by Selena Scott
He tossed an arm over her shoulder in a natural, friendly way, but he still didn’t make full eye contact with her.
“Anyone for poker?” Milla asked and got some yeses.
But Valentina tugged at Kain’s hand before he could agree to sit down with the rest of them.
“I want to see the swing set,” she told him. And then tugged him with her no matter if he was going to protest or not.
The summer air was cool in the dim light an hour after sunset. The whole lawn was blues and greens. She marched him through the yard and back to the guesthouse that she knew was unoccupied right now.
“The swing set is back that way.”
“I don’t care.”
She didn’t bring him inside the guest house, though–she just dragged him around to the far side, where they were hidden from the main house. She pushed him up against the dark siding.
“Val—”
“I don’t care.”
She jumped straight into his arms, her legs around his waist and her arms around his neck.
He caught her easily and immediately turned so that her back was pressed against the house.
“We can’t.”
But even as the words came out of his lips, his tongue was hot in her mouth, tasting the tea on her tongue, drinking her down like he’d been dying of thirst.
She grabbed his hand off her ass and guided it up under her shirt. His hand convulsively clenched around her breast, his thumb strumming across her nipple.
“Val—” he tried again, tearing his mouth away and breathing hard.
“I. Don’t. Care.”
She wiggled down from his arms and both of his hands went to the wall behind her. His eyes widened when she tore her jeans down her legs. And her underwear, white and perfect. All of it hit the ground. Then she tore at the button of his pants. He stilled her hands.
“Seriously. We cannot—”
She slipped her hands away and tugged his pants down to mid-thigh, his boxer briefs next. She made a little, helpless, curling sound when she saw what he had between his legs. Long and blunt as his fingers. He looked brutal and magnificent.
She dragged her eyes away from the sight and found the moon in the sky. “We’re safe, I can’t get pregnant this time of the cycle.”
“Wait, Val, we can’t. Shit. Fuck.”
She jumped onto his waist again and now she was lowering herself down onto him. His eyes crossed as he forced himself to pull his hips back, but she chased him forward and took him in an inch.
“Fuck. We can’t,” he whispered into her ear, but he sank all the way into her, his hands clamped at her ass and her back jammed into the side of the house.
She didn’t wait to catch her breath after the largest thing that had ever been inside her practically stopped her heart. Instead she just lifted up and took him fast.
Some small voice in his head was telling him to stop. This was exactly the wrong thing to be doing right at that moment. With his family just across the yard. But he couldn’t, couldn’t, couldn’t stop. God, she was perfect heaven paradise smelling so good and making those cute little noises.
She was riding him with these quick little strokes that were gonna take him over the edge way too soon. He stilled her hips and she pulled right off of him, slid down his legs.
Was she stopping them? Was that what he wanted? Could he stop, too?
But she just turned around and braced against the wall, looking back over one shoulder at him with those honey-brown eyes and tilting her ass to him.
Oh, thank God. He didn’t waste a second before he stepped forward, took her by the hips and sank into her from behind. She made a little, hoarse sound that had him clamping one palm over her mouth. She bit at his hand as she pushed her hips back onto him and he saw stars.
Kain knew he should stop. Had to stop. He was fucking her against the wall of his brother’s guest house and this was the opposite of what he was supposed to be doing. This was wrong. Super wrong on so many levels. He had to stop. He had to pull out.
But he felt her tightening around him.
Well. No reason she couldn’t pop before he stopped. His hand smoothed over her hip and down until he found the tight bundle of nerves. Kain quickly pulled his hand back, licked his fingers for more wetness and dropped it back to her clit.
He worked her there, feeling her breaths on his palm and the tremble of her thighs against his. When she was so close she was all the way up on her tiptoes, Kain slammed into her and held there, pulsing deep without thrusting and circled her clit until her body bowed and her hands scratched at the wall. He’d fully intended to just pull out and tuck himself into his pants. He needed to get her home and talk about this.
But her pussy squeezed him so hard all he could do was jut forward and ride her through her orgasm and straight into his own. His vision faded as he grunted and emptied into her. His entire body was tight and his head thrown back. When it subsided and he sucked in much-needed air, he realized that both his hands had moved to her shoulders, on either side of her neck, and he’d bent her further forward. Pinning her against him.
He immediately straightened her up, hugging her to him even as he pulled out. His hands searched for her skin and he was inordinately irritated with all the clothing they still wore. He tucked her braid to one side and gave loose, open-mouthed kisses to her neck, smelling her hair.
“Mmm,” she leaned her head back onto his shoulder, her eyes heavy-lidded and dreamy. “That was—”
“Not over.” Now he was the one cutting her off. He licked at her ear and had her gasping before he dropped down and guided one foot into her underwear and then the other. He kissed every bit of skin he saw as he put her back together. Putting her clothes to rights and then his own. “Let’s go.”
“We’re not going back in?” she asked, stumbling after him. Obviously she was used to that kind of haphazard quickie and the thought burned him.
“No. I’m not taking your sexed-up ass back into a room of shifters who would know exactly what happened in about two seconds.”
