
“Kai doesn’t live here. You know that, right?” Trust me, I wish she were still here this morning too, but I wouldn’t have let Aya see that even if she was. The last thing I’m going to do is get her hopes up about a potential future with a woman until I’m certain it’s going to work out.
“We have an extra bedroom,” Aya says.
Oh, to be innocent and think the way a seven-year-old thinks would make my life so much easier. “I know, but she has her own house.” Explaining this to Aya while I’m also trying to figure out why Kai took off is making the confusion in my head worse. I just want to stop talking about it, but there’s no way around this.
“Ready to go?”
“Are we still seeing Kai tonight at the luau?”
“I think so,” I tell her. In truth, I don’t know at this moment.
She sighs and heads for the door. It’s like she’s heartbroken and has no clue why. It can’t possibly be because Kai wasn’t here when she woke up this morning, and I know Kai wouldn’t have told her she’d be here, especially seeing as she couldn’t even say goodbye to me last night.
We pull up to the hotel, and I park the truck closer to the pool area so we can go around the back side of the hotel, rather than through the lobby where people have gotten to know me a little too well. “You’re going to have fun at the kids’ club,” I tell her.
“Are you going to hang out with Kai while I’m there?”
“Nah, I’m just going to rent a surfboard for a bit and relax. Is that okay with you?”
“Sure,” she says. “Don’t get hurt again.”
“Thanks, little miss. I’m good.” I hit a piece of coral one time and cut my foot, and now she thinks I’m asking to end up in the hospital every time I go surfing in the mildest waves available in Hawaii. I’m not a natural born surfer seeing as I’m from Texas, but I’ve picked it up over the years and find it to be a good way to release tension.
There’s a small cabana off to the side of the pools with a wooden sign and the word “kids” spelled upside down and backward. There’s a small door, meant for kids only, and a check-in process that keeps them safe in there. It’s a cute little spot.
I sign Aya in and give her a kiss on the forehead. “Have fun, baby. I’ll be back in two hours, and we’ll go swimming.”
“Okay,” she says in the same monotone sound she’s been struggling through all morning.
My aggravation is at a high level, and I’m having a rough time with this. Aya is more than a handful when she gets this way, but having Kai to add to the pile of things bugging me is making this way worse.
Man Buns Page 15
