by Angel Payne
She needed to just…be. To keep feeling the soul-drenching, bone-deep satisfaction that had come with Kellan’s soft words. Good, sweet girl. Her eyes closed as she let the perfection of that moment drench her again. Though Tait hadn’t said a word, she’d felt his deep approval, too. She smiled, sorely tempted to toss a glance at the foliage where she still felt his presence, and fling a saucy zinger. How was that for lifting the dome off my platter, Sergeant? But that would entail an explanation to Kellan about their conversation from this afternoon, leading to her memory of the kiss that followed and the furious blush she’d try to hide after that. True to form, she’d ride the massive fail whale on that front. Unacceptable.
The irony of it didn’t escape her. Was she was actually squirming at the thought of Kellan learning that Tait had kissed her, after the jungle fever the three of them had just shared?
Maybe the shit under her emotional dome really was a casserole of crazy.
Or maybe that kiss meant more than you’re giving it credit for.
She didn’t realize she’d given volume to her scoffing laugh, until Kellan shot an inquisitive glance over his shoulder while pulling his khakis back on. Since he only had the pants halfway up his ass, she thanked herself for the timing. Was there any part of the man that wasn’t muscled perfection?
“A half-moon for your thoughts?” he quipped.
“Just enjoying the view.” At least it wasn’t a lie.
“Once we’re back at the house, you can ‘view’ a lot more if you want.”
She giggled, acknowledging stomach tingles she hadn’t felt since seventh grade. “You’re insatiable.”
“When it comes to you, I am.” A curious grimace crossed his face, as if the admission surprised him. He banished it by shaking his head fast, then pulled up the pants and offered a hand to help her up. Once she stood, he pulled her in for a long, hot, tongue-tangling kiss. Lani let him take over, melting into his strength with a sigh. What a damn good thing he wouldn’t be here long. She could get dangerously addicted to kisses like this…
Even when thoughts of Tait made her pull back from them. More accurately, the emptiness in the air that he left behind. How could it be that she felt his presence, and lack of it, like some strange light switch got flipped in her soul?
“He’s gone, isn’t he?” she asked Kellan quietly.
He nodded. “Likely bugged for Franzen’s again.”
“Will he be okay?”
Another contemplative frown crossed his face. “I may have to finagle a reason to stick around here if you don’t watch it, woman.”
Damn it. There went her stomach, trying out for a tumbling act again. “Why?”
“Because that enormous heart of yours is going to get you into trouble one day, and someone needs to be here for the rescuing part.” He chuckled when she socked him in the chest. “Don’t worry about T, okay? I’ll go over and see him tomorrow. He likely needs some time to process.” He rolled his eyes. “At least that’s what he calls it, after all the shrinking his big lid’s been through. If you ask me, they’ve all been poking around in the wrong place. It’s his fucking heart that needs the work. It was long before Luna, too.”
She took a turn to frown now. “What do you mean?”
He sighed. “T-Bomb is…special. He’s more than a good soldier. He’s a good man. He has a Super Bowl-sized heart. It deserves—”
“Cheerleaders and foam fingers?”
He laughed with her. “Damn close. Celebration. And joy. God knows, life’s shown him more than enough agony and sacrifice.”
Lani wanted to press for more details, but Kellan gave himself another dismissive head shake and tugged her hand into his, effectively closing the conversation. She tucked her head against his shoulder, telling herself that was for the best. Deeper discoveries about either of these men would only make their departure harder—and she’d already started steeling for a bumpy good-bye.
No.
She crammed the thought away while snuggling tighter to Kellan as they made their way toward home. If logic was banished for the night, so was melancholy.
The wind hit a strong speed as they crossed the garden and half-jogged to the house. It brought the smell of a strong rainstorm with it, making her hope that Coach Price had called an early end to Leo’s fencing practice. To her relief, they entered the kitchen to find her little brother hunched over the pizza pan, inhaling the leftover contents in his practice sweats.