“Oh. Are we going home?”
He spun her around to him, pinned her against his chest. “Yes. I’m taking you home and then I’m finishing what you started.”
CHAPTER SEVEN
Kain didn’t talk on the drive home, but he did hold her hand. Valentina stared down at their hands clasped on her lap. He wasn’t tugging her somewhere, he wasn’t helping her down, he was just holding her hand. She couldn’t remember if anyone had ever done that before.
She was confused and off-kilter. She’d thought this bubbling in her chest would go away if they just fucked real quick, but they’d done that and no luck. Her heart was still all pat-pat-pat in her chest.
He’d said they weren’t done but she had no idea what that meant. They’d both come, right? She definitely had, and she had the evidence of his orgasm between her legs.
So why was he looking at her like that as he flipped the car off? She didn’t wait for him to come around and open her door. She pushed right out and stood there staring at him.
“So impatient,” he smiled down at her, taking her hand and adjusting his hat.
He led her into the house and shut the door behind them. Valentina couldn’t stop glancing at him. He was lazy and loose, his pace much slower than she might have thought.
Hadn’t he said they were coming back here to have sex again? So why the hell weren’t they having sex again?
Instead he was strolling into the house without a care in the world, flipping on a light or two.
He turned to face her and her heart skipped. Okay. Here’s where he pounced.
“Did you get enough to eat tonight?” he asked, running his hands from her shoulders to her wrists.
She cocked her head to one side. “Actually, I took Carmen to give Inka a break and I didn’t finish my dinner.”
“Okay, sunshine,” he smiled down at her. “Let’s fix that.”
Mystified, she let him lead h
er into the kitchen where he sat her right on the counter. Okay. That made more sense. He said last night that getting on the counter was a sure way to fuck. But… he just pressed a quick kiss onto her collarbone and paced away to peek into the fridge.
“Alright. I’ve got cold ravioli and I’ve got cold chicken soup.”
“Ravioli,” she answered immediately. After the lasagna that night at Ruby’s house, Valentina had discovered an epic, passionate romance with Italian food.
He chuckled. “I knew you were going to say that. Thirsty?”
She shook her head, just like he knew she would, but with just a little bit of thought, he filled a glass with two inches of some cabernet he had on top of the fridge.
“To share,” he told her. And then he stood in between her spread legs and fed her a ravioli. And then another. The third he took for himself. And so on. He handed her the wine, with little to no reverence for the drink.
“That’s kind of good,” she said.
He bobbed his head. “Like I said, I don’t really drink, but sometimes it tastes good with the right food.”
“Like cold ravioli?”
He chuckled. “Well, maybe it’s the right company that makes it taste good.” He waited until she’d had another sip before he leaned forward and took a sip right from her lip.
“What are you doing?” she asked, leaning back, just a hint of suspicion on her lips.
“What do you mean?”
“You’re feeding me. You took me to be alone. This fancy drink. You said you wanted to bring me home to have sex again but we’re not having sex. I don’t get it.”
Not for the first time, Kain resolved to backhand Williams the first chance he got. He knew there wasn’t a ton of opportunity for romance on Herta. But for the love of god, Valentina was acting like she was a booty call. Not like what she was. Which was… Well, he wasn’t sure how to finish that sentence, but it sure wasn’t a booty call.
“I said I wanted to bring you home to finish what we started. And that’s exactly what I’m doing.”
“Oh.” He could see in her eyes that she didn’t understand yet. But that’s okay. She’d get it.
He put the Tupperware and the fork in the sink and then helped her off the counter. “Bath?”
“Sure.”
His bathroom wasn’t high luxury, but it was clean and had hot water. Good enough for him and, he was sure, definitely good enough for Valentina.
In fact, he was still getting undressed when she’d already jumped in, all the way to one side and scrunching her knees under her chin. She closed her eyes and groaned.
“Mmm. I’ll miss hot water. And ravioli.”
He ignored her reference to when she headed back to Herta, because it was the only way to stay sane at a moment like this. Instead, he just surveyed the seating arrangements. The only thing there was to do was get in at the opposite end of the bath and face her, knees up as well.
Fuck that. He climbed in and gave her his back, wiggling backwards so she had to open her legs against him and his head was against her breasts. He tipped his head back in time to see a slightly bemused expression on her face.
“You like putting your weight on me.”
“Hmm?”
“Last night. You slept on top of me.”
“Oh,” he looked up at her. “Sorry about that.”
She shrugged. “It felt nice. A little warm. But nice.”
“Val, what happened just now…”
“When we fucked?”
“Yeah. Well, that was actually the opposite of what I wanted to happen.”
She stiffened against him. “Oh. Well. If you weren’t attracted to me then why the hell did you put me in the bath?” She started to get up but he pinned her back with his weight.
“That’s not what I meant. Let me start over. What just happened was literally the hottest thing that’s ever happened to me. With the hottest woman I’ve ever been with.”
She stilled. Not relaxed, but not trying to get out of the tub yet.
“But I thought we might take things slower,” he continued. “I was prepared for slower.”
“Why?” She asked it like the very idea was ridiculous.