“Hey, kaikaina,” she greeted. “Are you still hungry? I thought you already grabbed some dinner with the guys from the team.”
Leo grunted. “That was a half hour ago.”
“Oh, yeah.” She stepped next to him and bumped shoulders, though her shoulder now hit him a few inches above his elbow. “Forgive me for overlooking that pertinent detail.”
She moved a hand up to squeeze his neck in affection but Leo shrugged her off, ducking deeper over the pizza. She rolled her eyes toward Kellan. He held up his hands with a smirk. “Your sister makes good pizza, yeah?”
“Uh-huh.”
“Hey,” she chastised. “Manners?”
Leo let out the universal teen boy chuff of irritation. “Yes, Sergeant Rush. My sister makes excellent pizza.”
“Thanks for the support,” she jibed. Leo only grunted again.
“How was practice?” Kellan queried. “You’re on the fencing team, right?”
“Yeah. It was fine.”
Lani succumbed to a wave of alarm. Yes, Leo’s communication style was largely chat-speak shorthand, but her brother had also been fond of inserting his new nickname for Kellan into every interaction he could. When “Slash-gasm” was officially a no-show for the conversation, she looked at Leo with heightened concern before glancing back to Kellan. She was a little vindicated to see a concerned frown on his features, too.
“Just ‘fine’?” she prodded her brother.
Leo sighed. “It wasn’t brain surgery. It was practice, okay?” After grabbing a soda from the refrigerator, he pivoted for the back stairs, back still hunched and hoodie still up.
“Hey!” Lani rushed after him. “We’re not the enemy, kaikaina.”
“I have homework.”
“Yeah?” She grabbed the back of his jacket and yanked, toppling his hood. “Well first, you have an apology to—”
Her breath clutched in her throat. She felt her jaw working to find words but she was shock’s speechless bitch thanks to the black-and-blue welt that swelled up Leo’s left eye and cheek. A gasp finally escaped as she stumbled back.
“Whoa.” Thank the gods for Kellan, who’d obviously dealt with sights like this more than she. “If this was ‘just practice,’ dude, I’d love to see what you do in competition.”
Maybe her thanks for the man was premature. She whipped her stare between the two males. “Are you two laughing about this?”
Kellan shrugged. “You have a better suggestion?”
“Are you serious, Sergeant?”
“Are you?”
“Look at him!” Despite her dictate, it was torture for her to do the same. Since she’d decided to toss logic out the window for the night, she had to fumble to find it again, to dissect her rage. She was angry—make that enraged—with whoever had done this to him, not the kid himself. But Leo was the one standing here. And like it or not, she had to consider that damage like this wasn’t usually one-sided.
“Oh, I’m looking,” Kellan replied in a tone that sounded like they were still taking their post-coital stroll through the garden. To Leo, he murmured, “Just assure me the other guy is worse off.”
Leo raised a sideways fist. “You know it.”
As Kellan lifted a fist to meet the bump, she snapped, “You are not helping.” The grin he turned back to her, deepening his dimples, only worsened her frustration. How the hell did he make her want to slap him and jump him in the same damn moment? “And you,” —she pivoted back at Leo— “are grounded. One week.”
“What?” Her
brother winced as his face retaliated for the effort of trying to return her glare. “Why?”
She arched her brows when he pulled his fist back from Kellan and drove it against the fridge. “You want to go for two?”
“You suck!”
“Better stop while you’re ahead, ace,” Kellan murmured.
Leo curled his upper lip. “Figures you’d take her side.”
Kellan grimaced and shook his head. “There’s no ‘sides’ here, man. Your sister cares enough about you to throw out some discipline. Be grateful.”
Lani folded her arms. “Amen.”
She’d no sooner gotten out the quip than the man sucked away all her composure once more, pivoting to face her again, crossing his arms, too. His bigger, harder, beautifully tapered arms. “That doesn’t let you off the hook, Miss Kail.”