“Because I really like you. And sometimes sex fucks things up. And because Alec is my family and your family and we haven’t talked to him about this.” He leaned up to look at her. “As far as I know.”
She shook her head to show she hadn’t told him anything either. “You feel like you owe him an explanation of some kind?”
“I do. And I was thinking that we’d be taking things slow until I knew what kind of explanation to give him.”
“Just tell him we fucked. He’ll understand. He’s Hertian.”
Kain barked a laugh. “Yeah, maybe. But I’m an Earthling and that’s usually not the kind of thing we say to the brother of the girl we’re getting naked with.”
“This is our first time naked together.”
“You’re right. And what the hell am I doing, wasting it talking?” He leaned back again and she lowered her head to kiss him. It was misaligned and loose but damn. Kain figured that he was lucky if he ever got a kiss this hot in his life. With her hot wetness pressed into his back and her feet crossed over his lower stomach. She was holding him so tight. And it felt so damn good.
She was soft against his back and Kain had a flash of how skinny she was when she’d gotten here. He so much preferred her softer look. It gave her such a pretty shape. And it felt good as hell against him.
Kain slowly flipped himself over. Water sloshed over the side of the tub, making Valentina laugh. It sounded so nice, he decided to do it again. Holding his breath, Kain pushed his face under water and nuzzled one breast and then the other. He pressed his face into her belly. Pushing his stubble back and forth. She giggled and wriggled and when he came up for air her eyes had a girlish light in them that he’d never seen before.
He reared back on his knees, water pouring off his shoulders. Kain took the moment to just look at her. She was naked and slightly pink in the clear water. Her hips and ribs were slim but her breasts and ass had grown and softened over the last two weeks. She was a little hourglass. With a patchwork of silvery and pink scars. Her nipples were the same deep mauve of her lips. Glancing down, past her neat dark curls, Kain saw that her pussy was the same color.
“It’s a shame,” he growled, unable to keep from kissing at her lips for a moment.
“What is?”
“That I still know so little about this gorgeous body.”
He stepped out of the tub, water going everywhere and apparently caring not at all. He grabbed a fluffy towel and turned around. Kain was unsurprised that Valentina was already out of the water. She was still learning that he would help her up from anywhere, anytime.
He guided her back to the bedroom before taking the towel wrapped around her and reverently drying every part of her body.
She watched as he used the same towel to scrape the water off of himself before tossing it aside.
His eyes traveled all the way down her again and this time, Valentina got to watch them heat slowly, in stages.
Kain took a step toward her, then a quick step back. He shook his head and let out a breath. “God, you’re easy to look at.”
Valentina looked down at herself. Same old her. She was a little softer than usual but still, same old Valentina. She cast her eyes up to Kain’s body. All that long, wiry strength. His muscles defined at his shoulders and lower abs. But he was built like a runner. Except for that tank he had between his legs.
“Mmmph,” he groaned, swinging his arms back. “I’m trying to go slow here, but if you keep looking at me like that, you’re gonna get fucked on the floor.”
She cocked her head to one side. “Maybe I wanna get fucked on the floor.”
“Alright,” he agreed. “But first…”
He let the sentence hang in the air.
Kain shocked both of them when he charged her, took her at her knee
s and toppled her back to the bed.
She didn’t so much as make a noise, she took the fall philosophically, with the complete and total certainty that the tables would turn.
And sure enough, as soon as Kain had her pressed to the bed, his head lifted back, crowing, “And they said it couldn’t be done! They said it was impossible to get the drop on Valentina—”
She had him flipped. On his back, on the floor, with the lamp damn near ripped out of the wall, pointy end poised at his throat in the perfect kill shot. “You’re lucky I like that thing between your legs,” she deadpanned. And then cast the lamp aside. “And the way you dance.”
His heart pounded in his chest, partly because Valentina was straddling his stomach right now, but mostly because she’d just admitted to liking him. Well. Parts of him.
He’d take it.
Kain lifted his head off the ground and sat up, shifted her down more into his lap. Her pussy landed on the base of his cock, and it felt good, of course it felt good, but he was lost in her mouth.
Just gone.
“Mmm,” she pulled back. “I like the way you kiss, too. Mm. Your tongue is very active.”
He laughed and warmed at her compliment. “I like the way you kiss. So pouty. Keeps making me think I have to work harder.”
He smiled, all white teeth that flashed against her lip before he lifted them. Walked her back to the bed and laid her right down.
“Valentina,” he murmured into her neck. “I really want a taste.”
He wanted to kiss her? Of course. Wasn’t that what they were doing?”
“Yes.”
He slid down her body lazily, with many distractions and detours along the way. The most notable of which being her nipples. She gasped and pressed her chest up against him and when the pleasure was so acute, so fierce, she took his head in her hands and forced it away from her.
Kain’s eyes went straight to hers, assessing. Slowly, eyes on eyes, he lowered again, took her nipple between his teeth and tugged. She moaned, a light sheen rising on her skin and her legs working and working. She moaned harder and then pushed his face away again, her eyes heating as she did so.