She felt her jaw open then shut. Then again. Who was this man? The one she’d gotten to know over the last four days had intensity sewn into his DNA by the angels, but it had always been accessorized by charm and sensuality. This person who loomed over her now was the unadorned Kellan Rush, stripped to a steely core, unflappable. This was a glimpse—maybe a little more—at the soldier with the call-sign Slash. Just Slash. The guy who got the job done with one stab…or one bullet.
Who was making her pussy throb for him like it never had before.
“I—” she stammered. “I—”
“Haven’t given your brother a chance to explain?” He nodded. “Yeah, that sounds like a damn good answer.”
Hell. And…wow.
“Okay,” she finally spat. “Yes, sir.”
She felt better then, at least enough to dare a glance at him. She was glad she did. Though he was still all hard-jawed GI Joe, his eyes remained full of silky gray affection. His stance was still bad-ass commander, but he gave her a nod of complete respect.
She was stunned to feel her lips returning that smile. Damn his luscious hide.
Her brother’s snigger was a spike ball in the middle of the moment. “Yes, sir?” Leo cracked. “Oh-em-gee. Sistah-girl lies down and whimpers for Slash-gasm. Mark this day on the calendar.”
Kellan backhanded Leo’s shoulder. “You really want to push your game at this point, kid?”
“No, sir.”
“Then muffle it.”
“Yes, sir.”
“And now spill it.”
Leo shuffled and slumped against the wall. “Not much to spill.”
One look at her brother told Lani it was the truth. She also discerned why. There was a specific kind of defeat etched into his face—at least the side that hadn’t been turned into a touchscreen of bruises. “It was Parker Smythe, wasn’t it?”
Leo attempted another grimace. “He’s such a tampon. Just because I finally kicked his ass in a match, he fabricated some loser excuse about how I purposely spilled water on his gym bag, and escalated shit from there. I tried to laugh it off, but he gave me lip about how the bag cost a grand, and how I intented to ruin it, and—” He shook his head and twisted his lips. “If he spent a thousand dollars on the thing, why was it on the floor and not in his fucking locker?”
Lani slapped his shoulder. “Language.”
“What-ever,” Leo rebutted.
Kellan snorted. “Maybe it was like his man-purse or something.”
“And his lip gloss was stored inside.”
“You couldn’t help it if he got bitchy about the whole thing.”
“Right?”
Lani rekindled her battle stance at the soldier. “Okay, what the hell?”
Kellan returned her scrutiny with equal conviction. “He didn’t start the scuffle, okay?”
“Scuffle?” she snapped. “That’s what you’re calling it?”
He pinched the bridge of his nose. “Compared to the conflicts I’ve seen in my time, starshine—yeah, that’s what I’m calling it. And from where I stand, Leo’s shown some behavior you can be proud of. You Kails are a proud bunch. He served the family name well by refusing to let a dickwad roll him over, and paid the price with his face.”
“No shit,” Leo muttered.
“Language!”
Kellan shot her a look of forced patience. After a long moment, his eyes flicked over to Leo. “You want some ice for that wreckage, man?”
“Yeah. Thanks.”
“And a beer?”
“Hell, yeah!”
“No!” Lani went at Kellan’s shoulder with her fist this time. It felt like punching a brick wall. “You are really not helping!”
Leo’s laugh warmed the top of her head. “Don’t believe her, Slash-gasm. You’re helping a lot.” There was a meaningful pause as her brother locked gazes with her soldier. “For the record, I’m glad you’re here…you and T-Bomb.”
As Kellan flashed a warm smile at Leo, a surge of emotions slammed Lani—and built up in the heat behind her eyes. She stared hard at Leo, forcing herself to see him as Kellan did: not as the kid he once was, but the man he was growing to be. It wasn’t the first time today that she’d arrived at this awareness, either. Tait’s words of this afternoon had started opening the cracks on those thoughts.
How had these two men brought so many changes in just a few days?
And how the hell was she going to wave good-bye to them in a week…making sure that list didn’t include her?
She couldn’t think about that right now. She refused to think about it.
Instead, embracing the perfect joy of now, she wrapped her arms around Kellan’s waist and squeezed hard. “For the record,” she whispered, “I’m glad, too.”
Chapter Eleven
For the first time in over a year, Tait voluntarily rose with the sun. He added to that stunner by jamming into his running shoes, then setting off down the road with loud guitars in his ears—and mental clarity as his goal.
He planned for a very long run.
The events of yesterday, and all the sensations they’d brought, collided on top of each other with every step he took. The cartwheels in his gut when he first saw Lani in the house. The rockets in his soul when he’d kissed her. The lurch in his cock when he’d been out for a night walk and came across Kell and her, instead. Then the surreal dream of watching Kell fuck her…and knowing she was aware of his own presence through every second of it. That maybe she was wetter because of it. That her pussy squeezed Kellan harder…
The memory of it forced him to seek a cold shower when he’d gotten back to the house, but even the freezing jets hadn’t helped. He’d played the scene over again in his mind, including every gasp she’d made and scream she’d released, and pumped himself to completion once more. Finally exhausted enough to sleep, he’d fallen into bed still clad in his shower towel, and didn’t wake up until the sunrise filtered through the blinds.
It was the first time, in nearly two hundred nights, that a vision of Luna hadn’t pulled him to consciousness in a pool of his tears and sweat.
The realization made him run faster. His lungs started to burn, and his legs declared him an A-Class motherfucker. Wasn’t any worse than what he’d been calling himself since swigging his vitamins on an empty stomach and welcoming the wave of please-induce-me-to-vomit-now that followed. And oh yeah, there was that other temptation, too—the one that pulled him toward the bar, taunting that a drunken coma was the best place for a guy like him. A guy who’d easily scooted aside memories of the love of his life after simply watching his buddy screw someone else. Who had to watch happiness from the bushes, unable to figure it out for himself anymore.
He pounded harder into the run, switching to his screaming punk rock track. His body flooded with sweat. He sucked in the ocean wind, enduring the lightheadedness of his anaerobic zone.
When he got back to Franzen’s place in a heaving mess, the guilt only ripped harder at him. After tearing the ear buds out, he beat feet for the shower once more. This time, he cranked the water to a scalding temperature. With one hand, he braced the tiles. With the other, he palmed his balls.
In his mind, he summoned Luna.
Hi, beautiful…
She was giving him sass in that Los Angeles bar again, in those painted-on red jeans hugging every inch of her supple hips. Then he was bending her over the chopping block in the bar’s back room, commanding her to take the pants off, telling her how he was going to hurt her, fuck her, pleasure her.
He groaned and gripped the base of his cock.
She was standing with him in the condo they’d turned into a safe house during the mission, all of LA sprawled beneath them, kissing him and begging him to take her. Then she was beneath him, sucking his penis harder with every twist he gave her nipples, rubbing herself to a climax as he thrust deeper into her mouth.
He started stroking himself. Brutally. Pre-cum surged and disappeared, washed away by the hot streams beating on him.
In his mind, Luna came hard. Screamed from her hot explosion, over and over again…
Suddenly, the cries took on a huskier edge. A deep urgency, swirling with a night breeze that smelled like paradise. There were words, too; pleadings in a musical island accent. Kellan. Oh, gods, please!
He gritted his teeth and beat the wall, fighting the invasion of it. Of her. Satin hair fanned on the ground. Arms spread out, making her look like a bronze forest goddess.
“No. No.”
Round, perfect breasts. Pink, moist clit. Legs spread, ready to be taken.
Stop. Stop!
He pumped harder. Faster. Fire roared up his shaft. Cum built in his balls.
Surrendered nudity. Open and willing.
He needs to see me fuck you, starshine. To bury myself to the balls in you. Like this…
He fell to his knees as his ass clenched, his sacs drew tight, and the orgasm blasted through his body. He forced his eyes open even as the shockwaves kept up, blinking against the water to watch the thick milk from his body swirl down the drain.
